Ok, so first I have to say I LOVE this forum! I've had so many questions answered and appreciate the time and effort put into providing the advice more than you'll know.

Ok, on to my questions - first, whose scale do you use when tracking your progress? I HATE scales but have recently been weighed at my house, my office, the Dr's office, my gynecologist and, on Friday, the surgeon's. Obviously I'll have easiest access to mine but its about 10 pounds off. What does everyone else do?

Second, do you normally track your progress from your heaviest, first doctor's appointment, first surgeon's appointment, what? I see people with trackers for all three but I didn't know if there was a place the surgeon or nut suggested starting?

I know I'm obsessive (though hopefully not enough not to qualify for the surgery ) but I'm laying out my own tracking sheets and would like some input on what works for everyone else. Thanks so much for your help!

I set up an excel worksheet that shows all of those points you mentioned - my heaviest weight, first surgeon's appt, date of pre-op diet start - etc. I use my surgeon's scale as the "gold standard". For the interim times I weigh, I use my own scales and add the number of pounds "off" it is (known as your own scale's "bias"). After I am no longer following up with the surgeon, I will use another doctor's scale as the "gold standard" and determine what my scales new bias is.

My excel worksheet also calculates BMI, weight loss from previous weight date, cumulative weight loss, and average weekly weight loss. I have the worksheet graphing my progress, too.

In a separate worksheet, I do the same type of calcualtions with my measurements. I am going to measure each month.

Doug uses fat secret.com to track all his info, so I checked it out and I LOVE IT! I downloaded the app to my phone and now it's super easy to keep up with what I'm eating and my weight! I use my scale at home and I started with what I weighed at my pre-op appt because that 's the highest weight that I knew of (stopped weighing myself a few years ago).

Thanks guys! I have used Fat Secret in the past and really liked it. I'm glad to know 'there's an app for that'. As far as the Excel spreadsheet - thank you! That makes me feel so much better about my tracking system. I'm utilizing Excel as well and have incorporated what you mentioned as well as percentages per weigh in, overall and percent to goal. Additionally, I have had rewards in place for a long time for losing and my husband kindly agreed to let me keep them even though my losses will be nontraditional and, hopefully, much quicker. Those are based on some of the criteria above and I want to track how long it takes me to get to each of them. Right now I'm "hungry" for information about people who started at my weight and I'm hoping by tracking my progress I can help someone in the future.

I use the fat secret app for my iphone! I love it! I can scan the barcodes from the food I eat and it enters the nutritional information. All I have to do it adjust the serving size. Good Luck

Great ideas. I will download the app today so I can start tracking asap. My surgery is Monday 3/7. Thanks for asking such great questions. I completely agree with you about this site. It has answered questions I didn't even know I had

Omgosh! I just did the bar code scan. As a geek, this makes me super happy. I just hope it doesn't make me want to eat processed food just to scan it. Lol.

I use FatSecret too and love it. I have it on my phone and my iPad. I am a barcode scanner geek too. Since I can access it anywhere, I have no excuse for not entering my food intake. On FatSecret I have tracked my entire process starting from my first weigh-in at my surgical consult. I track my progress through a ticker on LilySlim and I am only tracking my weight loss since surgery. I want others to see only what the sleeve has done for me.

As far as the scale goes, I tossed the old one and purchased a new one. The new one is digital and it tracks up to four people. It also gives you your BMI and your percentage lost. I tested the accuracy between it and my surgeons office and it is spot on. It is made by Health O Meter and I picked it up at Wal-Mart for $40. I never thought I would EVER say this but... I love my new scale.