How important is it to have friends on here?

yowla

I didn't have friends on here when I first started but now I try to keep my friends list around 80. I only keep people that are serious about weight loss and are using this site for just that. If I have friends on my list that haven't logged in for 30 days I delete them (unless its family or a close friend I know personally).

I like it when I run a race and my support team cheers me on or I can do the same for them and I like to see people lose and if I am in a rut it makes me try and work harder.

It is all a preference. I always welcome new friends.

blabrecque_xo

I don't think I'd be as productive if I didn't have the support and motivation of all my friends on here!

Jim_G10

Having a good number of supportive friends is very important to stay on track. I can vouch for @leenda62. She is on my friend list and if you are looking for an active, supportive friend, pretty sure she would accept a FR

terar21

It works for me. This go around is the first time I've done it with MFP friends and it's very motivating compared to going it alone.

Feel free to add me. And don't be scared to add people, the worst they can do is not accept it

arditarose

I like having a group of friends so I can ask the dumb questions I would get made fun of for asking on a message board...They signed up to be my friend so the responses are helpful

13bbird13

I haven't figured out how that works yet... a couple of people have wanted to friend me but until I know more about what it actually is, I'm afraid I'm not going to appear very friendly. (Yeah, I'm old... I don't do Facebook either.)

arditarose

13bbird13 wrote: »

I haven't figured out how that works yet... a couple of people have wanted to friend me but until I know more about what it actually is, I'm afraid I'm not going to appear very friendly. (Yeah, I'm old... I don't do Facebook either.)

It's kind of similar to facebook. You can post questions or updates on your profile, and your friends will see, and vice versa. It can be very helpful and more than just a social tool, especially if you have some friends who really know what they're doing and can give advice privately, instead of on the message boards.

caracrawford1

Tiamo719 wrote: »

I only have 3 friends mainly because I don't ask anyone to be my friend. I feel like I'm being a bother, I mean, what if they have over 100 friends? Do they really want another?

I also feel it's easy to look at my profile and keep up with my friends because I only have three

Anyway, do you feel it's beneficial for success to have many friends?

It depends on the type of friends. I have a wonderful group currently who are focused on eating healthfully and exercising, but I've gotten requests from a couple who either don't eat (as in set their goals to 900 or less per day and fill the news feed with obsessive thoughts about their bodies and eating etc) those people I quickly delete. I even had one who started out OK but then made her goal 700 and ate half that. If you're going to be....for lack of a better term bat$&$% f#$#4 crazy, I don't need you. Go take that to a dietician and a psychiatrist.

DeeJayD2015

I think it's incredibly important and helpful, for me at least, to make real connections with like minded folks on MFP. It helps motivate me, keeps me honest and give me a reason to look forward to logging in - because honestly I am not all WOO HOO time to log my food. haha

TheSatinPumpkin

does not bother me to have no friends here. i mostly just stay on the main forum and groups.

sunnbunniez

I too would like to have more friends and other people are entertaining along with sharing ideas about what works for them. So feel free to friend me

sherambler

I like having lots of MFP friends because I find some are very consistent with logging in and checking in and others are not. Having friends has not necessarily aided in my success thus far, but posting in the forums and joining specific groups have. Knowing there are people out there struggling with the exact same things as me has made me feel less like an outcast IRL and on MFP. Talking about my issues, even minor ones, has helped because there's an audience that understands because they've been there. It's in the groups where I first started making friends. Group friends can sometimes be more meaningful for me because I then have multiple ways to check in with them.

Honestly, I don't think many people find friend requests annoying. When I friend request someone, I try to include a little line about where I saw them post or if we seem to have something in common (goal, inspiration, habits) and that helps to break the ice.

leggup

I think that staying connected with a lot of people on here is very motivating. On my FL there are several people who have similar weights/heights as me. As I see them succeed, I feel like success is more attainable. I'm also less inclined to slack, knowing that they will keep on towards their goals whether I slack or not. Also also also, I feel lazy when I'm seeing EVERYONE doing cardio on my feed. Makes me want to move.

To get friends, I post in a lot of threads with people of like interests and statistics. I post on a lot of vegetarian threads because I'm a vegetarian. I post on a lot of "5'10+ Girls Goal Weight?"-style threads because then I will be able to find similarly tall people, because it's really a downer to see people post, "UGH this morning I weighed 130! Fatty fat fat" when 130 is underweight on the BMI scale for my height.

madeleineld

To repeat what everyone here has said, it depends on what you want, to each his own, etc. But here are some ways friends on this site have helped me:
- I do not have many "real life" friends who I'm comfortable discussing weight loss with. It is really nice to have people who I can talk to about what I'm going through.
- This is a personal thing, but I really didn't want to become one of those people who talks about weight loss all the time. It's good for me to have people who I can talk talk talk to about calories, exercise, meal logging, and I know they don't find it boring and understand why I'm thinking about it a lot.
- Similarly, I don't want to post the details of my weight or weight loss on Facebook or whatever, feels kind of "braggy"--really good to have a place where you can share your accomplishments without feeling that you're being obnoxious. Same goes for setbacks. I know my MFP friends understand when I whine about a couple of weeks without scale movement.
- I was able to find people with very similar start weights and goals to me, at various points in their journey. I can now look at posts from someone who started out at my start weight and has lost 50 pounds, see how she's doing, look at her food diaries for tips. One of my biggest problems has been feeling frustrated and giving up easily, but when I can see "this person was in the same exact position as me and DID IT," it makes it easier to believe I can do it too.
- I have found really great friends whose progress I'm genuinely interested in, and that keeps me logging into the site every day. I'm at a 30 day streak now, which is (sadly) at least twice as long as I've ever lasted into a "lifestyle change" before. The social networking aspect makes me more likely to actually keep doing this, because I WANT to.
- I benefit a lot from motivation. A few weeks ago, I weighed in and saw a good loss, posted it, and then went to the treadmill. Really amazing to be working out and seeing popup notifications from my friends congratulating me on the loss as I continued working. Warm fuzzies all around.
- Having friends, seeing people around the same weight as me, going through the same stuff, makes me feel more...normal. Not that I don't need to work anymore, but it makes me go a little easier on myself when I'm discouraged.