How Many Calories Should You Eat to Lose Fat?

The Truth About Calories and Energy Balance

Let’s get straight to it: if you want to lose fat, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Sounds simple, right? But then you Google your height and weight, plug numbers into some calculator, and it spits out a random number like 2,423. And you’re left wondering if that's magic or madness. Truth is, your body doesn’t work like a math formula. Let’s break this down, man to man.

Calories are just energy. Every bite of food you eat is fuel. Your body burns that fuel to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, your brain firing—and yes, to power you through workouts and your day-to-day grind. At its core, fat loss is about energy balance: burn more than you eat, and the scale starts moving. But here’s the thing most guys miss: your calorie burn isn’t a fixed number.

Why Calorie Burn Isn’t Set in Stone

One day you crush legs, walk 10,000 steps, and chase your kids around. The next, you’re locked in meetings and barely move. Sleep quality tanks, stress spikes, food choices shift. All of this changes how many calories your body uses. That’s why calculators and cookie-cutter plans fall short. Your body is dynamic. It adapts, it fluctuates, it responds to the life you live—not just the numbers on a spreadsheet.

What is TDEE and How You Control It

Enter TDEE: Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It sounds complicated, but it really breaks down like this:

• BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): What you burn at rest.

• NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): All the movement outside the gym—walking, fidgeting, standing, talking with your hands, tapping your foot, etc.

• TEF (Thermic Effect of Food): Calories used just to digest and process food.

• EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): What you burn during actual workouts.

The more muscle you have, the more you move, the better you eat—the higher your TDEE climbs. That means you can control a big chunk of your daily burn. You're not a victim of a slow metabolism; you're the architect of your output.

How to Find Your Calorie Deficit Starting Point

So how do you figure out how many calories to eat to lose fat? First, track what you're currently eating. That means everything you put in your mouth. After 3-5 days. If your weight is steady, congrats, you just found your maintenance level. From there, drop your intake by 300–500 calories a day (you can also increase your daily steps by 2-3k per day to create more of a deficit) and see what happens. If you're losing about 1% of your body weight pound per week, you're right where you need to be. If not, adjust up or down. Fat loss isn’t about hitting some "perfect" number—it’s about consistently creating the right trend.

Tip: Use tools like MyFitnessPal or Chronometer to track your intake accurately.

The Starvation Mode Myth — Busted

Now let’s address one of the biggest myths out there: starvation mode. You’ve probably heard someone say, “I’m not losing weight because my body’s in starvation mode.” That’s just not how physiology works. In the Minnesota Starvation Study, healthy men were fed half their maintenance calories for six months. They didn’t hit a plateau—they lost tons of weight. Yes, their bodies adapted by lowering energy output, but they kept losing fat. The truth? If you’re in a real calorie deficit, your body has no choice but to burn stored energy. So if you aren't losing weight then you simply aren't in a calorie deficit. This might be due to you moving less since you starting the deficit, so make sure you are keeping your daily step count high and consistent.

Final Word: You Don’t Need Magic—You Need Execution

Losing fat isn’t about tricking your metabolism. It’s about creating a consistent, measurable gap between what you eat and what you burn—then staying with it. Stop chasing magic numbers and start tracking what’s actually happening. Use your own data. Adjust based on reality, not hope. Commit to 8-12 weeks to start with. It takes time for your body to adjust so you won't always see huge results in weeks 1-3. You are in it for the long haul to create a Lean and Lethal physique for years to come. Not to see the number on the scale drop 30 in two weeks just for you to feel like shit and gain it all back again.

Want to make this simpler? Want structure, accountability, and a plan that cuts out the guesswork? DM me “LEAN” on Instagram and I’ll show you exactly how to fuel your body for fat loss without feeling like you're starving or spinning your wheels.

You don’t need a new calculator. You need execution.