We’ve all been there, perhaps you’ve slacked a little bit and that deadline is ever approaching, and you need to be working a little harder now to still fit into that new outfit.
Let’s say there are four weeks left to go, and so now you need to lose 2lbs a week by then to meet your goal.
To meet this, you’re looking at needing a daily calorific deficit of 1000 calories.
A 1000-calorie deficit means that you are consuming 1000 calories a day less than you are burning.
Figuring out how many calories you specifically need to be eating throughout the day is a little more complicated to work out.
This is because there are so many other factors that need to be considered, such as your height, your sex, your age, and your activity level.
But throughout this article, we’ll go over some of the things you’ll need to be considering or doing in order to lose those 2lbs a week.
Run A Caloric Deficit
Where possible, I always try to discourage people from solely focusing on counting their calories.
It’s something to do with caution as it can be quite triggering and can become something that you start to obsess over. And that is never good.
That being said, sometimes counting calories can be necessary to help you lose weight.
Because simply put, you will not lose weight unless you are burning more calories than you are consuming.
One pound of fat equates to approximately 3,500 calories. So therefore the 2lbs of at you want to lose per week is equal to around 7,000 calories.
Therefore, that 7,000 calories become 1000 per day as your needed caloric deficit.
I really wouldn’t recommend trying to push the deficit any further than this or to try and lose more than 2lbs a week, as it really just isn’t sustainable.
Any more can usually have health implications and you’ll tend to find that you cannot stick to such a restrictive diet.
Calculating Your Daily Burned Calories
As mentioned above, if you’re hoping to lose 2lbs a week, you’ll need to consume at least 1000 calories less than your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure.)
TDEE is the number of calories that your body burns within 24 hours.
Your TDEE takes into account your basal metabolic rate (BMR), your exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT), your thermic effect of food (TEF), and your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT.)
So what do all those words even mean, and what do they affect? You’ll see below:
BMR – This is the number of calories your body burns when you are doing just the everyday basic functions such as sitting, breathing and thinking.
EAT – This is the number of calories that you burn while you are exercising and taking part in physical activities.
TEF – This is the number of calories you burn while your body deals with anything you’ve consumed. This involves absorbing and digesting food.
Using this link can help you to calculate your daily caloric goal.
Cutting Calories
To stay in your deficit you’ll need to start cutting down your calorie intake. There are two ways that you can really go about this.
You can either focus on portion control, or you can concentrate on healthier swaps of lower calorie foods.
Really, if you are really hoping to lose weight quickly a little bit of both techniques will be the most effective.
Cutting down larger meals into smaller portions means that you can still enjoy some of your favorite meals while consuming fewer calories.
But healthy swaps are also a great way to restrict yourself without really restricting yourself.
Most diets don’t work because they are too strict to follow.
You should always allow yourself little treats, but swapping say a 300-calorie chocolate bar for a 50 calories chocolate snack will still help you to cut back those extra calories.
Measure & Adjust
Sometimes it can be frustrating that during the first week or so, you lose upwards of 10lbs, and then suddenly the progress seems to just stop.
Don’t read too much into this as usually that inial weight loss is water weight.
For the first two weeks of any diet, there is no real need to track and measure your progress, as you’re literally just tracking water.
But once you’ve got to the two-week point, you should start measuring yourself.
Don’t do this every day as weight can fluctuate day to day and you won’t get an accurate reading.
Weigh yourself twice a week maximum. In theory, by this point, you should be seeing a 2lb weight loss each week.
Don’t panic if it’s not quite this initially, remember there are many factors that can influence weight loss.
If you’re not happy with your results, you can try and slightly adjust your diet or your exercise to get you into the correct deficit.
Final Thoughts
It is possible to lose 2lbs a week if you can stay in around a 1000-calorie deficit.
However, there are many other factors that will contribute to how quickly you lose weight.
Some have been mentioned throughout this article, and yet there are still other things to consider such as your metabolism and how much exercise you are doing per week.
While it is not possible to give a certain number of how many calories you should consume per day, you should be trying to burn around 1000 more calories than you are consuming.
Essentially, it is all about trying to cut down those larger portions and make some healthy swaps for some lower calorie food, as well as plenty of water and exercise.
![How Many Calories Do You Need To Maintain Your Weight? [How To Calculate?]](https://calorie-counter.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/How-Many-Calories-Do-You-Need-To-Maintain-Your-Weight-How-To-Calculate-1.jpg "How Many Calories Do You Need To Maintain Your Weight? [How To Calculate?]")
