What does having friends do on MFP?

ESPRESSO_OR_ELSE
ESPRESSO_OR_ELSE Posts: 16 Member
edited December 2024 in Getting Started
Hello! Please excuse my naivety in advance. I've never had a friend on here before. Most of the community forum posts are people wanting to add friends.

What exactly does it do and/or help you with? I guess you get to see their diary and maybe learn how to tweak your caloric intake?

Thanks for your reaponses. Happy New Year!
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Replies

  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,109 Member
    ESPRESSO_OR_ELSE wrote: »
    Hello! Please excuse my naivety in advance. I've never had a friend on here before. Most of the community forum posts are people wanting to add friends.

    What exactly does it do and/or help you with? I guess you get to see their diary and maybe learn how to tweak your caloric intake?

    Thanks for your reaponses. Happy New Year!

    If you go to other boards on the forum, such as "general health, fitness, and diet" or "food and nutrition" or "recipes," you will find questions and discussions about various issues, not just friend requests (which not surprisingly tend to dominate the "introduce yourself" and "getting started" boards).
  • Therealobi1
    Therealobi1 Posts: 3,262 Member
    Forums are great for information.
    Some even enjoy chit chat and fun posts
    You can find people who are having the same struggle as you are and egg eachother on
    Not everyone needs the interaction though. Its up to you
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    ESPRESSO_OR_ELSE wrote: »
    Hello! Please excuse my naivety in advance. I've never had a friend on here before. Most of the community forum posts are people wanting to add friends.

    What exactly does it do and/or help you with? I guess you get to see their diary and maybe learn how to tweak your caloric intake?

    Thanks for your reaponses. Happy New Year!

    i like having people who are interested in fitness & nutrition to talk to.
  • theowlbox
    theowlbox Posts: 912 Member
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    My "real life" friends don't understand how hard this is and don't encounter the same problems but the people on here know exactly what you're going through.

    depending on your goals, these can be long term projects (gaining, losing, changing nutrition/fitness). for some people, it can get repetitive and boring, and there can be lots of very specific issues. for me, i try to "spare" my irl family and friends, because it's not something they find interesting, and my friends on here do. so i have friends on here to act as a tiny community focused on a niche interest of mine (weight loss).

    it's also nice to give and get support. when you are up, you give, and when you are down you receive. it can be helpful to hear how other people navigate certain situations, and normalize difficulties.

    but some people just use it as a form of facebookish feed, and that's ok too.

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,151 Member
    For myself it's nice to have other people to talk to about fitness and nutrition, I don't want to be THAT person in a group of friends who is constantly talking about weight loss and the gym when the others aren't interested. It offers me a little accountability and the opportunity to help those who were in a similar position to myself a couple of years ago thinking they have to starve and over-exercise to lose weight to realise it's nowhere near as complicated as the Diet & Fitness Industry would have you believe.
  • Jackie9003
    Jackie9003 Posts: 1,134 Member
    theowlbox wrote: »
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    My "real life" friends don't understand how hard this is and don't encounter the same problems but the people on here know exactly what you're going through.

    depending on your goals, these can be long term projects (gaining, losing, changing nutrition/fitness). for some people, it can get repetitive and boring, and there can be lots of very specific issues. for me, i try to "spare" my irl family and friends, because it's not something they find interesting, and my friends on here do. so i have friends on here to act as a tiny community focused on a niche interest of mine (weight loss).

    it's also nice to give and get support. when you are up, you give, and when you are down you receive. it can be helpful to hear how other people navigate certain situations, and normalize difficulties.

    but some people just use it as a form of facebookish feed, and that's ok too.

    I also find myself "preaching" to friends and colleagues who have decided to start the new latest fad diet and then moan it's not working so I prefer to avoid the subject altogether outside of mfp now.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited January 2019
    When I first started using this app I found having friends was supportive and encouraging. I would have posted regular updates and enjoyed interacting with fellow friends on the same journey - it was helpful imo. Over time and having reached my goal back in 2013, most of those friends have fell away, new ones have come along but I probably enjoy the interaction on the forums just as much now. It depends on the individual, some people find support helps them, I think it did make the difference for me and helped me to stay on track when once upon a time I would have fallen back to old ways.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    theowlbox wrote: »
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    My "real life" friends don't understand how hard this is and don't encounter the same problems but the people on here know exactly what you're going through.

    depending on your goals, these can be long term projects (gaining, losing, changing nutrition/fitness). for some people, it can get repetitive and boring, and there can be lots of very specific issues. for me, i try to "spare" my irl family and friends, because it's not something they find interesting, and my friends on here do. so i have friends on here to act as a tiny community focused on a niche interest of mine (weight loss).

    it's also nice to give and get support. when you are up, you give, and when you are down you receive. it can be helpful to hear how other people navigate certain situations, and normalize difficulties.

    but some people just use it as a form of facebookish feed, and that's ok too.

    I also find myself "preaching" to friends and colleagues who have decided to start the new latest fad diet and then moan it's not working so I prefer to avoid the subject altogether outside of mfp now.

    i talk very little about diet IRL for the same reason... but i can talk about it all day on here!!!

    fitness i will only talk about if asked as most of my IRL friends do little exercise so they think a few hours a week of running is a massive big deal

    ^^ same here :smile:
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    theowlbox wrote: »
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    My "real life" friends don't understand how hard this is and don't encounter the same problems but the people on here know exactly what you're going through.

    depending on your goals, these can be long term projects (gaining, losing, changing nutrition/fitness). for some people, it can get repetitive and boring, and there can be lots of very specific issues. for me, i try to "spare" my irl family and friends, because it's not something they find interesting, and my friends on here do. so i have friends on here to act as a tiny community focused on a niche interest of mine (weight loss).

    it's also nice to give and get support. when you are up, you give, and when you are down you receive. it can be helpful to hear how other people navigate certain situations, and normalize difficulties.

    but some people just use it as a form of facebookish feed, and that's ok too.

    I also find myself "preaching" to friends and colleagues who have decided to start the new latest fad diet and then moan it's not working so I prefer to avoid the subject altogether outside of mfp now.

    i talk very little about diet IRL for the same reason... but i can talk about it all day on here!!!

    fitness i will only talk about if asked as most of my IRL friends do little exercise so they think a few hours a week of running is a massive big deal

    ^^ same here :smile:

    we should be friends :laugh:
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    LOL funnily enough I was thinking same thing! I'll send you a FR :smiley:
  • Anna022119
    Anna022119 Posts: 547 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Depends on what your friends are like, and how you use your friend-feed.

    You can ask questions on your page, and get suggestions or strategy ideas from your friends. Sometimes they may ask you about a food you eat (how do you cook that?) or how/where you do some particular exercise you've logged. If you have helpful, knowledgeable friends, you can get good feedback and ideas. Sometimes people will cheer you on when you report a loss or a particular hard workout achieved.

    Some people will read your diary, and have good, useful questions or observations. (I see you ate X, have you tried Y - you might like it). Some people will read your diary and go all crazy if you eat a mini Hershey bar within your calorie allowance, because Evil SugarrrzzzZZ! (So you unfriend them.)

    If you're female, some major idiot men will send you PMs that (at best) say "wanna chat" or at worst . . . other stuff. (So you report them.)

    So, it varies. There have been times when I interacted with my friends a lot; nowadays it's only a little.

    Ann you are amazing!
    Pleased to have you as my mfp friend. 😊
  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,143 Member
    I will be the dissenting voice in this conversation. I dont find having "friends " on here helpful. I motivate myself and frankly dont care what other people do.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    I will be the dissenting voice in this conversation. I dont find having "friends " on here helpful. I motivate myself and frankly dont care what other people do.

    And....that's just fine too. :)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    ESPRESSO_OR_ELSE wrote: »
    Hello! Please excuse my naivety in advance. I've never had a friend on here before. Most of the community forum posts are people wanting to add friends.

    What exactly does it do and/or help you with? I guess you get to see their diary and maybe learn how to tweak your caloric intake?

    Thanks for your reaponses. Happy New Year!

    Depends...I used to be more active with my friends and my home feed...not so much anymore. I suppose in the beginning it was just nice to have to have other people to chat with who were doing the same thing and ultimately friends with similar interests in fitness, etc.

    In regards to most of the community forum posts are people wanting to add friends...i'd say that really only pertains to the introduce yourself and getting started boards...if you look elsewhere you will find all sorts of different conversations related to health, nutrition, fitness, etc.
  • vetvicki
    vetvicki Posts: 62 Member
    What's a Stickie?.
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I enjoy my friends on here. Sometimes they're down and need an encouraging word, others are inspiring for how dedicated they are to exercise. I like to see what they're doing. It's not necessary, and you can just "lurk" the boards and learn a lot. There's no hurry to make friends, and some may ask you. The posters that are very knowlegable and have been around a long time may not accept FR. Don't be insulted, they can't follow hundreds of people. If you ask a question, they will answer though. Read the stickies so you don't ask things that have been asked a million times. If you do make a FR please write a note explaining why you'd like to be friends.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,829 Member
    vetvicki wrote: »
    What's a Stickie?.
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I enjoy my friends on here. Sometimes they're down and need an encouraging word, others are inspiring for how dedicated they are to exercise. I like to see what they're doing. It's not necessary, and you can just "lurk" the boards and learn a lot. There's no hurry to make friends, and some may ask you. The posters that are very knowlegable and have been around a long time may not accept FR. Don't be insulted, they can't follow hundreds of people. If you ask a question, they will answer though. Read the stickies so you don't ask things that have been asked a million times. If you do make a FR please write a note explaining why you'd like to be friends.

    Posts in the "Most Helpful Posts" section of each forum topic area. Written by users, nominated by other users to stick around long-term, thus "stickies". Gold in there, I swear.
  • allieeveryday
    allieeveryday Posts: 85 Member
    Friends are great if you're like me and not self-motivated for long without outside influence. Seeing other people's "have logged in for X number of days" is really inspiring to me and encourages me to stick with this even when I don't wanna.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,315 Member
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    I will be the dissenting voice in this conversation. I dont find having "friends " on here helpful. I motivate myself and frankly dont care what other people do.

    No you werent the only dissenting voice - I said early in thread that some people find it motivating although I myself do not and am not interested in this feature

    For some odd reason, mods removed the post?? - part of it was replying to another now removed post but rest was just saying that.

  • shadowofender
    shadowofender Posts: 786 Member
    For some people, having friends adds accountability. I find myself to be a mix of finding it useful and finding it not. Knowing people can see what I'm doing makes me more likely to hit finish on my diary for the day, even if I'm never going to talk to or meet any of these people for real.

    Sometimes it's motivational. I have a friend with a 4 year streak and damn that's crazy. It makes me want to have a 4 year streak.

    Sometimes people are nosy, or too chatty, or whatever and that annoys me. But you can always remove someone that isn't working out for your style.

    Also I guess after having spent the past 13 years on FB I'm addicted to the feed?
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    It depends on what you want to get from this.

    It is one of many tools that help me stay motivated, dedicated, and honest.

    I seek out motivated people and draw inspiration from seeing other realize their goals, learn from their failures, and communicate this with everyone. This is one of the key points where virtual friends are better than real friends. I cannot make it to the gym everyday with someone in real life, but I have a number of friends on MFP with similar goals and we can talk about our strategy and performance and work out problems.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    I’ve been here a long time now (7 years). I’ve had some friends for years-I’ve met a bunch of them IRL-I’ve traveled across the country to run assorted races/events wirh some of them. We talk about life things, day to day happenings, we joke, share fun things. We talk about fitness pursuits (mostly because of shared interests and/or shared celebration/disappointment when someone has been working hard on a particular goal).

    My feed is nothing like the forums. No one is really asking any questions or looking at what anyone eats (unless they post a pic of something delicious), or talking about calories/carbs/etc. Occasionally someone will mention weight loss, gain, etc. Most conversations are about the day to day challenges and people working on specific fitness goals.

    Most people on my FL don’t wonder why they aren’t losing (if they want to). They don’t wonder how. Most people are battling 16 hour work days while traveling and living out of hotels and maybe also caring for aging parents and college tours for their kids and what not. It’s less about the how and more about the challenges of implementation. It’s the daily grind of the work.

    That said-no one on my FL is looking for someone to hold them accountable or motivate them or any of that. But sometimes having people along for the ride makes it a little easier to do things you might not be in the mood to do. Seeing that it’s normal for 50 other people makes it seem normal for you.

    On the rare occasions that someone does ask a question, they will get answers from a wide variety of people whose stories they know and who may or may not have relevant insight to something in a different way than happens on the forums.

    Idk-it’s a different vibe than the forums.
  • 2O2OisMyYear
    2O2OisMyYear Posts: 27 Member
    Having friends who comment on my updates or congratulate me on my victories is all what support networks are about to me. I get more out of friends interacting on my page then forums
  • 2O2OisMyYear
    2O2OisMyYear Posts: 27 Member
    What’s the point of joining a support network if you don’t NEED support then?
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    I will be the dissenting voice in this conversation. I dont find having "friends " on here helpful. I motivate myself and frankly dont care what other people do.

This discussion has been closed.

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