How I feel about some of these forums

True. But some people do need that reality check. For example if everyone was nice and noone ever told me I was fat I would probably still be fat. If noone ever told me eating poverty calories and wasting endless hour on cardio was stupid I'd probably still be doing it. Tough love bro, sometimes its the best way.

That's the way it is throughout the internet. You'll find people who are helpful, and people who only want to start trouble.

(Wait, it's not Friday, right?)

They're not putting down the person. They're putting down the idea. People get on here and say "I'm going to take this diet pill" or "I'm doing the _______ Cleanse" or "how do I get rid of toxins in my body" and they often spread misconceptions to other people who don't know any better. These types of posters also tend to be defensive or unreceptive to the helpful advice. They only want to be told what they want to hear, not the truth.

I myself have found the experienced and/or successful members blunt no bull $#!t answers quite helpful.

The world is an unfriendly place.

If you are looking for a more supportive weight loss environment, you might try finding a group like OA or TOPS.

baby05phat wrote: »

I always used fitnesspal and loved the app, I never even noticed a community aspect to it. I recently started reading a lot of the forums and lookig for motivation, etc. While I found great inspiration and good people I also noticed a lot of judgement and putting people down for their way of weight loss or their ideas. It makes new people feel unwelcome & hesitant to share posts. I wish we were all more peaceful and friendlier here

well, it's just like real life...as far as I know, there's nowhere on the planet where everyone is *kitten* rainbows.

beyond that, people do come up with a lot of BS and it's important to shoot down factually incorrect bull. unfortunately, many people interpret challenging their factually incorrect *kitten* as being "mean" or whatever.

Some of the people that you are complaining about are probably the people that kept me coming back to the forums for more information. I would much rather be told that I'm doing something wrong than have someone pat my hand and tell me something that they think would make me feel better. At least the first group of people take the time to share their knowledge and I wouldn't be wasting my time by continuing to do things the wrong way.

Take the good advice, ignore the trolls. A lot of it is just sarcasm because you get the same questions over and over and over again. Of course new people are going to get rude answers when all they have to do is read the stickies on top of the forum instead of just blindly throwing out questions that are already answered...in the stickies.

There is a better way to explain things that being a bully...but hey, they look rude in the end, not you. Everyone else knows they are rude. The only members who don't see it are the other condescending people - unfortunately they have the bigger mouths.

I agree.

There's a difference between saying "I understand there's a common misconception that that works to lose weight, but here's how it actually works"

And
"Why the *kitten* are you doing that?"
"That's not how it works"
"What is "unhealthy"

Seriously the majority of people on here either respond like an as*hole or in a passive agressive manner. There is nothing wrong with ignorance. You can easily explain it without being a huge dick.

No forum is going to filled with perfect people, just like life. A lot of what you see is people trying to educate new members about bad ideas they've gotten or tips on things to try. Granted, some of that advice comes out snarky, but sometimes it does because it's been repeated so many times and is also in the announcement topics at the top, and people get frustrated at saying the same thing over and over. That may be what you're seeing as 'meanness'.

And yes, some people are just mean and/or trolls. Again, just like the real world, though maybe a slightly higher percent since the internet tends to remove people from what they're seeing and saying. To some, words on the screen are just words on the screen; they don't associate them with an actual person. They also feel like the other person will never find out who they are, and those together tend to remove some filters on some people. Best advice I can give is focus on the positive and ignore the negative. If you focus on the negative, that's all you'll see and you'll really get yourself down.

baby05phat wrote: »

Is there seriously no way to get rid of toxins? Then why does bloodwork look so much better after the person has lost weight and become healthier? A toxin is anything that damages the body.
Plus are all of you doctors? Lol ...even science and doctors knows so much about the human body and we are still unsure of gmo's and what they can do to us in the future, we have a growing obesity epidemic so I just thought this place would be friendlier

Your body does fine removing toxins without help, unless your kidneys or liver stop functioning. Using the detox diets only make you miserable and don't have any actual health benefit to them. A person's blood work looks better after losing weight is probably a sign of the person eating a more healthy diet and exercising, both of which contribute to that. Not detoxifing.

baby05phat wrote: »

Is there seriously no way to get rid of toxins? Then why does bloodwork look so much better after the person has lost weight and become healthier? A toxin is anything that damages the body.
Plus are all of you doctors? Lol ...even science and doctors knows so much about the human body and we are still unsure of gmo's and what they can do to us in the future, we have a growing obesity epidemic so I just thought this place would be friendlier

Role reversal... You're doing the same thing you're complaining about.. and what do you mean by friendlier? If someone has a differing opinion than you do, does that make MFP unfriendly?!?!?

baby05phat wrote: »

I'm especially talking about the "clean eating" hate going on. People instantly get attacked for suggesting they are going to restrict certain foods, eat raw or just eat unprocessed/nutritious foods only. Some people have to do this or the other food triggers a massive binge from those with binge eating disorder, etc.
I'm just saying we are all different, can we be a little more open minded to different things. Obviously unhealthy diets and things that will harm you can be commented upon but then again even fasting for short periods of time is healthy for some people and some doctors even recommend intense diets for people who's situation is life/death.

I'd say a higher percentage of people fail due to that sort of restriction than the amount that fail due to food triggers. Attempting an unsustainable lifestyle, imo, is the reason most people fail at weight loss. Most people being "attacked", as you say, are attempting an unsustainable lifestyle that they will give up on within 2 weeks. Almost everyone on this forum is trying to help others!

I love this place because of the tough love stance and the hard line on science. There are tons of places on the internet where people can get support for their woo and pseudoscience and a pat on the head every time they "ruined their diet" again, even if it's the fiftieth time. I don't need that, I need this.

baby05phat wrote: »

Is there seriously no way to get rid of toxins? Then why does bloodwork look so much better after the person has lost weight and become healthier? A toxin is anything that damages the body.
Plus are all of you doctors? Lol ...even science and doctors only know so much about the human body. We are unsure of so many things and still researching for example we are still unsure of gmo's and what they can do to us in the future, we have a growing obesity epidemic so I just thought this place would be friendlier

Your body naturally removes toxins. The reason bloodwork looks better after a person has lost weight is because they've reduced the size of the body that the internal organs have to remove toxins from. Same thing with blood pressure. If the is less places that have to have food an oxygen, the heart doesn't have to work as hard getting blood to those places.

90% of people on here mean well. sometimes people's replys can be taken the wrong way, it can be tough to tell when we are all typing on a computer and u can't actually see facial expressions, tone of voice, so on. they're are the odd 10% that almost always have a negative response. after awhile u just realize who they are and take it with a grain of salt. i love the forums and find most people have great advice, sugar coated or not. some people are on here are looking for validation in they're extreme diets and when they don't get it they decide everyone is mean. that is the one thing that drives me bonkers