Calories are what your body uses as fuel, just as a car runs on gas. In fact, it's not too farfetched to think of calories as miniature gallons of gas. Calories are the source of energy that your body uses to power your heart, expand your lungs, hug your aunt, and stand up and yell at the TV during "Monday Night Football" - in short, they're what your body uses to do every single physiological function it's capable of.

Calories come from food, but your body doesn't simply take that pork chop you just ate and toss it into some sort of biological furnace. First, your body must take the nutrients in your food and break them down into their most elemental form, a substance called glucose. If your body doesn't need the energy immediately, the calories get converted into body fat and stored for later use - like a savings account.

Every 3,500 calories that you save for later becomes one pound of body fat. You can lose fat only by creating a calorie deficit - that is, either eating fewer calories than you burn up in a day or burning more calories than you eat. Once you take 3,500 calories out of your savings account, the scale will register a one-pound weight loss.


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