The FastDay Forum

Hi all,
I think what this board may provide over time is good data.

I know we all have different ways of eating on out fast days. Some go the full 24hrs before eating, some take two meals and others take three.

I wonder whether callculating an average monthly weight loss against each of these plan would show any patterns in one being more effective than another?

This would only be a very general outcome though purely on the basis that we all start the diet as very different shapes and sizes, but would we also be able to determine whether those that are "obese" (hate that word!) to start lose more per week versus those that are BMI 25-29 to start?

There must be a budding scientist in me I think!!

[carorees]

Hi Lisa

I think that would be very useful. If we could persuade people to enter progress in the progress section and include as much of the info that I've suggested in my thread on the format of the reports, but also info on the regime they are using, then in time we could well have enough data for some useful stats.

Here's hoping other members are as nerdy as us!

I think that would be a great idea, and the results should be very interesting.
Hopefully we could work out what way was the best for weight loss.
It would be interesting too to compare those who do 5:2 and those who do 4:3.

I've just started working on an online weight tracker designed for people on this regime. If enough people used it, it might be useful for helping to gain this sort of insight; it would be easy to build in a setting where people could say which variant they're using and then if enough people use it we might be able to get some stats out of it. There are a lot of variables though, and a lot of people doing 5:2 just for the health benefits. Mind you, they probably wouldn't use a weight tracker anyway so the ones who signed up for it would almost by definition be doing it for weight loss. The tricky bit would be coming up with some normalised measure of weight loss that worked both for people who only have a couple of kg to lose as well as people like me with BMIs of 30 and 40 something

[carorees]

Yes, I think you would have to know the starting BMI and then split the data into several groups based on BMI. Why not PM Moogie with your ideas? as it seems silly for her to create a tool if you have already done so!

[Moogie]

Aw, I was looking forward to coding this! Nevermind What language do you code in, I wonder if your system could be integrated with phpBB? if not perhaps I'll just code one for here anyway I already had it planned out.

[Moogie]

Well, I've an unexpected day off today due to the snow (not that it matters when I work from home, but the office I work for has closed for the day) so have started work on coding the tracker for here at the forums anyway

That's great! Thank you

[carorees]

How fortunate for us that you a) have a day off and b) don't feel like going outside!

I was thinking that to have meaningful stats we would need to have people's age, gender, starting weight and BMI, and preferably, waist measurement. We also need to know how long they have been following the diet and whether they are following a variant (i.e., not 5:2 or say fasting from 2pm to 2pm and then eating normally). If we could get the change in weight and waist circumference entered weekly we can work out what the average loss per week is and we should also divide up the group into different starting BMIs (probably along the definitions of underweight, normal, overweight, obese and morbidly obese) and see what the average weight loss with time is in the different groups and do the same for waist measurement. We should also look at men and women separately as there is a lot of evidence that they respond differently. Different age groups might also be interesting especially pre- and post-menopausal women. It would be nice to do some stats for the 2-week, 8-week, 3-month, 6-month and 1 year timepoints if we can get enough data.

It would be great to have other measurements if the person has them such as cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose etc.

Should we ask Dr M for his input on what data he would like us to try to collect?

[Moogie]

I don't know if Dr M would really be interested in our stats as he can't verify them and it relies on people's honesty. We could ask, but at this stage I just want to get the system working without overcomplicating things with further blood-related stats if you don't mind Nice idea though and maybe could be added in future

I've been prepping the initial settings form, to allow users to enter their gender, birthdate (can be partial, to calculate age), diet start date, whether they're doing 5:2, 4:3 or ADF, their starting weight & fat % if known. BMI is calculated for them based on weight & height. I considered adding wasit measurement and may yet do so Users will also be able to specify their goal weight, BMI, and/or fat %.

Users will be able to add updates to their stats as often as they like, including backdated stats and also the ability to add notes with their weigh ins (eg "I pigged out this week, oops!" or whatever!). I wish I'd been keeping a record of mine from the start, but I was just glad to see the numbers dropping, didn't think to write them down, though I probably have a few notes of the early losses.

My plan is for individual users to be able to see their own progres charts (with the option of allowing other members to view it if they wish, or they can keep it private). There will also be an area to provide charts/stats for the entire board - the data will be filterable by things like age range, starting BMI, gender, diet type etc.

I also plan to make the data downloadable or viewable in some kind of table format so if users want to go and do more indepth calculations & charts etc they can do so The forum-wide data will be anonymous in as much as it will not have a user's name or ID displayed with it, so people don't need to worry about their privacy. If users choose to allow the forum to view their individual stats of course that's another matter.

Right, I'm aiming to finish off the setup form today and over the weekend I'll work on the weigh-ins/update form. Then it's getting calculations & data queries etc together for the charting. That could be fun

[carorees]

Fantastic progress. I think Dr M would be interested even if the findings are not suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal!

That would be good

[Moogie]

Well, that's the first part coded Might get to work on add/edit/delete weigh-in stats this evening, shouldn't take long!

[Moogie]

Got a little bit more done tonight, it's nice to have a little project to be getting on with!