In recent years, when I’ve been dieting, I’ve logged my food on SparkPeople. I had my diary open for a long time but the more I hung out there and made friends, the more people would offer me unsolicited advice in order to “help” me. So, I made it private. At that time, I was following a plant-based diet with lots of beans, rice, oats, potatoes, fruits, and veggies. Folks expressed concern that I wasn’t getting enough protein and would lose muscle mass, or that all those carbs would cause me to become diabetic. A number of people said they could never stay on a diet without chicken/cheese/eggs. One other piece of unsolicited advice I got from more than one person was that I wasn’t eating enough calories. MFP is recommending that I eat 2470 calories per day to lose 2 lbs. a week, which is touted as a safe rate of loss. The recommendation on SparkPeople is similar. Right now, I’m eating 1700-1800 calories per day and losing 3-3.5/lbs. per week. When I had an open diary on SparkPeople I was eating around 1500 calories per day and losing 4-5lbs/week. Folks thought that was too fast and unsafe. My response was that if I had weight loss surgery, something my doctor recommended, I’d be surviving on 800 calories per day, so I thought what I was doing was very reasonable.

On the other hand, if you don’t mind a little flack, by having an open journal you could represent people who use portion control of the foods they enjoy to manage their weight. You can lose weight and still eat Doritos and Oreos as long as you measure them and still create a calorie deficit every day. For people who think the only way they can diet is by giving up every food they love, you could show them that isn’t necessary.

I have mine open because I don't mind anyone browsing it out of curiosity or looking for ideas etc but I agree unsolicited advice might put me off if that became a problem. If someone on my friends list kept offering unsolicited advice or criticism i would probably just delete them from friends list. If someone not on my friends list felt strongly enough about my food choices to bother messaging me about it, that would be ok if they had some particular question related to trying to follow similar plan etc but if they were just criticizing I don't think I would care really. I would probably just ignore them and delete message. Some people leave diaries open because they want advice but they would say so. On main community forum I sometimes see people post that they are not losing weight and don't understand why etc, sometimes they ask people to look at their diaries. Other people even actually specifically ask to be told off and monitored for chips or cake entries. Personally I use diary mainly to monitor my calorie goal and also to track my set goals for particular nutritional aims. If I go way off track I don't want telling off about it also I won't tell anyone off either even if they ask me to I won't.

I have mine private as an engineer I don't have time to cook and eat a lot of frozen meals fast food but I am doing the changes like a grilled chicken sandwich with mustard instead of a Big Mac and fries. Like mentioned above I just keep the calorie deficit. So far it's working. I thought about trying hello fresh or other food service but I am not a good cook at all lol I think we all have to be accountable to ourselves. Anyway it has to be for life I know this and I can do this everyday I would keep it whatever way makes you most comfortable.

Mine use to be open thenn some not so nice people happened . so I made it private with a pass word and now I don't remember the password

I made mine open as soon as I found out that it wasn't. Did so for two reasons; first, I don't give a flip what other people think. Second, MOTIVATION!

Sounds antithetical, I know... I'm complex.

Pepperh3ad wrote: »

I made mine open as soon as I found out that it wasn't. Did so for two reasons; first, I don't give a flip what other people think. Second, MOTIVATION!

Sounds antithetical, I know... I'm complex.

I had to look up the word antithetical. Learned a new word to day.

readytochange42 wrote: »

I decided I need more accountability so I opened mine to friends today.

Brave and responsible personal choice. Respect.

This thread just inspired me to make mine public. I just realized how often I'll see that someone came in under their calories and I am curious about any meals they have regularly or whether they allow themselves treats regularly, or find it best to stay away from trigger food, etc. There also may be a food that I automatically dismiss, assuming it's calorie heavy when it might not be, so I know I can try that food. And I love getting new inspiration on what to eat, so if people care to see how I do it, that's fine by me for now. Hopefully some of the realities some of you have had to face with unsolicited advice or rude comments won't come to light. We'll see. I agree that it adds some level of accountability, too, and also a level of reality! No one eats perfectly. We're all going to have days that we go over and that's okay, as long as we don't give up on our progress.