Oh, how excited I am that you arrived at this article because I’m going to teach you how you can easily lose weight by following a calorie deficit diet plan that’s incredibly simple. I truly believe you are going to be blown away by the results you get if you follow everything I teach here. This article is NOT for you if you’re looking for a quick way to lose 10 pounds. I’m writing this for those of you who are ready to follow a plan that will help you drop 5 pounds a month while eating what you want.
For years, I had no idea what a calorie deficit even was, and I thought the only way to burn fat and get lean was by eating low carb foods and doing intense cardio workouts simultaneously. I was wrong on both accounts. And I hope this brings you some joy because what you’ll learn in this article is that you don’t have to eat hard-boiled eggs and salads, combined with 6 days a week of ass-kicking cardio.
No no no…in fact, what I teach all over this website is the simplest way to lose weight that I know of. My best friend lost 30 pounds in a few months doing this. Then more friends wanted to try it, and they lost weight too.
The calorie deficit diet plan that I follow is super simple and I’m going to also share with you the daily habits I personally follow that I believe go hand in hand with the eating plan that allows you to eat what you want. Anyway, let’s get to how all of this works.
Start With A 400 Calorie Deficit
Why 400 calories? Well, it’s a very good number for a few reasons. It’s just large enough to give you substantial weight loss at the end of 30 days. You’ll noticeably see a difference in the mirror and on the scale, and you’ll continue to lose weight every month.
Secondly, a 400 calorie deficit is small enough so that you aren’t starving yourself, like so many other diet plans out there. Those plans make me mad because what ends up happening to a great majority of the people who follow those crazy calorie deficits is they lose all motivation and give up altogether.
This is supposed to be simple and fun, and that’s why I don’t like the word “diet” because it instills this idea in a lot of people’s minds that this is gonna be hard, mentally, emotionally, and physically. What I’m teaching isn’t that hard, as you’ll see.
Calorie Deficit Calculation
To calculate your calorie deficit, take your weight and multiply it by 15.
Then subtract 400 from the answer that you get.
HERE IS THE CALORIE DEFICIT CALCULATION IF YOU WEIGH 150 LBS:
- 150 x 15 = 2,250
- 2,250 – 400 = 1,850
This person should be eating 1,850 calories per day.
So, the calculation above for a 150 pound person means that he/she should be eating 1,850 calories per day in order to lose 4 to 5 pounds per month.
Now, another thing I will stress here is that if you have more than 20 pounds to lose, rather than using your current weight for this calculation above, you’ll want to use your TARGET weight. Does that makes sense?
So, if you weigh 200 pounds, but you want to weigh 180, then your calculation above should use 180 as the starting point.
Get Enough Protein In Your Diet
It’s very important to ensure you’re getting enough protein in your diet, so after you’ve calculated your calorie deficit above, you’ll want to track your daily protein intake. Here’s a list of high protein foods that are great for weight loss.
Eating enough protein ensures you are burning fat optimally. Getting enough protein reduces your appetite and hunger cravings throughout the day. It improves your metabolism while increasing fat burning and muscle mass. And most importantly, it maintains weight loss.
So, here is the protein calculation I follow:
Take your current weight and multiply it by 0.8. The answer you get is how many grams of protein you should be eating in a day. If you have more than 20 pounds to lose, then you’ll want to do this calculation using your TARGET weight.
Protein Intake Calculation
HERE IS THE PROTEIN INTAKE CALCULATION IF YOU WEIGH 150 LBS:
- 150 x 0.8 = 120
This person should be eating 120 grams of protein per day.
So this person who weighs 150 pounds should be eating 1,850 calories per day. Of those 1,850 calories, he/she should be eating 120 grams of protein.
If you don’t know how to track these numbers, don’t worry about it. This is all very easy to calculate as you’ll see in the next section.
These 2 Tools Make Calorie Counting Easy
Now, I would never be able to track my calories and protein intake correctly if I didn’t have a few tools that make this whole process incredibly easy. These 2 tools are:
The food scale is important to ensure you aren’t overeating on your foods. It’s crazy how what I once thought was 100 calories of chicken breast is actually 250 calories. I used to eyeball lots of foods, and that’s not gonna cut it. It’s exactly why I never dropped body fat and got defined no matter how hard I tried.
MyNetDiary makes tracking all your foods throughout the day incredibly simple. To be fair, you can use MyFitnessPal also. I don’t think it matters, as both these apps are free, and you install them onto your phone, and you should be good to go.
Click here for a step by step tutorial on how to use a food scale to count calories.
That article will teach you EXACTLY how to use the food scale and MyNetDiary together, to calculate your daily calorie intake. So, regardless of whether you eat out at a restaurant, at a friends house, or you prepare homemade meals, you’ll know how to calculate your calories properly.
Fat Burning Magic Of Walking Daily
This isn’t part of the actual calorie deficit, but it’s a part of my daily life and it’s incredibly powerful. I never would have believed that just walking would cause more of a body transformation than doing intense cardio workouts. That is, until I actually started doing it daily.
The problem with doing intense cardio is that it causes us to become ravenously hungry and often times we WILL overeat. Plus, I was always jumping from cardio program to program with minimal results. I remember doing Shaun T’s Insanity 5 days a week, and I dreaded knowing that I was gonna have to do it each day. And I didn’t notice a big difference in the mirror after 60 days of his program.
Then I started walking daily and everything changed. The fat burning magic of walking daily is that it doesn’t feel like you’re doing any kind of real workout…but you ARE. You’re walking. It can mess with your head, but that’s the beauty of it. Just trust the process and you’ll notice results.
I walk 10,000 steps per day, and if you get into the habit of doing this, you will burn about 400 – 500 additional calories per day. Depending on your weight, you’ll burn a different amount.
Click here to find out exactly how many calories you’ll burn walking 10,000 steps.
Now, keep in mind, every step counts. When you walk around your house, to the mailbox, to the car, or down the street to the grocery store, it all counts towards your 10,000 steps per day.
I use MyNetDiary to track my steps, and if you have a fitness tracker, that works just as well.
I strongly suggest implementing this into your daily routine. If you’re doing crazy cardio workouts every day, I challenge you swap them out with walking and monitor what kinds of results you get.
And That’s The Calorie Deficit Diet Plan
It’s very simple. All you’ve got to do is eat at a very reasonable calorie deficit each day. Make sure you’re getting enough protein. Use a couple of simple tools to track the foods you’re eating to make sure you aren’t overeating, and you’re done.
Let’s summarize the points mentioned in this article so you know exactly what you need to do to hit your fitness goals.
- CALCULATE YOUR DAILY 400 CALORIE DEFICIT
- CALCULATE YOUR DAILY PROTEIN INTAKE
- USE A FOOD SCALE & MYNETDIARY TO TRACK YOUR CALORIES ACCURATELY
- WALK DAILY (OPTIONAL)
I’d love to know what kind of results you get from following the advice taught here. This entire website was inspired by learning everything I’ve laid out here. When I understood that eating at a calorie deficit was the key to burning fat, I never looked back.
I forgot to mention above that you can eat what you want on this calorie deficit. As long as you hit your daily calories and protein, it’s okay to eat pizza and ice cream. I do it all the time.
If you’re looking for a powerful workout & eating plan to transform your physique, I’ll leave two links below. I personally lost 15 pounds of pure body fat, while also gaining lean muscle on this plan
This program changed my entire perspective on nutrition and fitness and my life in general. It’s what inspired me to start writing articles to help people lose weight and get fit.
HERE’S THE HOME WORKOUT PLAN I PERSONALLY FOLLOW
HERE IS THE SAME WORKOUT PLAN DESIGNED FOR WOMEN
I hope this article was helpful and you can get started on your journey eating at a calorie deficit. I’d love to know what kind of results you get. It’s incredibly inspiring to me to see people hitting their fitness goals. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!
Watching fat melt off is a thing of joy to me and to everyone who understands the pain of extra fat. This post is worth millions to me. Thanks.
You’re very welcome and I’m so glad to hear that you found useful information in this article. Thanks for your response 🙂
This is one of the simplest ways to lose fat articles I have come across. To really get results one must be on track and consistent. Thanks for sharing
Hi there and thanks for your kind feedback. It’s nice to hear you found value in the article – yes, it’s important to stay on track and be consistent. Following a calorie deficit though, as opposed to a traditional diet, for me anyway, has been much easier and more effective at actually shedding fat.
Wow, this is so great. I have been long searching for how to burn and overcome these issues of extra fat. Thanks so much. This is a life-saving post.
Wow thanks so much for the feedback and really ecstatic to hear you felt the post is life saving! My goal is to help people see that weight loss and fat burning can be a very simple process that doesn’t require mainstream or fad diets, or any kind of supplements. If we can just follow a simple math equation and adhere to it daily, we will get results we’re after!
For me, I will do any effective routine in this pandemic for fat to disappear without starving myself. I this is will do magic
Hi Wilson – thank you for the comment – what’s amazing is that I lost 15 pounds of fat DURING the pandemic, and all without starving myself. In fact, I ate MORE than I used to eat. It’s crazy cause this new way of living taught me so much about how I was doing things wrong in my previous lifestyle, which was 6 days a week of intense workouts, and eating 5 to 6 small meals every single day. This workout & eating plan changed everything.
The 400 calorie deficit sounds manageable, I think I can do it and get to lost some weight.
Hi Danielle – thank you for your comment I appreciate it. You’re totally right – 400 calorie deficit is more than manageable. The reason the deficit is so low, is because it still allows you to actually enjoy foods rather than feel like you’re on a diet. I spoke to a friend who felt it wasn’t motivating enough to know that she’d only lose 4 -5 pounds per month. But when you think about it, that can be 15 pounds in only 90 days, and it’s with very little effort on your part. Compared to traditional dieting, where you must restrict yourself and feel like you can’t be yourself, it’s night and day in terms of manageability and sustainability.
Calorie deficit diet is a thing, I have also heard of it before. But, this post made me more informed about the actual plan.
Hi there and thank you for your feedback – well a calorie deficit is a bit different than a diet. It’s just a way to manage the amount of calories you’re taking in per day. I just realized I titled this article with the words “diet Plan”. I wish we didn’t need to use words like “diet” though, cause a lot of people get the wrong idea that they’re going to be restricting themselves and unable to eat what they want. With this plan, you really can eat your favorite foods as long as you adhere to your calorie intake every day.
Many of us don’t know the importance of the food balance, in fact, you explained to us in detail your method for burning calories with examples of your friends with truly amazing results, I will take it into account especially for me.
Hi Mery – I’m happy to hear you felt the examples of my friends helped you and the article was informative. It’s mind-boggling to me also, sometimes to see how my best friend literally went out and bought a food scale just like I did, and he lost 30 pounds in just a few months. He had a lot more weight to lose but it’s amazing how quickly it came off literally by following this method.
This calorie deficit diet plan is fantastic , Everyday we are eating many things which increase our fat this may lead to a fatty stomach, but this diet plan is awesome. I will follow it.
Glad to hear the calorie deficit concept resonated with you! You’re right, the foods we put into our bodies are directly connected to whether we have extra fat on our bellies or not. In my experience, following the simple calorie deficit, combined with a powerful home workout routine is what changed it all for me. Let me know how it goes when you follow it. I’d love to know your progress!
I agree with you making use of the word diet makes people think you are going on a very strict eating plan. But the calorie deficit diet plan does say otherwise, it is such a relaxed option of losing calories.
Hi there Harry – I’m glad to hear you feel the same way about the word “diet”. It’s scary. It immediately brings to mind hard boiled eggs and cottage cheese, or a leaf of lettuce on a plate. The idea of going on a strict eating plan scares people and it really scares me too. There is such an easy way to eat what you want while also losing unwanted fat. I’m really glad this article resonated with you.
I didn’t know eating enough protein ensures you are burning fat optimally, I just thought depriving of myself of food is the fat burning plan.
Hey there and thanks for the comment! It’s amazing the things we learn about health and nutrition isn’t it? I didn’t know that either for the longest time, but when you start to live a new lifestyle and actually begin taking in enough protein, while following a powerful workout, you will see your body start to change in ways it never did before. Depriving yourself of food is not a good idea, and even though you’ll be losing weight, it will be in the form of muscle and bone density, which is bad. Eating right is so simple – just follow a reasonable calorie deficit that allows you to eat your favorite foods, while making sure to get enough protein in each day. Combine that with a powerful workout plan, and you’re set up to see some amazing results.
I love to eat and in as much I want to lose some weight, i don’t think i want to make the sacrifice of going a long while without food to achieve this. So I want to say I appreciate this calorie delicit diet plan and I am going to start right away.
So happy to hear you’ll try this! Every one of my friends who has tried this has seen substantial results. It takes a little bit of effort to get into the habit of counting calories properly if you’ve never done this before, but once you get used to it, it’s second nature. Please let me know how it goes, and if you have any other questions. Thanks!