Open Food Diary? Why/why not?

readytochange42

Just wondering if you have an open food diary? Why or why not?

I think this would be the ULTIMATE in accountability but I can't bring myself to do it. I think it's because I'm still struggling with my food choices. I do write everything down and record it here.... But I find myself sometimes trying to still fit in my favorite chicken wings, or pizza, or some other processed food that is bad for me WHILE staying within my calorie goal. I'm eating less, but not necessarily eating better. That's not true all of the time, but It's definitely a struggle for me. Some days I have an apple for breakfast, a side of broccoli for lunch, just so I can eat Taco Mac chicken wings for dinner. On a different discussion, someone suggested that I open up my diary so others could help me. But I would be too embarrassed my by choices. Anyone else feel this way?

BigChangeNeeded

I have an open diary, as I'm not too fussed about people looking and seeing what I eat anymore.
At first, I toyed with the idea of having a closed diary, but I figured that it might keep me on the straight and narrow and, for the most part, it kinda has.
I have good days and I have bad days, and I admit that I feel a little embarrassed on the bad days when I have a small stumble, but I think I'm getting used to the idea that we're all going to stumble from time to time.

One MFP user who I'm friends with on here has a closed diary as someone had the audacity to start messaging her and start telling her what she was doing wrong, what she should and shouldn't be eating, and not in a friendly helpful way. I don't think that's very common though.

You could open it to just people you're friends with on here if you wanted, and then that way not every Tom, Dick and Harry can have a look in. It's just about what makes you comfortable, I guess.

Klipsan

In recent years, when I’ve been dieting, I’ve logged my food on SparkPeople. I had my diary open for a long time but the more I hung out there and made friends, the more people would offer me unsolicited advice in order to “help” me. So, I made it private. At that time, I was following a plant-based diet with lots of beans, rice, oats, potatoes, fruits, and veggies. Folks expressed concern that I wasn’t getting enough protein and would lose muscle mass, or that all those carbs would cause me to become diabetic. A number of people said they could never stay on a diet without chicken/cheese/eggs. One other piece of unsolicited advice I got from more than one person was that I wasn’t eating enough calories. MFP is recommending that I eat 2470 calories per day to lose 2 lbs. a week, which is touted as a safe rate of loss. The recommendation on SparkPeople is similar. Right now, I’m eating 1700-1800 calories per day and losing 3-3.5/lbs. per week. When I had an open diary on SparkPeople I was eating around 1500 calories per day and losing 4-5lbs/week. Folks thought that was too fast and unsafe. My response was that if I had weight loss surgery, something my doctor recommended, I’d be surviving on 800 calories per day, so I thought what I was doing was very reasonable.

On the other hand, if you don’t mind a little flack, by having an open journal you could represent people who use portion control of the foods they enjoy to manage their weight. You can lose weight and still eat Doritos and Oreos as long as you measure them and still create a calorie deficit every day. For people who think the only way they can diet is by giving up every food they love, you could show them that isn’t necessary.

arlenestrohmaier

I had mine open to friends only (I only have a few friends), but I just made it public.
Some days are better than others, but I do log everything that goes in my mouth. I would never judge someone by what they have in their diary. I think each of us know the struggle or we wouldn't be in this group.
If I look at someone's diary it's because I'm looking for lunch or dinner ideas to get out of my normal routine.

RunawayCurves

I have mine open because I don't mind anyone browsing it out of curiosity or looking for ideas etc but I agree unsolicited advice might put me off if that became a problem. If someone on my friends list kept offering unsolicited advice or criticism i would probably just delete them from friends list. If someone not on my friends list felt strongly enough about my food choices to bother messaging me about it, that would be ok if they had some particular question related to trying to follow similar plan etc but if they were just criticizing I don't think I would care really. I would probably just ignore them and delete message. Some people leave diaries open because they want advice but they would say so. On main community forum I sometimes see people post that they are not losing weight and don't understand why etc, sometimes they ask people to look at their diaries. Other people even actually specifically ask to be told off and monitored for chips or cake entries. Personally I use diary mainly to monitor my calorie goal and also to track my set goals for particular nutritional aims. If I go way off track I don't want telling off about it also I won't tell anyone off either even if they ask me to I won't.

Nuari2016

I had mine open, but then changed it to private because I don't want to confuse anyone who is looking at it for guidance - they might look at some of my selections and assume it's healthy, when really it's not (not yet, anyway). Low calories does not mean healthy, though I'm getting better about it. After I manage to have a more balanced and healthy diet, I think I will re-open it.

sajones62

I have mine private as an engineer I don't have time to cook and eat a lot of frozen meals fast food but I am doing the changes like a grilled chicken sandwich with mustard instead of a Big Mac and fries. Like mentioned above I just keep the calorie deficit. So far it's working. I thought about trying hello fresh or other food service but I am not a good cook at all lol I think we all have to be accountable to ourselves. Anyway it has to be for life I know this and I can do this everyday I would keep it whatever way makes you most comfortable.

Tata0716

I have mine private out of fear of unsolicited advice ( I tend to lean towards low carb and my weakness is salty food)I unfortunately get a lot of that in my life in general so I guess I avoid that on here because I know I will take it to heart and ultimately give up. I do however think I would open it up to individuals solely in this group, it's been the most supportive non-judgemental group I've been part of! I must say I appreciate others who have open diaries, it has helped and given me ideas. Hopefully I'll be that brave one day :-)

katdanash

Mine use to be open thenn some not so nice people happened . so I made it private with a pass word and now I don't remember the password

LCSt68

This is a very good question. I'm conflicted. I need accountability but I know I'm going to fail regularly, because after all that's how I arrived at this weight in the first place. A long line of failures. Like, I just commented in this group that I'm staying away from sweets... then saw this thread and thought, I know it's really early in the game but am I really? So I checked and it turns out I had a goodly amount of sugar yesterday and looking at my diary my eating habits are just awful.

I'm embarrassed but I know I've got to give myself a little time to get my stuff together. The key phrase being 'a little time', not months and months like the little fat-devil who lives on my shoulder tells me every time I want peanut butter or cheese.

So I made it private just now... I had no idea anyone could see it... but I changed my mind and I'm going to open it to friends again. I don't want hate comments but I need to be accountable for what I do. If I can picture myself sitting on stage eating in front of a crowd who sit judging my choices... that's sort of horrifying but at the same time it'll surely keep me more honest and aware.

And just a thought... whether or not you eat in front of a virtual crowd or strangers, a literal crowd of strangers gets to see how your outsides look after you've packed several years of bad food choices on it. It's not like we're gonna be able to hide that successfully, ever. Nor are we going to be able to keep people from judging for whatever reason. I guess the best we can do is keep our eyes on our personal goal and not internalize the bad stuff. Just take the good and use it to help make ourselves better.

Pepperh3ad

I made mine open as soon as I found out that it wasn't. Did so for two reasons; first, I don't give a flip what other people think. Second, MOTIVATION!

Sounds antithetical, I know... I'm complex.

MYhealthyjourney70

Mines open. i was hesitant at first. Mine is only open for my friends to see. Like you i eat wings and pizza. go over my calorie goal. I look at others diaries and get ideas for myself.

Klipsan

Pepperh3ad wrote: »

I made mine open as soon as I found out that it wasn't. Did so for two reasons; first, I don't give a flip what other people think. Second, MOTIVATION!

Sounds antithetical, I know... I'm complex.

I had to look up the word antithetical. Learned a new word to day.

readytochange42

I decided I need more accountability so I opened mine to friends today.

LCSt68

readytochange42 wrote: »

I decided I need more accountability so I opened mine to friends today.

Brave and responsible personal choice. Respect.

BarneyRubbleMD

My diary is open to anyone but since I haven't been able to stick to a diet since Thanksgiving2015, very few days will be filled in. My best food-logging months were about 1 year ago. If I manage to get back on & stick to my diet for 7 days (a record since Thanksgiving), my food logging will happen everyday. When I'm off my diet it's just too much work to log 10k-20k calories of food on a daily basis (& I really don't want to know how "bad" I did--it's an "out of sight, out of mind" thing with me).

readytochange42

BarneyRubbleMD wrote: »

it's an "out of sight, out of mind" thing with me).

It was for me too... Until I had a heart attack two months ago at the age off 44. No more out of sight/out of mind for me.

ClarissaCLD

readytochange42 wrote: »

BarneyRubbleMD wrote: »

it's an "out of sight, out of mind" thing with me).

It was for me too... Until I had a heart attack two months ago at the age off 44. No more out of sight/out of mind for me.

That must have been really scary. I am 42 next week and something like that happening scares the life out of me.

smurphy90

This thread just inspired me to make mine public. I just realized how often I'll see that someone came in under their calories and I am curious about any meals they have regularly or whether they allow themselves treats regularly, or find it best to stay away from trigger food, etc. There also may be a food that I automatically dismiss, assuming it's calorie heavy when it might not be, so I know I can try that food. And I love getting new inspiration on what to eat, so if people care to see how I do it, that's fine by me for now. Hopefully some of the realities some of you have had to face with unsolicited advice or rude comments won't come to light. We'll see. I agree that it adds some level of accountability, too, and also a level of reality! No one eats perfectly. We're all going to have days that we go over and that's okay, as long as we don't give up on our progress.