I love this spreadsheet! I'm going to jump in here as this summer is a big deal for me. I'm relocating myself and my kids to Virginia from Michigan. I want to leave the weight behind lol. This is the perfect challenge!

SW - March 03 - 221.50
GW - June 01 - 195.50

Hi I'd like to join this group I could use A good push in the right direction. I am hoping to lose 20 pounds by June 1.

I live in the northeast and it has been a longggggggggggg cold winter. I am ready for some warmth. Plus some outside time.

I have been up and down the scale but am really trying to keep the scale in a downward motion.

Hi everyone! It has been such a CRAZY week for me. Luckily, I found a lady that evened out my hair and even though I'm still getting used to the shortness, I've been getting lots of compliments. This past week was not as great as I was hoping. I found out that my fiance's company is re-structuring and he may be losing his job, as they are doing away with his department. We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. Needless to say, this led to quite a few unhealthy food choices. I am definitely an emotional eater. Determined to make this a better week!

Congrats on all the losses!

Hi Everyone!

I would love to join this challenge!! My name is Beth and I am aiming to lose 30lbs (hopefully more ) It may sound crazy but I have this cute black sundress hanging in my closet that I am determined to wear this summer!! I am also from Canada - and after the winter we have had (it has actually snowed here all day and doesn't appear to be to be letting up any time soon! ) I am ready for summer!!!!

I started out on March 10th at 170.8lbs and this morning I weighed in at 165.2lbs!! I am feeling pretty motivated!!

Beth

Speaking of spreadsheets, here's my engineering approach.

Wanted to lose weight, 20 lbs from 170, to get my BMI to a more reasonable value, so I bought a digital scale that can show 0.2 lbs difference. I figured I could see how much I gained in a single day while I still remembered what I ate.

Keeping track of the evening weight, in the first 20 days the Excel graph showed a variation of +/- 3 lbs/day in the shape of a sine wave and a weekly upslope on Fridays (because I fell off the wagon).

Also, I lost up to 2 lbs overnight, evidently from respiration, transpiration and elimination.
No food is eaten so this weight change is due only to the factors above. The loss due to the fat burned by metabolism during sleep won't show up for up to 50 hours.

With effort, I stretched out the weekly gain to every two weeks or so but it still went +/- 3 lbs/day and I wasn't losing much so I adapted a modified "Eat to Live" diet by Dr. Fuhrman.

Using a spreadsheet to calculate the trend line slope will bring out the "signal" of -1 or -2 lbs/week from a variation of +/- 3 lbs/day (the signal plus "noise"). This is a very poor "signal to noise ratio", technically speaking.
You can also use a graph and just eyeball the trendline.

Now I'm doing two or three measurements per 24 hr day to further isolate the weight gained from what I know I've eaten, to the noise.

The present downslope is about 5 lbs in 3 days which is a bit fast. One to two lbs/week is more reasonable.

Hey guys, I've been itching for a challenge, so I'm joining, too! I'm at 154.54 right now and I'm hoping to get down to 140 by summer. I don't know where I'll want to stop but I'm reasonably sure I'll want to weigh less than that. TBH, I could get at 140 by the middle of March if I really set my mind to it but I don't trust me at all, so... I'm only here because I got strep throat and it caused me to lose most of the weight I'd gained back and I've done well for a few days since... I hope I can stick with it, though.

Olivia, mam, summer, wobbly and marn. Also like how this challenge goes to June 1st, that's close to the time when I start wearing skirts and shorts and if I start toning more even some of my sleeveless shirts. Wobbly, you will find the spread sheet link for this thread on page one, go ahead and fill in your starting info.

Dare, sorry to hear of your fiance's company situation, that's a tough one. I am an emotional eater too, glad you have determination for this new week.

Marn, we are the same height and starting weight basically. I'm going for a slow loss of 1 pound per week. Not sure how much under 146 I want to be, mostly because I want to maintain my loss - no more yo yoing with the weight!

Diana, I'm 5'5'' 3⁄4. Am I writing it correctly? I'm going for 1 lb a week, too. I normally diet like a mad woman for about a month, then I stop for a few months and then I start again. I can't go on a normal diet... I don't mind it though because I've learned how to maintain, I've memorized the calories and portions in *everything* and I always lose weight quickly and as planned --I've never hit a plateau.

We're not the same starting weight at all, though. I started at 253. A cousin just sent me an old picture and I was horrified!

Good Morning Everyone!!

Well winter seems to be never ending here.....it snowed about 25cm through yesterday and today and the temperature outside is -19 right now (but feels like -30) They are saying that it will warm up a little starting tomorrow - which is good....warmer weather is a reminder that summer really is on its' way!!

Today is going to be a good eating day - I have my food all packed for work and my grocery list is in my bag so I am sure to stop at the store on my way home tonight....

Well I hope that you are all having a great day! Happy Friday Jr!!!!

Beth

Need some help in interpreting my graph. For those of you who make graphs on the spreadsheets, here are the datapoints which you can paste into two columns.

# of days|, day zero being Feb 17, Monday
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

and

wt, lbs|
170.6
170.2
170.4
169.4
171.2
171.6
172.4
171.2
167.6
167
167
169.4
170.6
170.6
172.2
172.4
170
173.2
169.8
170
169.8
167.4
167.2
168.2
166.6

A Web calculator shows that I need 2120 calories per day to maintain my weight.

Fat weighs 1 lb per 3600 calories so 0.6 lb is 2100 calories.

The latest slope on the graph shows -4 lbs in 7 days so -0.6 lb/day which is almost what I'd expect if I were fasting.
With this slope I should cross through 150 lbs in 27 days, give or take.

So I'm burning 2100 calories more than I'm taking in? Does this sound right?

Graphs convey a lot of information so I'm open to any opinions on the meanings of this bumpy line.

Hit the 150s yesterday!!!! So happy. I'm totally motivated to keep working out! My goal is to exercise at least 3 times a week but since I'm having a huge party this Saturday, I'm gonna bump it up a bit to 4-5 times to offset the food/drink calories.

Hope everyone is doing great!!!!

LOL @ Happy Friday Jr, cute!

Congrats A!

amandie - that is awesome! I can't wait to be in the 150's again!

Thank you, Sum and Olivia!

Workinglikeadog thanks for the welcome.

amandie congrats...As I always say to my 7 year old niece "Good Job".

Wobbly I am computer challenged so I understand what you mean. I am 55 never worked with computers so I only know a little with what I have taught myself. I want to put one of those scales on my user id but my computer virus guard says dangerous site?

I have had a few days of not eating well. Caved into eating sweets. Now need to STOP. Or it will continue.

I just want to lose 1 to 2 pds a week and exercise for 3 times a week. For right now just starting.

The exercise is done just the eating not too well but have to pick myself up and get moving in the right direction.