Online weight-loss forums helps obese feel better

A study finds that online platforms can help obese to share their stories and secrets, without being judged, which as a result, help them feel better.

The study, appeared in the journal of Convergence, has been studying a diary from an online weight loss forum that is open to comments from other weight loss forum participants.

The researchers analysed the diary entries of "Astrid," a very active user on the forum.

"In 19 of 22 cases Astrid received positive responses when she posted confessions like, 'I've been eating sweets and drinking wine for several days.' The sociologist Erving Goffman uses the term 'saving face,' and from the responses it seems that the others in the forum know what it's like to be overweight and they step in to help her save face," said a researcher Ingeborg Grønning from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway.

"Obesity involves social stigma, but on a forum you can avoid the public shaming and can speak out without the involvement of normal-weight people, medical science or the authorities," Grønning explained.

She interviewed people who had undergone weight loss.

"I discovered that they used various forums to get experience-based answers to their questions from laypeople," Grønning stated.

By analysing the responses, they divided the participants into three categories: prospective, collective and positive.

"The prospective, or forward-looking, answers are along the line of 'if we continue on the same track, the weight will come off.' Collective responses give voice to 'we're all struggling with the same problem,' and the positive answers are purely supportive," she said.

The posts on the weight loss forum are open to all participants, who can remain anonymous since obesity still ranks among conditions that are most stigmatised.

She believes it is important not to underestimate what happens on an online forum.

Online forums are "Very useful for those who are active. Losing weight is a long process, you have to work hard and persistently to succeed. Encouragement from others helps keep spirits up," Grønning concluded.