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Having MFPs

Posts: 65 Member
edited January 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Does having mfpals actually help you do better with eating habits and exercise? What works for you?

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Replies

  • Posts: 9,372 Member
    Me personally, no.

    I don't do the friends behind the scenes thing.

    But it is helpful for many other people.
  • Posts: 10,136 Member
    I have none. It would not motivate me anyway and I don't have time to spend time on other people's profiles. There used to be a commend on my public profile that I'm a grumpy git and don't add people, but it seems to be gone. It got ignored anyway.
  • Posts: 4,232 Member
    Helps some people, doesn't help others. Try it. You might like it.
  • Posts: 158 Member
    Ditto for me, no friends.
    People who is still looking for the right path would have been even counter-productive, to me; and successful/experienced people's comments I read in forums and taught me a lot (as Ann and Yirara above: you have no idea how much I learnt from you both, I'll never thank you enough, if I reached so well my goal, with a so relaxed pace and mood, is also because of you!).
    Note: to me, losing weight was more a consequence of bettered habits than the main goal. My committment comes from healthy reasons, a motivation strong enough for me to eat even healthier than I already was doing and move more.
  • Posts: 1,455 Member
    No. Weight loss is a very personal journey, and having people who post now and then or go quiet for a while aren't particularly useful.
  • Posts: 14,553 Member
    edited December 2023
    I've done both.

    I was actually very interactive in the friend thing before even starting to post in the community forum. But the ads and scrolling of interacting with friends requires an even larger time commitment than the large time commitment of community.

    And the "curating" you have to do with the friends thing is substantial, at least if you want to end up in a group that is both active and not hating one another. For (breadth of) knowledge and (eventually getting correct) information the community forum is superior. For "over the computer intimate friendship" the friend thing. I still consider some of the friend thing friends from years ago to be like friends. Comparatively way fewer and less intimately known, albeit still very much welcomed, from community.

    But time commitment. And it is done in a deliberately time sucking way too. So now I barely glance at the one or two people who I've kept up in touch with over the years.
  • Posts: 1,787 Member
    I’ve been fortunate to find a few really great long term friends on MFP. It makes it more enjoyable for me.
  • Posts: 35,413 Member
    Back in for a side comment: By asking here, you're likely to get a biased sample of replies.

    Folks hanging out here presumably tend to like participating in the Community, may or may not like the friend thing.

    People who really like the friend thing, but not the Community (and there are some) are not nearly as likely to even read the question, let alone reply.
  • Posts: 67 Member
    edited January 2024
    This is my 3rd and hopefully final go round with MyFitnessPal pal. Each time I have been able to successfully lose weight and even keep it off for a while when I log in my maintenance calories. I've found I'm not as successful when I don't use MFP mostly I easily began to overestimate how much IM eating and have zero accountability in keeping with my exercises unless I intend to log them.
  • Posts: 28,055 Member
    I read the OP as having MFP, with a random "s" tagged on, meaning MyFitnessPal the app/website, not referring to having friends on MFP.

    MyFitnessPal has helped me for sure. I don't interact much on my feed, but love the forums.
  • Posts: 10,136 Member
    I don't do friends but I'm active in the community. That's enough.
  • Posts: 3 Member
    I don't add or speak to people on here (this is my second time even posting anything here) and given the progress I've made I don't think speaking to other people about it would help me or motivate me, because the motivation is all internal and doesn't depend on others.
  • Posts: 2,825 Member
    I love the open diaries and meal ideas from friends. Friends could be an incentive to keep someone logging in food all day, but then could backfire and have you on the phone too much!

    For me, it has worked to add friends, but just put on my profile that I don't use the inbox/message option.

    If I were retired, it might be fun to talk to people from everywhere, but I'd be careful of evil scammers!

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