do you leave your diary open?

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  • Shannonpurple
    Shannonpurple Posts: 268 Member
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    OP are you friends with anyone from MFP in real life?? I am not... so what do you care if the internet world thinks you eat weird food. I mean I am more worried my BF thinks I eat weird food and he does.
  • Nedra19455
    Nedra19455 Posts: 241 Member
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    Mine isn't open. I just don't see it as a feature. I sometimes "snoop" on other people's diaries and I feel compelled to ask them questions about their food -- as if leaving your diary open is like an open invitation of "please start a conversation with me about what I ate today." Maybe that's just my own interpretation of that setting, lol. Plus, I often find other people's diaries really confusing and not helpful when they don't even come close to their calorie goals -- or when they've only eaten three things but have somehow eaten all their calories and I can't see where the extra calories are coming from. So I always feel like I have a gazillion questions, but I don't know whether they really want me to be snooping around and inviting myself to ask questions about their diary.

    Anyway, because that is not an invitation I want to extend, I don't leave mine open. I don't need the accountability of someone reading my diary to keep me on track and I find that sending the "was under her calorie goal" message to my newsfeed is accountability enough.
  • theflatpick
    theflatpick Posts: 106 Member
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    I leave mine open. It seems the only people who look at it are the few friends I have acquired, and they seem to be helpful and comment on my fix of foods. It has been ok for me.
  • Froody2
    Froody2 Posts: 338 Member
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    Mine's open. Was interested to read lately that people who have open diaries and share them with their friends lose twice as much weight as those who don't, according to MFP.

    http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2014/05/myfitnesspal-ebook-the-rise-of-the-fitness-tribe/
  • silverlining84
    silverlining84 Posts: 330 Member
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    Yup mine is open. Helps keep me more accountable. Except for today. Tim Hortons donut was just calling my name.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    Yup mine is open. Helps keep me more accountable. Except for today. Tim Hortons donut was just calling my name.

    LOL, I thought you said "Tony Horton"....I was wondering since when he started selling donuts...
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    the only person on MFP i know in real life is my husband, and he A) doesn't take part on the boards and B) is welcome to know anything and everything.

    i feel vulnerable about what i'm doing regarding losing weight and so it's easy to be over-sensitive.
    OP are you friends with anyone from MFP in real life?? I am not... so what do you care if the internet world thinks you eat weird food. I mean I am more worried my BF thinks I eat weird food and he does.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    Mine is open to friends, but I don't look at anyone's diary unless they have asked for help. I don't really care what people think about my chicken and watermelon for breakfast and oatmeal for supper type days. I don't plan my meals days in advance, and I enjoy the food I have. When I am switching from day shift to night shift, I will have a really low count day and when I switch back I will have a really high count day. Other people's thoughts on this are mostly irrelevant. I am doing this for me.
  • fairygirlpie9
    fairygirlpie9 Posts: 288 Member
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    Mine is open. To make me better behaved - its so much easier to act up when no ones watching.
    x
  • PinkyPan1
    PinkyPan1 Posts: 3,018 Member
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    Mine is always open. It keeps me accountable and honest. We are our own worse enemies and I find that knowing others can see my choices makes me think twice. I can not expect to lose weight if I am not honest with myself and if I continually make bad choices.
  • SteampunkSongbird
    SteampunkSongbird Posts: 826 Member
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    Mine is public. I know that if I keep it hidden from everyone, there's a possibility I might indulge more than I should; leaving it public means people can see and judge my choices, and nobody likes to be judged, so I'm more likely to stay within my daily calorie allowance (although I'm getting over that feeling now and finding it easier not to binge for the satisfaction of my own self.) Also, if I ask for advice or something, I figure it'd be easier for people to offer if they know what a typical food day is like for me.

    Plus, I thought it might be useful as a reference for someone else, maybe someone with the same dietary limitation as me, to get ideas for certain meals/snacks or whatever.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    Mine is public. I know that if I keep it hidden from everyone, there's a possibility I might indulge more than I should; leaving it public means people can see and judge my choices, and nobody likes to be judged, so I'm more likely to stay within my daily calorie allowance (although I'm getting over that feeling now and finding it easier not to binge for the satisfaction of my own self.) Also, if I ask for advice or something, I figure it'd be easier for people to offer if they know what a typical food day is like for me.

    Plus, I thought it might be useful as a reference for someone else, maybe someone with the same dietary limitation as me, to get ideas for certain meals/snacks or whatever.

    You will always be judged...:) I am not saying that's good or bad. Once open, people will feel entitled to comment/judge. I am very sensitive so I try to avoid to be in the poor position. :) good luck to you~

    To me indulging or not is very obvious. It's all up to me how to handle it. :drinker:
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
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    Yep, always open for everyone's viewing pleasure :tongue:. I figure what good is it to not be publicly accountable (I have only a handful of MFP friends, I like it that way) for my food choices. And I know peeking at others' open diaries has been super helpful for me to get ideas and get a handle on how to log accurately and how the whole "eat back your calories" thing works (um, brilliantly, by the way, when done properly--I totally earned my McDonald's feast tonight--still under for the day--YAY!).

    I thank ALL of you with open diaries and real life advice and inspiration. It has allowed me to NOT freak out about a couple of fast food burgers. That's NOT a binge--it's a REFUEL (ok--could've eaten my chicken breasts and broccoli and potato like a good girl, but I didn't wanna tonight).

    Good, bad, ugly, "weird", veg*ns, carnivores, non standard eating schedules, whatever--open diaries certainly can and do help others tremendously.
  • LifeWithPie
    LifeWithPie Posts: 552 Member
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    Mines private because honestly it's no ones business what I eat or how much. I log for me. I don't need strangers to keep me accountable. And it's not like my diary is going to inspire anyone.

    But that's me.
    If I were to ask for help on the forums with a food related or weight related question, then I would definitely open it to get advice but for now..I'm doing just fine.

    However......I do enjoy looking at other's diaries. Because I'm kinda nosey. I freely admit it.
  • Goldilukes
    Goldilukes Posts: 45 Member
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    Mine is open and I am very openly honest about everything I eat plus how I feel that day. I know if I was starting out weight loss again I'd like to see open diaries and real honest thoughts from others to help motivate and inspire me. It does make me feel more accountable but if I cheat or make a bad decision it hopefully only shows I am human. I've yet to be insulted about my diary but I've been insulted for losing weight period by friends so I feel impervious to strangers rude comments should they come my way.
  • Lourdesong
    Lourdesong Posts: 1,492 Member
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    I personally don't think keeping my diary open would make me more accountable in the least. If anything, I might be tempted to not log my poor choices so no prying eyes give me crap about it.

    How honest is a person in, say, their personal journal if they know mom's going to read their personal thoughts later? Seems to me that having an audience is an incentive to create a decoy diary.
  • fredgiblet
    fredgiblet Posts: 241 Member
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    Mine's open. I don't really see a reason for it not to be. What's going to happen? Someone going to take offense that I eat at Taco Bell and stalk me?
  • kethry70
    kethry70 Posts: 404 Member
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    Mine used to be open to friends only but I recently made it public :smile:
  • 12pillows
    12pillows Posts: 81 Member
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    I have mine totally open.
    It was open to just my friends when I started. We all joined together so there's about 6 people I regularly hang out with that can see my diary. I know they look at it too cause we all spy on each other. It keeps me accountable cause I can't really lie on it cause I've usually eaten around at least one of them most days, and if I'm lying I won't lose weight so there's no point doing this at all.

    I opened it to the public when I became a bit more active on the boards, just in case anyone was curious.
    I did worry people were gonna think I was being rubbish at logging though cause most of the time I don't put spread on sandwiches, and I make porridge with just water and I've seen people get criticized for inaccurate logging when they don't put those things down. No one has though, so that's nice :D
  • mullycathNZ
    mullycathNZ Posts: 64 Member
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    Open to friends. Agree with others that makes me more accountable - esp when I have a bad day but still force myself to log it all......

    Also makes me think twice about pigging out completely or drinking a whole bottle of wine when I know others can see it - but I sometimes do it anyway!

    Nothing against making it public but don't see why anyone else would be interested....

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