What is a caloric deficit?

A calorie deficit happens when your body uses more calories than you consume. Over time, this often leads to weight loss since the body draws on stored energy to make up the difference.

However, your recommended calorie intake is highly individual and depends on many factors such as body composition, age, sex, activity level, health status, and genetics. Additionally, long-term, your body reacts to the calorie restriction and so that can also affect body size and weight loss over time. As a result, calorie deficit calculators can provide rough estimates, but they’re not perfectly accurate and should not be relied on as exact measurements.