Tag: <span>Tracking</span>

It’s exactly five months today since I had my gastric bypass surgery, and my progress so far is that I’m down 33 kg (5 st 3 lbs / 73 lbs) from my weight on the day of surgery.

I’m really pleased with the weight loss, and I can definitely tell the difference. I feel a lot healthier than I was, and I am more able to do things than before. In fact I now seek out opportunities to exercise, which is something I would have always avoided in the past!

I’ve also dropped one or two clothing sizes, and I’m able to finally wear some of the clothes that have been languishing in my wardrobe for years waiting for me to lose weight.

In the first 3-4 months the weight fell off me quite quickly, although in the last few weeks that rate of loss has definitely slowed down. I suppose the Christmas and New Year period didn’t help, because I went a bit mad in terms of they type and quantity of food I was eating.

But, you know what? As long as my weight continues to go down – even by a small amount – then I’ll still be happy!

Ways to boost my progress

In the last couple of weeks I’ve managed to re-focus myself on my weight loss. For one thing, I’m now back to tracking everything I eat in the MyFitnessPal app. It’s a bit tedious having to enter everything, and work out quantities and portion sizes, but it helps me eat more consciously and make better decisions about what I do or do not eat.

I’m also trying to push myself more when doing out for my daily walk with the dogs. I want to get my heart rate up so that my Fitbit will give me lots of Active Zone Minutes. I have to walk fast enough so that I’m a bit out of breath to get my heart rate up enough – so I make sure to include a few steep inclines and sets of steps to get the heart pumping.

Surgery Weight

I thought I’d share with you the tracking spreadsheet I created for monitoring my weight loss.

This spreadsheet was created using Microsoft Excel 2010, so it should work with that version or more recent versions. I haven’t tested it with Excel 2007.

Recording Weigh-ins

The chart allows you to record your weekly weigh-ins in order to track progress. You enter data into the cells that have a white background, and all the values with a coloured background are calculated.

Each week enter:

  • Date – the day of the week and the number of weeks is then automatically calculated
  • Weight in stones and pounds – the equivalent in pounds and kilos is automatically calculated. If the date is also in the past then the recording is marked as ‘Real’ – to distinguish from any projected losses you might enter
  • Optionally record any target/award or countdown information that might apply.

The first line is your starting weight, so make sure that’s entered correctly.

The spreadsheet will calculate your weekly loss (the difference in weight from the previous line) and total loss to date (in both pounds and stones/pounds). It’ll also tell monitor your progress against a weekly loss goal (e.g. 2 lbs a week), and your current BMI value.

The chart

Above the chart you can enter your weekly weight loss goal – how much you’d like to lose per week. That’s used to plot a goal line on the chart – the blue line. Your actual weight loss is the red line.

Your Target is your PAT, and is shown as the purple line.

Your Club 10 value is automatically calculated and is shown as the cyan line

The height value needs to be set correctly (in metres) to calculate your BMI value.

The chart automatically updates whenever you enter new weight information.

UPDATE: In response to a number of requests I’ve updated the Excel to remove the protection, so anyone should be able to download the latest version and edit/amend/extend it to their heart’s content. Enjoy!

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