The following will tell you how many calories you need if you want loss weith
Body Weight [lb] x 15 + (moderate activity [mins/day] x 3.5)
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)


BMR [kcal]

Body Weight [lb] x 15 + (moderate activity [mins/day] x 3.5)

Since you wish to lose weight, your target = BMR - 500 kcal

for example a person's weight is 180 his moderte activity is 30mins/day

his target will be 180*15+30*3.5-500=2305

I don't know about you, but I think there is something off with this calculation.

That's what I found at BMR-Calculator.

I think WineDeer might be right. Going by the op's rule my BMR is 3405 not subtracting anything for weight loss. With the other link WineDeer put up it comes to 1786. I think that seems more likely to me. Cause there is absolutely no way possible I was eating over 3500cals a day the last few years. To gain the weight I did I would have had to eat over 4000cals a day and its not possible. But if I look at it as I ate around 2500cals a day it seems more realistic to me.

*lol*.....going by the OP's formula, I should eat 3500 calories per day to lose weight. That's the amount of calories that got me to the weight I am!! So yeah, that one's complete nonsense!

The second one puts me at 1980, which sounds much more like it.

weight loss *CAN* be controlled strictly by caloric intake (even though exercise is beneficial for health reasons).

Theoretically, there is no difference between each of your examples.

My recommendation is to do a search for the BMR calculation, which will tell you (based upon gender, age and activity level) what your basal metabolic rate is. Then you can calculate how much less you can eat to reach a desired weight.

For example, if you are maintaining your weight at a current caloric intake of 2000, then eating only 1800 calories per day would allow you to lose a single pound of fat after about 17 or 18 days (3500 divided by -200 calories = 17.5 days). On the contrary, if you are maintaining your weight at 2000 calories, and you started eating 2200 calories, your weight would increase by one pound after about 2 weeks.

Hope that helps and good luck!