Hey guys! Just thought I would take a moment to comment on the FatWatch app. I was lucky enough to be one of the ten to try it for free and I absolutely love it. Just by entering a little bit of information, this app shows you how many calories more you are burning more than you eat to get your weight loss. For myself:

losing 1.12Ibs/week of total weight.
Burning 560 cal/day more than you eat.
10.2 Ibs to lose
goal weight in 64 days.

For myself, instead of thinking "I want to lose 10 Ibs" it is a lot easier to think, "I want to lose a pound this week." And seeing how many days it will take to be at the goal is awesome.

Definitely recommend this app. It's easy to use and you can get a lot of information from it.

Thank you Russ and Jeff!

Good for you, Jennifer! I was also able to snag a copy of the app. It looks to me like there is a bit of a learning curve with it. There are some icons that are explained in the Hacker's Diet book, and I haven't been able to spend much time with it yet. But I am working on it.

My numbers are crazy. In the real world, since New years, I've been losing 2.1 pounds per week on average.

The FatWatch app says:

losing 3.07 lbs/week of total weight
burning 1,534 cal/day more than you eat
46.4 lb to lose
goal weight in 105 days

HUH? Maybe I am doing something wrong. Maybe eating fewer calories than I should. I thought I was losing relatively healthily, but burning 1534 cal/day more than I eat? Hmmm... I'll keep using it and get back with hopefully more accurate findings.

But yes, thanks, Jeff and Russ!

Hi there! I'm the guy who wrote the FatWatch app. If anybody has questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Especially if it can help ease the learning curve.

Leo, I'm curious how many days of weight you had entered when you got those numbers, and if the numbers have become more reasonable since.

If you only have two or three days entered, the numbers can be crazy, because with such a small sample, minor changes will be exaggerated. (Your post has me thinking it probably shouldn't display any numbers unless it has at least 4-5 days to use.)

Hi Benjamin,

I've put in quite a few days of weight recording into the app now, and I see that there are big differences between the trend report from a week, 2 weeks, a month, a quarter, six months, and a year.

My data ranges back to September 16, 2009, and I have put in daily weight records since April 8, and I have practically weekly data since September.

My trends are reading as:

Past Year, losing 1.1 pounds of fat per week
Past 6 Months, losing 1.22 pounds of fat per week
Past quarter, losing 4.74 pounds of fat per week
Past month, losing 7.95 pounds of fat per week
Past 2 weeks, losing 8.96 pounds of fat per week
Past week, losing 5.62 pounds of fat per week

If you'd like, I can export to email and send the file to you. I've lost about 57 pounds since September 16, 2009 as of this morning. Good app. The trend line makes me not want to cry when my weight goes up. But these numbers are kind of crazy sounding to me until you get past the last quarter...

Let me know.

Leo

Sure, send your data to help@fatwatchapp.com if you'd like me to take a closer look. It's always helpful to have real data besides my own for testing, too.

The math is fairly straightforward: over each time period, it computes the best fit straight line through the trend line. The cal/day and lbs/week figures are derived from the slope of that line.

You say you have weekly data from September to April 8, then daily data after that. One problem with the app (which I'm working on) is that it isn't smart about gaps in the data. It assumes you will weigh yourself daily, with a day missing here or there, and occasionally a few days missing when you're on vacation.

I suspect this has something to do with the extreme numbers. (That said, 57 lbs over 28 weeks is about 2 lbs/week, an impressive clip!) I'm confident that as you continue to weigh in daily, the numbers will make more sense. You should also be able to improve things by going back and deleting the earlier weekly measurements.

I am considering a few different options for dealing with gaps in a smarter way, and will likely incorporate a solution into a future update. Until then, sorry for the inconvenience!

Certainly no inconvenence! I appreciate the assistance. I'll email it soon, and I think I'll go ahead after that and take out the data from before the 8th.

Since you are on here and feeling in a helping mood... Could you tell me what the difference is between the red dotted projection line and the green dotted line?


Thanks!

Leo

The Red/Blue dotted line is a projection of the trend line into the future, based on the trend over the given time period.

(Red is for total weight; Blue is for fat, available if you have been entering body fat % along with weight.)

The Green dotted line goes to your goal weight/goal date. It's the path your trend line needs to take to get to your goal on time.

You can quickly see how "on track" you are by comparing how the lines match up.

Thanks.

I deleted the other weights from months gone by, and now the numbers really make sense. Thanks for the tip.

And thanks from before about the kudos on the 2 lbs per week. Getting my wife and our best friends involved was amazing for staying on track. Surrounding myself with like-minded people has really helped me keep on it.