If you're looking for weight loss help read this..

I agree with you. Also for me, it people who hid behind pictures of kids on their profile or animals. Untill they can except who they are and allow others to see them, they will always hide in the dark and will never be able to what they need to.

OUCH!!!! I was just excited to show off my new puppy!!!

If my diary was public, I'd be more inclined to lie or omit items than if it's private. Keeping it private means that I can be honest with myself since I don't have to feel scrutinized in any way for my mistakes. I've endured enough scrutiny (usually with commentary) that I'm kind of hypersensitive about it.

When I first started I had my diary public. I thought it would make me feel more accountable to my food choices because people could see what I was eating. It didn't... It made me shy away from my bad days, I felt like I was regressing rather than progressing because I was lying. If I had a really bad day I'd just not log in and that would make me fall back into a pattern and i'd gain weight etc etc.

This time around I made it private. I took the lead from one of my friends who said that an individuals food plan is their business only. Different styles of eating, different intakes and different workout schedules work for different people. The only reason people come here is to lose or maintain weight (or pershaps get ready for an important fitness event where they need to be conscious of their intake/output etc. All we need is support and not evaluation. SO far I have done really really well. I log every day, have lost weight. I have my great days and I have my not so great days and that's all part of it because when I reach my goal and I'm onto the maintenance part, I will know how to handle temptation and the odd blow-out. I even believe that they're good for the soul!

You might work better with your diary on public and that's great but not everyone is in the same boat. If people ask for help, they usually pose a fairly direct question and don't then need a full rundown of what they should or should be eating. If you find this type of question from a private diarist silly then I'd simply encourage you to move onto the next topic as though you'd never read it. This really isn't a place for negaive or useless commentary. Sometimes we all feel better for putting someone "in their place" but as I've said to my Volleyball players "Until you're a star player and are not making any mistakes, don't bring anyone else down. We're all a team, playing the same game and encouragement is the best way to achieve."

Regardless of all this, there was absolutely a much better way of wording this because it lacked the basic respect we all should have for an individual's decisions. After all, I wouldn't find the largest woman in the food court and go up to her and loudly ask her "Why are you eating a super sized Double Quarter Pounder meal?" and that is roughly how you worded your original post. It was like you were calling out all the private diarists and putting them on display.

Hope you have read people's responses and have taken it on board.

WTF is it about Sunday's here??? One of these pops up every single Sunday lately. I should probably have stuck with my initial reaction to just ignore this, but I am really, really offended! Let me just say, I AM LOSING WEIGHT AND I DO NOT LIE! (my diary is only open to my friends list!) With that said, I had my diary open to the public in the first few months AND THEN there was a person that was just sporadically going through peoples food diaries and then criticizing what they were eating through some pretty nasty posts! BAM, my diary went private right then. That is most certainly not why people are on here, to randomly be judged and criticized!!!

What was going through your head to possibly make you actually take the time to type such a post? Plus, I see you have been a part of MFP for all of ONE WHOLE MONTH so that just must makes you the absolute person who knows it all about being serious about losing weight. Wow, I will just chalk this up to you being a person who likes to cause trouble! More power to you, keep it off of here.

And by the way, Amarillo_NDN, you don't know me, but I would be included in your "hide behind a pet's picture." So, that give me cause to defend myself against your less than supportive post. Maybe I love my pets and I would rather have their picture over one of me. Maybe I don't have a picture of me because I am the one who is always taking them, but who knows? That is the F---ing point, you don't know so keep it to yourself. Also, I look at myself in the mirror every single day and know exactly what I see and since I will "assume" you meant to type, "never be able to see what they need to" and not "never be able to what they need to" I will tell you I "SEE" exactly what I need to.

I just wonder if the two of you, deshaine and Amarillo_NDN, look in the mirror and can be proud of the actual person you are when you can type the kind of posts that you chose to post tonight.

THERE, MY RANT OFF..................................

Not very supportive. Everyone is different and we all have various levels of needs for privacy. If someone doesn't want to publish their diary - it's their business, You shouldn't assume things about why others do things.

I agree with you completly, we are here for positive support!

I personally don't have a picture of myself as my profile pic, b/c I'd rather not post pictures of myself on the internet.

THIS.

And, do you know how many people I have made friends with just because they love looking at my adorable dog?

You want to look at my diary? Tough noogies. What I eat and what I look like are details that I may choose to share or NOT, as I see fit. I don't owe anybody on the internet ANYTHING.

I think the biggest (or one of the biggest) problems with this post was the title. I was expecting a food or exercise tip or something similar, as those are the reasons i am on this site. We are all on here for different reasons. I personally don't have any weight to lose, but healthy eating and exercise are very important to me and I get a wealth of information on those topics on this sight. But I am also a private person, as you can see I have no profile pic and didn't even really fill the profile out. But I didn't feel I needed to to share info/recipes, etc on healthy eating and exercise. And I did take offense to the why dont' we have our profile pics posted. Mine is certainly not b/c I'm embarrassed by what I look like. I think she could have worded things a little differently, which hopefully she has learned from all the responses that she should. That said, now I'm going to check out the pumpkin pie muffin recipe.

There is being supportive and there is bullying; I believe your post is tantamount to bullying and is unlikely to achieve anything., let alone the help and support you purport to be giving.

Very well put!

Perhaps the OP & several fellow bullies needs a cookie :frown: & to seriously chill out, if you don't eat enough cals back, crankiness is what comes back to bite you in the butt I sometimes wonder if some of these uglier posts are from ppl not getting enough of their cals in?

i kept mine private at first because i am a private person and it was a big step for me to make it public. i don't have my face as my avatar, i am ocd about putting my personal info out on the internet. i am not 'hiding' behind anything. i am just not comfortable to have my face floating around.

Wow... 16 pages without invoking Godwin's law. I'm impressed.