Closed diary's

Mine is closed because if someone comes in and goes "Dude, you lost 153 pounds... maybe if I eat exactly what you ate, I'll lose too"... then they'll be full of good food, but probably disappointed.

What I eat to lose =/= what others need to eat to lose.

I think it's because some people feel that their way is the ONLY way. So if you have your diary open to everyone, then something that works absolutely great for you might end up with critisism from others. Things like keto diet or intermittent fasting are ways of eating that work for people, but some other can have strong opinions about them. At the start you might spend a lot of time showing the benefits of your way of eating and why you are not doing damage to yourself, but eventually you get fed up of the arguing.

I have mine open to my friends.

to a t how i feel. Some people think their way is the ONLY way!! I eat good but clearly i'm not a vegan or vegetarian like some. Or I'm not eating as many mini meals as others. I eat about 6 mini meals a day when I had my diary open they said "wow you should eat more" when I was eating 1800 calories. >_<

When I started I kept mine closed. Then I opened it to friends. Now it is open to everyone. I think it is a privacy issue and it feels weird at first having other people see what I eat but I quickly got used to it. I mainly opened it because I love looking at other people's diaries and I do think it helps keep me more accountable keeping my diary open. I do get some questions about what I eat (and especially about juicing) but I don't mind and if I did mind I would just ignore the messages. As it is I try to respond with kindness without writing a book.

You have to admit, looking at food diaries is kind of like voyeurism ...

I don't keep mine open for a number of reasons and one of those reasons is being judged without knowing the details. This has happened and made me decide it wasn't worth it to keep my diary open because I shouldn't be judged when I try to be a healthy and balanced eater but circumstances cause that to falter.

Like spending the last 3 days cleaning my house from ceiling to floor and still picking up after a 4 year old, usually I do this when she is not home and it takes a day... with her it takes 3 which means I didn't get to the grocery store... and I am out of veggies/fruit that isn't frozen. Not to mention having a lot of stress so I ate pretty badly but stayed within my calories all weekend. Not proud of my choices at all but my beautifully clean house was worth it for me. Now I get to go grocery shopping tonight and I am getting all the deliciously healthy foods that I wanted to get two days ago.

I keep mine closed just because I feel it's for me to keep track no one else.

And the one thing that sticks out is 2/3 of the people have closed diary's ? Why is this ? Surely an open diary would help other MFP people ?
Is there a reason why ?

It's the default and no one changes it unless they care what other people think.

I think a lot of people don't realize that its closed initially.

Just a quick observation , I love looking at the success stories . And the one thing that sticks out is 2/3 of the people have closed diary's ? Why is this ? Surely an open diary would help other MFP people ?
Is there a reason why ?

Out of privacy concerns. Although, I've recently opened ,mine to the public.

I agree. It's a personal choice and for some people and a very private thing regarding their weight management. Probably the 2/3s who have private diaries would quit MFP if it had to be public. It's probably more helpful to read those who are comfortable sharing only. I guess we should just respect people's privacy.

You can look at mine..