When most people think of losing weight, they immediately think about reducing their caloric intake. However, when not done right, this can cause issues with your progress. The first thing to think of when wanting to reduce your calories is to make sure you are eating the correct macronutrient breakdown. Macronutrients are proteins, fats, and carbs. Eating the proper percentage (breakdown) of these nutrients is the first thing that you must have under control before considering cutting your calories. Eating a proper breakdown will not only ensure that you will burn mostly fat and keep lean muscle, but might also give you the results you want by itself without even having to cut your caloric intake. So here is a very simple breakdown of nutrients if your goal is to cut fat…. 65% protein, 25% fat, 10% carb (mostly complex). You can eat as much fiber as you want even though it falls under carbs (you can subtract it out.) Once you have consistently followed this breakdown and hit a weight loss plateau after a while, then it is the time to start limiting calories. To do this, follow the amount of calories you are eating when you are at your plateau (weight not going up or down,) and subtract 500. If your weight begins to reduce then continue at that calorie total until you reach another plateau, in which you will have to re-evaluate. If 500 is not enough then reduce weekly in 200 calorie increments until you reach a deficit and lose weight for the week.