The FastDay Forum

Hi juliana i have no idea what trends,median etc means and have avoided the progress tracker coz this time i didnt want to get obsessed by numbers,charts etc..which ive done in the past and ended up totally frazzled
For me, "getting weighed in superdrug about every nine or ten days,stripping down as far as i can without making babies burst into tears" is the weight i am! X
Think i will eventually come to embrace and enjoy trends and EMAs but for now its just me and good ole superdrug..even tho their machine is a bit creepy datewise..yesterdays read out slip said it was 1st Jan 2008

I've been using Happy Scale, a free app from the App Store and find it interesting and encouraging. It has prediction for reaching goal and you can set a number of targets / goals to achieve en route. It has helped my attitude to the ups and downs! Does anyone else use it?

I've been using Happy Scale, a free app from the App Store and find it interesting and encouraging. It has prediction for reaching goal and you can set a number of targets / goals to achieve en route. It has helped my attitude to the ups and downs! Does anyone else use it?

I tried it but didn't get on with it. I have also tried quicklogme which also tracks your BMI. The one I liked the best was True Weight (for iphone). However I too am allergic to daily weighing so my 'official' weight is always the one I record at the weekend for the progress tracker on this forum.

[Moogie]

@Moogie I think i read somewhere on the forum that you were reviewing the progress tracker. Is this correct cause i might supplement what i do with some external monitoring system but will refrain if you are changing anything.

line of best fit i guess may provide a higher trend weight than is "comfortable"

kencc's posts about smoothed moving averages 5-2-diet-chat-f6/what-actually-is-our-true-weight-low-median-high-avg-t9253-15.html#p112560 is what im referring to. i think he uses libra app https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ibra&hl=en

sound really good. how many here use it?

Yes, I am in the process (or at least *was*, before life got silly-busy!) of making some changes/updates to the tracker I haven't had time to read through this topic so I'm not sure exactly what changes you're hoping for but shout if there's anything in particular and I'll see what I can do.

help me to understand as i want to be brave and use trend weight not low weight as my rule for whether ive met my target

The tracker calculates a linear trend weight and that's only a good measurement in case your trend fits the 'linear' straight line. It uses all data, including your start weight (as the line starts there). In times when your weight loss is increasing it will over-estimate your weight, in times of slow progress (or even weight gain) it will underestimate your weight. My suggestion would be to calculate an average over the last couple of measurements (say 7 days if you weight daily) and reduce that number with half of your average weekly weight loss over the last month (as using the last 7 daily measurements will calculate your actual weight of half a week ago). In your case I would suggest your actual weight is something like 70.4 kg. Never use more than one digit, it does not make sense. Yes, you will make it!

When reporting my weight, I use that last weigh-in results. I weigh myself once a week and it usually varies between 'holy crap' and 'why, oh why.'

When reporting my weight, I use that last weigh-in results. I weigh myself once a week and it usually varies between 'holy crap' and 'why, oh why.'

thats a good way to summarise it

@Moogie I think i read somewhere on the forum that you were reviewing the progress tracker. Is this correct cause i might supplement what i do with some external monitoring system but will refrain if you are changing anything.

line of best fit i guess may provide a higher trend weight than is "comfortable"

kencc's posts about smoothed moving averages 5-2-diet-chat-f6/what-actually-is-our-true-weight-low-median-high-avg-t9253-15.html#p112560 is what im referring to. i think he uses libra app https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ibra&hl=en

sound really good. how many here use it?

Yes, I am in the process (or at least *was*, before life got silly-busy!) of making some changes/updates to the tracker I haven't had time to read through this topic so I'm not sure exactly what changes you're hoping for but shout if there's anything in particular and I'll see what I can do.

excellent news @Moogie, about the review of the progress tracker.. as P-JK says, i think i should be 70.4kg but my start weight of 75kg 6 months ago is upsetting my trend weight stats. and 2 notchers are significant in weight loss obsessed mode that i am in. it would be great if it could do a smoothed average based on some configuration setting you use. im not too good at the math here but @Kenccseems to be the reigning expert


if i can avoid Libra on my phone i would.

an update on an old post.

Given Christmas blow out by JR, moi, well my Libra weight says 70.8 and my progress tracker trend weight says 70.1. 700g difference (using same start date) . for a moment i like Progress tracker better

but i guess my trend weight should be the libra one, and not the Purple line Progress tracker on this site which is a very generalised line of best fit straight line method. Used to be just a 200 or 300g diff but never 700g

has anyone else seen such a difference of 700g between the 2 methods?

The progress tracker is just drawing a straight line through your results, with on average as many points above the line as below. How far you are from your recorded weight depends totally on the shape of that line. Unless your weight loss is very smooth, it's probably not very helpful. The trouble with smoothing used in some of the "true weight" apps is that it's not smoothing on either side of a recorded point. It is necessarily smoothing data previous to the recorded point. Thus, if you are losing weight, the "true weight" will usually be above your recorded weight. I think I'll find the trend line more helpful once I am maintaining.

The trouble with smoothing used in some of the "true weight" apps is that it's not smoothing on either side of a recorded point. It is necessarily smoothing data previous to the recorded point.

Good point, so the implication is that you can only make a reliable measurement of the weight that you had a couple of days ago (for instance using the last 7 daily measurements to calculate your weight of 3 days ago). Taking data into account from a longer time ago is not making the measurement more reliable nor more valid, as your actual weight might have been changing. In case you are on a consistent steep slope and you really want to know your weight of today, you can always take that slope into account (but in general it will not make too much of a difference).

Why turn to some kind of externally legitimated device if you can calculate your 'true and actual weight' on your own? Be your own expert!

[carorees]

With the Libra app, we can choose how many days are used for the trend. My question, @P-JK is how many days should I set for smoothing a)during weight loss and b) during maintenance? And, how many days for forecasting future progress. The app's default is 7 days for both smoothing and forecasting.

oh. Libra does smoothing and forecasting. I'm not sure true weight does. I shall try to figure that out!

With the Libra app, we can choose how many days are used for the trend. My question, @P-JK is how many days should I set for smoothing a)during weight loss and b) during maintenance? And, how many days for forecasting future progress. The app's default is 7 days for both smoothing and forecasting.

As with all things in statistics, there is no 'absolute best way' to do it. I would be inclined to think that for measuring (smoothing) 7 would be fine. You do not want too many previous measures to influence your current measurement. Taking an average from 7 is not a high number, but the variation is also limited (you will not find a 5 kg difference within a week). Just remember that when interpreting the result you consider the number as a rough indication (so 69.9 is 'something in the range of 71.1 to 69.7'). I would make no difference between weight loss and maintenance. You are interested in a correct measurement, so your goal does not make a difference

For forecasting it would make sense to use a somewhat longer time frame (2 to 3 weeks), as you are not measuring you actual situation, but want to have an idea of what to expect (some more data would help to make a better prediction). You can always keep the longer trend in the back of your head when interpreting the results, but also recent specific changes in your eating/activity behavior (like Xmas/holidays).
Always be aware that it's not so much about the exact numbers, but what they tell you

[carorees]

I remember @P-JK you said, to Juliana.Rivers I think, that taking a 7 day average for trend weight was not such a good idea during the weight loss phase so would, say 5 days make more sense then but 7 or even 10 during maintenance? And 10 days for forecasting?