Confuse over daily weigh ins - use the moving average :)

Options
RawCarrots
RawCarrots Posts: 204 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This post is only for those who hop on the scale daily, if you weigh in once a week - please move on;) I'm not really trying to get into a discussion about pros and cons of monitoring your weight daily

I came across the concept of "moving average" on MFP when I started few months ago, like many others I noticed the scale was acting a bit strange, drop a pound, gain few ounces, drop another pound, gain two pounds... You know the way. It's hard to stay motivated when you are only new to it, every little bit of encouragement helps. I needed to see some daily progress to keep me on track (I'd admit in recent days I've had many mornings when I forgot about the scales, so I know I'll start using it less and less when I get closer to goal)

So here is more information on what it is, and below is my graph from the last three months. Can't believe I'm actually sharing it with strangers but other people's graphs helped a lot when I was struggling, so if this helps even one person to stick to their plan, I'd be happy :smile:

A good read on moving average:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/signalnoise.html (MFP should really add this as an option!!)

My weightloss graph (you see the plateou I had last week, it was a pain, yet the average sts)
weightgraph20062013.gif
( http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/RawCarrots/view/what-does-daily-weight-graph-actually-looks-like-545145 )

Edited: Ahhhh, sorry can't fix the typo in the title!

Replies

  • rileamoyer
    rileamoyer Posts: 2,411 Member
    Options
    Copy this as a suggestion to MFP. They have a category for it in the posting selections. NICE GRAPH
  • sabified
    sabified Posts: 1,051 Member
    Options
    Awesome post :) I was weighing daily in the beginning too- I think for people who are after weight loss that's just the instinctive thing to do. Another person posting their daily graph really helped me back then too! But yes, as you start to shed you start to realize all the other ways to keep track of your progress and will probably stop caring abt weighting daily.

    Good job on your loss!
  • GormanGhaste
    GormanGhaste Posts: 430 Member
    Options
    This is a great idea! I weigh daily as well, and to avoid the yo-yo effect I've just been recording new lows. Maybe if I get an app to do the moving average I'll switch to that. I'm too lazy to do the math myself :)
  • sabified
    sabified Posts: 1,051 Member
    Options
    This is a great idea! I weigh daily as well, and to avoid the yo-yo effect I've just been recording new lows. Maybe if I get an app to do the moving average I'll switch to that. I'm too lazy to do the math myself :)

    If you have Android, LibraScale is pretty good. It doesn't give the moving avg but gives the trend, daily trend, weekly variations and also gives a forecast of when you'll reach your goal. Oh, also tells you your BMI and where your weight is in relation to it!

    Trackthisforme is another app I use- with that you can make graphs to track anything. I don't go into the functions much so don't know what it's fully capable of, but it's been good for me :)
  • Habiteer
    Habiteer Posts: 190 Member
    Options
    Nice post, thanks RawCarrots
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    Options
    This is a great idea! I weigh daily as well, and to avoid the yo-yo effect I've just been recording new lows. Maybe if I get an app to do the moving average I'll switch to that. I'm too lazy to do the math myself :)
    I wouldn't. IMO, the moving average is interesting but trivial information. It is your body weight plus half the difference between your body weight and daily bloat. If I am losing (and I have been for 6 months) then I record the lows as my weight. If I don't see it again for a while I will assume I have ticked back up. That hasn't happened yet. IMO, all you will do is re-introduce yoyo numbers even though you are not yoyoing.
  • Pearsquared
    Pearsquared Posts: 1,656 Member
    Options
    There's nothing better than the line of best fit! :D I had to stop the daily weigh-ins for motivational reasons, but I loved my graph from when I was weighing daily.
  • TwoRow
    TwoRow Posts: 4
    Options
    This is a great idea! I weigh daily as well, and to avoid the yo-yo effect I've just been recording new lows. Maybe if I get an app to do the moving average I'll switch to that. I'm too lazy to do the math myself :)
    I wouldn't. IMO, the moving average is interesting but trivial information. It is your body weight plus half the difference between your body weight and daily bloat. If I am losing (and I have been for 6 months) then I record the lows as my weight. If I don't see it again for a while I will assume I have ticked back up. That hasn't happened yet. IMO, all you will do is re-introduce yoyo numbers even though you are not yoyoing.

    I also weigh in daily. I strongly agree for me it has been easiest to weigh in at my lows and as long as that number continues to decline I know that I am in fact losing weight.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    Options
    IMO, the moving average is interesting but trivial information. It is your body weight plus half the difference between your body weight and daily bloat. If I am losing (and I have been for 6 months) then I record the lows as my weight. If I don't see it again for a while I will assume I have ticked back up. That hasn't happened yet. IMO, all you will do is re-introduce yoyo numbers even though you are not yoyoing.
    I also weigh in daily. I strongly agree for me it has been easiest to weigh in at my lows and as long as that number continues to decline I know that I am in fact losing weight.
    If you are eating at a deficit and losing, your true body weight will not rise. It is difficult to get your true body weight because of water retention, timing of consumption versus elimination and other factors. So you have to take a few readings to get an accurate one if you want to be really accurate. Once I get an accurate reading, I see no point in trying to make sense of the noise (the inaccurate readings) so I just discard them. Averaging them and graphing them doesn't make them any more valid, IMO.

    EDIT - just noticed the link about the general subject of moving averages is about signal to noise. I think that is relevant; while losing weight, we know what the noise is - the readings above the lowest are noise.
  • RawCarrots
    RawCarrots Posts: 204 Member
    Options
    Glad some people found it useful, it was a brilliant motivator for me at the start.
    This is a great idea! I weigh daily as well, and to avoid the yo-yo effect I've just been recording new lows. Maybe if I get an app to do the moving average I'll switch to that. I'm too lazy to do the math myself :)
    I wouldn't. IMO, the moving average is interesting but trivial information. It is your body weight plus half the difference between your body weight and daily bloat. If I am losing (and I have been for 6 months) then I record the lows as my weight. If I don't see it again for a while I will assume I have ticked back up. That hasn't happened yet. IMO, all you will do is re-introduce yoyo numbers even though you are not yoyoing.
    What does "recording new lows" mean? I record weight daily in Libra but only enter when I get lower than before in MFP (so in MFP my graph only goes down, the main reason is I can't be bothered entering everything twice) Is it the same thing? Recording only low weight is good but doesn't give me correlation between weigh and food for example :) I can now nearly predict my weight after a junk-food dinner (1.5lb or so up from bloating and water retention :wink: ) I've noticed a lot of trends that make me worry less.

    And yes, now that I'm looking more into fitness weight is becoming less relevant (still only half-way to my ultimate goal though, so only work in progress) I'll be looking for equivalent ways to fitness motivate myself

    As for the actual picture - this is an Excel graph using the trend line (7 days). I was trying to post a screenshot directly from Libra but it wasn't coming up very clear hence the roundabout way of doing it.
  • A_Fit_Mom
    A_Fit_Mom Posts: 602 Member
    Options
    I weigh daily, and the best way for me to do it is recording my lowest weight only. I have consistently lost, but if I had a day of extra water weight, I haven't added that weight. If I have water weight, it is usually after a weekend and only a couple pounds, it goes off a day after. So I am not going to log that one day of a higher weight.



    I stick with my "low weight". If I see a lower weight for more than 2 days, then I log it. So far it had worked and I am down 27 pounds. So I am doing something right. :)

    I notice as I get lower, that there are numbers I will never see again and that is all the matters, I will never see the 170's or 180's again on the scale..no matter how much water weight I gain. Since the most water weight i have ever gained was like 3 pounds. I am 158 as of this morning, but once I get to 155. I will know I won't see the 160's again! Yay
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    Options
    Recording new lows means only recording the lowest weight I have seen recently. Because I know it is impossible for me to create and store more fat while eating at a deficit, I ignore any higher readings. While losing, "new lows" are numbers lower than I have seen before (well at least not recently).
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    Options
    I weigh daily, and the best way for me to do it is recording my lowest weight only. I have consistently lost, but if I had a day of extra water weight, I haven't added that weight. If I have water weight, it is usually after a weekend and only a couple pounds, it goes off a day after. So I am not going to log that one day of a higher weight.



    I stick with my "low weight". If I see a lower weight for more than 2 days, then I log it. So far it had worked and I am down 27 pounds. So I am doing something right. :)

    I notice as I get lower, that there are numbers I will never see again and that is all the matters, I will never see the 170's or 180's again on the scale..no matter how much water weight I gain. Since the most water weight i have ever gained was like 3 pounds. I am 158 as of this morning, but once I get to 155. I will know I won't see the 160's again! Yay
    I run 5+ miles, sometimes as much as 10, and I still allow myself a few salty meals every now and then. Because of those extremes (running dehydrating me, salt turning me into a sponge) I have seen as much as an 8 pound difference across a couple of days. That was the most ever and it has only happened twice. It is usually under 5. It was not a spike in body weight.

Categories