A tiny motivational trick. Do you do this?

[RRainman]

Every so often, I know that my weight is going to go up a couple of pounds for a day or two.  This is typically due to eating a salty meal or perhaps a "cheat" day.  I step onto Aria and get the reading.  But then I go and delete the entry from the online log.  I know I am going to drop in a few days, but this still let's me stay motivated by watching only a downward trend.

I do not, however, advocate deleting multiple entries of trending up as you need to capture that data and respond accordinaly.

Anyone else do this?

[A_Lurker]

Nope, I don't do this.  Since I switched back to daily weigh-ins I use trendweight.  It's a handy tool that smooths out the weight loss.

I do admit that I didn't weigh in this morning as it was 3:30 am and I was barely functional.  Trendweight will also interpolate between yesterday's and tomorrow's weight.

[betpchem]

No, I just don't weigh myself that day. 🙂

[WendyB]

No I never weigh the day after eating out. I know I will be up 3-5# Depending on what it was I ate. Pizza 5# for sure

[JohnRi]

You should visit a free website called Trendweight.com and connect it to your fitbit account.  It will pull your weight and fat % data from Fitbit, and using a moving average weight will show you your weight trend.  This one is mine from a few weeks ago.

The black dots are scale readings, as you can see most of mine are lower that the moving average weight.  However some are above the line.  Dots below the trend pull the average down, dots above the trend pull it up.  Also known as sinkers and floaters.  My weight got stuck around 220-223 for about 2 weeks.  But looking at the trend, I saw that I was in fact losing.  You can also see that yeah, I had some high days, but the general trend is obvious.  I lost weight over the three months.

By looking at the moving average trend, you can ignore the up readings caused by temporary weight gain.  No need to delete higher records, or not weighing. 

Just get on your scale every day, and ignore the numbers.  Visit Trendweight, and see your moving average.  This shows you a much more accurate picture of your weight changes than just looking at daily numbers...

Best part of the site, it gives you stats like this...

[Marcy]

Yes, absolutely! I may take it farther than you as I only keep my reading if it has gone down. That works extremely well for me during weight loss. It keeps me much more motivated as I look forward to having a new lower weight posted to the internet. I just like focusing on the positive and adjusting my diet/exercise when I haven't dropped some weight over several days.

We need to find those little tools/tricks that work for our unique personalities.  This is one that works for some of us apparently. 🙂

[RRainman]

Not putting down the trend app you're using, but I find it demotivational.  Nearly all of your actucal readings are below your trend line.  That would just tick me off.  If it was a best fit linear regression, you'd have nearly the same number of readings above and below the "trend."  I think that would be better for me.

I can easily see a trend line via the Fitbit tracking of my actual readings and know where I am heading.

As they say, different strokes for different folks.

[Dominique]

---

@RRainman wrote:

Not putting down the trend app you're using, but I find it demotivational.  Nearly all of your actucal readings are below your trend line.  That would just tick me off.  If it was a best fit linear regression, you'd have nearly the same number of readings above and below the "trend."  I think that would be better for me.

---

@JohnRi’s curve is a bit special, because his weight has been dropping like a stone (20 lbs in 3 months).

Look at mine (also for the past three months):

The actual readings are both above and below the trend line, because I’m losing at a much lower pace (only 1 kg = 2.2 lbs in three months), and not in a linear fashion.

But as @Marcy said, we must find what works for us, and it may not be the same for everyone. 

[JohnRi]

Actually, take a closer look at my chart.  First look at weight from the begining of April to the midde of April.  Notice how my weight messured about the same or higher.  This looks like a weight loss plateau. 

Now look at end of April until early May.  Another weight loss plateau.

Finally look at 1/3 of the way into May until June.  Yet another weight loss plateau.

That last one drove me nuts.  I desperately wanted to get under 219 to have a BMI 29.9 and no longer be obese.  And it just wasn't happening...

But now look at the Trend line for these time periods.  I never had a weight loss plateau.  The trend was pulling my moving average down.  I could not see the weight loss on the scale, but the fact is, I was losing weight over time. Each one of these weight loss plateaus, I was actually losing 4-5 lbs.  I just could not see it.  **ahem** scale stuck at 230...  225...  220... 

As many have said here already, your weight can fluccuate as much as 2 lbs or more a day.  I've had days with dramatic weight loss.  I hit 213.9, and I knew that was a fake new low.  There have been days where I go exercise, and I'll lose 2-3 lbs of in sweat.  Hidden in the water loss was actual weight loss.  Did I in fact lose 2-3 lbs?  No I didn't, I lost 0.2 of a lbs at most.  Then the next day I might drink a ton of water to get hydrated again.  The next day I might be a lbs or two heavier.  Did I suddenly gain 2 lbs?  No again I didn't.   The fact is I never lossed the 2 lbs, or gained the 2 lbs.  And looking at a moving average trend ignores these temporary losses and gains. 

If you look at @Dominique chart, you can clearly see times where he gained, and times he lost, and times he more or less broke even.  But if he looked at the daily numbers he'd could go nuts.  Look at his chart where it says May 16.  Suddenly he went from almost 44 Kg to almost 46 Kg.  That's about a 4 lbs gain!  Anyone trying to lose weight who suddenly saw a 4 lbs gain would probably freak out!  Dom then saw several days of minor gain, and my guess is he corrected that because he had several days of weight loss numbers after that.

Today my weight was 213.3.  Is that my actual weight?  Probably not.  Yesterday I was 213.7.  Two days ago I was 212.9.  Three days ago 213.9.  And 4 days ago 214.6.  5 Days ago 214.  6 days ago 215.6.  7 days ago 215.1.  My guess looking at these 7 days is I'm losing weight.  How much, no idea.  Maybe one to two pounds.  Trendweight shows a 1.4 lbs loss in the last 7 days. 

Yesterday I rode my bike for 19 miles in 90 degree heat, 90% humidity.  I drank at least 1500 ml of water during and after the ride.  So having a .4 lbs weight loss is probably still water weight loss.  I'm thirsty today, so I'll drink more water today.  But I'm planning a 90 minute walk this evening.  So who knows what my weight will be tomorrow.  And the bottomline it doesn't matter what I weight tomorrow.  All I care about is if my trend is down or up.

As long as the trend is down, then I'm doing just fine.

As @Dominique pointed out my trend is dropping like a stone....  So my chart isn't the best example...

A linear regression line, would try to draw a line in the form of a average starting at 281 and ending at 213.  The problem with that is losing weight is not linear.  It's a constant changing up and down.  My calories eaten were a constant 1800 calories from February to early June. BUT how active I was every day at work, doing day to day stuff, and exercise, varied from day to day.  Clearly I lost more some days, and lost less others.  But just take a quick glance at this chart, and it's obvious.  Since September 2015, I've lost a ton of weight. 

And bottomline, that's all I want to see.  Don't be obsessed with the day to day numbers, that will drive you nuts, make you delete higher readings, weight 10 times in the morning until you get a reading you like...  That's madness. 

But if the long term trend shows you losing weight, the daily numbers are meaningless.

[Bobbinyc]

For me, the issue is how I relate to the scale.  Some people feel bad about themselves if the scale doesn't go down.  If that is the case, do whatever it takes to feel ok about yourself and how hard you are trying.  I have learned to think of the scale as just one piece of information about my health.  I actually know more about how I am doing by measuring myself, so I don't have to worry about eating a dinner with too much salt, etc.  I have had times of not losing weight but getting thinner because I worked out and got more muscle.  I think the focus needs to be on health - am I eating enough veggies, drinking enough water, eating whole organic foods vs. the junk I love.  If the scale bumps up I get to think about what I ate that may not be good for me.  And am reminded to focus on how well I am taking care of myself.   It also reminds me that this is a biological process that I can influence but it is not a machine I totally control in such detail.

[bcalvanese]

Not to hurt anyone's feelings but I think your only cheating yourself by deleting the bad entries. I think people need to know the good and the bad, and be able to motivate themselves by seeing both. I also know that weight can vary day to day for many reasons other than eating too much. It's weight over weeks and months that should be the concern.

I weigh myself daily. If I wait more one day it motivates me to burn more. If I weigh less one day it motivates me that I burned enough the day before. Either way it motivates me.