Calories

capgordon76

How do I calculate my daily calorie intake so I can consume 500 Cal below to get in deficit

AnnPT77

Since you are male: You set yourself up in MFP with accurate profile entries, telling it you want to lose a pound a week. You get a calorie estimate. You stick close to that calorie estimate for 4-6 weeks, like maybe plus or minus 50 calories on average over a week. You log every bite, lick, taste, beverage, condiment, dressing, cheat, treat or any other calorie-containing thing that enters your system with as much accuracy as practical for that 4-6 weeks.

After 4-6 weeks:
- Divide your weight change in pounds by the number of weeks (or your weight change in kilos if you use kilos). That's your average weight loss per week, right?
- Multiply that average weight loss per week by the approximate number of calories in a pound or kilo, depending on which weight unit you use. For pounds, use 3500 calories. For kilos, use 7700 calories. That will give you your weekly weight change in estimated calories.
- Divide that weight change in calories by 7, to get a per-day estimate of calorie deficit.
- If that per-day estimate is right around 500, you're golden, right where you want to be. If it's more than 500, eat more daily on average (the amount by which it's above 500, for example, if the answer was 600, eat 100 more daily). If it's smaller than 500, eat less, specifically the amount by which your calculated result is smaller than 500.

That's the best way to figure out your actual, personal, best-estimate of your deficit, and fine-tune it to be what you want.

If you were female of the relevant age, I'd tell you to go at least one full menstrual cycle, in order to compare body weight at the same point in at least 2 different cycles, and get an average weekly weight change that way. But you're not. Other than that, the arithmetic is the same for men and women.