Ok, a little long/analytical...but if you like this sort of thing, hopefully worth your time.

Tracking daily intake and exercise is a great tool, but I was beginning to get concerned that I was too focused on the single day and not enough on my overall lifestyle and habits. So, I've begun tracking my daily activity, averaged on a weekly basis.

Screenshot of tracking spreadsheet.




The top 4 rows track daily activity and weight. The bottom 3 rows are a average of the daily information, calculated on a weekly basis. Meaning, the information displayed on the 16th is the average of all information recorded 9/10/12 through 9/16/12 inclusive. Data for the 17th begins on the 11th, and so on.
The colors indicate whether I am above or below my calculated target numbers. Green for good. Red for bad.

The idea here, besides satisfying my anal retentive nature, is that, over time, I'll be able to establish good working numbers for the net calorie levels at which I loose weight, stay stable or gain weight.

Tracking like this, I think, provides a better perspective. In the end, the not so great day I had on the 16th becomes less important in context of the days that followed.

This is awesome Steve!!!

it's always better to look at the long run picture than the day to day....one day can feel monumental, but in the stretch of things...actually works out to be not so much....

I actually do something similar. I think it is important that we not get too caught up in the peaks and valleys, but concern ourselves more with the overall trends. I like it!

i love this. i'm a numbers person so these teeny little bar graphs with no definite numbers that MFP gives us kinda irks me lol

I like looking at the nutrient and macro breakdown on my phone app.

If anyone is interested, I would share the excel file.