What is advantage of keeping diary private?

BARBnKS

I have noticed that some people keep their food diaries private & curious if there is an advantage to doing so? Personally I keep mine open so that it might help others to get ideas for different types of food to eat to help them stay within their calorie goal. Sometimes I go over but I think I'd be worse about eating more than I should if I didn't know people were noticing what I eat.

diannethegeek

There are as many reasons to lock a food diary as there are people with closed diaries.

Mine is open now, but it was closed for a while in my journey when I reached a point where keeping it open stressed me out to the point that I would break into tears at parties where there was delicious food. It was unhealthy and I had to do something to break the cycle. I wasn't willing at the time to give the diet up (it was a healthy diet, just an unhealthy mentality about logging) but I did close my diary and relax my logging for a little while until my relationship with food was better. It was a decision that I came to in consultation with my therapist and really no one else should get a say in whether or not my diary is open.

ncscott11

Personally I just don't want to deal with all the know it alls on here that tend to pick apart people and their diaries. Yes some ask for it but really how do you know if someone who logs one slice of cheese didn't actually weigh it and find that it was just under the weight listed on the package and chose to use the higher entry of one slice? I do that kind of thing all the time and don't care to explain myself to everyone. Just my opinion though.

Mediocrates55

Mine is just for me. It's a mess, but it makes sense to me. Since I calorie cycle naturally, I don't want people seeing that some days yes I do only eat 800 calories (gasp!) and judging me for that. Or seeing that the next day I had 2300 and asking me if I enjoyed that triple serving of ice cream. I eat when I'm hungry, bank my calories if I'm not, and it all comes out in the wash at the end of the week. If I stall out I might try a "conventional" diet and open my diary for suggestions then, but other than that it's my business and mine alone. Good for you for thinking about others though and keeping yours open! Some people need to see that from others and it helps them.

AskTracyAnnK28

A lot of people are willing to be more honest about their logging when it's not scrutinized by everyone on MFP. Like #diannethegeek, I'm considering setting mine to private because I'm beginning to develop a very unhealthy relationship with food.

missjazminenicole

I set mine private because I don't want people picking apart every little thing I do. I hate being judged constantly. And while I am eating much healthier, it will never perfectly fit someone else's view of what I should eat so I find that I can be completely honest with myself when I have my diary private and I don't have to worry about public scrutiny constantly. MFP can be brutal sometimes.

diannethegeek

PS @BARBnKS your diary is either set to private or friends only.

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R2Detoo

There's advantages and disadvantages to both, if the diaries are open then people can share recipes easily and can maybe feel encouraged to eat more greens/fruits by looking at other peoples' diaries.

I personally started freaking out about whether I would be judged for going over one day and wouldn't put in some foods, leading to a skewed calorie count. However I've never actually been judged and reading some of the posts here is kinda worrisome... @pincushion14 people actually say things like "Did you enjoy that triple serving of ice cream"?

Kalikel

Because there are some creepy-weird people on MFP who like looking at what strangers eat and then make creepy-weird and nasty comments. I also don't want people saying, "OMG 950 calories! It's not enough!" or "OMG! 1450 calories! That's too much!"

I honestly don't need the approval of others. My lunch is my lunch, lol. It's not a big deal and I don't care who likes it or who doesn't, so what the point of inviting people in might be - I don't know.

Also because I track personal stuff like meds. But mostly, the creepy-weirdos.

kamykraft

I have mine open, I think. I do it because this is MY journey and while others are free to see what I am doing and get any ideas possible, it is mine and I feel like keeping it private, for me, is like hiding it. I am done hiding and keeping things locked up. The only time I do not log something is if we eat out and it is just too tough to figure out how to log it. Again, your food diary is part of YOUR journey and you should do what feels right for you. Good luck to you

Mediocrates55

Had one smug individual come up a few years ago, when I first got started and was still trying to learn how all this really works. His exact quote will stay with me forever. "Well, no wonder your (sic) not losing at a decent pace. I hope that ice cream was worth it!" I even remember the grammatical error. LOL I deleted him and refused to add friends for like two years, it got my goat so bad.

KameHameHaaaa

I started out with an open diary. Then I got nasty messages from people about some of my food choices. So I started keeping it private. Later on it hit me that some people just can't wrap their minds around how I can eat something tasty everyday and still lose nearly 90 lbs, and that is not my fault and shouldn't affect my diary settings or my thought process about food. So I opened it again. There are days I am under my calories, days im over, days I eat no meat, days I've eaten nothing but honey buns and donuts. To me that's just life and other peoples triggers shouldn't affect how I use my personal diary.

lorib642

I found I felt inhibited with my diary open. No one was judging me, I just feel more comfortable with it closed. If I have a question i will open it.

mikesgirl4evr

For me personally, it has to do with honesty and knowing myself. I know that in order to be successful in my journey, I have to be completely honest with myself when it comes to what goes in my mouth. But, I also know that if my diary is open I wouldn't be. I wouldn't want everyone to see when I slip up and eat something that I probably shouldn't be so I wouldn't log that stuff if everyone could see. Also, I truly believe everyone is an individual and therefore everyone's eating plan is different. My nutritional needs are different than everyone else's and I wouldn't want people criticizing me for what I do or do not eat because they don't know my needs. Like I said, that's me. I can't speak for others.

Tiamo719

I keep my diary open but only to my friends.

LAWoman72

My diary is private because a) it defaulted that way and b) It's my business.

KylaDenay

.....cause sometimes it's just not anyone else's business, but their own as to what they are logging in their diary.

kelly_e_montana

I don't care what other people eat. Due to my sports, my calorie goal is so high compared to other pals' goals, and I use my diary to track my macros, primarily. I don't want people saying "good job" and stuff like that because they don't know enough about my eating plan to determine if it was in fact a good job for my needs. And, I don't think there is any "good" or "bad" day in eating and I don't like food labeled as such. I don't make recipes. I just eat food. Nothing to see here, kids. Half the time I don't even log. I'm just here to share fitness motivation with a community.

kelly_e_montana

Also, I eat a lot of wild meat on the years I have an animal to eat and have gotten a lot of flack about that.

levitateme

Kalikel wrote: »

Because there are some creepy-weird people on MFP who like looking at what strangers eat and then make creepy-weird and nasty comments. I also don't want people saying, "OMG 950 calories! It's not enough!" or "OMG! 1450 calories! That's too much!"

I used to keep my diary closed because of this. In the past I have had several users make comments to me about my food choices for literally no reason. I was in a thread giving advice to someone else and my diary was looked at and scrutinized by randos. "Your advice is invalid because you ate 2 mini magnums yesterday and went over your carbs." lmao okay

My diary is wide open now and has been for a long time. Who cares what anyone thinks or says as long as I keep doing what I aim to do.

ElliottTN

I keep mine private as to not be a bad influence on people in my friend list.

llUndecidedll

So no one will know my shame.....


But seriously, I'm no chef. You'll find no inspiration from my diary.

Sued0nim

I don't care what other people eat and assume they'd have no interest in what I eat

I log religiously for me, my trainer has access but I seriously doubt he's ever bothered to look ...

It's just dull

Unless someone wants help

TheSatinPumpkin

LAWoman72 wrote: »

My diary is private because a) it defaulted that way and b) It's my business.

x2

abatonfan

levitateme wrote: »

Kalikel wrote: »

Because there are some creepy-weird people on MFP who like looking at what strangers eat and then make creepy-weird and nasty comments. I also don't want people saying, "OMG 950 calories! It's not enough!" or "OMG! 1450 calories! That's too much!"

I used to keep my diary closed because of this. In the past I have had several users make comments to me about my food choices for literally no reason. I was in a thread giving advice to someone else and my diary was looked at and scrutinized by randos. "Your advice is invalid because you ate 2 mini magnums yesterday and went over your carbs." lmao okay

My diary is wide open now and has been for a long time. Who cares what anyone thinks or says as long as I keep doing what I aim to do.

This also happened to me. It's simply not worth it keeping my diary public when there are children (we're supposed to be adults, but some people act like kids) who determine the value of a person within the MFP community based on her food diary.

joanthemom8

I didn't read through the responses, but my reason is that I am afraid I will "fudge" (pardon the expression) if I know people will view my diary. Also, I'm pretty sensitive to criticism, and I'm very hard on myself. Logging is for me to evaluate myself.

Scott46617

I don't want my wife to know how many calories are in the Windsor Candian I'm consuming each night without her knowledge.

IsaCaliBel

Keeps me honest. Besides, I log for ME

Lourdesong

When I first began on here and logging was new to me, I kept it closed because I was worried I might be tempted to be dishonest on the off-chance that anyone other than me might be paying attention to my diary.
I opened my diary for a while after I got the hang of logging and felt confident about what I was doing. However, and this is kind of dumb but it is the reason I closed it again, I tend to eat the same things until I go grocery shopping and then suddenly my diary has all sorts of new foods logged, and it was driving me nuts that the possibility existed that people could put 2+2 together and know that I went grocery shopping on a specific day. I realize no one gives a crap that I went grocery shopping, and no one was probably paying any attention whatever to my diary to notice such a thing to begin with... but the mere possibility bugged me to no end and gave me anxiety that I frankly have no good reason to put up with.

SmartAlec03211988

Because I don't need someone's unsolicited advice on what I'm eating.

But then again its open, and I politely thank them for their advice but continue to go my own way.