May 7, 2001 -- An endless parade of pills, potions, and exercis
May 7, 2001 -- An endless parade of pills, potions, and exercise gadgets dominates late-night infomercials. You've heard the promises: buns of steel in just minutes a day, washboard abs with no sit-ups, lose all the weight you want while eating what you want.
If you're a frequent dieter, you probably know to be leery of such claims, but you may not know that one of the best tools available for achieving your weight-loss goals is staring you in the face right now.
A growing number of people fighting the battle of the bulge are turning to their computers and the Internet to help them win the war. And while it may sound paradoxical that the sedentary act of typing on a keyboard could help you reach your dream weight, Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards, and the latest weight loss information are changing the way many people diet.
No one knows that better than Kimberly Johnston, 30, who has lost 135 pounds in a little over a year. The Dublin, Va., college student and mother of two says she "lived" in an Internet chat room at the beginning of her struggle, and still relies on the encouragement and advice of friends she met there, as she closes in on her goal weight of 150 pounds.
'It Kept Me Out of the Kitchen'
"I started going online at first when I had hunger pangs so bad that I thought I would cry," she tells WebMD. "That was the No. 1 way that it helped me -- it kept me out of the kitchen. I also go there when I am bored or idle, and if I am having a bad day, I post a message and get all kinds of encouragement."
Johnston began her weight loss journey in February 2000 after watching an Oprah program featuring Jared Fogle, who lost almost 250 pounds on a diet of Subway sandwiches. She says something clicked when she saw the show, and she realized that she, too, could lose weight that way.
"My husband thought I was crazy because I didn't even like sandwiches," she says. "But I just knew I could do this."
A little over a year and countless hoagies later, Johnston, like Fogle, has become something of a celebrity. She has appeared in a commercial with Fogle and other successful sandwich dieters, and was featured in an issue of Woman's World magazine.
But she credits much of her success to the daily interaction with other dieters she encountered in the message boards and chat rooms at Diettalk.com.
"I have developed wonderful friendships with people, and I don't even know what many of them look like," she says. "It doesn't matter because they are there for me. Even when you post something at midnight, you pretty much know that by the time you get up in the morning, somebody will have written you back."
A dieter who calls herself "Jade" says that this kind of feedback is important -- as it the anonymity of message boards and chat rooms. She says she can "talk" about her feelings online and know she will not be judged.
"In the real world, if you tell people you need to lose 80 pounds, and then someone sees you eating a brownie, you are judged," she says. "In the online world it seems even if you 'confess' to eating that brownie, people are much more understanding. I think people in the online world are much more truthful about their actions, and are therefore less judgmental toward others."
