I think about it as a ratio.
Taking jazz's example, if I have fermentation, C
6H
12O
6 ---> 2 CH
3CH
2OH + 2 CO
2, and want carbon dioxide from glucose, it is:
}{n\left(\text{C}_6\text{H}_{12}\text{O}_6\right)}=\cfrac{2}{1})
where the ratio is carbon dioxide over glucose and so it equals the coefficient of carbon dioxide over the coefficient of glucose, and hence is 2 over 1.
Supposing that we had previously established that 0.123 mol of glucose reacted (say), we can continue:
=\cfrac{2}{1} \times n\left(\text{C}_6\text{H}_{12}\text{O}_6\right) = \cfrac{2}{1} \times 0.123 = 0.246\ \text{mol})