If you are currently trying to lose weight or simply maintain recent weight loss then chances are very good that you know about calories. You know that you have to burn more calories than you consume, which is the much touted calorie deficit and you know that you have to reduce your calorie intake just to lose weight.

{A healthy diet should contain foods with calories as well as nutrients.}

But have you ever really thought about calories as more than something you count over and over again? Knowing a little but more about what calories are and how they relate to weight loss can help make your weight loss efforts more successful.

Keep reading to learn what calories are.

What Are Calories?

The best way for us laymen to understand calories is this; a calorie is a unit of measurement. Specifically in terms of dieting a calorie is a measurement of the energy contained in the food and beverages we consume. That word, ‘energy’ is key because we use food not just for nourishment but as fuel for our bodies.

Knowing now what a calorie is, you should understand that if you provide your body with too much energy, it will be forced to do something with that excess. Generally it gets stored as fat all over your body.

What Are Empty Calories?

Although empty calories are in no way a technical term, even a cursory search for the definition of a calorie will inevitably turn up a few results for empty calories. Even though calories are calories some foods and drinks have calories and absolutely no nutritional value like soda. In addition to provide you with very little, if any, nutrients these foods don’t satisfy hunger so you get all the calories plus more when you eat later because you’re still hungry.

Before I continue, I know that there will be some of you out there who roll your eyes and quote the 2004 article published in the Nutrition Journal that says “a calorie is a calorie” isn’t true. But regardless of what that author says there have yet to be any other studies that identify types of calories. Until there are, a calorie is a calorie.

{What could be emptier than pop that tastes like candy?}

Now, back to empty calories.

Empty calories give you all the calories without fiber or protein or any other nutrients that increase fat burning like apples or spinach. This is why most credible diets recommend an increase in fruits and vegetables to help facilitate weight loss; they are low in calories and high in water and fiber content.

How Calories Make You Fat

Taking in more calories than you burn through exercise and basic bodily functions is the simple explanation for how calories make you gain weight. When you consume more calories than your body needs just to run efficiently, your body is overloaded and has nothing to do with the excess calories except to store them as fat.

This is how calories make you fat. When you take in more calories than your body needs those calories are sitting around, ‘twiddling their thumbs’ so to speak. They don’t have to help keep your organs running or warm up your body when it’s cold or get used for proper brain functions. Sitting there idly these excess calories simply become clutter, also know to your stomach, thighs and butt as fat.

Calories In A Pound

For many of us, our first trip on the diet highway was plagued with ignorance about calories. If you don’t know what it takes to lose a pound, how can you possibly lose 10, 25 or even 100 pounds? Simple, you probably couldn’t.

This is such an important number for dieters not to know. Knowing how many calories are in a pound can make your weight loss efforts much easier. With a pen and paper or a spreadsheet and calculator you can pinpoint where you can reduce calories in your diet and burn them through physical activity so you can lose weight.

{Running is a great way to burn excess calories.}

If your weight loss goal is to lose 1 pound per week until you reach your weight loss goal then you will need to find a way to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories.

Counting Calories

Now that you know just how important calories are in your quest to lose weight, it’s time to talk about actually counting these calories because this is where many dieters fall short. Of course it’s not fun to have to count nearly every calorie you put in your mouth, if it were we’d all have the body of our dreams.

But if you’re not counting or at the very least approximating how many calories you consume through food and drink as well as how many you burn through physical activity, what exactly are you doing to make sure your weight loss is on track? This doesn’t mean that you have to count every single calorie before you make a meal, but taking a glance at the nutrition labels is a great way to keep your calorie count under control.

The nutrition label can also help you control your portion size because so many of us eat foods, especially snack foods without taking into account how many servings we’re actually eating. This is a recipe for weight gain when it comes to bottles of soda, candy, potato chips and popcorn. Counting calories the right way, which means not simply depriving yourself of all the things you love, is an effective method of weight loss.

There are plenty of ways in which you can reduce or limit you calorie intake. Most of us opt for the daily calorie reduction because we know ourselves and know that real change in our bodies will not occur if foods like red velvet cake and Big Macs are still on the table. However new a 2011 study at the University of Illinois at Chicago reveals that intermittent caloric restriction, also known as intermittent fasting, provides the same weight loss results as daily caloric restrictions. What’s more is that intermittent fasting maybe more effective at retaining lean mass.

So if you’re looking for a weight loss edge read our review of Eat Stop Eat to give your weight loss efforts a kick in the pants!