Your calorie deficit. With a target date.
Enter your details, your target weight and a pace: you see how many calories you can eat per day, how big your deficit is and roughly when you reach your goal. The same calculation as in the app.
Guidance for healthy adults, not medical advice.
How it is calculated
- Maintenance = BMR by Mifflin-St Jeor × activity factor, exactly as in the BMR calculator.
- Pace: gentle 10 % (at most 300 kcal), moderate 15 % (at most 500 kcal) or brisk 20 % (at most 750 kcal) below maintenance; the target is rounded to 50 kcal.
- Safety floor: never below your BMR and never below 1,500 kcal per day.
- Duration: weight difference × 7,700 kcal per kilogram ÷ weekly deficit – a common rule of thumb. Example: 8 kg at 500 kcal per day take about 18 weeks.
What the value does not show
- As your weight goes down, so do your needs. Weight loss slows down over time compared with the rule of thumb – recalculate after a few kilos.
- Water fluctuates: the scale often drops faster in the first days and more slowly afterwards. The trend over weeks is what counts.
- Under 18 or over 78, when underweight or with a target weight in the underweight range, the calculator gives no value – nor does it apply in pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
- A calorie target does not replace medical advice, for example with diabetes or eating disorders.
Frequently asked questions
How big should my calorie deficit be?
For most adults, 300 to 500 kcal per day is sustainable. The German S3 guideline on obesity gives a deficit of about 500 kcal per day as a guide. Larger deficits are hard to keep up.
How much weight will I lose per week?
At a deficit of 500 kcal per day, on paper about 0.45 kg per week (7 × 500 ÷ 7,700). In practice it varies and slows down over time.
Why does myfoody never go below 1,500 kcal?
Very low calorie targets make it hard to get enough protein, vitamins and minerals. Such diets belong under medical supervision. That is why the app and this page use the same floor.
Do I have to count calories to stay in a deficit?
Not necessarily, but it helps to see the deficit instead of guessing. In myfoody you log food by search, barcode, photo or voice and see every day how much is left.
Sources
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST et al. (1990): A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 51(2).
- German Nutrition Society (DGE): Reference values for energy intake.
- German Obesity Society et al.: S3 guideline on the prevention and treatment of obesity (AWMF register 050-001, in German).
- Hall KD (2008): What is the required energy deficit per unit weight loss? International Journal of Obesity 32(3).
More calculators
Stay on track with myfoody.
Log food by photo, voice or text and see calories, macros and water against your goal.
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