Libra question

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lorrpb
lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone know how Libra app calculates the trend weight? In Sept I have 5 days above my trend line and 15 below. (Missed a few days due to travel.) When I calculate a mathmeticsl average, it is .5 lb lower than what Libra shows for my current trend weight. When I change the smoothing days in settings, the trend weight doesn't change. I'm in maintenance if that matters.
Any insight would be appreciated. TIA

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  • misnomer1
    misnomer1 Posts: 646 Member
    edited September 2017
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    Exponential smoothing. Places more importance on recent data than the older data. The trends are much smoother this way as compared to mathematical average if there is noise in the data.
  • Kst76
    Kst76 Posts: 935 Member
    edited April 2018
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    I have another Question

    Also, what does smoothing mean? I had them both, forecast and smoothing set to 7 days by default.
    I had a really bad cheat day and gained 3 pounds of water weight. The next day my expected goal went from May 1st to June something.

    Now I discovered I can set my forecast and smoothing days under settings. So I set it to 14 days instead of 7.
    Doing this put my forecast day to May 5th instead. That makes more sense to me.

    Anyways, not sure if you understand what I am trying to say or ask here.
    But what is your forecast and smoothing days set as?
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Kst76 wrote: »
    I have another Question

    Also, what does smoothing mean? I had them both, forecast and smoothing set to 7 days by default.
    I had a really bad cheat day and gained 3 pounds of water weight. The next day my expected goal went from May 1st to June something.

    Now I discovered I can set my forecast and smoothing days under settings. So I set it to 14 days instead of 7.
    Doing this put my forecast day to May 5th instead. That makes more sense to me.

    Anyways, not sure if you understand what I am trying to say or ask here.
    But what is your forecast and smoothing days set as?

    Smoothing is averaging the past data. Forecasting is predicting the future data.
  • OkChargerFan2
    OkChargerFan2 Posts: 55 Member
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    September 23 – October 23
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
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    Another question- how has my weight decreased over the week but my trend gone up to where it is higher than my actual weight?
  • Kst76
    Kst76 Posts: 935 Member
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    I just don't see the purpose with smoothing. Or i don't get the purpose..how do i balance the two.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,978 Member
    edited April 2018
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    Kst76 wrote: »
    I just don't see the purpose with smoothing. Or i don't get the purpose..how do i balance the two.

    It just makes the graphline for the data look less erratic.

    Try a variety of different number of days and choose the one that appeals to you the most. It doesn't change the data but the appearance of the trend line will an change dramatically based on the number of days used.

    Typically the number will be between 7-30 days. 7 gives a much closer to an actual but more erractic line. 30 gives you a much smoother but longer slope and less than actual line. I like 15 days best as a compromise between the 2.

    The forecast is based on the current trend and varying the days just shortens or lengthen the expected date that you'll meet your goal but, if your trend is not headed in the direction of your goal (as when you've already lost weight beyond your goal and are continuing to losse or maintain it) the forecast would be irrelevant and you won't see an expected date, just a "N/A," as I usually do.


  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    edited April 2018
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    New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »
    Another question- how has my weight decreased over the week but my trend gone up to where it is higher than my actual weight?

    It has to do with how many days are included in the trend. If you're losing, the trend line is always higher than current weight because it includes the last 7-30 days.
  • Kst76
    Kst76 Posts: 935 Member
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    sgt1372 wrote: »
    Kst76 wrote: »
    I just don't see the purpose with smoothing. Or i don't get the purpose..how do i balance the two.

    It just makes the graphline for the data look less erratic.

    Try a variety of different number of days and choose the one that appeals to you the most. It doesn't change the data but the appearance of the trend line will an change dramatically based on the number of days used.

    Typically the number will be between 7-30 days. 7 gives a much closer to an actual but more erractic line. 30 gives you a much smoother but longer slope and less than actual line. I like 15 days best as a compromise between the 2.

    The forecast is based on the current trend and varying the days just shortens or lengthen the expected date that you'll meet your goal but, if your trend is not headed in the direction of your goal (as when you've already lost weight beyond your goal and are continuing to losse or maintain it) the forecast would be irrelevant and you won't see an expected date, just a "N/A," as I usually do.


    When i changed my smoothing ftom 7 to 30, it bumped my trend up 2 pounds. And my forecast changed too to May 12 instead of May 6.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Yes because you were probably heavier 30 days ago than 7 days ago. So the 30 day average is higher than the 7 day average. Libra gives more credit to older weights so you don't think you're losing faster than you are.

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