According to new research, the Internet can help you keep weight off. The study found that the more often people logged on to a specially designed Kaiser Permanente weight loss website, the more likely they were to maintain weight loss.
The authors of the study believed that the website worked as a result of its mixture of accountability and sociability.
Site users were asked log in once a week to enter their weight and the amount of exercise they’d done — and if they didn’t log in regularly, they got an e-mail and then an automated phone call. Users could also chat with other study participants.
Time Magazine reports:
“The study began with 1,600 overweight or obese participants, about 350 of whom lost enough weight … to stay in the trial … Users who had logged on the most regularly — at least once a month for 28 months — had kept off the most weight, an average of 9 lbs. People who used the website the least kept off only 3 lb. on average.”