What does it mean, exactly, to have a friend here?

kawh707 wrote: »

I have been working with this for a bit now, and am wondering exactly what it means when one designates a 'friend' here??

It says ", you'll be able to monitor each other's progress and provide each other support " ... but not sure what that includes??
Can the friend see exactly what you've eaten, or just the calories.... or neither?? Can someone explain more about this for me??
Thanks Much.

Whether or not you have friends on here, you can manipulate your diary settings at any time: public (everyone can see), friends only, totally private to you only, or locked with a password/key

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

The main thing about having a friend list is activity on your newsfeed, which is populated by you and your friends' status updates. These updates include but are probably not limited to weight loss, food diary complete for the day - where, depending on your setting, others can click a link to view your diary or you may click a link to view theirs, cardio exercises performed (my favorite), and any kind of random posts you and others make to the newsfeed. The last feature can often be a "safer" avenue for asking questions as compared to the main forums, especially if you might be a bit more on the sensitive side

After each status update, others can either hit a "Like" button or post a comment. It can be an opportunity for a quick chat

The items that get posted to your newsfeed are completely configurable. For instance I don't post diary complete statuses (or click the complete button, really), or weight loss updates