Closed Diaries?

My food log is public and I try to complete it everyday. It motivates me to make better food choices knowing that people will be checking it out when I'm done for the day. :laugh:

There are plenty of people that leave pretty nasty messages for some people's diaries. I now will only leave my diary open to my friends.

Hmmm haven't seen that in the time I've been here. Why do you care what other people say? MFP is your personal health journey to success. Negative comments push me to try harder. If you only hear the good what do you gain and why do you need friends to stroke your ego?

Negative comments don't have that effect on everyone. For some people it just discourages and depresses them. And it's not a matter of needing to have my ego stroked or wanting only good comments. As far as the food diary goes I don't particularly want ANY comments, negative or positive. I know what I'm eating, and whether it's healthy or not, I don't need other people offering their unsolicited opinions on what I eat. And I don't even have friends who would make negative comments, I just don't care to have everything on display for anyone to poke their noses into.

Agreed! Women (I am aware I am generalizing here, and DO NOT mean ALL women, or just women) tend to be a little more sensitive than men are. I noticed this at the gym, and talked to my trainer at the time about it. My boxing coach was a man, and he thought that if he told me I was doing terrible, that it would make me want to work harder... WRONG! made me want to give up. My female trainer said that with more experience as a trainer, you get to know that more than 50% of the time, women do not respond well to that kind of support, but men do.

People that complain about not losing weight and are asking for help on the message boards should have open diary's. Otherwise they don't really want help, they just want to complain.

Outside off that, the only reason a diary should be open is so I can still ideas.

I don't understand the concept of not being supportive because you can't see thier diaries. I'm supportive of all my friends and have no idea what they eat. If they want specific help that is one thing and they usually ask. I would only open it to people I trust explicitly. And since I know no one that well on here, I'm closed.

I have my diary CLOSED. I am here to record and track calories and hold myself accountable, not let someone snoop in my diary and let me know what I did right or wrong. If someone were to see my results down the road and then ask about my eating habits I might share or I might not. It's my business and I think it's pretty weird that you think it's so important...

Mine is Private purely because I know I won't be honest if it was public. I'd skip logging the little things. And we all know it's the little things that add up! :blushing:

Not everyone is here for support though. Some people are here only to track their calories and log their exercise.

Agree. But it's such a great support system they should be using it fully.

What? That's quite the assumption about what I need. There are other ways to gain a support system. And frankly, sometimes this one sucks.

I wasn't trying to offend you. But you're right, I am assuming. By the time a person decides to track every single calorie on a public internet site, it's probably safe to assume, even if only a little, that they are looking for some type of extra support they didn't find anywhere else.

Not everyone is here for support though. Some people are here only to track their calories and log their exercise.

Agree. But it's such a great support system they should be using it fully.

What? That's quite the assumption about what I need. There are other ways to gain a support system. And frankly, sometimes this one sucks.

I wasn't trying to offend you. But you're right, I am assuming. By the time a person decides to track every single calorie on a public internet site, it's probably safe to assume, even if only a little, that they are looking for some type of extra support they didn't find anywhere else.

Nope. Maybe the online tracking tools are just a bit easier than tracking on paper. That's why many people use MFP. I don't need the "support" of strangers.

i don't like closed diaries, it defeats the whole purpose

I don't necessarily agree, my diary is open but I don't mind closed diaries, I think it's each individuals choice as to whether they want their diary closed or open, the purpose is to lose weight not share recopies, and as someone earlier stated there are plenty of open diaries to get ideas from (and a whole forum dedicated to that very thing), but we all have that nosy nature, (or at least I do) and like to creep friends diaries every now and then

Coming from having an eating disorder I have a hard enough time eating food let alone having others pick at it. I don't look at others' diaries because I eat what I can, they eat what they can, and everybody is happy. I haven't had any of my friends complain about it. We're a mix of open and closed.

Mine is open. I just wish I could see the looks on some peoples faces when they read it.

It's comments like this that make me go look. :laugh:

Mine is open to friends.

Because I don't want to be judged when I have a day of McDonald's...

This!

Mine is open but I don't care if other people's are closed. And if someone started wagging their finger at me to not have a treat every now and then or offer other unsolicited advice that would bother me.

Also, why do you need to congratulate them? Maybe they don't care if they get random congratulations from people.

I like when people call me out on having a bad day, and knowing that I cant keep my mistakes a secret makes me not want to make them. I think accountability is one of the best parts of MFP.

I made mine closed to people who aren't my "friends" just because I got paranoid that people I know in real life were checking to see what all I was eating. I know. Body issues. But that's probably the same reason other people hide their logs entirely. Sometimes being honest with YOURSELF is all that's really important.

Because I am on here to lose weight for me, not for other people to complain that they can't see my diary.

I go back and forth between open and private. Even if it is open, I won't "finish" so that it gets posted. I lose my weight my way, I eat what I want and it works for me.

I am in my 8th month of being ED free and the last thing I want is someone on a high horse telling me how or what I should be eating. Or if I had a bad day and didn't make it to my calories, or I had a great day and ate everything I saw. It is no ones business.

And people can be jerks. A few harsh comments to someone who is doing everything they can to get healthy can be devastating. I keep my friends list low because I don't want the drama that comes with people who feel entitled to see what I ate.