EXCEL NEWBIE: I need help creating a formula please...

[jmphillips]

Hi Excel People,

I need some help creating a formula...

I am trying to keep a record of how much weight I lose each week in Excel and want to use a formula to calculate my TOTAL WEIGHT LOST after I enter my weight each week and display it in a cell.

So, in the example below, I started at 200Lbs on 10/01 and then on 10/08 I weighed in at 195Lbs. I want another cell (D3) to show me that I have lost a total of 5Lbs. (But I want it to UPDATE automatically each week - so on 10/8 when I enter my weight, I would see “5” in cell (D3), but on 10/29 when I enter my weight I would see “20” in cell (D3) which would be my total weight lost thus far...and I want to be able to do this for a range of dates)

I know the subtract formula (B1-B2) would give me my weight loss total for the first week - but then how would I get the total for the second week which would be (B1-B3) to show up in cell (D3) - I don't understand how to enter a formula that will update like this...I know I could just do this for each week in say cells (D3-DX) but I do not want to see all that – I just want one cell somewhere to show me how many total pounds I have lost after entering my weight for each week. I hope I am making sense here…

---------A-----------B--------C--------D--------E
1-----10/01------200
2-----10/08------195
3-----10/15------190---------------20
4-----10/22------185
5-----10/29------180


I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me...

CAUTION: I am VERY NEW with Excel and Formulas so please (if you could) make your answers simple or very detailed with examples.

Thanks in advance,

-Joseph

 

[Peter_SSs]

jmphillips

Welcome to the Mr Excel board!

See if this formula in D3 does what you want:
=B1-LOOKUP(9.99999999999999E+307,B:B)

 

[jmphillips]

It worked GREAT!

I can't believe it but that worked GREAT! Thank you so much for the amazingly quick response too. I really apprecite it. PROBLEM SOLVED!

Thanks again,

-Joseph

 

[Peter_SSs]

Re: It worked GREAT!

I can't believe it but that worked GREAT! Thank you so much for the amazingly quick response too. I really apprecite it. PROBLEM SOLVED!

Thanks again,

-Joseph

Glad to help

You say that you are new to Excel. The formula suggested is certainly not the sort of formula most people meet at the beginning of their Excel exploits. You might gain something by having a look at the discussion in this thread:
http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?t=105725

By the way: Good luck with the weight loss!