Anyone else got their own spreadsheet as well as MFP?

caramammal

So, i'm logging all my efforts in a separate spreadsheet, including date, calories eaten, calories burned, net cals, average weekly calories, number of lbs lost per week, menstrual cycle day etc etc.

I'm not a statistics person, but it's really helping to determine exactly whats what. For example, i know what my maintenance calories are, i know how much i can expect to lose in any given week, i know what will stall me and what will speed me up.

Anyone doing this? If so, is there anything you are measuring that is helping even more?

JKDLady

I have spreadsheets starting in 2006! I love them, but I am a statistics person by education.

I also have a graph of my weight for the year. I tend to have trends over the year. Weight goes up in the summer, down in the winter, and then I notice when I stop weighing. That's the big one for me.

I have a separate spreadsheet for my exercise, which is just as important. It's a reminder that I need exercise every day.

I'm glad I'm not the only person doing this!

Pangea250

(blush) Yes. And I've got multiple worksheets in my spreadsheet. I don't track daily food intake in the spreadsheet, but I track things like loss by week and month by lb and by percentages, weekly calorie intake, monthly calorie intake. With line charts.

Oh my. I'm out of control.

smaihlee

I have one going back to early January. It's a combination of what you both mentioned--calories, macros, exercise burn from HRM, menstrual cycle, weight. I also add my fitbit steps and fitbit calories burned. I also worked some calculations in there for Net Calories eaten.

I haven't had any aha! moments in looking at the overall picture, but right now I'm just focusing on staying active and not eating poorly. Once things calm down a little and I'm ready to kick it into high gear again, I will probably sit down and maybe even work with a nutritionist to try to figure out patterns & cycles.

ItsCasey

I have a spreadsheet, but I don't use it to track. I use it to pre-plan my meals, because it's such a pain to change the MFP diary once you've entered a full meal. So I just figure everything out in Excel (calories, macros, etc.), and enter it all into MFP at the end of the day.

I write my training sessions on a white board in my garage gym (lifts, sets, reps, loads, etc.) and take a picture of the board at the end of each week. I keep the pictures in a separate album on my phone so if I need to go back and review something, it's always handy. I don't track any of that stuff on MFP. I just log a generic description of my workouts.

HealthyBodySickMind

I do!! I luvz the data. I track gross and net calories, and everything mfp tracks (fat, sat, poly, mono, and trans fat, sodium, potassium, cholesterol, carbs, protein, fiber, sugar, Vit A and C, iron, and calcium). I also made a nice little pie chart for macro percentages. The next worksheet has body measurements (wt, waist, hips, bust., thighs, biceps, bf%, lbm), and a third sheet has annual blood test results and normal ranges.

Having all of this in excel has made it easy to compare increases in lbm since lifting, net calorie increases before and after lifting and while pregnant (currently). I love being able to look at the data how I want to look at it.

briabner

I do not use a spreadsheet like that but I did find an app called happy scale that I track my weight with. The app also sets up mini weight goals that I like working towards too. It is a free app and very user friendly

BikerGirlElaine

I have one!

It has calories & macros since last January. Averages over the last 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and total time period. That's what I use to find my TDEE. Because I do it this way, I don't really need to track actual exercise or calorie burns.

It has a projection of how long it will take me to realistically reach my goal. I think it's November 2014. That helps me be patient.

I have my daily weigh-ins, too. Then I do 7-day moving averages of my weight and my calories, and I have them graphed. This also reminds me to be patient. And not to worry about day-to-day fluctuations. And that when my average calories creep up, my weight loss slows. The graph is veeery useful to me to keep my head in the right place.

I have a record of my body fat % measurements and history. Because actually, body fat % is the most important way, to me, to track my fat loss progress.

I have a record of my Wilks scores. This page was bumming me out for a long time but now I am getting close to my high scores that I achieved in May, so this one is encouraging, too.

Turnaround2012

Wow.. It is great to see that others do a spreadsheet too! I keep a spreadsheet and it just grows as I learn more.

I keep a calculation called 10 day average weight and that is really useful for seeing trends. I weigh every day because I learn so much from doing that. That way I don't get freaked out over a 2 lb gain in one day... happens.

I have another tab where I have all the links to my BMR calculations and Ideal weight calculations etc.

Another tab for my push up workouts. (Soon to be free weights)

Another tab .. Found a great site for accurately calculating cardio burns with an HRM
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

charleyreedto175

I got a chuckle out of this. I thought all folks that were wound up tight like me did this. With weight loss as a goal I have spread sheets for daily weight loss. I get on the scale three times a day. AM when I wake up, then after work out for intensity loss, and my final one is at night. Then in the am I can tell if my food intake, exercise, and body burn rates are working. I know what I gain during the day and what I lose at night. It gives me comfort knowing that I have a window of loss. I also track diet cal. carbs, etc. and get a % ratio of loss for the meal and day. Same goes with exercise. I track the cal. the effort, the speed, miles, time, and day, week, monthly totals. I like to see improvement and the failures. I also track measurements. So I cover it all. There are several programs out there that are pre build for this and you can find the on google.

jjinteso

Yes I have a spreadsheet. I started with it before I found MFP. I continue to use it and update it. It has multiple sheets for daliy steps, weight, trends, etc. Now I am attempting to build and Access database to calculate everything. I like to look at more than 5 items that MFP limits you to looking at. I know that I can change them, and I do, but it is a pain. I also know that you can see everything on the mobile app but it is hard to read for those of us who are getting old.

Just call me a real geek or nerd!

PriceK01

I don't use one for tracking what I'm eating, but I do use Heybales' spreadsheet for figuring BMR, TDEE, macros, deficits, BF%, etc. I also use a spreadsheet to calculate my lifts for each session of Starting Strength.