A plateau over two weeks is usually measurement. A plateau over two months is usually energy balance. The timescale is what distinguishes them.
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Outcomes · Progress reports · continued
A 40-week log with the measurement method stated posts 91–98
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
w.novak, post #60: That matches what I have seen, for whatever a single anecdote is worth. Go to post
The reason 40-week log keeps being re-asked is that the answer is conditional and people quote it without the condition. It is not that the answer is unknown.
Post #91 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.
Agreed on 40-week log, with one qualification that I think matters. The reasoning holds for the case as described. Change the starting assumption and it does not, and the starting assumption is the part nobody states.
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e.kuusela, post #43: The arithmetic in post #42 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check. Maintenance series are the ones this subcategory needs most and receives least. The interesting questions all change once loss stops. Go to post
Rate of change matters more than the absolute number for most of the questions people ask about their own series.
Take it as a starting point and not as a specification.
a.almeida, post #22: The best progress reports here read as records rather than as arguments, and that difference is visible within a sentence. Go to post
Measurement noise: day-to-day body mass varies by more than a kilogram on hydration, glycogen, and gut contents alone. A weekly reading is a single noisy sample of a distribution. A seven-day rolling mean of daily readings has much lower noise.
Confirming post #95 from a second method, which matters more than confirming it from a second person.
The version of 40-week log that circulates here is a simplification of a simplification. It is not wrong, but it has lost the conditions under which it holds, and those conditions are where the interesting cases live.
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This topic was referenced in
- Seven-day rolling means and why weekly readings misleadOutcomes › Progress reports · 125 replies
- Reporting a disappointing outcome, and why it belongs hereOutcomes › Progress reports · 29 replies
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