Anyone feel like you're in on a big secret with MFP?

lewispwest

It's like, there's this multi-million dollar industry around diets and weight loss pills etc catering to people who want quick solutions to life-long habits but here we are on MFP where it just works.

I feel like I'm in on a big secret that the rest of the world doesn't know about, otherwise why would they go on all these daft fad diets and spend a fortune on crazy pills from the internet?

Madness!

primrose2572

I certainly do!

sodakat

Yes! I so agree with you. But, when people ask me "how" I'm losing weight, the majority are very disappointed I'm not doing some woo-woo plan and generally those who ask for details end up getting glassy-eyed after just a couple sentences of my details about MFP.

So, I don't say too much anymore unless someone is seriously interested.

tinascar2015

I think the world is pretty aware of MFP. I thought I was doing a service to my FB friends when I posted about it, and about a dozen of them, including my stepdaughter in England, said they use it. One friend even said her doctor recommended she begin using it. Now, why didn't any of my friends tell me about it ages ago??

lewispwest

I got introduced to MFP by girls at work, but they are the same ones who are keep going on the 5:2 diet or buying crazy chinese pills off the internet rather than actually putting more than 3 days at a time into MFP!

randomtai

Not so much a secret when people refuse to accept truth.

ShellyBell999

Sometimes secrets are best kept well,

Secret

yopeeps025

randomtai wrote: »

Not so much a secret when people refuse to accept truth.

Exactly. Also Some people are lazy and do not want to try to lose weight so they go and buy nonsense thinking it will help them go into a calorie deficit.

TimothyFish

No, it isn't secret at all.

sdado1013

I totally agree with OP. I'm learning that most people don't even want to hear it though. they are hoping for a magic weight loss cure where they don't have to do any of the work to get there.

gkauf744

I LOVE MFP! I feel so "weird" doing things in real life, like running the track while waiting for my kids' school bus, or walking back and forth in my living room to get my "steps in." But here on MFP, it's all normal!

cwolfman13

Nah...plenty of people know about this...hell, pretty much all of my friends and colleagues know exactly how I lost all my weight...but they still insist that there has to be a short cut and an easier way.

Actually, for some people I think it's just easier to go on a prescribed diet than to count calories...as diets go, I'm actually a pretty big fan of South Beach...phase III in particular is pretty much how I eat generally (lean proteins, whole grains, fruit and veg, healthy fats from things like nuts, avocados, olives, olive oil, etc)...problem is that people don't take something like that and adopt it as a way of eating more or less permanently...as soon as they lose the weight they revert back to old habits...happens with calorie counters too...there are *kitten* tons of people who are here for the millionth time.

Regardless of how you lose weight, the only way to maintain anything is to adopt a healthful lifestyle in general...and that's where most people fail.

999tigger

Nope its very well known, espcially amongst trainers. Thats not to say there arent plenty of people who dont know about it.

tekkiechikk

Never knew about MFP until it was referenced in a book I read two months ago. I am SO glad to have found the secret clubhouse.

Hearts_2015

lewispwest wrote: »

I got introduced to MFP by girls at work, but they are the same ones who are keep going on the 5:2 diet or buying crazy chinese pills off the internet rather than actually putting more than 3 days at a time into MFP!

@lewispwest

Perhaps you're not familiar with the 5:2 ? It's not considered a bogus plan on here, check it out, works quite well for some. It's intermittent fasting..

I'd never really thought of MFP as a secret..

emdeesea

It's not that it's secret, but the fact is that it's hard work and requires someone to be accountable for their behavior, and it seems that people don't want to have to do that.

So yeah, I get that when people ask what I'm doing and they act almost disappointed when I'm not doing some trendy weight loss thing. Maybe that's partly consumerist culture - you can't buy it and you can't have it immediately.

egorre

yeah. there's a multi-billion (not million) dollar industry behind weight loss, meanwhile i downloaded a free app on Google Play Store which pulls revenue from in-app ads. i do wish i could get rid of ads for a one-time fee. i'm willing to pay $10! but that's not gonna happen since ads generate more per click over the course of your MFP journey which is possibly forever..

scottacular

tinascar2015 wrote: »

I think the world is pretty aware of MFP. I thought I was doing a service to my FB friends when I posted about it, and about a dozen of them, including my stepdaughter in England, said they use it. One friend even said her doctor recommended she begin using it. Now, why didn't any of my friends tell me about it ages ago??

Last time I was in the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle-upon-Tyne they had posters up advising people to use MFP. I gave it a knowing nod, like I was part of some cool club where all the other cool kids hang out. We should have a secret handshake for when we meet other MFP users to confirm our coolness. Maybe even have secret clubhouses all over the world for various different areas. And we can wear fancy robes and hats.

Mexicanbigfoot

emdeesea wrote: »

It's not that it's secret, but the fact is that it's hard work and requires someone to be accountable for their behavior, and it seems that people don't want to have to do that.

^ this - I work in an office of primarily women and when I started losing weight, they asked me how. I told them the truth.

Not one person looked into MFP. Instead, I've watched them drop tons of cash buying pills and drops and every other crazy thing on the market to promote "quick weight loss" and guess what - no one has lost weight but me.

Hard work pays off, always

jennifer_417

Haha yep, I know how you feel, OP!

bennettinfinity

It's only a secret because most people don't want to hear about it... When I started losing weight, I was inundated with questions about how I was doing it - like the experience of many on this thread - no one listened once they discovered it wasn't a magic pill, etc... essentially "I want to lose weight, but I don't want to put forth any effort"

I have to say the best part at being at/near maintenance is that I no longer have to field these inquiries.

Wiseandcurious

Judging by the amount of users who show up for a quick spell and vanish, no, I don't feel it's a secret. And there are other food journal/calorie counting apps out there as well.

The only thing that seemed secret in the sense that it felt like a revelation is that "eat less, move more" and CICO works.

Of course that secret is kept out in the open where everyone can see it but I can't blame people for not seeing it when for years upon years I didn't either.

Ellaskat

yes! I'm only sad more people aren't willing to try it (one family member in particular - she has every excuse in the book)

Of_Monsters_and_Meat

I thought this was a dating site for married people. Or is that the secret.. ohh. Got ya.

Wiseandcurious

bennettinfinity wrote: »

It's only a secret because most people don't want to hear about it... When I started losing weight, I was inundated with questions about how I was doing it - like the experience of many on this thread - no one listened once they discovered it wasn't a magic pill, etc... essentially "I want to lose weight, but I don't want to put forth any effort"

I think it's a little less black and white than that for people. Many don't want a magic pill, just think that the effort they would need to put in would be inordinate and almost undoable.

I though I would have to do tortuous amounts of physical activity and eat like a bird to lose weight. I only really felt it was achievable once I read the stickies here by SideSteel and others. I had an account for years before that and didn't use it but then I discovered the forum, read all the stickies and like the nerd that I am read all the referenced studies too and, well - I saw the light

lewispwest

I think a lot of you are misreading what I'm saying. Obviously MFP isn't a secret, what I'm talking about is that is actually works and people aren't using it, instead spending a fortune on fad diets.

jgnatca

It's a secret in plain sight. It's hit the tipping point in membership, hasn't it? A genuine movement.

http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html

randomtai

lewispwest wrote: »

I think a lot of you are misreading what I'm saying. Obviously MFP isn't a secret, what I'm talking about is that is actually works and people aren't using it, instead spending a fortune on fad diets.

Because lazy.

janiceclark08

I did not hear about mfp until late 2013, a friend of mine told me she had lost alot of weight on the site. I didnt get serious with it till, I seen her and how much weight, she had lost. I am very glad that she told me about it. I have lost 51lbs in the last year.

yopeeps025

lewispwest wrote: »

I think a lot of you are misreading what I'm saying. Obviously MFP isn't a secret, what I'm talking about is that is actually works and people aren't using it, instead spending a fortune on fad diets.

refer to my first post. I knew exactly what you were talking about.

kristen6350

I tell everyone I meet (even women at bars and restaurants that are complaining about their weight). Most people look at me like I'm an alien. It's not a "diet" it's not a pill, so it's not going to work.