The weight loss blogosphere: an online survey of weight loss bloggers
Authors
Evans, Martinus M.Faghri, Pouran D.
Pagoto, Sherry L.
Schneider, Kristin L.
Waring, Molly E.
Whited, Matthew C.
Appelhans, Bradley M.
Busch, Andrew
Coleman, Ailton S.
UMass Chan Affiliations
Prevention Research CenterDepartment of Quantitative Health Sciences
Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2016-09-01Keywords
UMCCTS fundingBehavior and Behavior Mechanisms
Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition
Health Information Technology
Social Media
Translational Medical Research
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Blogging is a form of online journaling that has been increasingly used to document an attempt in weight loss. Despite the prevalence of weight loss bloggers, few studies have examined this population. We examined characteristics of weight loss bloggers and their blogs, including blogging habits, reasons for blogging, like and dislikes of blogging, and associations between blogging activity and weight loss. Participants (N = 194, 92.3 % female, mean age = 35) were recruited from Twitter and Facebook to complete an online survey. Participants reported an average weight loss of 42.3 pounds since starting to blog about their weight loss attempt. Blogging duration significantly predicted greater weight loss during blogging (beta = -3.65, t(185) = -2.97, p = .003). Findings suggest that bloggers are generally successful with their weight loss attempt. Future research should explore what determines weight loss success/failure in bloggers and whether individuals desiring to lose weight would benefit from blogging.Source
Transl Behav Med. 2016 Sep;6(3):403-9. doi: 10.1007/s13142-015-0350-z. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1007/s13142-015-0350-zPermanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/50523PubMed ID
27528529Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s13142-015-0350-z