At this time of the year weight loss is on many New Year resolution lists but it’s always too hard to stick to your diet plan and exercise regime. Support in these cases is very important and in this new network era social media can come very handy. Why not, indeed?
When we decide to lose some weight for the better looks or for healthy purposes, we usually turn first to our family and closest friends for support. This, however, is not a very good strategy, because it’s impossible to make your husband stop the red meat and his favorite pizza, for example. No matter how much your family members want to help with your struggle, they just won’t stick to the same restrictive way of eating as you do. Other options for support are the doctors, nutritionists and dietitians, but consulting them can be pretty expensive. And when we’re out of options, we can’t do this on our own, so we break our promise and get back to the unhealthy habits.
But there is another option that few people would ever think about, the support found online. Most of us must admit that we stay online pretty much all day; we spend a big deal of our time in social media websites. So why don’t we make the best of it and use Facebook and Twitter as our weight loss helpers?
According to an Australian study on web-based weight loss programs, personalized medical and nutritional support had a very little effect on the participants who wanted to lose weight. But this was only the conclusion at first sight; actually these features of online diet plans made the users stay longer on the website. People who used the online tool for tracking weight dropped more pounds than those who didn’t. The research was published last month in the Journal of Medical Internet research. The results are in fact similar to those of a previous study which found that tracking the food intake on a mobile device paired with personal counseling, had a better weight loss effect than counseling alone.
Facebook gives you the opportunity to inform yourself on diet plans and exercises, as well as to personally connect to specialists and take some tips from them. But it also makes it possible to find people in your position, people who can share your burden, tell you about their best diets or worst weight gains. You can join one of the many Facebook groups for healthy eating and living or get inspired by celebrity weight loss stories.
If you are new on Twitter, or you think you don’t have anything interesting to say, you can just follow other people. There are many dieticians and nutritionists who give great tips and answer your questions.
Here are few to start with: Weight Loss Management, Women’s Health Fans and Weight Watchers Fans.
Of course, computer is related to weight gain, that’s why the most important is to control your portions and get regular exercise. But it feels great to tweet the pounds you lost!
