An easy way to visualize calorie deficits for CICO dieting.

I'm a metric guy, so I think in kilograms, but fortunately, this visualization is easy in either metric or customary units.

So, each kilogram of fat contains 7700 calories. As there are 2.2lb of fat in a kilogram, each pound of fat contains 3500 calories.

So, if you want to lose 1 kg of fat in a week, then you need to be in a calorie deficit of 1100 calories a day. 1000 calories if you want to lose 2 lb a week.

You need to get a good idea of your real Total Daily Energy Expenditure to work this out, and I have always found the Sail Rabbit BMR Calculator to be accurate. I use the Mifflin St Jeor methodology as it seems to be the most accurate for me.

Enter all your details, choose your level of activity modifier (and be accurate, it doesn't help you if you select "Active" when you actually work from home and sit in a chair almost all day) and it will give you how much you consume per day. Then, subtract 1000/1100 calories from that to work out what you need to consume to maintain that level of weight loss.

Final calorie intake per day too low? Then that's most likely not a sustainable level of weight loss. Maybe try upping your exercise and activity level and see if that makes it more achievable. But you have to actually do the exercise, not just tell a web page you will.

This worked well for me to lose 72 kg/160 lb a few years ago. I put some of it back on during the pandemic, but I'm back to using this system and heading back down to my goal weight again,