Miles or Calories?

 I am just wondering, when you exercise do you focus on the miles you get in or the calories that you burn?  I am trying to lose weight.
Thanks

 My focus is overall fitness - not just miles. I learned early on that focusing on and working out for the sake of a "calorie burn" - it's good, but i got easily frustrated when the weight loss didnt necessarily mirror my hard work at the gym. Unless you have a good HR monitor, calories burned (from an app, machine, etc) is just going to be an estimate anyways...if you make WL your focus for working out, as soon as the scale stops moving or you have a stall, you'll lose your motivation. So Id recommend focusing on your overall fitness and all of the other benefits that come with a good consistent exercise routine - and the WL will be an added benefit. 

While i train for ULTRA Marathons, I don't use EITHER... I focus on TIME on my feet! A 7 hour walk is more effective than a FAST 5K. It just depends on your goals. If it is losing weight, I would think that starting to target 45 minutes of activity a day is a good starting place, then trying to increase by 5 minutes every few days. Once you hit 90 minutes or so, then I would start working on improving your speed, which in turn allows you to cover more miles / distance in that 90 minute window...

 So far for me (I'm a running newb) it's a mix of miles and fitness.  I usually stay at my long run distance for 2 weeks (I'm working up to a 1/2 marathon).  The first time I do it it's all about just finishing the 6miles or whatever and the more I run it the more it's about gettting my time down and feeling better when I'm done.

Yes and yes.  I exercise for overall fitness, so I'm excited by the miles I can complete AND the calories I burned.

Thank you.
I have been working out for about 4 months now. I was doing 7 miles on the elliptical in 60 minutes, burning about 500 calories. Then I started focusing on the calories. Now I try burning 700-800 calories in one hour. All this is a bit confusing but all is working out. I haven't started weight training yet.
Thanks for your help.

Good job making exercise an important part of your plan!  Let us know if we can help in any way. I'm approaching the 4 year mark as a regular exerciser, and if I'd known then what I know now....I would've started years ago!  I feel 20 years younger!!

 Congratulations on sticking to your exercise program for so long.  I hope I do the same.  I really enjoy going to the gym and just sweating knowing that all that sweat is fat burning away.  

I want to wait about a month or so or maybe even after I have my surgery to weight train, for now I really enjoy the cardio and I feel it is slowly working for me.  I weight myself this morning and I have dropped 6lbs. in 4 day.  But then again I am also on a DR. ordered 1000 calorie a day.  
Thanks so much for your support.