What's Working, What's Not

I love data. I love looking at numbers and making them tell a story. That's partly why I love all my gadgets so much. My BodyMedia Fit (what a clunky name - that's why I call it my tracking device) collects all kinds of data. It uploads it to their website, and presents the info to me in attractive, well thought out graphical form. But it also allows you to download most of it (daily numbers, but not details during the day) into excel.  What a playground of raw data for me to crunch into nice tasty bits of stories!  I stayed up too late one night graphing how little sleep I get.  That's a tale for another day. Now I want to show my calories in versus calories out since I got the device in January.

Because I can control what I eat and how much I move, everything on this graph is within my control. The blue lines are how many calories the device says I burned in 24 hours. I plotted the actual daily totals, and then to be able to really detect trends, I dropped in a moving seven day average as the thicker, smoother line. The red lines are how many calories I compute I eat each day, again with a moving average to smooth out daily variations and better show trends.

What do I learn from studying this graph? Only one day have I consumed more than I have eaten  (on the cruise, of course) since I've been keeping track. So it makes sense I'm losing weight. I generally have been running about a 500 calorie deficit, so it also makes sense that I'm only losing weight very slowly.

I can also see that my vow to really focus on the fruits and vegetables, cut out the bread, and stop the sweets after 8 pm has been effective at dropping my calories recently.  In the few days since I first did this graph, I've vowed to be more active every day, and indeed there is a recent upward trend. Today I was going to go for a lunchtime walk, but I foolishly stayed at my desk and worked instead.

I am surprised to see how much higher my daily activity levels were back in January - that is when I got back on the NerdicTrak, and going to the gym at lunch. I guess that really works. I really don't know if I can add that back in on a very regular basis now, however. Maybe on Sundays? Or maybe if I just stay out in the garden and work that will help just as much.  It certainly is a great time of year to be active outdoors.

Looking at the data shows me what I am capable of and so it inspires me to get back to it. I would love to spend more time playing with the numbers, trying to gain insights - how about if I regress the calorie deficit against the change in my weight? I ought to be able to create a personalized equation for how big a gap I need to lose a pound. But I've already spent too much time this evening sitting still here in front of the computer. I need to get some sleep because I've got a very active day tomorrow!