Minutes not miles

So I've been [obsessively] using My Fitness Pal to track what I eat and when I exercise. It is SO wonderful. Every day when I click the "update entry" button, it tells me "If every day was like today, you would lose X in 5 weeks." Most of the time, it teeters around 15 pounds...which is pretty damn encouraging. Meaning that if every day was like today, I would lose the thirty pounds I want to lose in 10 weeks. Though that doesn't seem realistic.

However, I HAVE made drastic changes in my diet and exercise.

Although I started working out again as soon as I was able to walk and didn't keep track of anything, I find that keeping track really helps me make more conscious decisions about what I eat. Earlier this summer, I felt like nothing made me full. I was always having cravings and always snacking. I felt horrible about myself.

Now I find that even though I'm consuming less than 1200 calories a day and burning more than half of that a day in exercise alone, I never feel hungry.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that my days are fuller and I am spending less time in my apartment. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I always want to have "calories remaining" at the end of the day. Whatever it has to do with, I like it.

I've already lost 2 pounds in the last week, breaking the 160 barrier and hopping down to 158. Not that that is acceptable in any way. It is still disgusting. But it is also encouraging.

One thing that MFP has opened my eyes to is the fact that in their book, minutes take precedence over miles. When I work out, I tend to measure my work out by the distance I go. I would do the elliptical for 2 miles and then be done. I would ride my bike for 10 miles and then be done. But MFP doesn't want to know how many miles I did. They just want to know how long I did it for.

I suppose it has to do with heart rate and yadda yadda, but it's pretty interesting to me. I think there should be some hybrid of the two to more accurately measure my work out. After all, I could walk 1 mile in an hour or 5 miles in an hour..it depends on my speed. Of course, there are some brackets in MFP that allow you to rate your activity as light, moderate etc. Sometimes I'm just not convinced they do my sweaty routines justice.

In any event, I'm feeling good (and wet - a thunderstorm interrupted my post work-out walk around Ring Road!)