Weight log--thanks for nothing

So I started CalorieCount on July 11, weighing 195 pounds. My goal weight is 145. CalorieCount says I can get there by June 28, 2010. So far so good. I start religiously counting my calories, staying right around 1200/day, once or twice a little more but never over 1300. After 3 weeks I weigh myself and, hooray! I'm already down 13 pounds. Sure that's mostly water, but I can already see the difference in the way my favorite jeans fit.

I enter my new weight and the date in the Weight Log and, what's this? A freakin' THUMBS DOWN and telling me it's now going to take me until August 23, 2010 to reach my goal?!? Talk about demoralizing.

Sure I know the weight isn't all going to come off in 12 weeks, but give me a break, weight log. I can see some people getting totally demoralized by your assessment that I'm not doing enough. Me, I just deleted all the numbers from the weight log and considered, briefly, deleting my account.

I wouldn't sweat the thumbs down icon too much.  I've found that the Calorie Coach isn't terribly useful until you get several weigh-ins entered in the weight log.  Try entering your weight weekly instead of after three weeks (and ignore the icon for the first 2-3 weeks.)  The system should be better able to plot your weight loss trend once it has more information to work with.

Just ignore it...13 lbs is amazing, well done.

A few things, and these are mostly guesses, but from reading a lot of posts, here's what I've come up with. I could be wrong on some of the finer points, so if anyone knows better, I'm open to correction.

When you originally put in your goals, the calorie target tool said "you'll reach your goal by x date" assuming that you would eat at the deficit it was recommending, which might by greater than 1lb/week.

On a completely unrelated note, calorie coach has a different method - as far as I know, it simply assumes that you will lose a pound a week, even if you are losing faster than that, and projects your goal date based on that rate of loss. It does not take into consideration how much you are eating, burning, or losing - simply how many pounds you have left = that many weeks til you reach your goal.

Second, the thumbs down can happen if you are losing weight too fast - greater than 2lb/week? (this is, again, a guess, but I think I've heard this). So if you didn't log any of the in between weights, and suddenly post a 13lb loss, it's going to think you are losing too quick, and give a thumbs down.

But honestly, letting your emotions be swayed by a computer program is really just a recipe for trouble.