Four Ways Your Smartphone Can Make You Skinny (1) (2)

How to use technology to meet your weight-loss goal

On January 1, you resolved to lose 10 pounds. Six weeks later, you can feel your motivation waning. Making a salad or heading to spin class probably seem like good ways to get back on track. But hanging out online might actually be better. Here are four ways to make your feeds work:

1. Follow tweeters with tips. The motivation and can-do advice shared by nutritionists and weight-loss bloggers appear to be helpful. People who are active on Twitter, have large followings, and post regularly have an impact on people's behavior. You can also use Twitter's advanced search to find people tweeting about nutrition, exercise, or weight loss in your city.

2. Have a visual feast. Looking at photos of foods with similar flavors to your worst cravings (like sweet or salty) can dull your appetite. And it may make the real thing seem less enjoyable, finds a Journal of Consumer Psychology study. Follow food bloggers and fill up on mouth-watering photos instead of that nighttime bowl of ice cream.

3. Manage your Facebook friends. It's not just friends boasting about their amazing vacations that can make you feel like you're missing out and potentially derail your progress. Hearing about someone who got up at 4 a.m. for a 10-mile jog can make you feel deflated. Set up filters so you're not subject to posts by either of these types of friends. Focus instead on encouraging friends who post about healthy habits that feel more doable. These could be taking a post-dinner walk or making a green smoothie for breakfast. By selecting "Get Notifications" for them in your settings, Facebook will even tell you every time they post something new.

4. Use your smartphone. Yes, the screen is smaller and the keyboard more typo-prone than your laptop. But new research has been published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics. People who check their social feeds with a mobile device are more engaged than computer users. And they shed more pounds as a result. Smart call? We'd say so.

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