Why hide your food diary from your "Friends".

TourThePast

I've no problem with other members of this site seeing my food and exercise diary, along with the personal stuff I post.

However there's no way I'm laying my entire life and its struggles, failures and successes open to acquaintances, friends, relatives colleagues and those I supervise, future employers, plus anyone else who googles my name.

Because of this, my diaries are public but my identity is not.

seal57

I really don't understand why some people feel the need to hide their food diary. What is there to hide? Are you eating the right foods? Are you skipping meals? Are you taking in too much protein? Are you drinking enough water? Nobody but you knows so how can you post things asking for help? That whole process defeats the purpose for being on MFP. If you want motivation and support you need to be 100% honest with yourself and everyone else. We are all basically on a similar journey and we understand better than most what goes into the food diary. I personally look to other people's food diaries to get meal ideas so I don't get bored with my choices. I also check out my friend's diaries to see if I can suggest a more nutritional food option for them.

I will say I have noticed a difference in weight loss between the people who have an open diary and those that have a hidden diary. I believe the people with the open diaries receive more feedback from friends and take that into consideration. Which would explain why they lose more weight than people with hidden diaries. I know I can't do this alone and I welcome the advice, criticism and feedback that will help me accomplish my goal so my diary is always open to my friends.

My food diary is hidden to all........

I do not share my food diary with my personal friends so why should I share it with my cyber friends?........

If you want you food diary open to all then that is your choice........Please don't try and push your reasons onto those of us who chose to have our food diary hidden.....

This topic has been discussed heaps of times.......Did you use the search function?.....

Gigi_licious

Because its a personal choice, that's why. Some people might not want to hear the comments about their food. Some people get highly annoyed with hearing crap like "its ok that you ate some Oreos, you can get back on track tomorrow". Maybe their track is the one of everything in moderation. Why is it such a big deal to you if you can't see it? Some people didn't come on here to be critiqued by others, they came on here to use the tools, the social side is just a perk. I couldn't care less if my friends are public or private with their diary. Unless they are asking for someone to review their diary and find out what their doing wrong, its really nobodys business but their own. IMO.

Luckily, I don't have friends like you, OP. My friends seem to feel the same way I do about whether its public or private. When I was hidden, nobody complained or said a word. They acted as friends and respected my personal choice without casting stones. You should try it sometime.

pnieuw

Because its a personal choice, that's why. Some people might not want to hear the comments about their food. Some people get highly annoyed with hearing crap like "its ok that you ate some Oreos, you can get back on track tomorrow". Maybe their track is the one of everything in moderation. Why is it such a big deal to you if you can't see it? Some people didn't come on here to be critiqued by others, they came on here to use the tools, the social side is just a perk. I couldn't care less if my friends are public or private with their diary. Unless they are asking for someone to review their diary and find out what their doing wrong, its really nobodys business but their own. IMO.

Luckily, I don't have friends like you, OP. My friends seem to feel the same way I do about whether its public or private. When I was hidden, nobody complained or said a word. They acted as friends and respected my personal choice without casting stones. You should try it sometime.

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This, X2

KeriA

I wrote a blog on this topic. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/KeriA/view/food-diaries-to-make-it-public-or-not-114779 The most important thing on MFP is logging and anything that interferes with effective logging isn't going to help people. People are on here for different reasons and losing weight in different ways and have different food issues than others do. Some of us don't need others to give them accountability. They are able to be accountable to themselves. Others don't need help with nutrition. If they do they do need to make their diaries public. I need to have a food and exercise diary. I do not need comments on what I eat. I eat healthy food. I eat enough and not too much. When I do go over my goal it is usually planned and under maintenance calories. Often I lose the day after that. I had a critical health nut for a mother and frankly having people comment on my food would be counter productive for me. Do not presume to think you know why people keep their diary private. Some are following doctors directives and don't want to explain it all to everyone. My friends here are great but they do not yet know everything about me. I love getting to know them but know I don't know everything about them either. If I do have a friend here that did I might make it open to them until then mine stays private. It is really becasue of posts such as these that I keep it private.