Losing weight may be only a click away if you use social media to connect with other dieters, a new study finds.
Northwestern University research shows that dieters with who recorded their weight regularly on social media and "friended" other dieters lost more than 8 percent of their body weight in six months.Those who didn't use social media weight-loss support lost substantially less, only about 5 percent of their body weight.
The key appeared to be social connectedness. The research showed that the less users interacted with the online weight loss community, the fewer pounds they shed.
The research used data from CalorieKing.com, an online service for which users pay a membership fee for access to weight-loss tools and an online community. It is the first study to examine which social variables most strongly promote weight loss in online communities.
"Our findings suggest that people can do very well at losing weight with minimal professional help when they become centrally connected to others on the same weight loss journey," said Bonnie Spring, a Northwestern University professor and an author of the study, which was published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
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