Weekly Weigh In

[Move.It.Move.It]

I am weighing myself every Monday morning and I am going to log my results each weigh for accountability and support. Please feel free to join in.

Start weigh                   125.5 kg 14/12/2015

Now                              124.2 kg 11/01/2015

Loss this week             200g

Loss to date                 1.3kg

"Slow and steady wins the race"

[EmjayH]

USW (pre Fitbit) Nov 14 2016; 123kg
SW (Fitbit) March 2 2017; 97.7kg

PW August 07; 78.5kg
PW August 14; 77.9kg
PW August 21; 77.3kg
PW August 28; 76.9kg
PW Sept. 04;    77.7kg 😳🙈

CW Sept 11;    75.9kg

loss this week;  1.8kg
Mini goal; 70kg by Christmas

Was definitely having a weird fat day last Monday lol. Seems I'm still on track

[etvete]

Ultimate Starting Weight	265 lbs
Current Starting Weight	199 lbs
Last Week's Weight	191 lbs
Current Weight	191 lbs
Weekly Change	0.0 lbs
Mini Goal	180 lbs

I realized that I haven't posted since August 21st, that is because my health is going crazy on me. I have status migraines which means that I have had a migraine for the past week and a half plus and that makes it really hard to find motivation to do anything much less eat right and go to the gym. Knowing what my eating has been like over that time I am just glad it is not a gain.

[tamado]

@Dominique, I wouldn't say I have to struggle but I still feel I need to be vigilant.  I don't believe I can eat the same as someone who has never been obese and I am not ready to test my theory yet so I waffle between mindfulness and vigilance as a means to maintain.  I have been successfully maintaining for over a year now and I do fine when I am home and in my groove but lots of travelling still brings up my anxiety. 

[tamado]

Start 265 lbs 09/27/2015
This Week 159.6 09/11/2017
Last week 159.8 09/05/2017

Maintenance mode
Loss Range 105 lbs +/- 5 lbs

So, it occurs to me that maybe I am being a bit hard on myself.  I just thought it through, and here is my past six weeks:
August long weekend (at the lake, visiting with friends, etc)

A week of vacation (which drew in two weekends, the final weekend being at a cultural festival with food booths from every country)

A shotgun trip to move my sister 600 miles away 

A stressful labor day weekend travelling to be with friends

And this past weekend - an annual guy's camping/golfing trip which is always a bit of a glutton fest

So, if I can come out on the other side of six weekends in a row with an excuse to have "cheated" or gone off the rails and I am weighing in the same for the past five weeks I maybe should be congratulating myself instead of questioning myself.  So, that's this week's goal - to continue to see my victories and celebrate them.

[AuroraKat]

Start:            253 lbs

Last Week:  127.2 lbs

This Week:  127.2 lbs

Change:       0 lbs

Total Loss:  - 125.8 lbs

Goal :           transition to maintenance (130-135 lb range) before starting a bulk cycle

Posting for last Wednesday (Sept 6). It has been a very busy week between getting ready for family visiting and worrying about my parents in Florida (they are fine, thankfully). 

Nothing to report, though. Weight is stabilizing, I think. But, I still have a few weeks until I go through my cycle to be sure. 

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you for your input @Dominique. I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by the BMR. The scale is a 1by One that I found on Amazon for $33. I did enter all the necessary data (age, gender, etc) during the setup. I'll have to check the company's website to see if they have any more information. 

I did register with Trend Weight to get a better picture of where I'm at. Thanks to everyone for the suggestion! 

[Dominique]

@SunsetRunner: thanks for the additional info about the scale! Regarding TrendWeight: it pulls weight and body fat data from your Fitbit account, so you would have to manually enter these in your account (as you have probably already figured out). Based on Q & A’s I read in Amazon reviews, 1byOne scales can’t link directly to Fitbit (like Nokia and Weight Guru scales can).

I found this interesting (taken from here😞

 

1byOne scale use three different levels of athleticism (these are used by the algorithm that estimates body composition).  Fitbit and Nokia/Withings only use two.

This review says the 1byOne scale comes with a manual, so it may provide information on visceral fat etc. It also say the scale features "medical grade Bioelectrical Impedance analysis technology". I’m not sure what makes a scale medical grade vs. non-medical grade, according to U.S. regulations. In its announcement for the Aria 2, Fitbit described it as an "FDA regulated medical device", so I guess it belongs to the same category. There are also claims about "best-in-class accuracy" and "industry-leading accuracy", but I don’t know what substantiates them.

[Baltoscott]

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@Dominique wrote:

@SunsetRunner: thanks for the additional info about the scale!

 .... 

1byOne scale use three different levels of athleticism (these are used by the algorithm that estimates body composition).  Fitbit and Nokia/Withings only use two.

---

Three levels is a plus over the more expensive Nokia/Withings and Fitbit offerings.  

I felt like my Nokia/Withings was overestimating my fat at the "normal" setting, and I fit its definition of athletic so I switched to the athletic setting about a month ago.  The algorithm is significantly different.  Dropped my body fat from an estimate of 17% to 7.8%. Made a pretty dramatic (unearned) change in my TrendWeight graph for body fat.  

I know it is really about trend and I can analyze that as long as I keep other things constant -- (weighing in at the same time in the morning after bathroom and before drinking and eating), but I would love to be able to "calibrate" the reading to conform it to measures I have gotten from other sources, and then examine the trend from there. An algorithm between normal and athletic would be the next best thing.  (My single site caliper measurement and an older BF scale put me at somewhere around 12%-14%, which seems consistent with the visual test).

All that said, I prefer scales that can be added to my home network (like the Fitbit and Nokia/Withings scales) because it is so easy to get the readings into fitbit, MyFitnessPal, TrendWeight, and other apps for analysis.

[Dominique]

@Baltoscott: I’m not sure more is inherently better with athletic profiles, it all depends on what they do with these three different categories. I’ve personally sticked to the regular profile on both my Fitbit Aria and my Withings/Nokia scales. I’ve found the BF% estimates given by the scales with that profile match quite well the visual representations found on builtlean.com. It will be interesting to see how the new Aria 2 fares with its claims of "industry-leading/best-in-class" accuracy, and whether that accuracy applies to both weight AND body composition. I agree being able to sync to your Fitbit account is very convenient.

[Baltoscott]

@Dominique - You cannot be the only person, but you are the only one I know who finds that the BF% reported on your body fat scales lines up closely with other BF% measures.    You may also be a little unique in that your Withings/Nokia scales are giving you numbers similar to your Aria.  There seems to be a lot of disagreement between them in consumer testing.  See also here.

In my case, my Withings scales, at the normal setting, seem to over-report fat % compared to the pictures on built lean, (as well as my Tanita BF scale and my calipers) though not dramatically.  (The athletic mode seems to under-report by more than the regular mode over-reports).  But the scales ARE consistent (If I get on and off 3x in a row, I get close to the same readings), so they are perfectly usable for evaluating gain or loss over time.  Just wish they could be calibrated, or that there were more than two profiles to choose from.  

[Dominique]

@Baltoscott: yes, either I’m very unique, or I’ve been lucky to get very accurate scales, or at least scales that agree between themselves on all being inaccurate in the same way. I’ve seen a few of patterns with BF%: 1) Both Withings have always seen me sightly leaner than the Fitbit Aria, 2) the newer Withings more so than the older one, 3) the difference was very small (about 0,5%) when I was in the 16-18% range, 4) it has increased as my BF has come down: now that I’m below 15%, the difference is 1.0-1.5%. For instance, I was 14.2% this morning on the Aria, 13.0% on the newer Withings. All three scales are still so close to each others, and (IMO) reflect the visual perception I have I see no reason to switch from regular to athletic. When will I be lean enough to make the switch? I’m with Justice Potter Stewart on this one: I know it when I see it .  

[AuroraKat]

Start:            253 lbs

Last Week:  127.2 lbs

This Week:  127.0 lbs

Change:       - 0.2 lbs

Total Loss:  - 126 lbs

Goal :           transition to maintenance (130-135 lb range) before starting a bulk cycle

Lost a small amount, but could easily be a normal water weight fluctuation. I am getting my DEXA scan done this week, which I am very excited about! Now, that will give me good information, especially because I already have a baseline from April. I just hope I didn't lose too much lean mass during that time. I know I lost some, since I was actively losing weight, but I am really hoping that all the strength training I've been doing kept those loses to a minimum. 

[Baltoscott]

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@Dominique wrote:

...

When will I be lean enough to make the switch? I’m with Justice Potter Stewart on this one: I know it when I see it .  

---

Oh dear, the infamous Justice Potter line in the context of evaluating bare chests ...

Little known fake fact, which I know since I am an attorney in the Federal Judiciary and I work a couple of blocks from the Supreme Court:  In addition to issuing written opinions the Court gives oral summaries of those opinions in open court before hearing arguments in new cases before it.   After making his famous "definition" of pornography, he admonished those in attendance, saying, "Now, that I just went there, please kindly stop speculating what we justices are wearing under our robes!"

[Move.It.Move.It]

I just went out and bought my first smart scale. All the discussions on trend weights and body fat made me jealous 🙂

I was using a wii fit but it has gone to electronic heaven. I am all set up to go and I will do my first weigh in tomorrow. I bought the Fit Bit Aria, I like keeping everything in one place.

I am super busy at the moment as it is Spring here in Oz and I am in plant meltdown. I think I might even smell like a tomato plant!

Stepping onto a scale rather than setting up the wii and doing the body analysis will save about 15 mins in the morning. Much needed.

I want to start weighing every day. In the past this was not a smart thing for me because I was too emotional over daily swings but after reading all the posts from daily weighers I think it has it merits.

[Daves_Not_Here]

Here's my new chart after @Dominique pointed me to the TrendWeight equations.  This shows how Fitbit underestimates my calorie deficit by about 195 calories per day (which could be me overstating my calories eaten combined with Fitbit underestimating my calories burned).  Next week, I'll calibrate my prediction equations to account for the error.  Am I a geek or what.

[Dominique]

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@Daves_Not_Here wrote:

Am I a geek or what. 

---

@Daves_Not_Here: it would seem to me your brains are running on high-octane, now that you’ve switched from brain fog induced by low-carb misery to weekend mode  .

The gap between both curves seems to be widening. Do you have any explanation for that?

[Baltoscott]

@Move.It.Move.It -- congratulations on your new Aria.  I have not used my wii for quite a while and had forgotten how long it takes to get the whole thing going.  It is no wonder I don't use it anymore!

As I am sure you know by now, I'm a big fan of daily weigh-ins.  

According to this well-known repository of knowledge the average human adult male is approximately 60% water and the average adult female is approximately 50%.  Little surprise then, that daily weight changes mostly reflect changes in water retention (or your most recent meal!).  So it makes sense to look at your weight changes over longer time periods (weekly like we do here, for example) and not pay too much attention to the daily number. But ...  unless you weigh in daily, that week to week change in fat can easily be masked by a 2-5 lb uptick or downtick in water retention.  That is why I also like linking my scale to TrendWeight.  Its moving average is just a much better indication of whether I am hitting my goals than the occasional weigh in.

[Baltoscott]

@Daves_Not_Here -- you have been a weight loss machine over these past couple of months, and it sounds like you've got plenty of energy.  Geeking out appears to work well for you.

[Daves_Not_Here]

---

Dominique wrote: 
It would seem to me your brains are running on high-octane, now that you’ve switched from brain fog induced by low-carb misery to weekend mode  . 

@Dominique - Au contraire, mon Finnish low-carb-skeptic!  No mode switching for me.  I toughed it out and stuck with low-carb through last weekend's exercise, have been exercising a little more this week (per your recommendation, thank you) and it appears that I may be getting keto-adapted as my mental fog is clearing.  More time will tell but I'm cautiously optimistic.

The gap between both curves seems to be widening. Do you have any explanation for that?

---

I believe the gap is a direct consequence of the 195 calorie deficit error as the slopes of both lines are pretty constant.  My hypothesis is that my actual RMR is 195 calories higher than Fitbit assumes.  

Next week, I'll factor that into my Predicted equations and I predict my Predicted curve will exactly predict reality.  I should be a climate scientist!

[Dominique]

Congrats for your new Aria, @Move.It.Move.It! Did you find it on sale? Asking since Fitbit recently announced the 2nd gen. model, Aria 2. Have you set it up already? If not, it can be a bit tricky, depending on your WiFi setup at home and the devices  (computers, tablets, smartphones) you have or do not have at your disposal for the setup. You can always ask for help in the community if need be!