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Abstract
Many people seek an effective way to manage their weight, whether it is for weight gain or loss. The charts developed in this thesis, modeled after statistical charts for quality control, were created to assist individuals who have a desire to manage their weight. Ultimately, the overall goal of this thesis is to create an easy and effective way for people to monitor their weight with the charts and determine their effectiveness. After the charts were developed, to evaluate their effectiveness a study was performed within the Cal Poly community. Using an Excel workbook, an electronic journal or e-Journal, was created for each subject. The subjects were asked to record their weight once a day, for 5 days out of the week. At the end of each week, the subject received feedback on their progress. With the charts, we anticipated a greater difference in weight loss among the subjects who used the charts versus the subjects who did not use the charts.
The data were evaluated using one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) among three levels. The actual data were analyzed in addition to synthetic data which were derived from the mean and standard deviation of the actual data. Both sets of data were analyzed using the same parameters and testing procedures. The p-value was greater than 5% indicating there was not a significant difference among the three levels for both the actual and synthetic data.
Future recommendations for this study could include recruiting more human subjects for a longer period of time; also to focus the study on subjects who are only seeking weight loss or gain, as in this study subjects were included for weight loss, gain, and for maintaining current weight. By narrowing the focus of the study, this may reduce any variability and focus on the overall objective.
