Reasons for making (or not) your food diary public?

I keep mine open. This thread convinced me:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/158378-keepin-it-open-your-food-diary-that-is

That same thread convinved me, too!

I also like the accountability. It keeps me honest when recording food in my Diary. So Keeping it open works well for me.

because its harder to cheat when everyone can see what your eating! i need someone to keep me in line!

I also hit the 'complete' button numerous times a day once I change stuff, so my friends would constantly be getting notifications that I'd completed it lol!

I think it only notifies once! I sometimes add things late at night if I've been munching, but I never see multiple notifications

I keep mine open because I think it's only fair - I peek at others' all the time for menu ideas, so I should have mine public in kind, right? It also gives accountability, and hopefully helps others! :happy:

haha... I wonder if this thread was a coincidence, since I just made my diary public and got BASHED, lol... But I learned what I'm doing wrong, and because of that I'm happy I did it.

I don't think you got bashed! It was probably just a bit of a shock for you, but everyone here is very supportive and just wanted to help you out

because its harder to cheat when everyone can see what your eating! i need someone to keep me in line!

Exactly!!! :laugh:

Accountability. Also it gives some people an idea of how I eat so that maybe they can get an idea of what i am doing to maintain my weightloss and also they can give me ideas based on what they see. Last reason is : why not? I have nothing to hide

mine is totally public, for accountability because I used to have portion control issues bad and because i read somewhere that people who keep a list of what they eat weigh less than those who don't and people who "share' the list by posting it online or whatever weigh even less

In the beginning, I kept my food diary private. I was "embarrassed" by what made the list each day and scared that my friends might "tsk, tsk" me.

After I lost my initial 14-lbs in 4 wks, I realized, however, that what I was doing.... was working! And I realized that my food diary looked very different from everyone else's. Mine had a slice of Domino's Pizza on there (ONE slice). I had the occasional bag of chips (usually only 1/2 individual sized bag). I had Taco Bell in there (2 tacos fresco style). And I also realized that this was all OKAY. lol.... Moderation works for me. I take that first bite and my craving is almost immediately satisfied. I don't need to finish the rest.

I understand that I have an ultimate goal of how I want to eat and how I'd like to fuel my body. Specifically, I have serious health concerns that require me to be very cognizant of my HEALTH (not to be confused with my desire to lose weight/be thin). In an ideal world, it would be all local, organic, freshly cooked meals 24/7. I would save money by buying everything fresh and in bulk, pre-make my meals, chop my own veggies, etc.... honestly??? Not gonna happen. Um, that head of lettuce will just sit in the crisper drawer and wilt. Pre-made, on-the-go salad kits are what work for me.

I started out eating Quaker Instant Oatmeal. It's better than all the croissant ham & cheese sandwiches I used to get, w/ side of breakfast fried potatoes! After weeks of the instant oatmeal, my trainer said I should really start eating the Steel Cut Oats w/ Flax Seed Oil. I made that once and while it was fine to my tastebuds, I just never got around to doing it again. Whatever the reasons, it doesn't fit my lifestyle right now. So then after that 1x, the rest of that week I ended up at work without a readily available breakfast, and back I went to ordering in.... croissant sandwiches. Duh. I went back to my Quaker Instant Oatmeal. And I'm FINE. Eventually... someday.... the steel cut oats will work into my life. But right now? Not so much.

I decided to open my diary bc I realized there is more than one way to do this, and thought others might want to know that. You don't have to eat "bird food" all the time. lol.... Yes, there is an ideal and we should work towards that... especially when we all know how processed foods affect your arteries and how your body processes the artifical crap, etc etc.... But, it's just so easy to get caught up in the ALL OR NOTHING mindset. You can go to the birthday party and have champagne and eat a bit of cake. You can live your life in a normal social way without feeling deprived or obsessed with the numbers and the counting and the watching and the planning.

This may not work for "you", but it works for me. Because of my unique health situation, I talk to my doctor at least once a week. She is completely onboard with my plan and my progress. So, I leave my diary open to those on my friends list just to give others a different idea of the numerous options out there.

I don't really see the need to put my food diary under lock and key. Oh no, someone will say "YOU ATE CHIPS?! HOW DARE YOU!!" and I'll feel horrible about myself. I put explanations in my notes because sometimes I forget why I ate certain things. I put in if I miss lunch due to work being super busy or a big dinner because I went to a friend's party. We're all in this together, for different reasons but we're all here.

More on accountability and such:
My boyfriend is not so much my accountability partner as he is my motivator. He asks me how my gym classes are and how my workout program is going for me. He's very supportive I tell him what he wants to know, and if I was under / over my calories. If I'm having an off day and not wanting to work out, he'll call me "tubby" which happens to be my trigger. I'll get all mad and go to the gym being all "I'll show him! I'm not tubby!" It might be tough love, but hey, it works for us. You don't call somebody you love names with malicious intent.

I made mine public after keeping it private for two reasons:

- I like looking at other people's diaries for inspiration. It's also interesting to see how different we eat. So out of fairness and reciprocity, I should allow the same scrutiny for myself.
- Often new posters ask vague questions (why am I not losing weight? how much sugar is too much? am I doing anything wrong?) that would be much easier to give an intelligent answer to if you could see their bloody diary! So to encourage this kind of transparency I keep mine open, and it gives me more credibility when I ask someone to show theirs.

I haven't been stalked and stupid negative remarks would not make me change the above. I AM however pseudonymous here, while I see that a lot of other posters would be extremely easy to identify by their meatspace friends and neighbours, which would probably make me hesitate a little.

Mine is private because I am going to have days I'm not proud of and I want to be honest with myself about them. With others looking, I'm not sure I'd tell the world I ate an entire medium pizza for dinner, but I'd defintiely track it privately.

I have no problem holding myself accountable and I've been into fitness and nutrition for many years now. I don't need a support group but I understand that many do and that's awesome because it's really about whatever works for you personally. I also don't want to open mine up because the workouts I do aren't listed and are too difficult to calculate and add. Perhaps I'll do the math and add them one day but so far I haven't had the time. Since they're not tracked, the whole thing is really inaccurate for me.

I'm primarily here for the amazing food tracking functions that work better than my personal spreadsheets.

I decided to keep mine open recently because:

a) nobody's perfect, we all have bad food days
b) I like looking at other diaries for ideas and I think maybe someone might look at mine and find a new meal idea
c) it creates accountability