> A running average is useless for something like a weight-losing diet
I disagree, it worked fine for me, validating my ongoing calorie limits and estimates across several months and dozens of pounds.
> A running average could not guide efficiently your decisions for the current day, whether to eat more or less.
That's just using the wrong tool for the wrong job. You don't don't starve yourself today because you were constipated yesterday. (Or if you do, it's for issues of immediate discomfort rather than a dieting goal.)
Instead, you eat a consistent number of estimated calories, adjusting it to fit the observed trend in weight loss.
Paying too much attention to daily data points is also a psychological danger, people will put too much emphasis on noisy/singular data point and then use that as a rationale to give up or cheat.
I disagree, it worked fine for me, validating my ongoing calorie limits and estimates across several months and dozens of pounds.
> A running average could not guide efficiently your decisions for the current day, whether to eat more or less.
That's just using the wrong tool for the wrong job. You don't don't starve yourself today because you were constipated yesterday. (Or if you do, it's for issues of immediate discomfort rather than a dieting goal.)
Instead, you eat a consistent number of estimated calories, adjusting it to fit the observed trend in weight loss.
Paying too much attention to daily data points is also a psychological danger, people will put too much emphasis on noisy/singular data point and then use that as a rationale to give up or cheat.