Bloggers take dieting online

By Sara McDonald
The Daily News

Published December 31, 2006

Newmom77 wants sugar. Margot68 is ecstatic she can fit into old clothes. Zigzee lost 7 pounds.

In the world of weight loss, sometimes all that dieters need is a little encouragement and someone to listen to them.

The tried-and-true solutions of dieting meetings and team effort still work, but now dieters are turning to the Internet to log their dieting ups and downs.

Diet blogs, an alternative to griping to a girlfriend about the amount of Christmas cookies consumed, have sprung up everywhere on the Internet, from Web sites, such as www.diet.com, that allow registered users to develop a diet-specific forum to personal Web sites that detail every food eaten.

Blogs, a form of online journal in which readers can write comments in response to entries, cover every subject imaginable. Now, dieters have jumped on the bandwagon.

So for those who hope to watch their waistline shrink this new year, blogging might be just the solution to find that missing ingredient: support.

And without support, dieters are more likely to get sidetracked and discouraged, said Jeanne Hurlbert, a sociology professor at Louisiana State University specializing in health and social support.

“Dieting is stressful,” she said. “You are making a fairly major life change and it takes a lot of focus and concentration. The more support you have, the less stressful it’s going to be.”

Hurlbert said although there’s no substitute for having face-to-face support, online contact can provide help for dieters too far away, too busy or physically unable to find a network elsewhere.

And there are plenty of blogging groups to choose from — sugar addicts, overeaters and brand-name diets such as South Beach Diet, Adkins, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers all have a loyal band of bloggers documenting their own trials with the programs.

Finding bloggers who are trying to lose a similar amount of weight on the same program can help dieters, too, said Susan Bartell, a psychologist and author of “Dr. Susan’s Girls-Only Weight Loss Guide.”

“If you’re going to parties and not eating the sweets, you can feel like you’re the only one doing it,” she said. “The idea about blogging is you’re casting a wider net. There are so many others there feeling like you are that you’re bound to find people like you.”

It can also help to set up another layer of accountability once someone has lost the weight, something Jimmy Moore knows firsthand.

Moore, the dieter behind the blog “Living La Vida Low Carb” lost 180 pounds in 2004 and began writing columns about his weight loss journey for another online publication.

When he reached his goal weight, he started the blog to offer support to other dieters trying to do the same, offering support, tips and feedback.

That alone has helped him keep the pounds off.

“It’s kind of hard, when 100,000 people visit your blog, to gain it back,” he said. “Now that I’m helping people, it’d be hypocritical to gain it back. So far, it’s worked.”

But Moore warned dieters not to jump on the blogging bandwagon if they aren’t serious about being held accountable.

“Only do it if it is a 100 percent commitment,” he said. “Otherwise, you’re wasting your time and other people’s time.”

Once dieters have succeeded, their advice can help others trying to do the same.

Connie Bennett, who operates a blog and e-mail group and recently wrote a book titled “Sugar Shock,” eliminated sugar from her diet after she realized it was causing a host of medical ailments. Nine years later, she’s learned what others need to know about kicking sweets out of their diet and can predict commonly asked questions from beginners.

Her e-mail group has more than 1,700 subscribers, and her blog has thousands of readers daily.

“You think of the Internet as a place where you’re kind of removed from people,” she said. “I’ve had the exact opposite thing happen. It can bring people together and inspire and motivate them, even if their background is different and they are 1,000 miles apart.”

But blogging isn’t a guaranteed recipe for success, just a piece of the puzzle.

“Don’t get so consumed by blogging that you forget what you’re blogging about,” Moore said.

There’s also a danger that other bloggers could encourage bad behavior or unhealthy diets, such as laughing about shared failures and deciding to give up together, Bartell said.

“It becomes negative,” she said. “It becomes funny. It’s as if all the other people can’t control what they’re doing so maybe I don’t need to control what I eat.”

But the experienced bloggers say the support they’ve seen has been positive and encouraging.

“The more personal you make it, the more intimate you become with the people supporting you,” Moore said. “I’m not afraid to share the good, bad or ugly of my experience. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to hide that. It’s all part of it.”

 

Letters to the Editor
January 3, 2007

An article in Sunday’s edition explored the topic of diet blogs.

Blogs Support Those Who Are Trying To Diet

In regard to the story, “Bloggers take dieting online” (The Daily news, Dec. 31): I commend your reporter, Sara McDonald, on her thoughtful, insightful, cutting-edge story about the powerful role that blogs and Internet groups can play to help people successfully lose weight.

We bloggers, as I told Sara, can provide dieters with the impetus and inspiration to succeed where they haven’t been able to before.

As I noted on my Web site today:

• We hold you accountable.

• We encourage you.

• We nurture you.

• We virtually hold your hands when you want to stray.

• We cheer for you loudly (well as loud as you can do so online) when you succeed.

• We keep reminding you of the many benefits of steering clear of those unhealthy foods.

• We’re here for you on a 24/7 basis — no matter what you’re going through.

• We’ll welcome you no matter what part of the world you hail from.

• And should you happen to “fall off the wagon, so to speak,” we’re kind, understanding and compassionate to you.

Again, congrats to Sara for her wonderful article.

Have a sweet new year.

Connie Bennett Founder, www.SugarShockBlog.com New York, N.Y.