an interesting thing to think about

So it suddenly occurred to me that I can track how much weight I should be losing with how many calories Im cutting out of my diet through eating and exercise. Apparently, 3500 calories is equal to about a pound of human body fat. So I added up all of my calories lost since I have started counting calories and here are the results.
Calories Lost = 17,462
Calories in a Pound of Body Fat = 3500
Pounds I should have lost = 4.99
Pounds I have lost = I will have to tell you tomorrow when I weigh in, but I suspect that Im right at 5 pounds, give or take .4 pounds.

This is really cool to me. If I am correct with my prediction, then it also means that my counting system for food and exercise is fairly accurate, which is encouraging. It also means that I can figure out how many calories I must lose each day to reach my goal. Which at this point (assuming my correct prediction) would have to be another 52,500 calories lost which works out to be about 2,188 calories lost a day. Which I think I can totally do!!! I just have to keep exercising each day to reach this daily goal.

Everyone thinks that weight loss is a big huge mystery but I'm discovering that it really does boil down to simple mathematics. If you can couple this knowledge of weight loss with a motivated and disciplined approach to your food and your exercise, anyone can lose weight. Its self control and Im encouraged by the math that it actually works, and works as predicted. Lets hope I can stay as disciplined as I have so far.
-jonny