How to Track Weight Effectively and Easily

Image courtesy of Angelsharum.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bathroom_Scale.jpg

Weight tracking seems like one  of the easiest things you could do.  You just weight yourself and then keep track of how it changes.  However, this method can cause people to very quickly lose motivation, so instead we are going to focus on several principles that will help eliminate the motivation destroying spikes.

1.Be Consistent

The first rule is to be consistent in your weighing.  Try to weigh yourself at the same time and in the same amount of clothing every time.  Throughout the day your weight can change several pounds.  I know for me personally it can be as high  as 5-6 lbs daily variation.  These variations can be due to several different factors including: hydration, waste, and hormonal changes.

2. Log It

Logging your weight is the only way to keep yourself honest.  Without this companion it can become very easy to lose track of your true weight and the trends that are underlying it.

3. USE A TREND LINE

In my opinion the most important principle is one I first learned from The Hacker’s Diet by John Walker (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/).  The fundamental idea here is that there can be large variations in your weight that are not due to actual changes in your biological weight.  We can help smooth these out by using a smoothed trend line.

To make this easy you can use the tools available at http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/. These tools are developed by John Walker, the author of The Hacker’s Diet where I was first introduced to these ideas.

There is also an Android app called Libra that does this well.https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.cachapa.libra

For iPhone the app Happy Scale also allows you to use a trend line. https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/app/happy-scale-simple-weight/id532430574?mt=8&at=1000l5bv&ct=site_home

By using these apps you replace the motivation killing spikes in weight with a nice clean line that shows your true change in weight.  Which  was our goal in the first place.

That’s all it takes to effectively track your changes in weight.  You don’t need any fancy scales, or any secret tricks.