How to Track Weight Loss Without Getting Stuck in Numbers
If you are trying to change body weight, sometimes you need to step on the scale to see how things are going. But it becomes frustrating to judge yourself first thing in the morning, celebrating if you’ve lost a pound, or feeling like you’ve done it all wrong if you’ve gained a pound.
Happy Scale (iOS, free for the basic app, paid upgrade to link to Apple Health) is an app that tracks your weight and then tells you the big picture: are you losing or gaining? How far have you come towards your goal? (You can choose whether you intend to lose weight or gain weight, or maintain a low weight after weight loss or a high weight after weight gain.) This is why Happy Scale is easier on the brain than most weight tracking apps:
It targets your best weight
When I open the app, the first number you see is your best score in 10 days. Weight fluctuates based on whether you ate, how recently you went to the toilet, how hydrated you are, and a host of other factors that don’t reflect your actual amount of fat and muscle . So, if your best weight was two days ago, this is the one that shows up first.
Happy Scale also uses your best weight to determine if you have reached a milestone. You can break your goal down into small mini-goals, and you can cross each off the list as soon as you are low enough (or, if you are gaining, high enough).
He describes trends
The best image on the Happy Scale screen is one that shows a green area above (or a red area below) the weight curve. This represents the weight you have changed in the last 30 days. Even if you have reached a plateau, you will still gauge how far you have come.
There is also a prediction section that describes how fast you are losing (or winning) compared to your target. For example, if you eat to lose a pound a week, you can see if your current weight loss is higher or lower. (Calorie tracking is something you would do in a standalone app, but we know that a constant calorie deficit does not lead to permanent weight loss . This Happy Scale data helps you track how your body processes your calories.)
Smooths the curve
Many weight tracking apps can draw a smoothed curve from the zigzags and riddles of daily weighing. Happy Scale works too, but it lets you choose which of four algorithms you want to use. (You can also view your “rolling average” weight instead of your 10-day high.)
Your body weighs the same anyway, so the app doesn’t lie to you or hide anything. But it gives you information about your current weight based on your past weights and general trend. It’s easier to keep the big picture in mind and not get lost in the details.
Happy Scale is not ideal protection against the ups and downs of tracking your weight, and if you have an eating disorder or are recovering from one, you should talk to your healthcare professional about whether and how you should track your weight at all. But if you know you need to track your weight and want it to be a little less intrusive, Happy Scale can help take the edge off.