Google 15 - Motivation to lose weight

9th December 2006

• From 2nd October (moving average 187 pounds)
  
• to 9th December 2006 (moving average 179.1 pounds)
  
• i've lost 7.9 pounds over 10 weeks or 3 pounds per month.
• At this rate with 24.1 pounds to lose, it will take a further 8 months (end July 2007)
  
• to get to my goal weight of 155 pounds (11st 1lb).

To reduce this time I'm going to experiment with:-

• reducing dinner TODAY to half normal quantity OR having fruit for lunch
  
• IF todays Google 15 says Danger! You're heading away from your goal! viz Yesterday Weight Change is 0 or positive.
• or IF One Week ago moving average weight change is not less than 0.5 pound (-0.5)

Above: Chris Street's Actual weight 15th October 2006

The Google 15 encourages you to get on the scale every day by calculating a moving average from your daily weight. We then plot this average alongside your daily scale weight and a goal weight that you set--this gives you a better idea of your weight trend by masking most of the day to day noise that variances in water weight introduce.

If you've ever tried to lose weight, you've undoubtedly experienced the excitement of getting on the scale to see that you "lost" two pounds since yesterday. Unfortunately, that tends to be followed by the depression that you "gained" three pounds the next day. It's impossible to "lose weight" every day according to your scale weight, so as a result, most people cultivate an irrational (but very real) fear of their scale and only climb on to get feedback on their weight loss efforts every week or two.

Your exact scale weight isn't really important as long as it's "ahead" of the trend you're aiming for. If you're trying to lose weight, you want your day-to-day scale weight to be below your moving average--concentrate on your moving average weight, not your scale weight!

Of course, the big secret that you never hear is that the hardest part about losing weight is keeping the weight off once you've lost it. The Google 15 generally considers you to be on goal as long as your moving average weight stays within 2.5 pounds of your goal weight. So don't stop using it once you've made your goal weight--enter your weight every day and it will give you an early warning if you start to pack on the pounds!

source: Red-bean.com