Logging on to Twitter may help you lose weight: study

Researchers from the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health found that the website can be a valuable support system for helping people lose weight, with dieters encouraging each other along the way with motivational posts.

The study found that the more status updates people read relating to healthy eating and exercise, the more weight they were likely to lose, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

On average, for every 10 Twitter updates read, they lost on average 0.5 per cent of their body weight.

Lead researcher Brie Turner-McGrievy said it was the first study to examine the use of Twitter as part of a "behavioural weight loss intervention".

"The results show that those who regularly used Twitter as part of a mobile weight loss program lost more weight," she said.

The study followed 96 overweight and obese men and women split into two groups over a six-month period. They all had a phone with an internet facility.

Both groups received two podcasts per week for three months (15 minutes each) and two mini-podcasts per week during the third to sixth months (five minutes each).

The podcasts included information about nutrition and exercise and goal setting.

In addition to the podcasts, one group downloaded an app that monitored diet and physical activity and also the Twitter app to their smartphone.

Both groups saw a 2.7 per cent decrease in body weight at six months.

And in the group who'd downloaded the Twitter app, those who used it the most lost the most weight.

People in this group were asked to log on daily to read two daily messages of encouragement delivered by a weight loss counsellor and also post their own messages of healthy eating examples to other members of the group to provoke discussion.

Turner-McGrievy said Twitter helped people shed the pounds because it helped people check the calorie contents of menus with their fellow dieters, and so on.

"Providing group support through online social networks can be a low cost way to reach a large number of people who are interested in achieving a healthy weight," she said.

The study was published in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine.