Losing Weight and Social Media

I’m going to go back a little bit to the food section of the class. Specifically, Brian Stelter and his “Twitter diet”. As I was reading that article, I was immediately reminded of my roommate, who made a commitment to lose weight at the beginning of the year. There wasn’t really one driving factor in her decision to lose weight; she just said she was tired of being overweight and wanted to feel better about herself. She would sometimes keep a blog about her eating and exercise habits, and for the most part the responses to her efforts have been very positive. There’s been some occasional mean comments from trolls who have nothing better to do, but the positive comments far outnumber the negative ones. She’s had a few bumps in the road, such as a sprained ankle this past September, but she’s persevered and there’s nothing but progress since the beginning. She even ran her first 5K last month, which a year ago she never thought she could do! Now she has lost over 60 pounds, and is well on her way to losing even more by the end of the year. Her self-esteem has improved dramatically, and she almost seems like a different person, both outside and inside.

The major difference between my roommate’s weight loss story and Stelter’s story is that my roommate hasn’t really used Twitter very much to document her progress. But she has used a blog, and she still has developed a following of people who support her, both online and in the “real world”. Both stories are great examples of how social media can create a support system when it comes to losing weight. As Stelter said, this isn’t about narcissism; it’s about telling the truth, which isn't always easy to do, especially online. Stelter owes a lot of his success to his Twitter followers, just like my roommate appreciates comments on her blog about her own weight loss goals.