Just use a Google Sheets or other online doc and a normal scale. It's so much faster in my experience to use a normal scale, read the number, then pop open the sheet (it can be a direct link on your homescreen) and type in the weight on a new line vs. fumbling with bluetooth connections, horrible apps, etc. Your data is never locked in to a service and you can graph, chart, analyze, etc. as much as you want too.
I can't understand how it could possibly be faster to stand on a scale, remember a number, go to your phone, open a spreadsheet and input it... than to just stand on the scale.
I mean the manual approach starts with the only step of the automatic approach.
You don't have to fumble with bluetooth or apps. It takes the measurement and uploads it to the internet with no help over WiFi after you have configured it once in its lifetime. It tells me my weight and my trend on the screen, so I don't need to open the app.
Once a month or so I look online or on the app and get the effect of the spreadsheet.
"The only step" presumes that the automatic approach Just Works™ at a price you're willing to pay (including having someone else own your data).
A $20 scale in the bathroom with a 3x5 card and a pen nearby has worked out pretty well for me over the last 3 years. There's two whole steps, but they're entirely transparent and quick, the equipment involved is affordable, I haven't had to spend time on setup or troubleshooting beyond occasionally retrieving a new 3x5 card or pen from my office supply box. The privacy is pretty good too.
Once every week or two I look at the 3x5 cards and can see what the trend looks like.
> End of the day, your weight doesn't fluctuate that much...
It does if that's a focus of your health efforts.
> ...that level of precision doesn't add much value and can make weight loss harder.
In fact, that daily feedback is immensely helpful. Very quickly, you begin to understand the connection between your actions of the last day or two and your weight.
> Very quickly, you begin to understand the connection between your actions of the last day or two and your weight.
Really? According to e.g. the Mayo Clinic, a healthy weight loss programme is aiming for no more than 2 lbs lost per week. That's 4.5 oz per day.
Edit: If you go any faster, you're mainly just dehydrating yourself and you'll bounce right back up (maybe even higher).
Meanwhile, your body weight fluctuates by up to 64 oz in 24 hours as you eat, drink and go to the toilet. There's a whole forest of confounding variables, and what you're doing is looking at twigs and going "Significant!"
E.g. eating salty food the night before will easily retain an extra 20 oz of water in your body the next morning. That's got nothing to do with weight loss. But salty food often has a lot of fat, so you go "Correlation! Causation!"
Really, if you're looking at weight changes on time scales less than two weeks, you're only chasing patterns in randomness and fooling yourself.
This is my neo-Luddite response to a lot of "there should be an app for that" kind of comments: "Have you tried using a pencil?"
There's lot of reasons to use computers, but there's also a large problem space where it's really hard to beat pencil and paper. They even usually come pre-installed in most offices and homes.
You'd think, but the setup and configuration on these things can take forever. And nevermind the things that can and occasionally do go wrong and need fixing.
Yes I don't think connected devices are always the best, but the person I was replying to was doing the classic informercial black-and-white video impression of someone pretending something is more difficult than it actually is.
No, that's not what I did at all. The GP of my comment was looking for an alternative recommendation. Spending >$100 for a fancy pants scale as a convenient alternative is incredibly wasteful and encourages activity (daily or mulime times daily) that is counter productive.
A high quality regular scale (of similar build quality, design, and construction) to a Withings scale is $40-60
The Withings is $100. So it’s up to the consumer of the simplicity, ease of use, lack of friction in monitoring, and saving of time is worth $40-60 extra.
If I save 30-45 mins of my time over the life of the scale: yes it is. Just from time alone (not taking other benefits into account yet) That’s not wasteful - that’s economical long term.
Not at all. I live a digital life where I automate a ridiculous amount of activity.
This is just an exercise in false progress. The average scale has an error range of 10-20 oz for a 200lb load. Automating something of little value (i.e. Daily or more frequent body measurements) doesn't make it more valuable.
Your interpretation is wrong, I've been to Uber's office in SF and its dinners are big trays of catered food brought in late in the evening. They're dumped in the kitchens and employees who are still working can come by to get whatever they want.
From what I saw it's part of the company culture. Managers were there late so of course their subordinates didn't want to leave and be seen as not working as hard.
Also there's no concept of overtime with salaried fulltime employees. You might work 100 hours in a week and you're still taking home the same paycheck as if you worked 40 hours. That's just the way corporate America works.
So they can get a free dinner? Or maybe they're just happy to work a bit late, avoid peak-hour traffic, and then head home?
I work 6am-10pm one day a week voluntarily, though I work for myself. I avoid traffic, parking is easier, and I get the office to myself without distractions for about 6 hours.
Nitpick but your request is most likely not going to space. You're going to a cell tower that's at most a mile away from you, and that tower is probably linked with fiber and copper to all the routers on the net. Even if for some reason you go through a satellite link it's in earth orbit and not technically 'outer space'. It's still pretty magical but at the end of the day it's just a fancier wireless telegraph.
The person you're replying to just used the space quote as an example of saying "hey, this is frickin' amazing and you're complaining because it takes a second to load‽" And the space part is amazing when it's space and the non-space internet stuff in your pocket is amazing too, and let's not forget it.
> "hey, this is frickin' amazing and you're complaining because it takes a second to load‽
If it takes a second to load it's not amazing now is it.
Also, that "be happy with what you've got" attitude is not helpful. If everyone thought like that we'd still be living in caves. Don't focus on the good stuff, focus on what sucks, that's the stuff that needs fixing. The good stuff doesn't need our attention, it's already good.
On the contrary, we NEED to focus on BOTH the good and bad. If you don't focus on the bad, you won't fix it. If you don't focus on the good, you won't work to protect and preserve it!
reference checks are useless. if you list HR they can only confirm employment. If you list your friends they going to say good things. if you list anyone else you are doing it wrong
That's absolutely not what's meant by "listing references". The OP is talking about listing reference, possibly on his resume or on-request, to companies he's prospecting.
The UK has a custom to perform an employment and criminal check by a 3rd party company when you join a new company (after you signed a contract and already gave your notice). That's unrelated.
> I have to say that this is not working very well for me, and I'm gaining weight.
Try ditching the grains and sugar, they're doing nothing but adding weight. Eat foods that have low glycemic loads to keep from spiking blood sugar and causing sugar to be stored as fat: http://burnfatnotsugar.com/diet-2.0-explained.html
The pendulum has swung back to just a straight caloric deficit as the cause of weight loss (so yes, 1800 calories of sugar when the body expects 2000 calories causes weight loss). His hypothesis isn't panning out..
The NuSI experiments that were suppose to prove the insulin hypothesis but showed no metabolic advantage for low carb/high protein/fat diets.
The one advantage the low carb diet does appear to have is satiety; fats just leave you simply feeling fuller longer. But there's nothing metabolically magical about them.
