Do you understand the relationship between calories burnt and pounds lost?

Question

Basically when I am at the gym and the machine says I've burnt 500 calories I wonder how does that relate to weight loss and how many calories equal a pound etc

Answer 1

One pound equals 3,500 calories. So in order to lose weight you must burn more calories than you take in. You also burn about 1,000 calories a day just doing ordinary things.

Answer 2

you've burned 500 calories, but that's not actually 500 calories worth of body fat coming off. That's 500 calories that did not turn into body fat. essentially you're trying to use up more energy so that it does not go into energy stores like fat, and your body has a chance to catch up and burn more of your stored energy.