PORTLAND -- The more you click, the more the thinner you can become, if you have a personal health website that tracks your habits, according to a study released Tuesday.
The National Institutes of Health followed 348 people whose Body Mass Index said they were overweight or obese. Each participant for the 30 month study also had to be on medication for high cholesterol or high blood pressure.
The study found that those who clicked on their website faithfully for 24 months maintained the most weight loss.
"The unique part of this intervention was that it was available on the Internet, whenever and wherever people wanted to use it,” said study lead author Kristine L. Funk, a researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland.
The research started with a group that had to lose weight through weekly meetings where they were weighed, taught to eat well and keep a diary of what they ate.
To continue to the next phase, those people had to lose nine pounds. As a group, they lost an average of 19 pounds.
The ones chosen to continue were provided personal health websites and told to click on once a week, updating their weight, amount of exercise and whether they were keeping up with food diaries.
Tardy ones were sent an email and got a robocall. Those tardy longer than seven days lost chat privileges with other participants and Q&A access to nutrition and exercise experts.
Consistent users who finished the 24 months kept off nine of the 19 average pounds the lost. Those who logged on less often lost an average of five pounds and those who clicked on even less lost an average of just three pounds.
"This study shows that if people use quality weight management websites consistently, and if they stick with their program, they are more likely to keep their weight off," said study co-author Victor J. Stevens, of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.
"Keeping weight off is even more difficult than losing it in the first place," he said, "so the fact that so many people were able to maintain a good portion of their weight loss is very encouraging to us."
