Want to lose the weight? Don’t be shy about it

I’m as active as the next guy on social media, but no one has ever accused me of oversharing. So going public with this project has me feeling a little exposed. Why do it, then? For starters, I think the story of pickup soccer in New York City is a good one, and I’m excited to tell it. I also hope my “second half” challenge will inspire others to take on a challenge of their own.

My biggest reason for sharing, though, is accountability. It’s a bit of buzzword at the moment, with accountability clubs cropping up for everything from writing to personal finance to career management. Fitness is probably the most common accountability category, which stems from the fact that it’s long been an effective weight-loss strategy.

“More than four decades ago, researchers learned that making a contract with another person, be it a friend, family member, or doctor, was key to successful weight loss,” says Donato Vaccaro, Ph.D., a research psychologist and former colleague at Consumer Reports, where he conducted surveys around people’s eating, dieting, and exercise habits.

Social media is a way to take behavioral contracting to scale. Instead of being accountable to one friend, there’s hundreds, if not thousands, of them. Vaccaro agrees, though ever the scientist, he adds that “research is warranted to evaluate the success of the participation in social media sites for weight loss.” Maybe my case study will inspire just such an undertaking.