What Is The "Right" Calorie Deficit?
In this video Eric Roberts explains that the "right" calorie deficit is not a universal number but a personalized, sustainable target that balances fat loss with mental and physical health. He begins by positioning his channel as a source of non‑promotional, evidence‑based fitness information and stresses the importance of applying knowledge rather than just consuming it. Roberts critiques the common 500‑calorie‑per‑day rule, noting that individual factors such as metabolism, body composition, age, and personality type (e.g., "Type A" aggressiveness) affect how large a deficit a person can tolerate. He warns that overly aggressive deficits can lead to burnout, restrictive‑binge cycles, and long‑term failure, especially when they clash with social events or personal stress. As a practical starting point he proposes a range based on body weight: calories = body‑weight × 8‑12, with ×10 as a middle ground, and advises adjusting upward if hunger or sustainability become issues. To make adherence easier, he introduces carb and calorie cycling—varying daily calories and macronutrient ratios to match workout days, social nights, or personal hunger patterns—while emphasizing that weekly total calories are what ultimately matter. He also discusses periodizing deficits, suggesting that people should not stay in a deficit 365 days a year but instead plan lighter or maintenance phases around stressful periods, holidays, or high‑stress work cycles. Throughout, Roberts underscores the need to start immediately with a simple, manageable deficit rather than over‑analyzing, arguing that action fuels motivation and long‑term success. He closes by encouraging viewers to reach out with questions and to apply the concepts right away.
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Alrighty, what is going on guys? Welcome back to the channel. If you are new here, I am literally just trying to give you a non-promotive, non-bullshit source of information for fitness-related things that you can take with you on your journey and apply it to yourself. There is, especially with social media these days and the internet, there's so much of an influx of information out there That it's easy to get caught up in what's right, what's wrong. This person said this, this person said that. I am literally just here to try to give you as much, like I said, non-promotive, non-bullshit information as you can possibly get to then make an educated decision based on that and then take it and apply it into your life. Education is great, but if you can't apply it into your life like we're about to do today, talking about our right calorie deficit, then there's not much that you can take with it. So that's what I'm trying to do for you guys right now. I'm literally just here trying to do that for you guys for free as much as I possibly can. With that being said, let's get into today's topic that we're going to talk about here today, and that is the right, quote unquote, right calorie deficit. And I write that because I've gotten a lot of questions and I've gotten a lot of people asking me about what should be the right calorie deficit, what should be— what are you looking for to lose fat, how much— okay, Eric, I know you want me to count calories, how much of a deficit should I be in, what should it look like, what should my diet look like, what should my calories and macros look like? We're going to cover that stuff today, but we're also going to cover it in a sense of I want you to actually think about it first, not just go from a number that a calculator gave you or you looked up how many calories you should eat for your weight. Like, yes, those things are quote unquote accurate, but are they going to be accurate for you? And that's exactly what I want to talk about right now because the right calorie deficit varies for every single individual person, and that's such a big thing because I wanna talk about it right here with you guys. Think about the right calorie deficit, right? Everybody has heard if you have a 500-calorie deficit every single day, that's whatever, however many calories, and you're gonna lose a pound a week, right? And yes and no. Everybody's metabolism, how much weight you have to lose, how much fat you have, how much muscle you have, how old you are, all those kind of things are gonna play into that. But everybody's heard that if you have a 500-calorie deficit, then you're gonna lose fat, 1 pound a week. And my answer is maybe, but what happens to your mental health as you get into this deficit? And that's exactly what we're talking about. If you know that you are a type of person that— let's talk about Type A. If you're a Type A person and you're just, you're balls to the walls, you're all in, like you know you're gonna do it, then maybe yeah, you could go for your 500-calorie to even like a 1,000-calorie deficit. So if you're, you know, if your maintenance calories are 2,500, You could go to maybe 2,000 or at the very, very most like 1,500 calories. My only question to you is, knowing that you're a type A person and you wanna see results fast, as everybody does these days, knowing that you're that kind of person and you wanna kinda go all into it, and that's fine, I have nothing against that. I have plenty of clients I work with that they just tell me, hey, let's fucking do this. I wanna get to where I wanna get to. I wanna reach my goal. And then after that I might take a little break, or whatever it is. There's nothing wrong with that. My thing to you is don't bullshit yourself. And I say that because— don't bullshit yourself in the sense that, yes, you might be able to keep it up for 2 weeks. You might be able to keep it up for 3 weeks, for 2 months, for 3 months. But what happens when you get burnt out from such an aggressive calorie deficit? What happens when you go to social events and you can't have what you want to have or you can't act the way you want to act? Because of the aggressive calorie deficit you continue to put yourself in. And that's no matter, no matter what you're doing. If you're in such an aggressive deficit and you're gonna get burnt out, then what happens? Let's look at it. If that happens, what's gonna happen is you're gonna restrict, restrict, restrict, binge. Restrict, restrict, restrict, binge. And you're just gonna go on this kind of yo-yo up and down, up and down. You're gonna restrict calories. Get really, really burnt out. Get fed up because you're not, you know, you can't go to social events. Get fed up because you have to eat the same amount of food every single day and the same meals and same this, same that. The monotony of it is gonna get to you, and you know that deep down, but you're like, nope, fuck it, I wanna reach my goals. Once that happens, when you get to the point where you're like, okay, fuck this, I need a break, it's not gonna be a break, it's gonna be a binge. And a binge could be one day, it could be one month, it could be one year. I don't know, but The thing is, when you restrict yourself so, so much in pursuit of that quick progress, in pursuit of that quick results, that's when you're going to start to see problems because you're not— I don't want to say you're not ready for that, but not many people can do that nonstop day after day, week after week, month after month. There has to be times when either you, A, lessen your calorie deficit, or B, take a goddamn diet break. And it's like, people don't think about it like that. All they think of is like, okay, I'm going to put my weight in this calculator. I want to lose 2 pounds a week. I want to do it as fast as I possibly can. I have a wedding coming up. I got a beach I got to go to. I got fucking Coachella. I got whatever it is. I got to lose 2 pounds a week, 3 pounds a week, and I'm going to do it no matter what. And that's great, and that's good for your quote unquote physical health. Not really, but how the way you look is what you want to— is all you really care about right now. And that's good for that, maybe. But what about your mental health? What about your physical and mental health after that period of time where you're restricting, restricting, restricting for a long period of time? What happens then? That's what a lot of people don't talk about and/or don't think about. So let's talk about it right now. If for say you were doing a 500-calorie deficit for 7 days a week and that's what you wanted to do because you wanted to see quote unquote faster progress, if that's what you wanted to do, Great, but it has to happen for a long period of time. You doing it for 2 weeks, getting burnt out, binging and saying, fuck it, I'll just take a little break, which then turns into a month, which then turns into, holy shit, I'm really off track and I've gained back 20 pounds, that's not helping anybody. And it's definitely not helping your mental health. And if your mental health is not there, all these numbers, all these things we're going to talk about is not going to be there. That is why I have to hammer this point home. Say if you were in a 200, 300 calorie deficit instead. Yeah, you might see slower progress in the short term, but in the long term, what's gonna happen? You're gonna have a better relationship with food. You're gonna be able to sustain that lifestyle for longer. If you follow anything I've ever done, and if you go listen to my podcast at Eric Roberts Fitness on iTunes, or just Instagram posts, Facebook posts, anything, you will know that I'm a big proponent of, I don't give a fuck about you in 6 months. I give a fuck about you in 60 years. And that means a lot to me because I don't care what you can do in 6 months with your body. Anybody can lose fat. It's, it's, it's, it's really not that hard. The thing that is hard is sustaining that fat loss for the rest of your life and then changing your life habits to keep that fat loss and keep that way of living for the rest of your life. That's why it's a slow fucking process, guys. It takes time. And that's exactly why I say, like, if you go into a less aggressive deficit, Your short-term progress might be slower, and slower is such a variable word, but it might be quote-unquote slower, but your long-term process is then gonna outgain everybody because a lot of people do these diets with their friends and they wanna lose weight and they wanna get healthy, and that's fucking amazing and I absolutely support that. Accountability is everything, that's why I'm a coach. Like, I totally understand that. But you comparing yourself to Sally in the gym or the, you know, the other mom that you're working with or whatever it is that's losing weight faster than you, It's a long game, guys. It's a really long game. Ask the Atlanta Falcons who lost to the fucking Patriots in the Super Bowl. I fucking hate the Patriots. Ask the Atlanta Falcons who was up 28-3 at halftime and then lost the fucking Super Bowl. It's a long game, guys. Don't worry about the short term. You have to be in this for the long term, or else honestly just fucking click this video out and don't watch anymore because I don't— we're not going to relate, honestly. So don't waste any more of your time. If you're in this for the long term then stay here. We're going to talk about some more things, but just understand that because you are going to see results that way. The mental aspect of it is such a big thing. And just make sure you ask yourself, what is the right amount for you? And, and I don't, I don't know that unless I clearly work with you, but what is the right amount for you? What can you sustain? What is your lifestyle like? Do you like going out on the weekends? Do you like having a few drinks here and there? Can you do this? Can you do that? Can you cut those drinks out? Do you want to cut those drinks out but you can't? Like Ask yourself all these things. Take in all the information and don't just put your number and your weight and your height into a calculator, let it tell you what you should do, and then go from there. It's so much more than that, guys. Nutrition is so individual. That's exactly why I became a coach and I love doing this because every single person is so different and you have to take all these things into account when you're talking about this right calorie deficit. So that's what I want to hit on first and foremost. That, I believe, is by far the most important thing. How can you mentally keep up what you're doing and sustain what you're doing for the long run? And that's what I care about as far as the right calorie deficit for you. So moving right along, we will talk about some numbers here. And this is just basic numbers, guys. It's just basic things. So calorie deficit, I would stick to a range of your body weight times 8 to 12. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you times that by 10, right in the middle. 1,500 calories. Okay? So again, probably about times 10, that's a good place for people to start. Like, just start from there. If you get there and you're like, holy shit, I'm fucking starving, I can't do this, bump it up to 11 or 12 and just kind of slowly work your way backwards. Again, it's all about sustainability. If you can't keep it up, then it's not going to work. And yes, you're in a calorie deficit, so you might be hungry every now and then, but if it's to the point where you're You're following it for 4 days and then Friday rolls around and you fucking just go all out and Saturday you go all out and Sunday you go all out because you say, fuck it, I already fucked up on Friday, I'll just start back Monday. That's not a good cycle for you to have. Please understand that. You have to take into account Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and it's not just, fuck it, I'll start back on Monday. That's not what this is about. So take that into consideration. And again, if you want to go more on the aggressive side, bodyweight times 8. That's going to be aggressive, but— Sometimes people's bodies are stubborn, sometimes people can handle it, sometimes it's okay with their lifestyle. Whatever it is, that's an option. Or if you want to go super slow, or if you honestly don't have that much more weight to lose, like that much more fat to lose, and you have a good amount of muscle and you want to keep working out and you like your workout performance and you, you do high-intensity stuff, like maybe that 12 range might be for you. So again, guys, these are just general numbers. Body weight times 8 to 12. Take it. Something in there and go from there. Track what you do, track how you feel, track how you sleep, track how your workouts are. Find out what works for you and then just take it from there. But that is a great starting point. I would say times 10, body weight times 10. Do it, see how you feel, see how your energy is, see if you're hungry or not, see if you can keep up with it even on the weekends, and go from there. But please just get started with something. That is what's going to matter. So body weight times 8 to 12. Now over here we're gonna talk about kind of ways to implement what we kinda just talked about. So the first one, I actually got this from a DM from one of you guys. I appreciate the feedback and the, you know, you guys just reaching out to me. I really do appreciate it and I obviously use it in my videos. So please feel free to reach out to me more, guys. The first one I wanna talk about is carb calorie cycling. So let's talk about, you know, obviously we're in a calorie deficit and we have to stick to a certain amount of calories for the week 'cause that's what matters, not just one day, but for the week. 7 days, if you guys don't know. Saturday and Sunday include those days. Friday nights also include a week. Just make sure we're on the same page. Carb calorie cycling. So carb cycling and calorie cycling is— people use this to their advantage to try to lose fat, but some people think it's the, you know, secret sauce or end-all be-all. And what I'll say about it is it can be a great tool, but A, you don't need it, and B, it's not gonna be the secret end-all be-all. And I say that because carb cycling and calorie cycling, what is going to matter at the end of the week is that you hit your calorie goal, right? That is what is going to matter. And no matter what else happens, no matter if you do keto or if you do fasting or if you do anything else, hitting those calories at the end of the week is what is going to matter. Carb and calorie cycling are a great way to do that for people who don't like the monotony of doing the same thing day in and day out. For people who like having a bit more calories on certain days. Say, when you work out or on the weekends. These are great strategies. So for example, let's talk about it. If, for say, you like— when you work out, you notice you're hungrier. When you work out and you notice you're hungrier, you can better adhere to more calories during those days. Now, on the days you're not working out, you're not as hungry. So let's talk about it. If you have to hit a 2,000-calorie or a 1,500-calorie deficit every day for 7 days straight to lose fat, You can still do that in a sense that you can split it up. So say for some— so say you work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you do 1,800 calories. So on those 3 days when you work out, you do 1,800 calories because you know you're hungrier on those days. So when you know you're hungrier on those days, you're gonna set yourself up for success better by doing a higher calorie deficit. Right? So you can have more calories on those days, still stay in a deficit because of what we're just about to talk about right now. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, say you stick to 1,200 or 1,300 calories because you know you're not as hungry those days. Those days might be busier for you at work or with the kids or whatever it is. So you can still stay in a calorie deficit and have lower calories those days. So if you have 1,800 some days and 1,300 other days, well, at the end of the week it's all going to add up to the same 1,500 calories or whatever it is that you needed for that week to lose fat. And that's important because you can still— I always— people tell me like, I can't do that amount of calories. Great, you don't have to, but at the end of the week you have to have a certain amount of calories to be losing fat. And this carb and calorie cycling is a great way for that. You can have 1,800 calories some days and 1,300 calories other days. Some days you're hungrier, some days you're not. Some days you're busier, some days you're not. That is a great way to set up— to set yourself up for success. You don't have to just keep beating your head against the wall telling yourself, I can't eat 1,400, 1,500 calories every single day. It's making me insane. I can't follow it. Find another way to do it, guys. There's plenty of ways to skin a cat. I don't even know what that means, or whoever came up with that, or why people are skinning cats. Colby Taylor, if you're watching this. But you can still set yourself up for success and take it from there, guys. Okay? So carb-calorie cycling. And again, carbs is going to be more or less the same thing. And again, carbs and calories are gonna work hand in hand because a carb is a calorie. But again, if you know that some days you want to say drink more, or you go out on Friday nights and you tend to have a little bit more bar food, which is higher in carbs normally, okay, great. So on those days, set yourself up for success. If you want a carb cycle on say days you know you're gonna go out, or even on say like we just talked about, days that you know you're gonna work out, You can adjust your macros for your calories to then fit into that. So if you want to keep the same calories because you want to stay in a deficit, perfect. Just switch up the carbs and say the fat. So if you're doing a higher fat diet and a lower carb diet, if you know you're going out that night and you still want to hit your macros or hit your calories, perfect. Again, set yourself up for success. This way you can just switch up the carbs and the fats, make your fats a little bit lower. Bring your carbs a little bit higher, you still hit those macro goals and you still hit your calorie goals. This way you still stay in a calorie deficit and you still lose weight. It's perfect, guys. So these are strategies you guys can use and take with you if you don't— and again, some people just say, give me a calorie amount, I'll stick to it every single day. And that's totally fine and fucking awesome too. And honestly, maybe a bit easier. But again, a bit easier if that's what you can sustain and adhere to. If you can't adhere to that, carb calorie— or carb cycling, sorry. Carb cycling and calorie cycling are 2 great ways that you can still stick to your calories, stick to your macros, and still be in a calorie deficit to still lose fat. Because if you guys follow me again, or have heard anything I've ever said, calorie deficit is the only way to lose fat. So as long as you're in a calorie deficit, that's all that matters. Another point we're going to bring up is periodization. And if you guys know anything about working out, it is You, you have to periodize your workouts. You can't just go balls to the walls, 100% intensity, 24/7, every single day, especially if you're a busy mom or a working father or both of those things or whatever it is. If you have responsibilities and you have stress from not only from working out but from your job and from your spouse and from your kids and from etc., etc., running around, like you guys are going to have stress on your body. You can't go 100% all the time in your workouts, 100% intensity all the time. Yes, give effort, but there has to be times where you periodize things so you're not burning yourself out. You can't do that. It's the same thing with diet, guys. So for example, the holidays are about to come up right around this time, and everybody freaks the fuck out about holidays because they don't want to gain weight, they don't want to gain fat, they're doing good in their diet. Don't look at it in a month span or a week span or, I mean, for fuck's sake, a day span. Some people like— Some people I work with are like, well, Thanksgiving's coming, or Christmas is coming, and I have to eat higher calories. It's like, it's one fucking day, man. One day didn't make you shredded, so one day is not going to make you fat. Think about it in the real long-term sense of it. One day doesn't mean shit. Periodizing your deficit and your maintenance. Let's talk about that. Again, you don't have to, and you honestly probably shouldn't be Dieting 24/7, 365 days a year. I don't care if you have 200 pounds to lose. You probably shouldn't be in a deficit every single 365 days of that year. So if you know you have times when you're going to be more stressed, if you know you're going to have times when the holidays are coming up, if you know, if you know that it is going to be substantially harder for you to stay in that deficit, and you can be honest with yourself because some of you guys like to make excuses. And we all do it, but some of you guys like to make excuses as to why you can't stay in your deficit. And I'm not saying you're making an excuse, but if you know, like, for fuck's sake, you're going to Aunt Susan's house for Thanksgiving and it's gonna be harder for you to stay on your deficit, just periodize it. Just work your way around it. And if even, like, you almost want to rob Peter to pay Paul, like, if you want to do less calories in the beginning of the week because you know at Thursday, Friday for Thanksgiving, you're going to have more calories, but you still want to stay in that deficit. Well, then just periodize it that way. Like we just talked about with the calorie cycling, it's the same kind of concept. And even take it a step further and look at it in a 6-month or a 12-month span. You don't have to be in a deficit every single day of your life, 365 days a year. Take this, take this periodization and use it in a sense that You want to be able to take it and run with it because you want to be able to use it to your advantage. Like, if you know— if you're an accountant and you know like January, February, March is going to be super stressful for you, like maybe during that time you periodize your deficit so it's not as aggressive, so you're not as stressed, so you can stick to it better, so you can adhere to it better, so you can then feel better about yourself. Because the last thing you want is try to keep sticking to that aggressive calorie deficit, and then you can't stick to it, and you feel like shit because you can't stick to it. So you're like, fuck, I'm failing, I can't do this, fuck it, I'll just, I'll just go on a fucking binge. Like, you know, fuck this, I'm not doing this anymore, I'll get back to it, you know, in 3 months from now, in 6 months from now. And that's the worst thing for you guys, right? So periodize your deficit and even go into a maintenance. You going into a maintenance is not going to have you gain fat. That could be a whole different video for a whole different time, but you don't have to be in deficit 24/7. Periodize these things. Have it work to your advantage, especially during times you know it is going to be significantly harder to stick to your deficit. Be honest with yourself, but if it's significantly harder to stick to your deficit, periodize it, guys. Make it, make it work to your advantage. So that's the next thing. And honestly, the last thing, and it might be that's the second most important Just fucking start. Guys, please just fucking start something. All the time, especially as a coach, people ask me so many questions about what they should do, how they should do it, what's the exact number, et cetera, et cetera. I don't fucking care. Just start something. Please, take this video and just please use it to start something. I don't give a shit. Like I just said with this over here, bodyweight times 10. Just fucking do that and start. Please, I beg you, because once you get started, the only way to get— everyone looks for motivation, like, oh, I'm not motivated to do the diet, I'm not motivated to work out. How do you get the motivation? It's by taking a fucking action. Just start something. Take— do the action, start something, and then go from there, guys. That is the only way you're going to get this quote-unquote motivation. And motivation is great, don't get me wrong, but you have to— you have to take an action. You have to start something. Just start from what we talked about today. If you have a question, feel free to reach out to me. I'll be happy to help you. But please just take this information and start something. Don't make it overcomplicated. Don't get paralysis by analysis. It is not ever going to be perfect. There is no perfect. Stop looking for the perfect and just start something, guys. I guarantee if you do that, you are going to see results. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. I totally appreciate it. And I might put this on my podcast too. So if you're listening, Thank you so much for listening. I totally appreciate it. This is my first kind of thing doing something like this, and I honestly had a lot of fun. I just threw a fucking marker on the ground. So like, I had a lot of fun doing this. If you liked it, let me know in the comments. DM me, text me, email me. If you know me, please feel free to reach out to me. I really, really appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.
