If you want to lose weight and reduce body fat, you need to burn more calories than you consume, creating a calorie deficit. This is often accomplished by reducing the calories you take in, increasing the calories you burn, or both. To lose a pound, you need to burn the equivalent number of calories found in that pound.
Common advice is to burn 3,500 more calories than you eat to drop one pound. To do this in one week, you need to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories each day. However, research shows that losing weight is more complex than this basic calorie deficit formula suggests. Let's dive into how many calories you need to burn to lose weight and how many calories are in a pound.
How Many Calories to Lose One Pound?
Technically you need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound of body weight. You can achieve this by creating a deficit of 500 calories each day which adds up to one pound in a week, a deficit of 1,000 calories each day to lose two pounds per week, or 250 calories each day to lose a pound in two weeks.
Traditionally, many weight-loss plans have been built around the 3,500-calorie concept, which assumes that a pound of fat equals roughly 3,500 calories. In reality, this may be quite different.
The idea behind the 3,500-calorie deficit began in 1958 when a physician named Max Wishnofsky published a paper suggesting that creating a calorie deficit in this amount would equal a pound of weight loss. This idea of how many calories are in a pound has been cited in other studies and thousands of popular weight-loss articles.
By now, studies have challenged this basic formula. Researchers have demonstrated that creating a calorie deficit causes more than just simple fat loss. Muscle is also lost as calories are burned.
Because muscle burns more calories than fat, muscle loss ultimately impacts your overall metabolism.
One important thing to realize is that body fat isn’t just fat. Body fat is a mixture of fat, fluids, and fat-free solids. So the actual caloric content of a pound of fat really depends upon the composition of that fat, which can vary.
Cutting Calories to Lose Weight
According to the 3,500-calorie hypothesis, creating a 500-calorie-per-day deficit should lead to a loss of one pound per week. Unfortunately, evidence suggests this rule significantly overstates how much weight a person will lose.
In the short term, you may be able to lose weight at a pound-a-week rate, but as your body composition and metabolism change, the rate of weight loss may slow as well.
The basic 3,500-calorie deficit calculation does not account for how your metabolism changes while trying to lose weight. You may need even more of a calorie deficit to see weight loss as your efforts progress.
Because you lose muscle mass as you lose body fat, your metabolism can begin to dip, lowering the rate at which you burn calories.
This is why as you lose weight and exercise more, you hit plateaus where weight loss tapers off. There are also metabolic, behavioral, neuroendocrine, and unconscious mechanisms that encourage your body to maintain a certain amount of fat. Researchers say this concept, called adaptive thermogenesis, creates the ideal situation for weight regain.
How to Achieve a Calorie Deficit
While the 3,500-calorie rule may not be entirely accurate, weight loss indeed requires burning more calories than you consume. There are a few things you can do to achieve this calorie deficit.
Reduce Your Calorie Intake
Reducing the calories you consume during the day can be an important part of any weight-loss plan. However, it is important to provide your body with fuel to run effectively.
Cutting too many calories can slow your metabolism and make it even more challenging to lose weight. Highly calorie-restrictive diets can also lead to additional muscle loss to hinder your weight-loss efforts.
Eat a well-balanced diet, even when you are cutting calories. Eliminating empty calories from junk food and focusing on nutritionally dense calories can help.
Increase Your Calorie Burn
Exercise is an important part of weight loss, but it's not a magic bullet. A safe, healthy weight-loss rate is about one to two pounds per week. If your weight loss is faster than that, you may be losing too much muscle mass in addition to fat.
The amount of calories you burn depends upon a variety of factors, including:
- Activity of choice (the type of exercise you do)
- Level of effort (speed, intensity)
- Time spent exercising
- Your weight
- Your current metabolism
To burn 500 calories in one day by running, for example, you would need to run about five miles, since the average runner burns about 100 calories per mile. If you are heavier or work harder during your workout, you will likely burn more calories. If you are lighter or work less intensely, you will probably burn less.
Combine Calorie Reduction With Exercise
If you don't have the time or energy to burn 500 calories a day through exercise, you could use a combination of calorie reduction and exercise. For example, if you burn approximately 300 calories daily through exercise, you should reduce your recommended calorie intake by 200 calories each day.
Of course, it's important to determine how many calories you need each day, because everyone's needs are different. This weight-loss calculator will estimate how many calories you should consume to achieve a goal weight.
Why Muscle Mass Matters
Boost your calorie burn by adding strength training and speed work to your workout routine. One of the many benefits of strength training is that building more muscle mass will increase your calorie burn both when you're working out and at rest. If you do strength training immediately after a hard run, you can use your follow-up rest day as a true recovery day.
Upping your protein intake and engaging in regular weight lifting can help you lose more weight, reduce muscle loss, and even gain more muscle. Because muscle requires more calories than fat, increasing your muscle mass will also help boost your metabolism.
You don't need to do lots of heavy lifting to get the benefits of strength training. Try doing some simple exercises such as core exercises or lower body moves a couple times a week.
High-intensity workouts can help jumpstart your weight-loss efforts by increasing your calorie burn. If you're not ready for such strenuous workouts, focus on short intervals of higher-intensity exercise during your workout. For example, you might cycle between spending 30 seconds working at your maximum effort and then slowing it down for a couple of minutes a few times during your workout.
A Word From Verywell
While the old 3,500-calorie deficit rule isn’t completely accurate, this does not mean it is worthless. Cutting or burning 500 calories per day might not lead to exactly a pound of weight loss per week, but it is still a good starting point for weight loss.
Remember not to get too focused on the number on the scale. Try to pay attention to how you're feeling overall. Use measurements other than weight, such as inches lost or how your clothes fit to mark your progress. You may be adding healthy lean muscle even as you lose fat.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Traditionally, weight loss plans have been based on the assumption that you need to achieve a calorie deficit 3,500 calories per week (or 500 calories per day) to lose one pound per week. But more recent evidence suggests that everyone's number may be a little bit different. In addition, the calorie deficit that works for you in the beginning of your weight loss plan may not work for you later in your weight loss plan.
Learn More: What Is a Calorie Deficit? -
The number of calories you should consume depends on a number of factors including your current body size, your age, gender, and your activity level. You can use a calorie calculator to estimate your caloric needs.
Learn More: How Many Calories Do I Need Each Day? -
Your total caloric expenditure is a combination of your resting metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn from physical activity (both exercise and non-exercise movement) and the thermic effect of food (the number of calories required to turn food into energy). Everyone's number is different. The easiest way to burn more calories each day is with physical activity.
Learn More: How Many Calories Do I Burn Every Day?