Weight tracking is a helpful tool to use when involved in the task of losing weight or maintaining a weight-loss.  The scale is a measurement tool.  It weighs everything within one’s body.

Ultimately, however, scale weight will…over time…accurately reflect the RESULTS of one’s eating BEHAVIOR. I add the caution…over time…because there are many variables that affect a person’s daily scale weight. You can read more about that in "What About the Scales?" and "The Scale and the Big Picture".

I have found that Graphing or charting weight over time can help bring perspective and patience to my weight-loss or maintenance process.
As an example of how this works, I’ll share with you some current graphs showing my own weight progress.

1. Here is a WeightChart graphing my DAILY weight for the last 20 months.
 

 2. Here is a WeightChart graphing my WEEKLY weight for the last 20 months

 

3. Here is a WeightChart graphing my MONTHLY weight for the last 20 months

 These graphs are all from a charting program called WeightChart, and all of them use exactly same weights over the same 20 month time period. The Results are actually all the same. However my Efforts are reflected far more accurately in the daily graph than in the monthly graph, or even in the weekly graph.

Here is similar information using the graphing function of DietPower. Except that here the time period is for the past 12 months, a one year period.

1. Here is a DietPower graph of my DAILY Weight for the past 12 months.

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I found the DietPower food journaling program in September 2004, while surfing the net.  I started using it.  I had good success, and still really like it.  

   I have logged all of my food into DietPowerevery day since 9/20/04, today, 2/21/11 makes 2346 consecutive days.

DietPower is my most essential tool for weight-loss and maintenance.……….However, like any tool, it won't be helpful unless………you make, and follow through with, a commitment to consistently use it.

Before using DietPower I tried many times to keep track of my food and calories. That was very hard to do using only paper, a pen, and a calorie dictionary, I was ne...

    During my weight-loss phase, I participated in a diet forum of people who posted daily weights. Observing the behavior of the others provided me with extremely helpful information. When I neared my goal weight, I decided that it was important for me to set specific Goal weights, and to make them extremely VISUAL.

So I created this Weight Maintenance Chart,

which turned out to be a very successful way to BURN specific goal-weight-range numbers into my mind and heart.

Many people have asked me how and why I chose these particular numbers, for these specific categories.  My "creative" thought process went this way....

Over time, I’d learned that my body weight tends to bounce around quite a bit due to salt/water/waste issues. Three pound gains and losses are frequent. Five pound deviations are not unusual. After a 3 day vacation I can have an 8 to 10 lb up-bounce, most of which recedes after a week of eating carefully. Due to this, I decided to set myself a 10-lb maintenance weight range.

At a height of 5’0”, the "Expert" Charts said my "Healthy Weight Range" was between 95 and 128 lbs, and specifically gave 110 lbs as the most "Healthy" weight for my height and bone-structure. I chose the specific numbers from within that range which were meaningful to me.

I set my permanent Goal weight number as 115 lbs. and decided that more than 5 lbs above that number was unacceptable. Therefore I set the 4 lbs above 115 as a “lose weight” area.

I knew that, due to my love of food, dropping too far beneath my goal weight would never be a problem, however, I watched one of my 5'0" forum members, who was maintaining between 110 and 100 lbs, be continually hassled by her family and by other forum members who were worried she was going to “develop Anexoria” and allow her weight to drop too low.
My own family also began making occasional remarks like: “when will you decide to stop dieting?” So I decided to clarify my entire position by setting limits for my bottom weight,as well as limits for my top weight.

The Charts singled 110 out as the ideal number for me,and my lifetime secret fantasy was to weigh 105 lbs. So I decided to set my 10 lb maintenance range between 115 and 105 lbs,.  which placed 110 lbs at the mid-point of my range.

Even the positioning of my numbers have Meaning.  English is read from left to right, which means thatleft is where one has been, and right is where one is going.  I put my high numbers on the left and my low numbers on the right. because the high weight is my past, and the low weight is my future,

The bottom numbers of the "Hea...

                         
If I wanted people to see me fat, I would have stayed fat.

That’s one of the many reasons I did what it took to lose from 271 lbs down to 115 lbs, and continue the struggle to maintain
my weight-loss. Sometimes I share former fat information with personal acquaintances in real life, and sometimes I don't. It depends on the situation and on my mood.

However, I don't share fat pictures of myself with the general public. Morbidly obese people all look pretty much the same, because no matter where you carry fat, there are only so many places on the body to do so.

Photoshop is so common now, that a fat picture is PROOF of nothing. There is also an element of Freak Show or Circus Fat lady, in the fascination people seem to have in looking at "Before" pictures.

I feel that if anyone needs the "Inspiration" of seeing a Before picture, they can look in the mirror, or watch a weight-loss show on television.

People who knew me fat will remember what I looked like. People who didn't can look in the mirror or watch “The Biggest Loser”. I’m not here to sell a product, only to share my ideas and my life.

During the fat phases of my life, I wore primarily tent dresses and caftans. Below is a music video of California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas.Visualize a fat version of my face on the body of Mama Cass.

I am an Experiment of One,
I continually learn new things about myself, and reaffirm things I’ve previously learned…but had forgotten.

Although we share many commonalities, each of us is different. We are genetically different, as we each have a different blend of ancestors.

Each of us has different life experiences, and many of us have cultural differences. We have different educational backgrounds, and my hierarchy of values will not necessarily match yours.

Because we are different people, what works for me, might not work for you, and vice versa. Each of us is an Experiment of One.

We don’t all have the same likes and dislikes, or the same tastes….even regarding food. It’s not a one-size-fits-all world, and that includes dieting, This means the kind of diet that will be a “good fit” for you, might not work for me at all.

My own Diets, or Food Plans continually fluctuate, due to my many experiments with various diets and food plans. Part of my ongoing Maintenance is a search for a Way of Eating with which I can live comfortably, while staying inside my Maintenance weight range.

My favorite diet would be one where I could eat ALL of EVERYTHING I like, ANYTIME I want, while keeping my weight inside the blue or green areas of my Weight Maintenance Range. Since that diet does not exist, I continually experiment with a variety of diets and food plans.

Are you conducting your own Experiment-of-one?