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Cutting calorie calculator — your fat-loss target.
This cutting calorie calculator tells you how many calories to eat each day to lose fat. It finds your maintenance calories with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and your activity level, then subtracts a mild, standard, or aggressive deficit and estimates your weekly rate of loss. Enter your details below — the result updates instantly, no signup.
Safe pace: aim for about 0.5 to 1 percent of body weight per week. This tool won't recommend below 1,500 kcal for men or 1,200 for women — dropping under that on a cut risks muscle and stalls energy.
The cutting math, explained.
No black box. Maintenance from Mifflin-St Jeor, then a deficit sized to your chosen pace.
TDEE = BMR × activity Mifflin-St Jeor BMR — 10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age + s — times 1.2 to 1.9 for activity gives your TDEE.
target = TDEE − deficit About 500 kcal/day ≈ 0.45 kg/week, from the ~7,700 kcal stored in a kilogram of body fat.
0.5–1% bodyweight / week Keep the deficit moderate and protein high — about 2.0–2.2 g/kg on a cut — to hold onto muscle.
Worked example: an 80 kg, 178 cm, 30-year-old man at moderate activity has a TDEE near 2,740 kcal. A standard −20% cut is about 2,190 kcal/day — a ~550-calorie deficit, roughly 0.5 kg/week of fat loss. The 7,700-calorie-per-kilo rule is a useful average, not a law; real loss varies with water and glycogen, so track your weight for two to three weeks and adjust by 100 to 200 calories if the trend stalls.
Mild, standard, or aggressive.
The same stats at three deficit rates. A bigger deficit is faster, but it raises muscle-loss risk and is harder to sustain — the table updates with your numbers.
| Deficit | Cut | Daily target | Expected loss | Muscle-loss risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mild | −15% | — | — | Lowest — easiest to sustain, best for lean lifters |
| Standard | −20% | — | — | Low — the balanced default for most cuts |
| Aggressive | −25% | — | — | Higher — faster, but protect muscle with protein and lifting |
Who should cut.
- Fat-loss-phase lifters. You've built some muscle and want to reveal it — a moderate deficit with heavy training keeps the muscle while the fat comes off.
- People prepping for an event. A holiday, a shoot, or a weigh-in with a date in mind. Pick a pace you can hold to the deadline rather than crashing at the end.
- Recomp-minded intermediates. If you're chasing fat loss with muscle retention, a mild deficit plus high protein is the honest route — slow, but it protects your gains.
Be honest with yourself: aggressive cuts look tempting on paper, but they raise muscle loss and the odds of quitting. For most people a mild or standard deficit that you actually finish beats an aggressive one you abandon.
Related nutrition calculators.
See the full picture — your maintenance line, the deficit math, and the surplus you'll flip to when the cut is done.
TDEE calculator
Find the maintenance number your cut is built on.
Open toolBulking calorie calculator
Flip to a lean surplus when the cut is done.
Open toolCalorie deficit calculator
Set a deficit by target date or weekly pace.
Open toolNutrition tracker
Log every meal against your cutting target.
Open toolCutting calorie questions.
How many calories should I eat to cut?
To cut, eat below your maintenance calories — your TDEE. A standard cut sits about 20 percent below TDEE, so a lifter maintaining on 2,740 calories would eat roughly 2,190 a day. That pace loses about 0.5 kg of fat per week while protecting muscle. This calculator finds your TDEE from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and subtracts your chosen deficit for an exact daily number.
What is a safe calorie deficit for cutting?
A safe deficit is about 0.5 to 1 percent of your bodyweight per week, which usually works out to a 15 to 25 percent cut below TDEE. Milder deficits protect muscle and are easier to sustain; the aggressive end is faster but costs more muscle and adherence. Never drop below roughly 1,500 calories a day for men or 1,200 for women without medical supervision.
How much weight can you lose in a week?
Because a kilogram of body fat stores roughly 7,700 calories, a 500-calorie daily deficit yields about 0.45 kg of fat loss per week and a 1,000-calorie deficit about 0.9 kg. Faster than about 1 percent of bodyweight per week and more of the loss comes from muscle and water rather than fat. Early "loss" is also partly water and glycogen, so judge the trend over two to three weeks.
How do I keep muscle while cutting?
Three levers protect muscle on a cut: keep the deficit moderate (aim for 0.5 to 1 percent bodyweight per week), keep protein high at roughly 2.0 to 2.2 grams per kilogram, and keep lifting heavy to give the body a reason to hold onto lean mass. Crash deficits with no resistance training strip muscle alongside fat, which is exactly what a cut is meant to avoid.
Why am I not losing weight in a deficit?
Most often the intake estimate is off — untracked oils, drinks, and bites add up fast — or activity quietly dropped, shrinking the real deficit. Water retention from a hard session or high-sodium day can also mask fat loss for a week or two. Weigh and log consistently for two to three weeks, watch the trend rather than daily noise, and trim intake by 100 to 200 calories if the scale is genuinely flat.
Should protein go up on a cut?
Yes. Protein needs rise on a cut because it defends muscle in a deficit and keeps you full. While about 1.6 grams per kilogram is the ceiling for muscle gain in a surplus, a range of roughly 2.0 to 2.2 grams per kilogram is a sensible target while cutting. That is around 160 to 176 grams a day for an 80 kg lifter.
Save your cut. Hit it daily.
Free in your browser — Nishaana holds your cutting target and logs every meal against it, so you always know where your deficit stands.
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