Jim KatsoulisJim AI — Your Personal Guide to Living at Your Goal Weight

How many calories should you cut to reach your goal weight? #programyourselfthin

12 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:42

In this short video, Jim Katsoulis warns that many people trying to lose weight make the mistake of drastically cutting their calories—often 50‑60% of their intake—right from the start, which is unsustainable. He proposes a more strategic method: first decide what percentage of body weight you aim to lose, then reduce your daily calories by roughly the same percentage. For example, a person weighing 200 lb who wants to lose 40 lb (a 20% reduction) should start by cutting about 20% of their calories, adapt to that level, and monitor weight changes. He notes the calculation is an approximation, not an exact science, but it offers a sustainable path toward the goal weight.

Chapters

How many calories do you need to cut in order to get to your goal weight? The biggest mistake I see people making when they want to lose weight is that they way overcorrect and cut too many calories out of their diet. It's not uncommon for someone to cut 50, 60% of their calories out on day 1 and then think that they're going to be able to maintain that until they reach their goal weight. That is very, very difficult to do. So another strategy you can use is to figure out what percentage of your body weight you want to drop. So let's just say you're 200 pounds and you want to lose 40 pounds. So that's a 20% weight reduction. And so what you can do now is you can start reducing your calories by about 20%, then get used to that and see where your body weight ends up. Now again, this math isn't exact, but this is a much more strategic approach to cutting calories so you can get to your goal weight.