Jeff asked me if had looked at using the Google 15 to track my weight.
The Google 15 encourages you to get on the scale every day by calculating a moving average from your daily weight. We then plot this average alongside your daily scale weight and a goal weight that you set–this gives you a better idea of your weight trend by masking most of the day to day noise that variances in water weight introduce.
I have had a look at it, but don’t actually use it as I use some other tools that do a similar job instead:
With the physics diet you weigh yourself everyday and it works out a moving average similar to Google 15. To be more precise it uses an exponentially smoothed weighted average with a smoothing constant of .9. If you are more interested in the mathematics behind it you can look here.
One of the nice features is a fancy graph:
The Weight Chart lets you track your weight loss or gain. It shows you how many pounds you are losing or gaining per week, and it shows you what your calorie deficit or excess is.
The beauty of the Weight Chart is that it lets you focus on your overall progress rather than the individual readings on the scale. You will learn to watch, and appreciate the blue trend line that shows the moving average of your individual weight entries.
Daily Weight Entries
The points on the tips of the green and red shaded areas are your daily weight entries. The red area means that for that day, or period of days, your daily weight entries were above the blue trend line. The green area means that for that day, or period of days, your daily weight entries were below the blue trend line.
If you are trying to lose weight then you will want to keep most of your daily weight entries in the green shaded area. As long as your daily weight entries are green, the blue trend line will continue going down. Even when you hit a plateau, and your daily weights remain the same for several days or even a week or more, as long as those weights below the trend line they will continue to pull the trend line down.
The Trend Line
The blue trend line shows the moving average of all your weight entries. Because of the way the moving average is calculated, it emphasizes the weights in the recent past over those in the distant past. This makes the trend line the most valuable part of the Weight Chart.
If your weight changes and goes above the blue trend line you will see the trend line change immediately. If your weight stays above the trend line for very long, the trend line will change directions and show you that your weight is increasing. On the other hand, if you start losing weight at a faster rate the trend line will also show that change almost immediately.
The trend line is especially valuable when you hit a plateau.
The Black Best Fit Line
The black line is the best fit line. It shows you the straightest line that can be drawn through all of the points on the blue trend line. It is useful because it can show you the overall progress of your diet. But it can also be misleading. If your trend line is not moving in the same direction over time as your best fit line, then the best fit line should be ignored.
Another one that I use is Skinnyr:
Skinnyr is rather simple in that all it does is plot your last ten days weight on a graph. It’s a bit simplistic but it’s pretty and gives you a quick snapshot of how you are going. It doesn’t have any other advanced features. My graph for the last ten weigh-ins looks like this:
It’s a bit misleading as it doesn’t take time into account. You may notice that there is a spike between 4/24 and 4/27 but the time gap is the same as all the others which are single days. Having said that, it is pretty and easy to use.
The last tool that I use is Traineo:
I record my weight on Traineo only so that I can get the fancy buttons on the right. T could write a little plugin that would do it for me but I’m too lazy. I only use Traineo for that really but in reality Traineo is more than just a weight tracking tool, it is a weight loss and fitness community.
Traineo’s idea is simple: join traineo for free and pick up to 4 friends or members of your family (who will become your ‘traineo motivators’) to receive weekly email updates on your progress towards your weight loss and fitness goals. Our easy-to-use software allows you to choose what you’d like traineo to report to your motivators so they can give you the motivation, support and accountability you need to achieve your goals.
Overall, none of them is perfect but they all help me track my weight and keep accountable so they are all worth using to me. Has anyone else found something that they could recommend?
Tags: Tools by AndrewE
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