Study: Twitter Helps Dieters Lose Weight

With people dieting as a New Year’s resolution, a new study finds that a key to helping you lose weight might not be in what you’re eating and drinking or where you’re exercising, but in what your fingers are doing.

FOX News Radio’s Chris Hoenig explains:

Call it #twiet.  Researchers at the University of South Carolina finding that using Twitter helps people keep to their diets.

(Turner-McGrievy) “For every 10 posts to Twitter, it corresponded with about 0.5% weight loss.”

Study author Brie Turner-McGrievy says the posts were mainly status updates.

(Turner-McGrievy) “Saying, you know, ‘I went to the gym today, had a really good workout;’ or, ‘I met my calorie limit for the day, really proud of myself.'”

And participants also began supporting other dieters on Twitter.  The results leading to more research.

(Turner-McGrievy) “Can we predict who would benefit from being in a Twitter intervention?”

The study published in the journal “Translational Behavioral Medicine.”

Chris Hoenig, FOX News Radio.