Losing weight is difficult for many people if they aren’t held accountable for what they eat or getting to the gym each week. Luckily, you can find support and accountability online!
Many online applications and social media tools exist to help you obtain encouragement, stay motivated, and gain knowledge for safe weight loss so you can finally attain your health goals.
Here are 10 ways that social media and technology can help you lose weight…
1. Seek Inspiration
Many of us require a little visual motivation (dare I say proof of success) before we venture out to tackle a new goal. So if you’re looking to get an eye load of motivation; look no further than sites like Pinterest, the social media platform that says it in photos uploaded by users. You can even do what I did and create a board devoted to your personal fitness goals. On it, I post motivational quotes, workouts I want to try, and photos that inspire me to stick with my workouts and my new eating plan—for example, before and after shots of others’ who have already succeeded, fitness clothing, and that dress I’d like to wear to my 10 year high school reunion.
2. Keep a Virtual Diary
Accountability is hard to come by if you aren’t surrounded by supportive friends and family urging you forward. However, for those of us with family and friends at a distance, blogging about your weight loss efforts can provide an outlet to vent about cravings, weight loss struggles, frustrating setbacks, and those awesome ah-ha breakthrough moments. And the support of your readers may surprise you and permit you a new level of honesty.
3. Join a Support Group Online
You don’t have to look far to find a support weight loss support group welcoming new members. In fact, you don’t even have to put your sneakers on and go outside. The great thing about online support groups is that they permit anonymity, which fosters honesty. That way runnergurl47 can be very open and honest about her inner most fears and struggles when it comes to attaining her weight loss goals and, hopefully, attain some advice, support, and synergy with fellow dieters are dealing with similar struggles.
4. Track Your Calorie Consumption
Interactive weight-management tools are plentiful both online and via your smartphone, which makes them handy to have on hand as you guzzle, munch, devour, and snack along in your day. Calorie calculators and trackers do a lot more than track mere calories—they provide nutritional knowledge, provide healthy eating tips, pin point food obstacles, highlight food savings, and even link what you eat to your mood and energy levels. Plus, numerous studies find that those who consistently track their meals; lose more weight.
5. Post Your Achievements
Telling my cat about my fitness and diet goals never seems to have impact. However, posting my fitness goals on Facebook for all of my friends and acquaintances to see, certainly holds weight. Social media platforms—like Facebook and Twitter—can keep you motivated and accountable. These sites also foster the formation of groups with similar interests—to share fitness knowledge, share recipes, motivate one another, celebrate successes, and keep each other accountable.
6. Sign Up For Motivation
You might not be able to afford a nutritionist, but signing up for a nutrition app to motivate you might to stay away from sweets just might be feasible. Many of these apps deliver daily motivations texts with a nutrition-focus to help keep you on track.
7. Take Pictures of Meals You Make at Home
Describing a meal (especially one you slaved over for hours) doesn’t have the same impact as actually taking a photo of that same meal. So I make a point of posting a daily picture of the meals I prepared that day. Studies show that posting photos in such a way not only motivates you to cook healthier meals for yourself at home; it also makes you more conscious of your food choices, helping you consume fewer calories.
8. Customize a New Diet
Nutrition apps and calorie counters will also help you discover food in new ways, healthier ways. For instance, you suddenly relate what you eat to how many calories you’ll have to burn to work off that chocolate bar. Many nutrition apps also exist to help you store recipe favorites so you can personalized your very own eating plan to your specific nutritional, energy, and weight loss needs.
9. Check Up On Restaurants
You likely already use a smart phone app to find restaurants to eat at. So why not use it to also check up on their menus, specifically their nutritional data. Do a general search for apps that detail restaurant nutritional info, organic meals, vegetarian meals, local food, and even offer options for patrons with food allergies.
10. Curb Cravings
I bet you’ve never thought of your smart phone as your fitness and diet sponsor…the voice of reason. However, you’re smart phone is usually on hand, correct? What better tool to provide you with encouraging quotes when you’re faced with a hungry drive past a dozen burger joints on the way home from work. Plus, you can set the motivation for 6 pm when you’re feeling vulnerable and need it most.
