The spreadsheet called it: under 200 at week 27

2026-10-02 6206 views 13 posts

I hit 198.6 this morning, down 39.8 from 238.4 on Jan 8. Week 27. My 14-day trendline had me crossing 199.4 today, so the scale was only 0.8 lb ahead of the spreadsheet. Not magic, just noisy water weight. I weigh daily and use a 7-day average.

I know that's contrarian here - plenty of people say weekly is saner, but when I did weekly I'd convince myself a bad Tuesday was an outlier. The daily data shows the actual rate: -1.3 lb/week over the last month versus -2.1 during weeks 8-15. Slowing, but still moving.

Clothes: old 18 jeans are loose, 16 fit, one pair of 14s zips but is not yet public-ready. My only real frustration is that the trendline is flattening and I'm not sure if it's a normal stall or my logging slipping on weekends.

For the spreadsheet people: do you track weekly rate of change, or just total lost?

Congrats on crossing 200. One spreadsheet-nerd note: a 14-day moving average has its own lag baked in, so a 0.8 lb scale beat is basically one good bathroom trip.

I switched my trendline to a 28-day linear regression and watch the slope, not the crossing date. My slope went from -1.4 lb/wk early on to -0.6 now, while daily noise stayed the same. Do you log sodium or carb load?

I added a high-sodium flag, and my 7-day average reliably blips +1.2 lb for two days after. Curious if your sheet has a column for that.

yo congrats on crossing 200. the daily weigh-in thing only works for me when i tag the chaos: late-night gaming sessions, sodium, soda-swap days.

my 7-day average does this annoying stall-then-whoosh thing after a salty snacky night, but the 14-day line keeps me from overreacting. question: do you use the 14-day as the “real” trend and the 7-day for decisions, or the other way? i keep flip-flopping.

weekly only made me bargain with myself too, so i get it. spreadsheet nerds rise.

fellow spreadsheet nerd here. I added a “dining hall dinner” column because the stir-fry sauce alone makes my 7-day average look like I licked a salt block.

My cheap dorm protein hack: packet tuna + sriracha + microwave rice from the convenience store, like $1.50 and 30g. Did you find any foods that make your trendline lie for 2–3 days, or is it pretty stable at week 27?

Nice. One thing that made my 7-day average more believable: I started tagging high-sodium and high-carb days in my log.

The scale would jump 2–3 lb, the average would drag for a few days, then it’d drop below trend. Not magic, just water clearing. In the trials, the average trend looks smooth, but individual daily weights are chaos. Do you log sodium/carb timing, or just let the average eat the noise?

Crossing 200 is such a mental gate. I’m in maintenance now and did something similar at 185: I switched my spreadsheet’s “goal” column to a 4-week rolling median, because the 7-day average still bounced ~2 lb with sodium and carbs. The median made maintenance way less twitchy.

Question: after 27 weeks, do you care more about the trendline or how clothes fit? My waist lagged the scale by about 3 weeks, which was weirdly reassuring.

Honestly, the “kid leftovers” column is my version of your spreadsheet. I started marking days the kids left half a quesadilla or cold nuggets, because that’s my real wildcard—not the big planned meals.

Now leftover mac and cheese goes straight into a small container before I clean the kitchen, otherwise I eat it standing up. Snack drawer gets pre-bagged Sunday (pretzels, crackers) so the big bag doesn’t follow me to the couch.

Do you log that kind of grazing separately, or just let the trendline absorb it?

Congrats on the trendline crossing! The column that ended up mattering most for me wasn’t food at all: sleep.

If I’m under 6 hours, my 7-day average can stall for days, then drop after a decent night. I also add a tiny “puffy/not puffy” note, because some mornings my rings tell the story before the scale does.

Do you ever look back at yours and fid a signal you didn’t expect to matter? Mine was stress.

I’m a dorm rat, so my spreadsheet has a “mystery casserole” column: if the dining hall cream sauce appears, my 7-day average fake-spikes ~2 lb and then drops by Wednesday. I also weigh my Greek yogurt on a cheap coffee scale because “one scoop” is apparently a unit of pure chaos.

Do you flag high-sodium dinners separately, or just let the trendline ride? I’m trying to decide if adding a sodium column would help me stop panicking at Tuesday’s number.

The spreadsheet’s doing its job: you’re not managing weight, you’re managing signal. I added a “noise band” column: 7-day avg ±1.5 lb.

Scale inside the band = no decisions. Outside it for 3 straight days = change one input, usually an evening walk or protein at breakfast.

Stops me from re-litigating daily vs weekly every Sunday. Curious: does your sheet forecast the next 10 lb, or just the next crossing?

The 0.8 lb gap is inside your noise floor, so the spreadsheet didn't "call" anything — it just didn't lie. What's your SD of daily residual against the 7-day?

Mine runs ~1.1 lb, which means I can't flag a real stall until the 14-day slope has been flat for about 10 days. That slope is the only number I act on; the level is decoration.

Curious whether you're fitting the raw series or just eyeballing two averages — least-squares on daily weights tightened my crossing estimate by a few days and killed the urge to react to single mornings.

Congrats on crossing. The thing that keeps daily weighing sane for me is pairing the 7-day with two non-scale columns: weekly waist and top-set rep PRs.

When the scale flatlines but my squat top set holds and waist drops a quarter inch, I know it’s recomp, not stalled fat loss. Curious—do you tag training load or sodium/carb-heavy days in your sheet?

I added a “heavy lower body yesterday” flag and it explains most of my Monday spikes better than the trendline does.

Night shift here. My daily numbers are junk if I weigh after a different sleep block.

I log hours since last sleep and use a 7-day median instead of mean, so one salty meal doesn’t drag the line. I also mark shift weeks on the sheet.

Makes the 2 lb bumps line up with 4-hour sleep days instead of panic. What do you do with the trendline during a run of nights — hold expectations steady or adjust?