A new study from the University of South Carolina suggests that it might be possible to use Twitter as a tool to help people achieve a healthy body weight. Published in Transitional Behavioural Medicine, it found that Twitter use among participants in a weight loss program increased their likelihood of success at losing weight. It’s one of the first studies to examine social media as part of a behavioural weight loss intervention, rather than as a means of tracking health trends.

The study followed 96 overweight or obese men and women living in metropolitan areas. They were required to own one of each of these four devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry or an Android-based phone. They then were assigned to either a Podcast-only or Podcast plus mobile media intervention groups. Both groups had to listen to two exercise and nutrition focused podcasts a week for three months, while the mobile group also downloaded a diet and physical activity monitoring app on their phones, as well as the Twitter app. On Twitter the participants were to follow each other, and use the service to post updates on their progress with each other, and read tweets by a weight loss counselor. Both groups lost the same percentage of weight, but the indviduals that used Twitter the most lost the most weight. Every 10 tweets averaged an 0.5 pound weight loss.

Because Twitter allowed the individuals to gather support in their weight loss while retaining their anonymity helped people gain the social support that is invaluable in most weight loss efforts.

[Via Wired]

____

Megan Patterson is the Science and Technology Editor at Paper Droids and currently a Toronto Standard intern. She has also written for WORN Fashion Journal, Elevate, and Salon Magazines. She also tweets more than is healthy or wise. 

For more, follow us on Twitter at @torontostandard and subscribe to our Newsletter.