How the cutting planner works
The planner estimates your starting maintenance calories with the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and your activity multiplier. Your chosen rate of loss sets a fixed daily intake, and the model then simulates every day: weight drops by the day's deficit divided by roughly 7,700 kcal per kg, maintenance is recalculated for the new weight, and the deficit gradually shrinks.
Why the end of a diet feels slower
Because the deficit shrinks as you get lighter, a constant intake produces less and less weight loss each week. In practice many people lower intake slightly or increase activity partway through a cut, or plan short diet breaks. The milestone table helps you see when that might be needed.
Read the scale wisely
Water, sodium, carbohydrate intake and digestion can move the scale by 1–2 kg from day to day. Compare weekly averages and judge progress over 2–4 weeks rather than single weigh-ins.
Frequently asked questions
How fast should I lose weight when cutting?
Reviews on resistance-trained people commonly recommend losing roughly 0.5–1% of body weight per week. Slower rates tend to preserve more lean mass and training performance, especially for leaner individuals; faster rates may be reasonable for people with more fat to lose, ideally with professional guidance.
Why does the projection slow down over time?
As you get lighter, your body needs less energy, so the same calorie intake produces a smaller deficit. This planner recalculates your maintenance calories every day from your new body weight. Real-world adaptation (less daily movement, hormonal changes) can slow progress further.
Is 1 kg of fat really 7,700 kcal?
It is a long-standing approximation (about 3,500 kcal per pound) that works reasonably for rough planning. Early weight loss is often faster because of water and glycogen, and dynamic models of human metabolism show long-term loss is slower than the simple rule predicts.
What is the minimum number of calories I should eat?
Many guidelines treat around 1,200 kcal/day for women and 1,500 kcal/day for men as a floor below which very-low-calorie diets should be medically supervised. Your own needs may be higher — this planner flags intakes below those levels.
How do I keep muscle while cutting?
The most consistent evidence points to three things: keep lifting with enough intensity, eat a high protein intake (often 1.6–2.4 g per kg of body weight in studies on dieting lifters), and avoid excessively large deficits.
Sources & further reading
- Helms ER, Aragon AA, Fitschen PJ (2014). Evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: nutrition and supplementation . J Int Soc Sports Nutr 11:20 · doi:10.1186/1550-2783-11-20
- Garthe I, Raastad T, Refsnes PE, Koivisto A, Sundgot-Borgen J (2011). Effect of two different weight-loss rates on body composition and strength and power-related performance in elite athletes . Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 21(2):97–104 · doi:10.1123/ijsnem.21.2.97
- Hall KD, Sacks G, Chandramohan D, et al. (2011). Quantification of the effect of energy imbalance on bodyweight . Lancet 378(9793):826–837 · doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60812-X
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, Hill LA, et al. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals . Am J Clin Nutr 51(2):241–247 · doi:10.1093/ajcn/51.2.241