Rejuvenate Yourself with Lucrative Weight Loss program
The internet can be useful for people trying to lose weight. As a source of help its invaluable, providing access to weight loss tips, weight loss plans or information about different diets, new slimming pills and calorie counters.
Podcasts have been around on the net for a while but generally have been used by comedians and to stream radio shows, rather than for any therapeutic use. However a new study has suggested that podcasts could make a real difference to a person’s diet and could help dieter’s stick to a weight loss program.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have been studying a group of 78 obese men and women and have discovered that certain types of podcasts can make the difference between someone experiencing modest weight loss compared to practically none.
The volunteers were split into two groups, one of whom listened to a popular weight-loss program podcast currently being sold, while the others followed weight loss tips based on social cognitive theory, which states that learning is often based on following the behaviour of a person we wish to emulate.
The second podcast included an audio journal of someone trying to lose weight, who they were encouraged to model their behaviour on. The study team also provided the second group with nutrition and exercise information and a weight-loss themed soap opera to listen to.
After 12 weeks, the second group had lost an average of 6.4 pounds and gone down 1 point in their Body Mass Index, while the first group following the popular weight loss program had only lost 0.7 pounds and gone down 0.1 on the BMI scale.
The idea of using podcasts to supplement weight loss programs is not new, as it uses similar ideas to hypnotherapy tapes, which have been popular for decades. However it has never been clear how effective the tapes are. There are also CDs and DVDS that claim to offer weight loss tips that work, but again their efficacy has never been proved.
There are also a lot of celebrities touting different weight loss plans and claiming to offer ‘secret’ weight loss tips. While they have generally been scorned by diet experts, if social cognitive theory really does work then possibly they are more helpful than previously thought, as they encourage dieters to follow the example of someone they admire.
The authors of the study now say that they will to conduct further studies to see whether podcasts can also promote weight loss over a longer period of time. They also plan to see whether they can customise the podcasts to address specific weight problems, such as how to make healthy food choices when eating out.