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Public vs private food diaries on MFP

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  • avatiach
    avatiach Posts: 404 Member
    I used to keep it private. But then I realized I like looking at other people's diaries (sometimes it gives me ideas) and turnabout is fair play, so now mine is open to friends.
  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
    I don't even know how to look at other people's diaries but mine is public.
  • OnTheRoad24
    OnTheRoad24 Posts: 218 Member
    I set my Diary to 'Friends Only', my Profile & Badges and my Blog to 'My Friends Only'... all the other stuff is private because it's not essential.

    After all, why have friends here at all if you're not going to share and encourage each other?
  • OnTheRoad24
    OnTheRoad24 Posts: 218 Member
    paperpudding wrote: »
    After all, why have friends here at all if you're not going to share and encourage each other?

    well that is a separate question I think and perhaps one worth starting a thread about if you are interested in different people's reasons for having MFP friends.

    Speaking as someone whose diary is private - I'm actually not interested in having friends on here at all - I just like posting in the forums and using MFP for logging - I dont want or need to share and encourage beyond that

    my N = 1 - other people with private or public diaries may of course feel differently.

    Actually, it's a very pertinent question to this thread. Meaning no disrespect but the fact that you don't have or want MFP friends for support makes me wonder why you would even need to join this discussion... it doesn't seem that you have a horse in this race... just saying
  • icandoit2323
    icandoit2323 Posts: 31 Member
    I have it closed because I can't imagine anyone would be interested in it :D
  • chuckees130
    chuckees130 Posts: 15 Member
    corinasue1143 wrote: »
    When I first started, my diary was very private, because I thought everyone else here ate perfectly every day. Then I read some public diaries. I eventually came to know that we’re all doing the best we can do and trying to learn the best ways to do just a little better. So now my diary is open. I can’t imagine why anyone else would WANT to look, but if it helps anyone in any way, then they can look.

    I have my diary public and have been trying to meet new people to friend. I'm over 60 could this be why nobody responds?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,957 Member
    chuckees130 wrote: »
    corinasue1143 wrote: »
    When I first started, my diary was very private, because I thought everyone else here ate perfectly every day. Then I read some public diaries. I eventually came to know that we’re all doing the best we can do and trying to learn the best ways to do just a little better. So now my diary is open. I can’t imagine why anyone else would WANT to look, but if it helps anyone in any way, then they can look.

    I have my diary public and have been trying to meet new people to friend. I'm over 60 could this be why nobody responds?

    Just making the diary public doesn't cause friend requests, and even having MFP friends doesn't mean people will comment on your diary.

    If it's that you don't have friends, ask for friend requests on one of the threads for that, like maybe this one:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10832868/comment-here-if-you-want-more-friends-2#latest

    Or look in the "Introductions" or "Getting Started" parts of the Community, see threads with people asking for friends, send them friend requests.

    Another option is to join a challenge group in "Challenges" to meet people. If you want to join a thread for 60+ people (general discussion, not challenge), there's this one:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10718336/60-yrs-and-up#latest

    If it's that people don't comment on your diary, start posting status updates with questions, comment on others exercise with encouraging comments, etc.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,072 Member
    I keep mine private, mostly because I'm not looking for feedback from anyone else, it's for my information.
  • DebbsSeattle
    DebbsSeattle Posts: 125 Member
    I have my food diary set to public. It contains no secrets, no proprietary info, no personal info. I don’t have a large set of ‘friends’ but I don’t care if someone sees what I eat.

    I guess I don’t understand someone keeping it private when they were probably snapping pics of food porn or posting recipes for Insta or FB before they began pursuing a healthful eating program.

    As far as “inspiration” goes…I actually was inspired a few days ago to put spring rolls on the up and coming menu after viewing someone else’s diary. I used to make them all the time when I worked with a bunch of Korean folks and they got me hooked. But now they fell off the food list and I forgot how healthy and tasty they are.
  • YoureAWalnut
    YoureAWalnut Posts: 57 Member
    I have mine public because I love looking at others diaries! It helps me get meal inspiration and it also helps me keep track of ballparking calories for certain foods (I tend to way underestimate if I don't weight things out).
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,183 Member
    DebbsSeattle wrote: »
    I have my food diary set to public. It contains no secrets, no proprietary info, no personal info. I don’t have a large set of ‘friends’ but I don’t care if someone sees what I eat.

    I guess I don’t understand someone keeping it private when they were probably snapping pics of food porn or posting recipes for Insta or FB before they began pursuing a healthful eating program.


    Mine is only open to friends, which I resist collecting. It's my data, my decision, my way of using the diary which is probably not the way people looking use their diaries. MFP gives you the option to have it closed, so clearly having it open isn't the price of admission.

    Neither before nor since coming here did I post recipes on Insta and FB, and only snapped pics of food for a brief while AFTER I started here before my ability to remember what I ate got really strong from exercising it so much. But for people who did choose to post recipes or take pictures of food before they joined MFP and made their diaries private, those were choices they made about how and when and with whom to share. Making the decision to share in one situation doesn't mean they no longer have the right to make a different decision in a different situation.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,498 Member
    I guess I don’t understand someone keeping it private when they were probably snapping pics of food porn or posting recipes for Insta or FB before they began pursuing a healthful eating program.

    that seems a HUGE presumption to me.

    Probably most closed diary people (and open diary people, the 2 groups aren't polarised opposities in everything) did not snap photos of food porn or post photos, meals, recipes on Facebook or Instagram -given only a minority of FB users use it that way and not everyone is even on Facebook.

    Despite having a closed diary, I dont think Ive ever posted any food pics on Facebook and I'm not even on Instagram.

    and anyway food diaries on MFP are a completely different thing to those - so any MFP member may or may not do any of above, either before during or after weight loss.

    Not seeing the correlation at all. :*

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,784 Member
    paperpudding, I thought the same thing:
    I guess I don’t understand someone keeping it private when they were probably snapping pics of food porn or posting recipes for Insta or FB before they began pursuing a healthful eating program.

    Like...What?

    Who even has time to do that? I guess I spend too much time here.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,957 Member
    DebbsSeattle wrote: »
    I have my food diary set to public. It contains no secrets, no proprietary info, no personal info. I don’t have a large set of ‘friends’ but I don’t care if someone sees what I eat.

    I guess I don’t understand someone keeping it private when they were probably snapping pics of food porn or posting recipes for Insta or FB before they began pursuing a healthful eating program.

    As far as “inspiration” goes…I actually was inspired a few days ago to put spring rolls on the up and coming menu after viewing someone else’s diary. I used to make them all the time when I worked with a bunch of Korean folks and they got me hooked. But now they fell off the food list and I forgot how healthy and tasty they are.

    I guess I don't understand why anyone even cares or speculates about whether and why 3rd parties post food photos, share recipes, or open/close their MFP diaries, personally.

    Spring rolls sound pretty great, as an off-topic aside. I've had some good ones from restaurants locally, but have never tried to make them. They do look achievable, and the calories in rice paper are lower than I would've guessed. You're inspiring me to put trying to make them on my 2023 agenda. I might even post them on FB if I do . . . ;) .
  • 796fra
    796fra Posts: 46 Member
    Friends. My only "friend" is my husband. It allows us to copy a meal from each other. It's easier to adjust portions than log homemade food.
  • thesawyerbunch
    thesawyerbunch Posts: 22 Member
    Private, because I'm a private person. I'm not opposed to finding "friends," but I'm autistic, which makes building relationships hard for me, so I'm not going to hold my breath.
  • HASWLRS
    HASWLRS Posts: 8,001 Member
    I have mine set to friends only.

    When I first came here, I would look at people's diaries for food ideas. I had never heard of edamame until I saw it on a friend's diary. Now I will eat that at a sushi restaurant if I go because I am not a fan otherwise. At this point in my journey, I rarely look at my friends' diaries. And I never comment unless they have asked for feedback. That is a rookie mistake that newcomers often make...assuming that because the diary is public, they "should" comment on it. A question is fine, but not judgement.

    That being said, I do enjoy seeing "completed diary and under calories" posts from my friends. I find that inspiring, whether or not their diary is public; like I said, I rarely look anymore anyways.

  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 2,230 Member
    My diary is set to friends. A few in my circle of foodie friends are into recipes and cooking and trying new ingredients.. as am I.. so we converse on the items in our diaries.
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    Mine is public, but I seldom actually track. And when I do track, I usually use some approximations from existing listings for tough to estimate items. Also, my "true" sodium intake is usually much higher than I track.

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