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Guides

The reasoning behind every number the calculator gives you.

A projection is only worth as much as the assumptions underneath it. These 10 guides set out every one of them in plain English — where the formulas come from, what they cannot see, and how to read the output without over-trusting it.

Fundamentals

  • What a calorie deficit actually is

    What a calorie deficit is, how to size one from your own maintenance burn, and why the 3,500 kcal per pound rule stops being accurate after about a month.

  • BMR and TDEE, without the guesswork

    BMR is what your body costs at rest, TDEE is what it costs on a real day. How Mifflin-St Jeor works, which activity multiplier to pick, and where both go wrong.

  • Why the same diet stops working

    Adaptive thermogenesis, the NEAT drop, and the smaller-body effect: the three reasons your deficit shrinks while your intake stays the same.

Planning

  • How fast is too fast

    Why safe weight loss is a percentage of bodyweight rather than a fixed number of kilograms, what happens above 1% a week, and where the intake floors come from.

  • Picking a goal weight worth aiming at

    How to pick a goal weight you can hold, what BMI can and cannot tell you, and why the healthy range is a band of about 20 kg rather than a single target.

  • Splitting your calories three ways

    What each macronutrient does, how many calories a gram carries, how much protein a deficit actually needs, and how to split the rest without overthinking it.

  • What exercise really costs

    METs explained, why gross and net calorie figures differ by a third, and why the number on your treadmill is higher than the one that belongs in a timeline.

Staying on track

  • When the scale stops moving

    What counts as a real plateau, the four things that cause one, and the options that actually restore a deficit — ranked by how sustainable they are.

  • Diet breaks, honestly accounted for

    What a diet break does to adaptation, why it makes the timeline longer on paper, and how to schedule one so it buys back more than it costs.

  • Reading the scale without being fooled by it

    Why daily scale weight is mostly noise, how to read a trend instead of a number, and which measurements are worth taking alongside it.

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Everything in these guides is applied day by day by the calculator itself. Nothing to sign up for, and nothing sent anywhere.

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