The FatWatch Weight Log

FatWatch is a tool for your iPhone or iPod touch to help you track and analyze your body weight. It uses methods described in The Hacker's Diet by John Walker. Take a tour and then buy it on the App Store.

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heroic-software/FatWatch

The FatWatch source code is now available on GitHub under the terms of the GNU General Public License. For the full announcement, click here.

[fatwatch]

If I change a mark will it restart the percentage count for that mark? Any hope of getting a few more marks in future editions?

Changing a mark's icon just changes the icon. The data is not changed. I don't have any immediate plans to add more marks. What do you use them for?

[fatwatch]

I noticed that FatWatch is not able to do a restore with the backup csv file which contains the weight history of several years over the included web server. Is this a know problem?

There is a known bug where importing a CSV file fails to work on an iPhone or iPad with cellular data. The workaround is to put the device in Airplane Mode, then turn Wi-Fi back on, then perform the import.

[fatwatch]

A work in progress.

[fatwatch]

Will FatWatch work on iOS 7? Any future updates planned?

The latest version works on iOS 7, with a few harmless visual glitches. I am working on an update.

[fatwatch]

I have owned and used Fatwatch for 12 months (and 10kg's). I have just bought a new iPhone5 and all my other apps have transferred over except for FatWatch. I don't want to lose all my date. Can you help me sort this out please? Congrats on a great product.

If you set up a new iPhone using a backup from another iPhone, the data should transfer.

If you set up a new iPhone as new, you need to move the data by exporting from FatWatch on your old device, then importing on the new device.

If you no longer have access to your old device but you were backing it up to iTunes on your computer, you may be able to recover the weight data from the backup files on your computer.

I'm not sure exactly what you need to do without asking some follow-up questions. Please send me email at [email protected] so I can help you further.

[fatwatch]

[fatwatch]

FatWatch includes a calorie-to-food conversion table so that, when it reports that you are eating 200 calories per day more than you burn, you can find out what that is in soda (1.3 cans) or bacon (5.5 slices) or mayonnaise (2 tbsp) or chocolate (8.3 kisses).

Those are some of the defaults, but using the nutritional information you can customize this table and include your own.

Switch to the Trends tab.

Tap on any cal/day figure.

Tap the Edit button.

Tap the + button.

In the Name field, enter "Cadbury Créme Egg" (hold down the E key if you want a fancy accent).

Select Food.

In the Energy field, enter "150"

In the Unit field, enter "egg"

Tap the Save button.

Move the new item anywhere you like in the list.

Tap Done.

[unabridgedcomics]

This appeared in Timely/Marvel comics circa 1944-45. Apparently, butter used to be a food group.

[fatwatch]

Hey, how about a sync with a Withings scale? :-)

Planning on it, as soon as I have the time (busy with contract work right now).

[fatwatch]

Does fatwatch work on IOS5?

Yes!

[fatwatch]

I am within 500gms of my goal and the trend line agrees, but the app says I still have 1kg to go. A I doing something wrong?

You are not doing anything wrong!

A few people have emailed me lately with a similar problem, all of them using kilograms as their weight unit. I suspect there is a bug in code that converts the numbers to kilograms for display, but I haven't had the time to track it down yet.

[fatwatch]

how do i edit icons

To choose different icons for the four mark annotations, switch to the More tab and tap Marks. Then select the mark you want to change (blue, red, green, and yellow), and pick an icon from the palette below.

Right now you can't add custom icon images, but if there is an icon you think ought to be included in a future app update, send me an email and let me know.

[slowcarbcrazy]

Day 10: 279

[fatwatch]

benzado:

slowcarbcrazy:

So I ended up at McDonalds, eating french fries and chicken nuggets. I just wanted comfort food. I got “caught”. Charlie Todd and Ben Rodgers were walking by McDonalds and saw me. I guess they had been talking about my blog and this diet. It’s embarrassing to be caught.

Today I’m back on track. I’m calling yesterday this week’s cheat day, so I’ll still be on my diet on Sunday. This was a stumble, not a fall. I’m going to keep up with this diet and this blog. Accountability helps.

One of the challenges of living by an “never do this” or “always do this” rule is that, when you slip, the first instinct is to call the whole thing a failure and give up. I’m not sure why, but I think it comes from mixing up your rules and your goals.

For everyone trying to lose weight, your goal is not to follow the rules. Your goal is to eat less, eat better. That’s something you do over a span of time. You can’t fail in an instant. Sure, Pat, cheated on Day 9. But in 10 days he’s still eating better than when he started.

The same applies to something like NaSkeWriMo: if you write every day for eight days and then write nothing on day 9, you might want to give up, because your perfect streak is over. But your goal isn’t to have a perfect record, your goal is to write more. And the person who only writes every other day still has more work done by the end of the month than someone who stops after that “perfect” week.

This is up to you, Pat, but I would recommend letting Sunday remain your cheat day, even though you slipped this week. Or, if you want to reset, let next Tuesday be your next cheat day. It’s more important that you establish habits than it is to punish yourself for slipping this week.

Oh, and congratulations on the new scale. Here’s why I think you should weigh yourself every day. (That’s the blog for my app, FatWatch.)

[fatwatch]

What is the dashed line on the large chart that is several pounds higher than my set goal?

There are two dashed lines, actually -- one 2.5 lb above, one 2.5 lb below. Together they define a 5 lb band around your selected goal weight. To describe the band's purpose, we should step back and consider what it means to achieve you goal.

Most dieters worry only about meeting their weight goal: as soon as the magic number appears on the scale, they put on a party hat and celebrate. And while that is an accomplishment to be proud of, a serious dieter will recognize that her work is not over yet.

Simply meeting your goal is not enough. You want to maintain it. You know your weight is going to vary a lot from day-to-day. Tomorrow the number on the scale could be two pounds higher.

FatWatch considers you to be maintaining your goal weight if you can keep the trend line inside the band around the goal. Think of those dashed lines as upper and lower limits; if your trend line drifts outside those lines, you're off track, and need to adjust your eating or exercise.

All you need to know will be displayed on the Trends screen. The first time your trend line crosses the goal line, FatWatch will display goal achieved. If the trend line wanders above or below those dashed lines, FatWatch will switch to reporting how many calories you need to cut to return to your goal line.

Unlike other weight tracker apps, FatWatch's job doesn't end once you reach your desired weight. Managing your weight is a lifelong endeavor, and FatWatch will be there to keep you on track.

[fatwatch]

Can we get goals which can be specified by fat percentage? Its often a much more reasonable thing to aim for than weight or BMI as it is invariant to lean mass & hydration.

I agree it's probably a better thing to aim for, but I'm not sure about the mathematics. To achieve a lower body fat percentage you could either lower your body fat weight or increase your lean mass weight. Or a combination of both. This makes the prediction calculations a little trickier.

If you are viewing Trends by body fat weight (instead of total weight), FatWatch calculates your lean mass as of today, assumes it will stay constant, and figures calorie numbers based on how much body fat you have to lose.

I've never felt totally OK with how it works, since according to my bathroom scale my lean mass varies quite a bit from day to day. This is mostly measurement error, but the scale is all that FatWatch has to go on.

I suppose I could implement a body fat percentage goal with the same assumptions: all predictions are made assuming your lean mass will stay the same, and if the numbers vary a lot, so be it.

I guess my point is, adding a body fat percentage goal would mean big changes to how the Trends tab would work, and I haven't figured out what that means yet. Your input is appreciated!

[fatwatch]

Hi - do you plan to support online integration with the Withings WI-FI scale - this would be very handy and simplify the process of data entry (and make things that much closer to the idea of the Hacker's Diet yes/no "watch")

Yes. I have a Withings scale myself and adding support is near the top of my to do list. It's just a question of finding the time to work on FatWatch; I hope to in the next several weeks.