Are there any weight trending apps that take TOM into account?

ceiswyn
ceiswyn Posts: 2,253 Member
edited April 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
I’ve been trying to avoid getting spooked by what my thinking brain knows is TOM-related water weight gain by using weight trending apps to smooth out fluctuations.

The problem is that if my period is late, the water retention goes on so long that the weight trending app takes it into account rather than ignoring it as a fluctuation, then fails to keep up with my ‘true’ weight once it all comes off... Basically, I end up worse spooked than before!

Are there any trending weight apps that can take TOM information into account in their estimates? Something that integrates with Glow or similar fertility management apps, for preference? Or is a standard factor of biology that causes large medium-term fluctuations in menstruating people’s weight just ignored by pretty much every weight management tool out there?
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Replies

  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    I am perimenopausal and my periods are all over the place. I haven't found Libra useless, in fact the opposite. Looking at trends over ,months rather than weeks showed a gradual loss and now, although up and down like a yoyo, a maintenance trend. I can also look back over it and see exactly when I got my last period.
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,253 Member
    edited April 2018
    That’s nice that it works for you, but unless it can discount TOM-related water weight gain it doesn’t work for me.

    Can Libra take TOM information into account with its weight estimates as per my original question? As this is literally the only thing I would want it for?
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,253 Member
    (As for seeing when I got my last period - yeah, that’s kind of what Glow is for...)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    That’s nice that it works for you, but unless it can discount TOM-related water weight gain it doesn’t work for me.

    Can Libra take TOM information into account with its weight estimates as per my original question? As this is literally the only thing I would want it for?

    Don't weigh yourself for that week or 2 weeks?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    Don't weigh yourself for that week or 2 weeks?

    Great idea. Now, how do you suggest I tell exactly which week or two weeks I shouldn’t weigh myself for?

    You say upthread that you use a tracker for your period, so...
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,253 Member
    I use FLO—It’s not a trend app but more of a TOM tracker that includes weigh ins. It actually helped me learn that I retain water during ovulation too. I track my weight trends with Happy Scale, but now that I know when I retain water I don’t enter those weigh ins in Happy Scale. I do enter them in the Flo Ap and it’s helped a lot with accepting the 3# water fluctuations during ovulation and before TOM.

    Hmm, that sounds like it might have possibilities. I’m currently using Glow because of the MFP integration, but it just shows a chart of weight against cycle stage; it doesn’t build up a pattern over time like it does with other symptoms. And even that chart is surprisingly well hidden :)
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited April 2018
    Why want a 'weight app" to exclude your TOM, the water weight is part of your 'weight' regardless if you are on your period or not. These apps are not that fancy, so maybe you can setup something using excel?

    I am nearing menopause, mine is late each month, rather I now have 45+ day cycles sometimes I skip one all together, a trending app cannot keep up with that kind of data point. If if I am up x number weeks what is happening 'weight' wise is more than just water weight.


    eta: I use weightgrapher.com (web based) and it works well for me, the trend lines I get are on point.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,048 Member
    Is your cycle pretty consistently the same number of days? You can graph a 28 (or whatever)-day rolling average in excel. It’s not an app, but it accomplishes what you’re looking for. It will average the ups and downs of a full cycle, so you will see the downward trend, if in fact, you are lower than last month.

    Note, that average includes the bloated days, so it will be higher than your lowest weight. If you want to see a graph without bloat days, you can create another plot line in the same excel chart for your 10-day lows. Or 14-day lows. You get the idea.
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,253 Member
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    Great idea. Now, how do you suggest I tell exactly which week or two weeks I shouldn’t weigh myself for?

    You say upthread that you use a tracker for your period, so...

    ...so when it fails to predict a late period, I’ll be skipping weighing for the wrong weeks. Won’t that be helpful.
  • bigpapawes
    bigpapawes Posts: 10 Member
    One of the users mentioned an app called "Happy Scale". It uses a moving average (as I am sure do others), but has an "advanced lag compensation" feature that uses a double-exponential moving average. While this makes progress look a little slow on the front end of a diet (while dropping initial water weight) and can show that you are losing at the beginning of plateaus; it gives a better picture once in an established routine. Best of all it is a free app.