The 3,500 Calorie per Pound Rule Is Wrong

How many fewer calories do you have to eat every day to lose one pound of body fat?

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[Apollo]

The fact that people tend to think of everything as a static picture instead of a moving process allows to breed and nurture misconceptions like this.

[berlinwall]

A 500 calorie *DEFICIT* a day does work in losing a pound a day. The TDEE and BMR will change as you lose or gain weight, but deficit would stay at -500 calories a day for a 1 pound weight loss. The calories you consume need to be adjusted based on the changes in your TDEE

[inru]

So the rule is technically correct, but people forget to take into account their total daily energy expenditure.

[leizee]

Video title needs to be changed, disappointing. As illustrated here, the 3500kCal/lb rule is still correct, but a reduced basal metabolic rate (bmr) after weightloss makes it harder to create a 3500 calorie deficit, requiring either more activity or further calorie restriction compared to what was initially required to hit the 3500 calorie deficit when the bmr was elevated before weight loss.

[foodguy]

Diets don't work, good eating habits have always worked. More reason to eat more whole plant foods!

[jiggig]

This does not make the rule wrong. A 3500 deficit from the calories you burn equals one pound. That is the rule.

[BoGaines]

It sounds to me like the 3, 500 cal rule is still true, but that you have to adjust your new metabolic rate every so often. Which is what I have always taught.

[marcinmichalski]

I get the message this video wants to convey, however the amount of energy in a pound of fat does not change with anyones metabolic rate. Lower metabolic rate at lower weight just means that constant caloric deficit does not imply that ones diet will be constant in time energy-wise.

[happygimp]

👎 The 3500 kcal rule was not disproved. The video is wrong. The metabolic rate does not change the rule. Disappointed.

[Wolfhammered]

3, 500 calories still correct. What changes is the amount you burn per day.

[leonman]

Huge fan but I got to say this video and title is a bit misleading.


At 165lbs, I burned 2200 cals a day on average. I was eating 1700 calories a day, and lost about a pound per week. I lost about 25 pounds, and then my weight loss began to plateau. I decided to take a 2-week diet break by eating the same amount of calories I burned a day on average. However, it's not 2200 calories anymore because I now weighed 25 lbs lighter. I estimated my new average calorie burn to about 2000. After the diet break, I dropped my calories to 1500 a day (to recreate the 500 cal deficit), and again I was losing about a pound per week.


I know this is anecdotal, but the point is that this video didn't PROVE that the 3500 calories per pound is wrong. It just simply said that a 500 calorie deficit will not guarantee a pound per week loss over time, because a lighter body burns less. So what initially was a 500 calorie deficit will over time become a smaller deficit and thus result in less weight loss.

[wadayaduin]

It’s still 3500 calories in a pound of fat. Just because you’re burning less calories doesn’t change that. You can say it’s misleading, but you can’t say it isn’t true.

[mugs]

This video seems pretty stupid tbh. Who doesn’t know this? Literally everyone I’ve ever talked to knows that your calories burned changes based on your size. That’s why they have base metabolism calculators and then you base your calorie loss and gain on that.

[fireside]

I use that stat, which I came up with myself just looking at the calories in a lb of butter, for people that think they lose 10 lbs in 3 days. It's obviously just a change in their water weight, or mostly. Weight loss gets harder the closer a person approaches bmi normal. I know that first hand.
Diets do work if we stick with them. Best I've found is to remove all sugar and eat mostly whole foods. Stop drinking calories, and eat 3 meals a day, no snacks. I lost 60 lbs and have kept it off so far at 68 years old. Moderate exercise of walking and once a week calisthenics and light weights. All of it is pretty fun, and I hardly ever feel hungry. I just got used to eating a little less. I also don't waste a lot of time eating senseless calories. I can still sip on a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the day.

[bawags_svt]

The “rule” isn’t “wrong”. People just assume they don’t need to change anything. As long as you maintain a 3500 cal per week deficit (adjusting every so often for weight loss along the way) you’ll lose approximately 1lb of fat per week.

[sugarapple]

You could simply recalculate BEE with activity level after weight loss and adjust calorie intake accordingly

[angeloscofield]

I LOL'd so hard at the -6 vanished woman. Oh my Dr. Greger, you are amazing. I love you!

[wrightracing]

This issue with this info is. You are using the 3500 rule from the starting maintenance calorie requirement. The rule still stands if you use it against the new and decreasing maintenance figure. Ie. 3000 cals maintenance. 2500 cals to drop fat. Then as weight loss slows. Maintenance is say 2700 as you are a smaller more efficient human. So the 500 deficit then comes from that number. So 2200. And fat loss will continue. Until FAT is lost. The person wouldn’t “vanish” as you wouldn’t use bone and organs as fuel and basically puff into a ball of smoke

[xperfix]

actually the title of the video and its information is imo misleading since you just interpret it wrong and I am sure you know that.


the "rule" of cutting 3500 KILOcalories to lose 1 pound of fat or as we say in europe 7000 KILOcalories for 1 kg of fat is true. if you lose bodyfat or weight in general you just have to adept how many calories you cut.


but if you adept your calorie intake and you are in a deficit of 7000 kcal, you lose 1 kg of fat.


besides that, for ppl that plan a healthy and satisfying diet with let's say 200-300 kcal deficit per day that maintain high protein intake, moderate healthy fats and keep doing like 2-4 days weight training the adaption of the metabolism is basically neglectable.

[SomethingtoappeaseGoogle-]

Clickbait. 395*9=3, 555. The laws of thermodynamics cannot be ignored.