After graduating, I've gained quite a bit of weight and am heavier than I've ever been, which is not something I enjoy at all. I've always been overweight, even as a kid, so it's been a lifelong problem for me, but I'm determined to do something about it. I have been dieting for a month and lost about 11 pounds at an average rate of 0.318 pounds a day, which is, strictly speaking, faster than recommended (2 pounds a week at most, or 0.28 pounds a day), but not crazy.

I've done it so far by tracking calories using DietOrganizer, though many tools exist for this. DietOrganizer worked well for me, because my wife is tracking as well, and it uses one database of entered foods, so you don't have to work on entering foods twice. A free online tracker FitDay works essentially the same, but doesn't allow two people to use the same database of foods. I started my diet by setting my goal calories to the typical calories burned by someone of my goal weight, which has worked pretty well thus far. Obviously, as you lose weight, you need to cut calories more to maintain the same loss.

What has really helped motivate me, keep me on track, and paradoxically let me eat things I shouldn't on occasion is tracking my weight in an Excel spreadsheet. Every day I weigh myself and enter it into the spreadsheet, where I have 4-day, weekly, and bi-weekly moving averages calculated automatically. I set this up by, on the first day a given average was possible (i.e. there were 4 days of data for the 4-day, 1 week for the 1-week, etc.), I started a new column and on that day input the formula =AVERAGE(B2:B5), where B2:B5 is the appropriate length of data. When this cell is copied and pasted into the cell below it, the range automatically shifts down one, so now the average is over B3-B6, and so on. Every time I add a new weight, I just copy the moving average cells above and paste, while Excel changes the formula accordingly.

I then created a graph as well, which really helps visualize the weight loss and how steady it is over a weekly and especially bi-weekly period. To do this, simply select all of your data, including the averages, and select Insert and Line Graph. Finally, I added a trendline to the bi-weekly average, along with its equation and R^2 value, which tells me on average how much weight I have lost per day. You can do this by right clicking on the appropriate line and selecting "add trendline".

Armed with this data, I can tweak my diet to my liking. Since I know on average how many calories I've eaten and at the same time on average how much weight I have lost, I can easily calculate my average metabolic rate, using the simple conversion of 3,500 calories per pound. This obviously assumes a lot of things, such as you losing only fat weight, but nonetheless, it helps you gauge where your diet stands.

More importantly, it helps you keep sight of the real progress you are making. A spike up can dampen your spirits and make you think your dieting is for naught, but as long as you really are eating fewer calories than you're burning, you must lose weight. If, for some reason you are not losing weight or even gaining, even over a bi-weekly averaged period, you also have the data you need to figure out how much you need to cut from your daily intake.