Ad Libitum April Challenge
FIT_Goat
Posts: 4,227 Member
Who here is down for a month of not counting calories? Want to see if you can live like the crazies? Here's a chance to try it out for yourself. Or, if you're already doing it, here's a chance to officially track how it's working for you. I'll obviously be sticking to my usual goals: no plants (so trace carbs only) and no counting or measuring of anything but my weight.
Basics
Weekly Check-In Should Include
Note: You can use weight or just the overall change in your weight. I'll actually be using my trend-weight on each day. You can do a "Change in weight" track, if you would prefer people not know your actual weight. That would be a starting weight of 0.0, and then you would add or subtract the difference each week..
Example of same person, different ways:
Weight:
(4/1, 184.0) (4/8, 185.3) (4/15, 184.2) (4/22, 182.9) (5/1, 181.1)
Change:
(4/1, 0.0) (4/8, +1.3) (4/15, +0.2) (4/22, -1.1) (5/1, -2.9)
Obviously, I hope it goes better than that for people who try this.
* Yes, I realize that the final check-in is more than a week. But, that does give us the whole month worth and it was that or have one on the 29th and then another three days later. I'll also be creating a thread (hopefully the night before) for the check-ins. So, that will help remind people of the dates.
Basics
- You can log your food, so long as you don't change how much you eat based on the calories.
- You don't need to log, if you don't want to.
- Your carb goal should be the only thing you count, if you include carbs, and should be strictly stayed under.
- You should make note of when you include sugar-alcohols and if you counted those carbs. Some people find that those do end up still counting.
- You should check in weekly* (Wednesday 4/1, 4/8, 4/15, 4/22, and Friday 5/1).
- You should try and stay in for the whole month. If nothing else, you'll prove to me you couldn't do it and still lose weight.
Weekly Check-In Should Include
- Carb Goal:
- Starting Weight (or 0.0):
- Current Weight (or total change from starting weight):
- Short description of how it's going for you. Anything you think is important or you want to mention.
Note: You can use weight or just the overall change in your weight. I'll actually be using my trend-weight on each day. You can do a "Change in weight" track, if you would prefer people not know your actual weight. That would be a starting weight of 0.0, and then you would add or subtract the difference each week..
Example of same person, different ways:
Weight:
(4/1, 184.0) (4/8, 185.3) (4/15, 184.2) (4/22, 182.9) (5/1, 181.1)
Change:
(4/1, 0.0) (4/8, +1.3) (4/15, +0.2) (4/22, -1.1) (5/1, -2.9)
Obviously, I hope it goes better than that for people who try this.
* Yes, I realize that the final check-in is more than a week. But, that does give us the whole month worth and it was that or have one on the 29th and then another three days later. I'll also be creating a thread (hopefully the night before) for the check-ins. So, that will help remind people of the dates.
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Replies
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How do you count carbs and not see calories?0
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Lrdoflamancha wrote: »How do you count carbs and not see calories?
You can only log foods that contain carbs, and not log foods that contain none. You can just keep a mental record of how many carbs you've had and add more when you eat something with carbs (easy if you're really low). Or you can eat no foods with carbs, avoid all plant matter. Now, the last one is imperfect because eggs and cheese will have some carbs. But, it's easy to keep it pretty low without having to log.
Edit: And "seeing" calories isn't the issue. It's changing behavior based on the value of that calorie information. It's not eating when you're still hungry because that would make you go over. Or eating when you're not really hungry, because you're low. You can log everything and see the calories each day, if you wanted. Just make a decision to ignore that number. How many people here look at every number MFP makes available?
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i'm in. i've been wanting to try this anyway. i don't have a scale though, and my access is somewhat limited, so i may want to check in based on other markers and just to a beg/end weigh-in, if that's cool. (i don't like to weigh more than once a month anyway - easier to see the. bigger picture that way).
thanks for suggesting/coordinating this!0 -
I'm in, I haven't been counting for awhile anyway. I've been stalled - well, I hesitate to use the word stalled, I've been eating poorly - so lets see if there is a midpoint between "must log everything in the most anal retentive fashion possible" and "eating everything in sight all the time"0
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tmdalton849 wrote: »i'm in. i've been wanting to try this anyway. i don't have a scale though, and my access is somewhat limited, so i may want to check in based on other markers and just to a beg/end weigh-in, if that's cool. (i don't like to weigh more than once a month anyway - easier to see the. bigger picture that way).
thanks for suggesting/coordinating this!
That's fine. Just check in weekly to let everyone know how you're doing. You can pick your own markers. You don't need to report them weekly, if you choose. Really, the check-ins are 80% for you, and 20% for everyone else to see how others are doing.0 -
I'm in, I haven't been counting for awhile anyway. I've been stalled - well, I hesitate to use the word stalled, I've been eating poorly - so lets see if there is a midpoint between "must log everything in the most anal retentive fashion possible" and "eating everything in sight all the time"
Yeah, the challenge will be to eat better. Eat until you're full, but only of high-quality foods. My problem area was always nuts and low-carb protein bars (quest, atkins, detour). Those were a quick way for me to lose track of eating because I was hungry and eating just because FEEEEEEDDD MEEEEE.0 -
And, to clarify, for others reading this. The point of eating ad libitum is not to eat until you're stuffed all the time. It's not a "month-long gorge." It's about eating when you're hungry and until you feel satisfied and aren't hungry anymore. You may not automatically end up eating more than you were eating when counting. Some days you may. Others you might be under.0
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Count me in. I have 10 days holiday by myself with my sister and parents during April soooooo.... here goes nothing.
That will just make it a little more challenging. 
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Oooh, doing it during time off. That's doing it in hard-mode. LOL
The first week of summer was probably the hardest time for me. I was bored. So, I found myself thinking of food a lot more often. You can do it though!0 -
Oh, what the hell. In. I'm also on vacation for the next week -- I won't be able to accurately track, so I might as well not track at all. Pedal to the metal ad lib for me. 0
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Im gonna make a note to revive this thread in June. I have three weeks of untrackable food then.0
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I'm sure we could do this in June, too. I'll need to think of a neat alliteration for June.
Just Eat June... or Journal-less June... 0 -
I'm in. I've pretty much been doing it this way anyway. I only log things I think have carbs so my calorie counts are way off anyway. I try very hard to stay away from artificial sweeteners for other reasons so this is pretty much par for the course.0
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tmdalton849 wrote: »i'm in. i've been wanting to try this anyway. i don't have a scale though, and my access is somewhat limited, so i may want to check in based on other markers and just to a beg/end weigh-in, if that's cool. (i don't like to weigh more than once a month anyway - easier to see the. bigger picture that way).
thanks for suggesting/coordinating this!
That's fine. Just check in weekly to let everyone know how you're doing. You can pick your own markers. You don't need to report them weekly, if you choose. Really, the check-ins are 80% for you, and 20% for everyone else to see how others are doing.
right on. will do. (:
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This is how I'm trying to eat anyway, so I'm in!0
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Goodness, not counting is scary to me. I'm too new at this and I'm afraid I'd go whole-hog.
But then, that would be ok, wouldn't it...0 -
Awesome to see such positive response to this!
I've taken the liberty of finding the CSS that controls the calorie column and the big calorie thing on the user home page and set them so they hide. The result is that you can have your other columns, and still log for purposes of carbs, and not see calories, and you don't get the giant calorie thing staring you in the face every day.
If you use Chrome or Firefox, you'll want to install the Stylish extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe?hl=en (should work for Opera, too, though it might still have user stylesheets)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-Us/firefox/addon/stylish/
If you use Internet Explorer, you can go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Accessibility to specify a user style sheet.
Then, edit the stylesheet for URLs starting with http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ and add the following CSS:body#food-diary table.table0 tr.total td.first + td, body#food-diary table.table0 tfoot tr td.first + td, body#food-diary table.table0 tbody tr td.first + td, body#food-diary table.table0 tbody tr.meal_header td.first + td, #account-home #main #status-column #daily-summary { display: none; }
And presto! You have:
Enjoy!
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Very tempted, just a little afraid that I've only lost 10 lbs in 68 days so I can't spare any weight gain. Eeeekkk! OK, I can (and should!) count carbs so I'll be brave. Yes.
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Dragonwolf wrote: »If you use Chrome or Firefox, you'll want to install the Stylish extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe?hl=en (should work for Opera, too, though it might still have user stylesheets)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-Us/firefox/addon/stylish/
If you use Internet Explorer, you can go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Accessibility to specify a user style sheet.
Then, edit the stylesheet for URLs starting with http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ and add the following CSS:
Enjoy!body#food-diary table.table0 tr.total td.first + td, body#food-diary table.table0 tfoot tr td.first + td, body#food-diary table.table0 tbody tr td.first + td, body#food-diary table.table0 tbody tr.meal_header td.first + td, #account-home #main #status-column #daily-summary { display: none; }
Is the stylesheet empty to start with? If not, do we put this above any other content?
And - do we just delete this same text afterwards to get the calories to show again?
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hmmmm......tempting...I'll think about it.0
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Awesome, @Dragonwolf - For myself I also took an axe to the Goal and Remaining rows at the bottom, which always bugged me.
body#food-diary.body-header div#wrap div#content div#main div.food_container table.table0 tbody tr.total.remaining, body#food-diary.body-header div#wrap div#content div#main div.food_container table.table0 tbody tr.total.alt {display: none;}0 -
You crazy programer you!
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I've been thinking about giving up tracking lately, so this is perfect timing.
Count me in.0 -
GrannyMayOz wrote: »Is the stylesheet empty to start with? If not, do we put this above any other content?
And - do we just delete this same text afterwards to get the calories to show again?
If you're using Stylish, it will be. The Internet Explorer one might not be.
You can just put it at the end of any content that's already there, and yes, if you
want that information back at the end of the challenge, just delete it and it will return. 0 -
This will support what I've been trying to do lately, so yes...I'm in, too!
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Thanks @Dragonwolf I speak HTML but barely dabbled in CSS.0
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I won't be logging anything at all, so putting this here for the start.
Starting weight for me: 250.8
I will be more careful than I have been lately to add up carbs during the day. I don't change my diet around a lot and have been doing this for over a year, so I am 90% sure that isn't a problem, but its never a bad idea to doublecheck to make sure no carb creep is happening.
Carb goal is 20g/day net carbs.
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Leaving town in about an hour, so I'll log my weight before the trip: 196.6.0
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Okay you guys are way more computer savvy than little ol me. I'll just ignore the calories like I usually do.
I don't log everything anyway, only things that I think contain carbs. 0 -
Me too please! I'm pretty much like RATSMITH. Haven't been counting for a bout a week and this is the first week in 4 that I haven't lost anything
I'm wondering if it is that PSIS or whatever... the thing people say is a regualr stall at the beginning. Scale said 208 yesterday but I think I was dehydrated. Today I`m back to 212 boo.
Glad we have so many on board here. I`m curious to see the results with so many!
What is that saying or ... N=1?0
This discussion has been closed.