Weight monitoring
November 04th, 2008
Posted by Dr.Fancial
The first step in getting control of your weight is putting the weight measuring system into effect: starting to wear an eat watch. Don’t put it off; start right away, even if you aren’t interested or ready to start dieting until later. By the time you do begin to diet, you’ll be familiar with how your weight behaves, comfortable with the tools, and used to interpreting the messages they send.
Get a good scale
To be useful, weight data should be reasonably accurate. The day to day variations in the rubber bag are bad enough without the scale getting into the act and adding its own two pounds. If you don’t have a reasonably accurate scale, buy one. You don’t need a super-expensive doctor’s scale, but your scale should be accurate to a pound or so. Electronic scales that use a strain gauge instead of moving parts are cheap and plenty accurate; that’s what I use.
Many scales read a little high or low all the time: what scientists call “systematic error.” As long as it’s only a few pounds and remains the same, this is no problem as long as you always use the same scale. But if a scale reads high one day and low the next, it’s yet another source of confusion: the last thing you need. Try stepping on a scale four or five times in succession. If it reads the same weight within a pound or so each time, it’s fine. If the weight jumps all around, for example 170, 172, 168, 175 on successive weighings, junk it and get a better scale.
Keep in mind the variation among scales when you’re traveling. If you’re visiting a friend and happen to step on his scale and it says you’ve gained 10 pounds overnight, odds are it’s the scale, not you.
Start a logbook
The best way to keep your weight records is in a looseleaf binder. You could just use random pieces of paper, but you’re far more likely to lose something that way. Even if you’re keeping your records on a computer, you’ll still need a logbook to record daily weights awaiting entry into the computer, and to file printed weight logs and charts from earlier months.
Get a three-ring looseleaf binder (a thin one is fine) and a package of index tabs. Make tabs for the following sections:
Daily Log
Monthly Logs
Monthly Charts
Long Term Charts
The “Daily Log” section is where you’ll record the daily weight from the scale. Fill it with a year’s supply of blank log pages. If you’re using Excel, you can print the blank log pages at the same time you create the weight database for the year. Load the worksheet WEIGTEMP.XLS (it loads several other files automatically).
WEIGTEMP.XLS comes configured for monitoring weight in pounds. If you measure your weight in kilograms, enter 0 in the cell that displays “Pounds” in the “Weight” column; to specify your weight in stones, enter -1 in this cell. If you change the system of measurement, use FILE SAVE to update WEIGTEMP.XLS on your disc. When you create logs for subsequent years, then, the units you prefer will already be selected.
A new WEIGHT menu will appear at the right of the standard Excel menus. Pick NEW YEAR LOG from it. You’ll be asked for the year you’re making the log for (normally, you’ll just use the default, the current year) and the month you’d like to start with, if not January. A new blank weight log worksheet is created, and you’re asked to confirm saving it as WEIGHTyy.XLS, where “yy” is the current year (for example, the log for 1995 will be named WEIGHT95.XLS). If you prefer a different name, fine; just enter it instead of the name proposed in the FILE SAVE AS dialogue. Once the log worksheet for the year is saved, print it with FILE PRINT. Since you haven’t entered any data yet, blank log pages suitable for recording your weight will be printed.
If you aren’t using a computer, just run off a dozen photocopies of the blank form on page and file them in the “Daily Log” section. Each month write the name of the month at the top of the form as you start to use it. You’ll need to punch holes in the forms to file them in your logbook; buy a cheap three hole punch if you don’t already own one.
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