My Weight Loss Toolkit : A compilation of resources that helped me in my journey

Here are some resources that have helped me on my weight loss journey in order of most to least important in my opinion, that I hope could be helpful to those of you just starting out.

1. r/loseit : Goes without saying. The sidebar is hugely informative and the community is the best!

2. LoseIt! : LoveIt! This platform makes is SO easy to log. I struggled with MFP before, but the switch to this was quick and I have never looked back. It's my best friend, so encouraging and cheerful and quick. They have website integration which is crazy awesome. I use tablesppon and teaspoon measurements (I DO NOT USE A FOOD SCALE) and it has been super accurate in predictions of estimated weight loss and also my caloric needs. I can also see my nutrition info and weekly deficit. It does not make me feel like crap for gaining. I truly LoveIt!

3. HappyScale : This app is a favourite of iOS users. I set my start and goal weight. I enter my weight first thing after I pee every morning. HappyScale shows a very easy to understand, smoothed trend. It estimates when I will reach my goal. It also shows me the rate of loss, which is very useful to understand. Expected rate, Current Rate and overall rate. Fun graphs and charts. Makes for great tracking experience. Again, when I stop losing weight, it says it doesn't have enough data to predict and waits for me to start losing. No pressure here. :) It is true to its name.

4. Visual Calorie Estimations: I do not use a food scale. I have been losing on track without it. I eat Indian food that may or may not be cooked by me. I use whatever spoon I can to measure stuff. I rely on an average estimation of similar foods that I find in the LoseIt database. Also, googling for visual guides have helped me so much along the way. NHS, WiseGeek, I usually google for restaurant food :Carbs and Cals has a book with pictures like these

5. My Weight Loss Chart on paper : This has motivated me so much to celebrate every little victory see how close I am to my end goal.

6. Microsoft Excel : I LOVE EXCEL and data! I am at a PC all day so I end up opening this often. I have multiple sheets in my awesome tracking file.

   Measurement Sheet: At the beginning of every month, I keep track of my precise measurements of the following

   Month	Nov
   Neck
   Top
   Bust
   Underbust
   Waist
   Stomach
   Pelvic Bone
   Hip/Butt
   Upper Thigh
   Calf
   UpperArm
   Forearm
   Wrist
   Total

   I also track bodyfat percentage, BMI changes, etc on this sheet.

   Goal Sheet: I keep Track of the Weight Loss Goals I have and the date I achieved them

   Track sheet: I keep track of SVs and NSVs and Complements- with respective dates and weights

   Obstacle Sheet: Things that were difficult and frustrating for me in this journey. It is good to see things that I was struggling with that I have overcome

   Clothes Sheet: This is just awareness for me before buying new stuff. According to category, I have clothes listed, The brand, the fit, the occasion and frequency of use: I fill this sheet up as and when I wear them. I had 0 jeans that fit and about 25 fancy wedding clothes. Made no sense.

   Some People use a TDEE excel tracker, it didn't really do much for me as I already have my LoseIt! app.

7. Pictures on my phone: Apart from progress pictures on the first of every month, I randomly click pictures of me. Sometimes my face (it has cleared up with weight loss. Sometimes just before I leave for work the mornings. I evaluate how the same clothes look on my body over time. Underwear progress pics are fun but then It's nice to see myself how I normally do: dressed. I regret not doing this early on. The pictures I took at starting weight are really bad pictures of me in my underwear. By bad, I mean, I stood in front of a half length mirror and halfheartedly clicked them. I don't have a picture of me in my once-super tight jeans that fall off me now. There was an AMAZING guide posted a couple of months ago on reddit that helped so much with progress pictures. I can't find the link anywhere.

   • Avoid mirror selfies
   • Use the back camera of the phone
   • Face the source of light, like the window or lamp, don't block it.
   • Place the phone on a straight surface at your chest to stomach level, set the timer, walk to your spot and post.
   • Try doing this in a constant setup, i.e. Phone on table placed in same location + you standing in the same spot.
   • Recreate same pose for realistic effect You can also click pictures of your meals. This is my album of mostly<400 cal lunches for a month.

8. LoserTown : If I enter my calorie intake everyday, it will show my projected weight loss. A big table is generated of how much I will lose every week. CICO is simple math, right? I love playing around with this and seeing how much sooner I would have lost if I moved my butt. It has motivated me to go for that run or that swim. But it has also motivated me when I was not active- the diet will pull me through. Very tangible experience. Try it.

9. BMI calculator (Normal and Asian): Like I have ranted on here before, I found out very late that Asians have a lower BMI range. I only found out after I had hit healthy (or so I thought). Anyway, I use this calculator now- it gives me a reference for both normal and Asian bodies. BMI does not take gender or age into account.

10. Basic TDEE Calculator: Quick and easy. Uses my age, gender, activity level and fat percentage (optional) and gives my TDEE. Also states a ideal weight range, BMI and recommended macro distribution for my meals, for maintaining, cutting and bulking.

11. Fancy BMR and TDEE calculator: I use this when I have too much time on my hands. It is a giant sheet that basically does what the basic calculator does. It has a lot more parameters I can tune and compare. Like work in intermittent fasting options, more options for activity level, compare my current TDEE to that at actual BMI. It is also useful if I track on a different scale. I can work with a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly deficit/exercise/fasting. It's fun to explore.

12. Frame Size Calculator : On /r/progresspics, I found that most people who looked like me had a lot more weight than I did. Very confusing that people that looked like me weighted quite a bit more. And people in my weight range looked so skinny. After a little digging, I understood about frame sizes. So people of the same height carry their weight significantly differently if they have different frames. Turns out I am a small frame. -.- So my ideal weight is lower. Yay me. -.- Anyway, this is the simplest I could find.

13. Ideal Weight for Frame Calculator: So now that I know my frame, this guides me to my ideal weight.

14. BodyFat : I don't have calipers or a DEXA scan facility, so I use this calculator and this visual guide and this sub r/guessmybf for this. :)

Tl;Dr : Staring at the scale can be boring, so I found a lot more things to keep me motivated.

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