Today I want to present
another useful function of my Weight-tracker Excel spreadsheet.
In my previous blog I introduced what I called a regression line (Excel calls it a trendline). At the point where the trendline intersects the horizontal axis of my weight chart I can read off an estimate of the number of days it should take for me to reach my goal weight (at the current rate of weight-loss). I have not come across anything like it in other web pages but I expect it to be a good motivator to help me keep me to a realistic time-frame..
Each time I enter a new weight Excel recalculates and redraws the trendline so the projected date of completion will change (usually, quite significantly in the early days of record keeping). To keep track of this constantly changing information I have to enter each day’s “intersection” manually in Table B. The graphic (left) shows my Table B results for the first 14 days of my weight-loss project.
This same data is automatically plotted on a second chart which has the title “Expectation graph/days.” This graph gives me a statistically accurate idea of the real time it will probably take to reach my goal weight. (I am looking for a consistent, flattened graph over a longer time period) .
Each time I enter a new weight Excel recalculates and redraws the trendline so the projected date of completion will change (usually, quite significantly in the early days of record keeping). To keep track of this constantly changing information I have to enter each day’s “intersection” manually in Table B. The graphic (left) shows my Table B results for the first 14 days of my weight-loss project.
This same data is automatically plotted on a second chart which has the title “Expectation graph/days.” This graph gives me a statistically accurate idea of the real time it will probably take to reach my goal weight. (I am looking for a consistent, flattened graph over a longer time period) .
You can see from the graph (below) of my last 14 day’s entries that my early expectations were quite unrealistic because there was very little data for the program to use. Currently 78 days is my goal date and I expect it to increase slowly settle at around 80-90 days.
I hope you can follow this rather technical explanation.
If you would like a copy of my spreadsheet simply email me at weight2012@gmail.com and I
will send you a copy, PLUS I have
prepared a Word document called Readme(Excel)
which will guide you step-by-step in customising the spreadsheet to suit your
own goals. If you do decide to try it out I would appreciate feedback on how it works for
you. You can send me your story as an e-mail or make a comment on this blog. If
I think it is helpful for others I will publish it.
In the next blog I want to look at the question, “How often should we weigh ourselves?”
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