why don't you log?
Replies
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Counting calories messes me up. I like to have a vague idea and if I’m feeling heavy, I’ll actually log to make sure I’m eating right and getting the right amount of calories and macros. But I don’t want to give people the chance to bring me down from my personal progress. People in my actual life see and know how I eat and workout.0
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JerSchmare wrote: »I share with friends only. But, the idea of looking at someone’s diary is stupid. I don’t know why people do that. I have heard all the reasons. But, it is stupid, as far as I’m concerned. Why does one person concern their self with what someone else is eating? I don’t get it.
@JerSchmare ,
I can tell you one reason that applied to me for looking at someone else's food diary--he was an insulin-dependent diabetic just like I am and mentioned that he logged his meal-time insulin doses along with his pre & post meal blood sugar readings right in his food log with each meal so he could track how appropriate the insulin he injected worked for the amount of net carbs he ate at each meal.
His food diary was set to public so I checked it out. I had never realized that the MFP food database had "medications" (i.e. insulin) in there along with various "glucose readings" & "meal time" clocks (for logging meal times). I had always thought the MFP food database just had food in it and didn't even think of looking for other items like insulin or glucose readings.
Logging all this information in my MFP food diary is helpful as it keeps all this info in one place where I can see the effects from the net carbs I consume and the meal-time insulin I inject without having to bounce between my MFP food diary and Excel spreadsheets (for my insulin/blood sugar info).
I've kept my MFP food diary public for the same reason he did and on occasion have directed other (newly diagnosed) diabetics to it so they can see how to include that type of data with their MFP food log as they learn how different foods affect their blood sugars.
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I actually stopped logging about a month ago because I realized my brain has a hard time with it and I became disordered. I feel guilty seeing red even if it's by five calories but I get a high and feel more accomplished the more calories I have remaining. I know it's not healthy for me so I just stopped. It's a big deal this time because I also took my Fitbit off a month ago which is something I never thought I'd be able to do. I last weighed myself a month ago and I'm not weighing myself until after my next cycle. I used to be a daily weigher but seeing a spike would affect my mood too much.
Being able to indulge without feeling depressed is important for me. Being able to rest when my body needs it instead of not letting myself because I don't have enough Fitbit steps is important for me. Not feeling like a failure because I didn't see a decrease on the scale is important for me. I also want to see what happens when I just exercise and move as normal and eat intuitively. I was 118 about a month ago and if I see anything over 125 when I weigh myself in a few weeks I have to log again. That's my "danger" weight; it's too much for my body type.5 -
deannalfisher wrote: »i understand why people don't log (and/or) make their diaries private - but at the same time, you have multiple people daily posting threads about their inability to lose weight and not logging/private diary - makes it hard for anyone to help them identify issues - so its kind of a double edged sword
Then just ask the people requesting help to open his/her diary to see what the problem is, and maybe offer solutions. The rest of us can keep it private.
Not sayin by you have to open yours...I’m saying that if ppl want help then logging and an open diary is one of the few ways to do it - so it’s something to consider0 -
OP, I think you're confusing terms maybe? Logging isn't letting other people see your food diary.
@kimny72 I think you’re right, I guess it doesn’t matter if your diary is open or not. It’s weird because my diary looks pretty much the same every day/week, so I could probably not even log because it’s the same thing pretty much the same day, but I have started to really enjoy it, I just don’t know why
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I have logged everything I've eaten for over seven years, but I recently closed my food diary. I'm in maintenance and my diet it's not what it was when I was trying to lose, so is not a good pattern for success for others. A novice might draw some incorrect conclusions about weight loss looking at my diary. I continue to log for my own purposes though.0
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My diary is open to friends.
That said, I am a very busy woman who meal preps for the week and will repeatedly use the same entries and measurements for my food even though I weighed out each item individually. It's faster and easier that way. I overestimate my proteins, weigh fruits with peels and cores, and if I'm out use the barcode scanner and guesstimate using ounces and cups. I refuse to carry a scale. Keeping one at my desk at work is enough.
So if you see ounces, cups, and tablespoons instead of grams, I know it's not textbook but we can't all be perfect.0 -
I kept my diary private as I was trying to gain weight and on a restricted autoimmune diet. It would have been completely useless to most of my MFP friends.
I just reached maintenance and stopped logging. It became too mentally draining, and I am doing just fine without it so far.3 -
I didn't realize that sharing diaries was a thing until I came to the forums, which is also when I learned that diaries are set to private by default, and saw diary shaming. So I left mine to private. Plus I don't have time to answer questions about my food choices, which is something I saw in my feed when I had time to be active there.
However, I think if someone starts a "Why can't I lose weight?" thread, they should definitely set their diary to public, as that is where the answer certainly lies.5 -
Again, I thank everyone for their responses and opinions. I really only keep my diary open (and probably why I log) is that I like to be accountable for my choices although I know deep down, it’s really just for me. I also like to look back and see my notes and if I deviate from my normal diet.0
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GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Years ago, someone tried to food shame me (she was a low carber who didn't think calories counted and thought my intake was pitifully low and had too many grams of carbs) in a thread. I was appalled that my food choices were weaponized like that, because I eat a balanced diet and it was ugly of her. She lied about it, saying she ran reports on my overall nutrition (which another user can't do) and shared my diary with house guests who happened to be doctors and that they were also aghast.
All this because I ended a day filled with vegetables, lean vegetarian protein, and whole grains with an 80 calorie fun sized Snickers bar.
My intake was an apparently ghastly 1400 or so calories.
I vowed then and there that what I ate was no one else's business unless I decided it was and made my diary private.
I log my food in a sloppy way. There are bits of this and that I don't log. I top my cottage cheese with popcorn seasoning and don't log that. I don't log every spice or things like gum.
Every now and then I have a day when I don't log my food because I'm not in the mood, but I keep a mental tally and have a vague notion of what I'm eating on those days. I don't bother logging on holidays or when we're on vacation. It's a sort of relaxed attitude/balance about logging that keeps it enjoyable and easy to do for me.
My experience wasn't as extreme as that but I did have a weird experience where I posted in a thread, can't remember what it was about but for example Does herbal tea count as water? and someone didn't like my answer and they posted to say As if they would take advice from someone who only eats x grams of protein daily!!!
Umm, topic is nothing to do with protein and how much I eat is irelevant to my answer to OP's question.
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I was logging my food religiously for a while but I ate almost the same thing every day and was losing weight rapidly. Eventually I stopped logging because the calorie count barely changed and I wasn't worried about weight coming off.
Then my weight loss slowed down so i started logging again. Yup, too much snacking. Logging made me see it, but also made it harder to snack.
So now I mostly just log my food when I think I'm starting to snack too much again. I've lost around 93 lbs last year (I'm 50) and losing around 2 lbs per month now.2 -
Mine is public--I don't care who sees it or if they comment. Most of my foods are Italian brands and useless to anyone who doesn't live here. I log after 5 yrs because I like to and I want to hit my protein goal. Logging keeps me honest with myself. I sometimes look at someones diary if they're asking for help. People are so sensitive about it, and I find it strange because I could care less.0
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snowflake954 wrote: »Mine is public--I don't care who sees it or if they comment. Most of my foods are Italian brands and useless to anyone who doesn't live here. I log after 5 yrs because I like to and I want to hit my protein goal. Logging keeps me honest with myself. I sometimes look at someones diary if they're asking for help. People are so sensitive about it, and I find it strange because I could care less.
I was surprised I cared, tbh, because I'm not the type to care about such things normally. When I analyzed my feelings, I found them buried in the years growing up fat shamed by my mother. One of the reasons I got fat was because I started eating during adolescence due to childhood sexual abuse that I hadn't told anyone about. I wanted to hide my body. The fat shaming didn't help. I hid food and it was all a very vicious cycle.
It's hard letting go of all of that and making progress at the same time. It's taken a LOT of work to have a healthy relationship with food, and I'm still not sure I'm there.
Baby steps.15 -
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What I eat is my business and my business only
I have had it open in the past, and I've had people criticize me for not eating "clean" or whatever. And then I started reaching a point where I wasn't logging some foods to make my diary look better. So I made it private.
been there, done that too for same reasons.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »Mine is public--I don't care who sees it or if they comment. Most of my foods are Italian brands and useless to anyone who doesn't live here. I log after 5 yrs because I like to and I want to hit my protein goal. Logging keeps me honest with myself. I sometimes look at someones diary if they're asking for help. People are so sensitive about it, and I find it strange because I could care less.
I was surprised I cared, tbh, because I'm not the type to care about such things normally. When I analyzed my feelings, I found them buried in the years growing up fat shamed by my mother. One of the reasons I got fat was because I started eating during adolescence due to childhood sexual abuse that I hadn't told anyone about. I wanted to hide my body. The fat shaming didn't help. I hid food and it was all a very vicious cycle.
It's hard letting go of all of that and making progress at the same time. It's taken a LOT of work to have a healthy relationship with food, and I'm still not sure I'm there.
Baby steps.
I can understand why you'd be--so sorry you had to live with that. I'd love to smack whoever did it--and they deserve worse. However, most MFPers are sensitive about their diaries, without having gone through a traumatic experience. I find it curious. That said, if a crazy picked me to diary bash, I might change my mind. Anything is possible.0 -
How would you know what people on here have been through? I don’t think I should have to share reasons I feel the way I do.snowflake954 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »Mine is public--I don't care who sees it or if they comment. Most of my foods are Italian brands and useless to anyone who doesn't live here. I log after 5 yrs because I like to and I want to hit my protein goal. Logging keeps me honest with myself. I sometimes look at someones diary if they're asking for help. People are so sensitive about it, and I find it strange because I could care less.
I was surprised I cared, tbh, because I'm not the type to care about such things normally. When I analyzed my feelings, I found them buried in the years growing up fat shamed by my mother. One of the reasons I got fat was because I started eating during adolescence due to childhood sexual abuse that I hadn't told anyone about. I wanted to hide my body. The fat shaming didn't help. I hid food and it was all a very vicious cycle.
It's hard letting go of all of that and making progress at the same time. It's taken a LOT of work to have a healthy relationship with food, and I'm still not sure I'm there.
Baby steps.
I can understand why you'd be--so sorry you had to live with that. I'd love to smack whoever did it--and they deserve worse. However, most MFPers are sensitive about their diaries, without having gone through a traumatic experience. I find it curious. That said, if a crazy picked me to diary bash, I might change my mind. Anything is possible.
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snowflake954 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »Mine is public--I don't care who sees it or if they comment. Most of my foods are Italian brands and useless to anyone who doesn't live here. I log after 5 yrs because I like to and I want to hit my protein goal. Logging keeps me honest with myself. I sometimes look at someones diary if they're asking for help. People are so sensitive about it, and I find it strange because I could care less.
I was surprised I cared, tbh, because I'm not the type to care about such things normally. When I analyzed my feelings, I found them buried in the years growing up fat shamed by my mother. One of the reasons I got fat was because I started eating during adolescence due to childhood sexual abuse that I hadn't told anyone about. I wanted to hide my body. The fat shaming didn't help. I hid food and it was all a very vicious cycle.
It's hard letting go of all of that and making progress at the same time. It's taken a LOT of work to have a healthy relationship with food, and I'm still not sure I'm there.
Baby steps.
I can understand why you'd be--so sorry you had to live with that. I'd love to smack whoever did it--and they deserve worse. However, most MFPers are sensitive about their diaries, without having gone through a traumatic experience. I find it curious. That said, if a crazy picked me to diary bash, I might change my mind. Anything is possible.
Thanks. I'm open on the boards about things like this because I like to put it out there to lend support to the idea that obesity is a complex issue and that not everyone is fat for the same reason. Stating such, everyone is going to have a different approach to having to deal with it, and it's why the idea of one size fits all approaches and thinking really don't work.
I'd also like to state that it was just the reason I started over eating and having a bad relationship with food and then it became a habit that I used and doesn't acquit me of responsibility for overeating into adulthood. Again, it was a complex thing and just one reason.
Boy, that got deep. But, it's all part of why my diary is private.5 -
I'm a noob so I'm still getting the logging thing down, and I agree with the others that what I eat is nobody else's business but mine. I haven't logged for the past few days because I'm traveling for work and am in a place that is literally on the opposite side of the world from my home time zone so in addition to my times being all screwed up, I'm eating locally.
Occasionally I honestly don't know what I'm eating but when I do, the time and guesswork it takes to break down ingredients and log them individually is just too much. So I try to eat appropriately sized portions, which actually isn't too hard because in the little local places, giant meals are not a thing in this country. Plus I'm doing a lot of walking. When I get home, I'll pick up where I left off. I don't need to be shamed for periodic work-related dropouts in my food diary.2 -
I honestly don’t even know if my diary is open or closed. I can’t imagine why anyone would care about what I’m eating.
Although I will say I also don’t keep friends either. My only two friends on here are my sister and my real life friend. I don’t have any random internet friends on mfp and I won’t, so there really isn’t anyone going and looking at my diary.2 -
middlehaitch wrote: »I log very infrequently, maybe twice a year for 2-4 weeks tops.
I have maintained for years, literally, without having to log so my diary is mainly empty, no insight for anyone, so it is closed.
Cheers, h.
Same here1 -
snowflake954 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »Mine is public--I don't care who sees it or if they comment. Most of my foods are Italian brands and useless to anyone who doesn't live here. I log after 5 yrs because I like to and I want to hit my protein goal. Logging keeps me honest with myself. I sometimes look at someones diary if they're asking for help. People are so sensitive about it, and I find it strange because I could care less.
I was surprised I cared, tbh, because I'm not the type to care about such things normally. When I analyzed my feelings, I found them buried in the years growing up fat shamed by my mother. One of the reasons I got fat was because I started eating during adolescence due to childhood sexual abuse that I hadn't told anyone about. I wanted to hide my body. The fat shaming didn't help. I hid food and it was all a very vicious cycle.
It's hard letting go of all of that and making progress at the same time. It's taken a LOT of work to have a healthy relationship with food, and I'm still not sure I'm there.
Baby steps.
I can understand why you'd be--so sorry you had to live with that. I'd love to smack whoever did it--and they deserve worse. However, most MFPers are sensitive about their diaries, without having gone through a traumatic experience. I find it curious. That said, if a crazy picked me to diary bash, I might change my mind. Anything is possible.
In 2017 there were 11.7 million users of My Fitness Pal. https://www.statista.com/statistics/650748/health-fitness-app-usage-usa/
I don't believe you know that most of the millions of users are sensitive about their diaries or what experiences most users have had in their lives.
I have been using MFP for 4 years. I have had my diary public during that time and sometimes have looked at other users diaries. I have not received negative comments. I do not have a traumatic past of food shaming. I am not sensitive about what I eat and will talk about it. If someone looked at my diary and cast up what I logged into a discussion then I might close it simply because my diary is still just a tool for me not something for public discussion unless I ask for input.
I have seen several threads about keeping your diary private or public during the time I have been here and responses are always mixed. People don't have to have a reason to keep access to their diary limited.
It doesn't really matter unless someone is asking for help. Then it is useful to be able to see their food diary.
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snowflake954 wrote: »However, most MFPers are sensitive about their diaries, without having gone through a traumatic experience. I find it curious. That said, if a crazy picked me to diary bash, I might change my mind. Anything is possible.
If you like red it doesn't mean that anyone who likes blue is odd. Your opinions and preferences do not make you right and everyone else strange. I would hope that most MFPers would be wise enough not to speak like an authority on most MFPers. I wouldn't know though as I can only speak from my limited experience.7 -
Well, in my case I am not particularly sensitive about my diary and i left it open, although its value to anyone else is dubious.
I was annoyed that somebody used something completely irelevant to the topic in hand as a snarky dig though.4 -
paperpudding wrote: »Well, in my case I am not particularly sensitive about my diary and i left it open, although its value to anyone else is dubious.
I was annoyed that somebody used something completely irelevant to the topic in hand as a snarky dig though.
Sensible people understand that as a reflection on them (the person who snarked), not you.3 -
I don't share because I don't want or need to be judged about my food choices. People do that enough at work and in my personal life. If I like it that's all that matters.3
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Seeing how many people care about checking other people's diaries, I'm thinking about cleaning up my logging for a week to see how I like it. No more logging one week's worth of chocolate in one day or leaving days empty or half-filled because I'm logging elsewhere. If I like it, I'll open my diary.
It would be easier to just direct people to my diary in threads where someone feels bad about snacking, carbs, processed food, relying on protein powders, going over calories (by a lot sometimes), not having the best macro distribution sometimes...etc. How even us long-term loggers are not perfect, yet it doesn't prevent us from losing weight.
This should be interesting, but I don't know if I'll like it. I'm too "methodically" unorganized. I hope I'm not as opposed to order and organization as I think I am.3 -
I just didn’t see the point of sharing my diary. Why would I want to?5
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I log diligently. Even on my worst days. And if I can only guess (birthday party buffet) I do so, but I don't skip. I like seeing the hard truth, no matter, how bad. And I know that I'm going to count for the rest of my life, so I do it.
Mine is open to friends, mainly because my boyfriend sometimes needs to copy some entries when I cooked something and saved it as a recipe.
I admit I like snooping through other peoples diaries and let them inspire me. In 90% of the cases, it doesn't work though, because most people are from other countries (mainly the US) and we don't have all those low-cal foods here in Germany.
I'd never comment on a diary and have enough bad days myself to know how hard it is. And seriously, it's none of my business, what makes you feel happy and sated.
I'm always looking for inspiration since I'm a shorty and don't have many calories to play with, so I like to see how other people manage and if there are more clever ideas to spend them properly.2
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