Tag: Using spreadsheets to track weight loss

Sixth Entry

June 2, 2019

Hello,

Yesterday was a very good day for me in terms of weight loss. I hit 190; that’s a new low since I started my current push in 2011. I’m now down just a bit more than 75 pounds. I haven’t been this low since the early ’80s when my wife and I were dating. The fact that it was the first day of the month suited my sense of order: new month, new low at a number evenly divisible by ten. Pretty nice. In addition, my average daily weight during May was 1.5 pounds less than my average daily weight during April. That exceeds my baseline goal of having each month’s average daily weight come in at least one pound less than the previous month’s daily average. As I said in an earlier post, small victories like this, which are attainable over and over again, help me to stay motivated.

I’ve also said in at least one earlier post that I keep track of what I eat by writing it down each day. Here’s the story behind that. When I was in my late 20s I started seeing a new doctor. When I told him that I was unhappy about my weight, especially since my blood pressure was already starting to creep up, he suggested that I keep a diary of sorts in which I would write down everything I ate, preferably with an approximation of the number of calories, so that I could get a feel for how much I needed to reduce my consumption in order to start losing weight.

I liked that idea and bought one of those little 3″ x 5″ spiral-bound notebooks at the drugstore along with a similarly small booklet which listed the calories contained in various types and portions of food. It also contained some brand name information such as the number of calories in a 12 oz. can of Coke. I loved that little booklet and carried it for years until it fell apart and I became convinced that my ability to estimate calories was accurate enough for my purposes. I suspect that I still have it tucked away in the back of a drawer somewhere.

I now have a boxful of spiral-bound notebooks dating from August 12, 1980. I can tell you, for example, that I weighed 174.5 pounds on October 28, 1980 and that I ate – according to my very rough estimate – 2,597 calories that day. Don’t you wish you had that kind of information at your fingertips? I know, I know. That’s more than you needed to know, right? Bean counter obsessiveness and so on. It works for me, though, and I think the larger point is that the secret to losing weight is to find or develop a process that will work for you over the very long haul.

Over time, I settled on the format for recording my eating which I still follow today although since I’ve retired I no longer use the little notebooks. I’ve moved up to spiral-bound steno pads which measure about 5″ x 9″ simply for convenience. The little pads were great for carrying around with me all day when I was working but the bigger pads are easier to work with and I just leave them lying around the house between meals. Anyhow, each day gets its own page in the notebook. I list the day of the week and the date at the top of the page; I leave space at the bottom to record my weight, the total number of calories I consumed during the day, and blood pressure info if I feel like taking it. During the day, I list everything I eat and drink on the left side of the page and enter my estimate of the number of calories on the right. I also usually keep a running total during the day. That helps me know for sure whether I need to eat a light dinner, avoid snacking late in the day, etc. I record the previous day’s total calories on my spreadsheet the next morning. If you’re interested, I talked about my spreadsheet in my Second Entry dated May 14th.

I just looked and I see that I started this blog on Sunday, May 12th, so I’ve written six unevenly spaced entries in three weeks. So far, that has felt manageable so I may try to continue writing at that pace if you’re interested in checking back from time to time to see if I have posted anything new.

See you next time.

Second Entry

May 14, 2019

Hello,

As I said in my first post, I keep eating diaries which include estimates of the number of calories in everything I eat or drink. At the end of the day or the following morning, I add the day’s calorie consumption figure to a spreadsheet. Each row of the spreadsheet includes the date, my weight that day, the total number of calories consumed, the amount of time I spent doing cardio exercise, and the amount of time I spent doing strength training. I’m one of those people who find it helpful to know whether and how much they are up or down each day so I do weigh myself every day.

I set up the outline of the spreadsheet for the coming year in January so that afterwards all I have to do is fill in each day’s figures. It’s easier than it sounds if you are familiar with using spreadsheets such as Excel. You could create the same records by hand, of course; it would just take more time. I also have calculations built in at the end of each month which compute my average daily weight for the month, my average daily calorie consumption for the month, as well as some exercise statistics. Again, these are set up at the first of the year so that the calculations are done automatically as I fill in the daily data. I like to focus on monthly averages rather than the highly variable daily figures. I still obsess somewhat over daily amounts but having the running monthly average helps me keep it all in perspective.

As you can see, I’m the type of person who finds fairly detailed written records to be helpful. However, there’s more to it than that. Unfortunately, I am very good at deluding myself into thinking that I haven’t eaten too much or that I haven’t gained any weight if I don’t have a record of what happened. Having the written record also helps to keep me from getting overly discouraged. For example, if I’m feeling badly about not making good progress I can look back over the figures for recent weeks or months to remind myself that I’m doing pretty well.

At this point you might not be stunned to learn that I am a Certified Public Accountant and that I spent all but three of my 42 working years doing mostly tax, accounting, and other financial work while working as a paralegal at a large law firm.

See you next time.