Why do you care if people read your food diary?
Replies
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I'm not really bothered either way. I have it on Public, as I don't care if someone looks at it or not. And a while ago I had a question here on the forum for which it was handy that people could see my general diet.
I sometimes look at other people's diaries, but truthfully, half the time I don't even know their products as a lot of my MFPs are in the US and I wouldn't recognise their entries.2 -
I had several issues with food in my teens, being secretive about food has stayed with me, although I no longer eat in secret! Being honest about what I eat on a daily basis was the first step. I might be tempted to leave things out if it was open. Then I need to stop feeling ashamed by what I eat (even though it's at a deficit). Then I will share. I am not there yet.8
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Companies already have access to a scary amount of everyone's data and use it to target them. No need to make it easier for them. Of course even if it is marked as private then I suspect that data is being accessed by and sold to various third parties anyways.8
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I personally don't care as I stopped logging here and use another better app. Mine has always been public.
I can understand why someone would keep it private. To each their own.1 -
I'm a fairly private person and don't add many friends on here as it is. To me it's no one else's business, unless I ask a question for feedback. I want to be able to honestly log. I'll be the only one to know if being over was planned, a binge, just over for that day, or bad week etc. I have no interest in what someone else's is either so assume mine would be of no interest to them.4
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I had mine open for awhile and got tired of the snarky judgy comments I would get about my food amounts and choices... I am very monogomus in what I eat - it does not bother me to eat the same foods over and over again, but apparently it bugs other people who have been on this site and more than one of them has tried to make an issue about it with me... after the 2nd or 3rd time, I closed the diary and solved the problem.11
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1. Because it's only part of the equation; it's like telling someone how much money you spend but they have no idea how much you make.
2. Nutritional requirements are very individual so I don't see what they could possibly gain by seeing what I eat.
I don't care if they know, but I don't want them making any comments or suggestions and I feel like letting them see is going to invite input. If they're looking for meal ideas, fine. But I know what I'm doing and I really don't want any "don't you know carbs make you fat?" or any other suggestions.9 -
Lots of reasons.
I’ve been through (and discharged from) eating disorder treatment. The way I was eating in recovery was decided on with the RD in that program. Not the advice of mfp people who think they know best.
I work with a coach who helps me achieve various fitness goals. What I eat and when I eat it (stacking intake/certain macros in preparation for or recovery from certain events/workouts) is something we experiment with to find the best mix. Again-that’s something where his input matters and not the advice of mfp people who think they know best.
I am an endurance athlete with an unusual blood sugar issue (it goes very high during long runs). I also have cholesterol issues that respond well to a low fat diet. My diet focuses on managing both of these issues and not the advice of mfp people who think they know best.
On any day/week/month I may be eating at a deficit, or maintenance or a surplus - or banking calories or eating banked calories or anywhere in between. My calorie goal number may not reflect my actual calorie goal for the day. A 6000 calorie day may very well be planned and exactly correct for my goals. It may even be lower than what I needed to eat. An 800 calorie day may also be planned and perhaps high for where that day fits in my overall plan. My intake is based on a lot of factors that aren’t reflected in my diary - and not the advice of mfp people who think they know best.
I’ve been doing this 9 years. I’ve logged every meal, every day. I have a pretty good idea of what I need to eat, how I need to eat (timing/calorie distribution), my thresholds for satiety/performance/hunger, etc, and how various things affect me. I am not seeking any dietary advice. I don’t need comments suggesting that I should try some wheatgrass nonsense instead of coffee, or if I tried keto, or why is my sugar intake so high (on days I run 20+ miles and fuel it with....sugar) because that’s not good for me or the concerned comments that I’m only eating 1200 calories (my TDEE is 1600...) or “tomorrow is another day” or “do I have someone to talk to about my binge” because I ate 4000 (TDEE was 3800) and on and on and on and on and on.
So my diary has a passcode so the people whose input is valuable can access it. Everyone else has no reason to be in it and my life is 1000000000 times less stressful without the peanut gallery offering their input.
I will tell you what I ate if it makes that big a difference to you. Although I can’t imagine it would matter.5 -
Mine was public at one point when I was actively losing (I've been in maintenance for a while) and participated on my feed. I never got negative comments on it, and I also never looked at anyone else's (since that seems boring to me, as my tastes are unlikely to be theirs), but I didn't mind sharing, and some seemed to like to look at other people's diaries.
Now I don't log regularly and when I do it's not here, and I don't interact with my feed at all. Even if I logged here I'd probably keep it closed unless I needed help of some sort that required someone else looking at my logging.1 -
Because what I eat is private. Increasingly, our society has lost a normal sense of privacy. Unless I wish for some reason to broadcast exactly what I eat out to thousands of unknown strangers, what I eat is no one else’s business, as is how I dress, my bowel habits etc. It’s a strange world that expects everyone to be living on stage continually. It’s not healthy to expect such intimate knowledge of strangers, especially if they don’t wish to provide it. Boundaries exist for very good reasons.19
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Mine is open to friends. It's pretty **kitten** boring.....7
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domeofstars wrote: »This is a question for the people who have their food diary set to private. I'm just wondering why you care if people read it?
I don't to be quite honest, if they read it, they still can't understand or interpret much from. I just made mine private recently, and noticed you also have a private food diary. Why so?3 -
It's not anyone else's business.4
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Mostly because I would not recommend my diet to anyone. My sodium is sky high and I eat an excessive amount of fiber and artificial sweeteners.6
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domeofstars wrote: »Why not? Why do you care if people have their diary set to private?
I sometimes find it interesting to read food diaries, to see what works for others in their weight loss journey.
Thank you to the people who have answered my question. 🙏
Some really good points have been mentioned, ones I didn't even think of.
This is why I do not share. The answer to what works is not in how I eat but the calorie number at the end of the day.
I think it is a great diagnostic tool for anyone who is truly failing to meet their loss, maintain, or gain goals to open their diary at least temporarily for assistance.
A point might be made that a person with a highly specialized and medically required diet might should share to help others finding themselves in the same boat. Not talking broad diets like carb controlled, low sodium, low fat, low protein, etc. I am thinking things like gluten avoidance. However, these newly diagnosed people really need to in nutrition counseling/education with an RD or similar.
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domeofstars wrote: »This is a question for the people who have their food diary set to private. I'm just wondering why you care if people read it?
And I wonder why people care that I have it private. So we're even.
Edited to add: thank you to all of the other people saying they'd be more likely to fudge if it was public. I'm the same way. There was a thing here for a while where people insisted you were hiding/lying if your diary wasn't open. Weird hill to die on.
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eatyogarun wrote: »domeofstars wrote: »This is a question for the people who have their food diary set to private. I'm just wondering why you care if people read it?
And I wonder why people care that I have it private. So we're even.
Edited to add: thank you to all of the other people saying they'd be more likely to fudge if it was public. I'm the same way. There was a thing here for a while where people insisted you were hiding/lying if your diary wasn't open. Weird hill to die on.
Agreed... I also find it weird for random people to send unsolicited messages about what folks eat. I have never personally have that happen or seen that happen in all my time on MFP (almost 10 years), but have always heard stories of it. So weird to be that involved in strangers.4 -
When I joined around 7 years ago, diaries were automatically public. Then there was a change where new people automatically had their food diaries private. Mine is public. I was just too lazy to change it to private, besides not many understand it since most of my foods are Italian (I live in Rome). I've had very few comments on it over the years, but I wouldn't care. I also rarely look at someone elses unless they're posting about a problem. I don't care one way or another, and don't understand people that do. It's a personal choice and I respect the decision.5
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Mine was private and I changed it to locked with a key as I was working with an RD prior to joining and already was sharing a food diary with her. Not sure that anyone else's opinion was important enough for me to change it to public.
Since moving to maintenance, pretty sure my mostly created recipe entries would be pretty useless to everyone.....so no real point in sharing it.
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Mine is open to friends only. I don't really browse randomly through food diaries of other members. I do support my friends here by looking through quickly and personalizing comments on the daily. I can say that I do get some great new dish ideas from their log
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Private is the default setting and I post all the time about my "dirty" eating and how it almost doesn't matter what you're eating as long as your macro/micro nutrients needs are met.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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eatyogarun wrote: »domeofstars wrote: »This is a question for the people who have their food diary set to private. I'm just wondering why you care if people read it?
And I wonder why people care that I have it private. So we're even.
Edited to add: thank you to all of the other people saying they'd be more likely to fudge if it was public. I'm the same way. There was a thing here for a while where people insisted you were hiding/lying if your diary wasn't open. Weird hill to die on.
Yes there was too.
Along with that other thing that bothers some people : if your avatar is not a photo of yourself.
It has happened to me once when my diary was open, in a thread about daylights saving or doctors being overweight or people wearing make up to the gym or something* and someone posted why should I value your opinion when you only eat x amounts protein per day.
* can't remember exact thread topic but absolutely nothing to do with my diary or how I eat or anything about me personally.5 -
I don't mind people looking at my diary, I think it's pretty interesting seeing what people eat but I get hungry doing it and I'm normally (not the last couple weeks) eating an anti-inflammatory diet so all the sweets give me cravings for things I can't have! The comments every once and awhile throw me, I think I'm so used to thinking of what I do as private that when someone notices little things it surprises me. My favorite comment in the last two years was after I had a major sugar craving and only had apples in the house and ate like 4 in a row, I logged it as one apple and someone commented that I ate huge apples. I weigh everything so it was like a 600 gram apple! That had to be a sarcastic comment, right? That would be like a watermelon!4
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I don't mind people looking at my diary, I think it's pretty interesting seeing what people eat but I get hungry doing it and I'm normally (not the last couple weeks) eating an anti-inflammatory diet so all the sweets give me cravings for things I can't have! The comments every once and awhile throw me, I think I'm so used to thinking of what I do as private that when someone notices little things it surprises me. My favorite comment in the last two years was after I had a major sugar craving and only had apples in the house and ate like 4 in a row, I logged it as one apple and someone commented that I ate huge apples. I weigh everything so it was like a 600 gram apple! That had to be a sarcastic comment, right? That would be like a watermelon!
Wait, was that me? That sounds like the kind of joke I would make! 😁2 -
I have mixed feelings. I feel terribly judgey.
I try to stay brutally honest in my own diary. If I’m not sure, I choose the highest calorie entry. If I have a binge day, its out there in big red numbers for the world to see. Sometimes, having it public actually makes me stop, so that’s a benefit. Other times, it’s an intentional overeat because my weight has dropped too low.
But, OTOH, I used to look at friends’ diaries, particularly those who seem to be automatically posting unusually high calorie burns for comparatively low energy or short workouts. If I see on my feed that someone burned 800 calories for 15 minutes on an elliptical, and the next item says their diary is closed and public, well I have a look.
It kills me to see users who are surviving on protein bars and shakes; on junk food, coffee and nothing else; even alcohol and very little solid food. So many are way below their goals, often even consistently below 1200. I know, I know, there’s no such thing as a “bad” food, but you and I are both bright enough to recognize an unhealthy meal plan. I’m sure there’s a lot of fudging going on, too.
I want everyone to succeed here. It saddens me. On the one hand people ask for friends for support, but otoh it’s not kosher to reach out to a stranger, nor am I trained - if I were even willing- to do so.
I seldom look at others’ diaries these days because it’s so often disheartening. I’ve never had feedback about my diary myself. I’m sure someone would have something to say about the cumulative quarts of balsamic I drink every month, lol.
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What I don't understand is people who send friend requests, but have closed diary, closed profile page (can't see anything they might post on their page or any status updates), never send PMs. Whazzat about? 😉 I don't care, still accept the FR, but . . . mysterious!
My diary is open to MFP friends. (I'm a terrible MFP friend, pretty much ignore that feed.) From comments and occasional questions, it's clear that some people read it. On threads where people have asked about getting protein as a veg, I've told folks they can FR me if they want to see what I eat, as a long-term ovo-lacto veg with a moderately high protein goal who dislikes protein powder/bars. (I don't think that explains the mystery people.)
I'm not likely to posture via fudging my diary; that seems silly to me. I post what I eat: That's simpler, and food shame is not really my thing. I skip logging the occasional day (and it's usually a high day, because eating a bunch of usual stuff is logistically more complicated/time-consuming, and skipping the rare day is NBD in long-term maintenance, I've learned). But I've logged any number of ill-advised eating/drinking choices, and not gotten criticism. Maybe my MFP friends know how that would turn out? 😉 ( I haven't even had judge-y questions . . . I think someone asked me how I liked a particular flavored vodka or something like that once, but that's about it).
Other people can open or close their diaries, mostly I don't care . . . but people who evangelize in an aggressive/obnoxious way about a particular eating style and how we all ought to adopt it, I admit I'm kind of amused when they have totally closed diaries, though there's no rational basis for amusement.
I think it's nice when someone has a profile photo that isn't the default gray face, because the uniqueness makes it easier to follow threads sometimes. I find it confusing when the profile photo is of a human that I don't recognize (may be a celeb I don't know, maybe), and the photo is wildly different from the person who's posting. (I don't think it's wrong for them to use those profile photos, though. The confusion is my problem, not theirs.) I'm suspicious - perhaps also irrationally - in the rare case when someone posts repeatedly in a pseudo-oracular way about their glorious fitness routine and its amazing physical benefits for them, but never posts a personal photo anywhere (profile or threads).5 -
domeofstars wrote: »This is a question for the people who have their food diary set to private. I'm just wondering why you care if people read it?
I haven't logged anything in over 7.5 years...but when I did, my diary was private, namely because that was the default setting and I never bothered or felt any need to change that. The net impact on my life by not making my diary public was ZERO...never thought about it, never cared.5 -
Thank you. I really enjoyed reading through this thread. Lots of personal insights.
I am someone who doesn’t participate in social media and appreciates anonymity, which is getting harder and harder to achieve. I have nothing to hide (most days 😋😝🤣). I just don’t need or want to be judged by, acknowledged, recognized by random people.
Back to the topic at hand... if someone wants to see my food diary I would most likely allow them access. Why they would, is beyond me. Unfortunately I too have struggled with an eating disorder and too many comments on what I am doing get in my head and can send me off course.9 -
I haven't seen anyone talking about or taking Ashwandha on here after I started inputting it into my diary anyway. Who cares, the health industry is a highly competitive and deceptive place. 😴2
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I don’t care that’s why it’s open and why I’m here for accountability. I’ve gotten very good advice by having it open by many experience people here when I’m struggling they say ok this is what I’d work on, or cut out or back.1
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