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Clicking away the pounds Rising popularity of online dieting is changing the way Americans lose weight and stay healthy
By Diana Koo J201 reporter Cut out starch, sugar, and carbohydrates. Quit smoking and drinking. Run for 60 minutes six times a week. Lift weights four times a week. Drink only water.
These are the goals that Indiana University junior Shawn Kinzer set for himself at the start of his diet in January.
The results? It made him realize that these goals were unrealistic and almost impossible to attain.
Kinzer, like millions of Americans, is trying to battle the bulge and becoming more health conscious. He is currently using Ediets.com to help him set goals that are sensible and eat sensibly, rather than cutting out entire food groups and depriving himself.
According to the American Obesity Association, 127 million Americans are overweight, 60 million are obese, and 9 million are severely obese. Anyone with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 25 is considered obese. Since the 1980s, the percentage of Americans with a BMI over 25 has risen 20 percent.
In Indiana alone, obesity has increased 31.9 percent since 1998, according to the American Obesity Association.
Due to the rising concern over obesity, Americans have resorted to all sorts of methods to diet and lose weight.
Ediets.com, launched in 1996, is an online dieting tool that allows customers who are unsure of the best way to lose weight to complete a free lifestyle and personality profile, called a Diet Needs Analysis. This enables the customer to find out what the best way is to be healthy, work in physical activity, and keep the weight off, depending on the person.
After completing the analysis, there are a variety of featured programs such as the South Beach Diet, Atkins, and Slim-Fast plans that can be personalized for the customers according to their results in the analysis.
The Web site also has an online community in which users can share tips and advice. Registered dieticians are also available for consultation.
As of Dec. 31, 2004, Ediets.com had 1.9 million consumers worldwide and 13 million subscribers to its online newsletter. In the spring of 2004, Forbes named this Web site “Best of Web” when it came to diet and nutrition and was “Editor's Choice” in PC magazine.
Kinzer turned to Ediets.com because he is a full-time student, has a part-time job at Kilroy's Sports Bar, and has a full load of homework each week.
“All I have to do is go online and it's all there for me,” Kinzer said. “It tells me what to eat and counts my calories.”
Kinzer was drawn to Ediets.com because he was unsure where to start in his diet. In the beginning, he had high motivation and cut out many unhealthy components of his life. He quit smoking and drinking alcohol, cut out starch, ate vegetables for dinner, and worked out seven days a week.
“I was so inspired to lose all thisweight,” Kinzer said. “But my regimen was damn near impossible when all I did before the diet was eat cheesy omelets, played video games, and snacked.”
Ediets.com helped Kinzer set attainable goals and gave him some tips on how to eat healthy and exercise regularly without being unrealistic.
However, Stacey Matavuli, registered dietician at Bloomington Hospital, disagrees with the concept of one-stop convenience dieting.
“It may work for some,” Matavuli said. “But losing weight is a commitment and requires motivation. I am not convinced that an email/Internet relation has the same effect as one-on-one contact with a dietician.”
Despite Matavuli's concerns, Ediets.com is the leading online dieting resource, according to research, due to America's obsession with image and thinness. Health and fitness magazines are always addressing the pitfalls of yo-yo dieting and speak against the fads. However, Ediets.com promotes fad dieting. Its options for weight loss include all the fad diets out there, but promote healthy living. Despite the warnings, Americans are attracted to immediate results.
“I think fad diets are perfectly OK,” Kinzer said. “It helps people lose weight and gives results.”
Marnie Clay, registered dietician at Bloomington Hospital, warns users to look for the red flags.
“I would be wary of an advertisement that says ‘Lose 10 pounds in two weeks,'” Clay said. “Consumers need to be aware of fad diets and junk science.”
Of course, there is a simple formula for losing weight. It is a combination of reducing calories and increasing physical activity.
“South Beach is sexy,” Clay said. “Food pyramids and exercising regularly are not.” Clay does applaud the virtual counseling features of Ediets.com, but points out a lot of missing components as well. She says there really is no physical activity involved in online dieting. Lindsay Regnier is a junior at Illinois State University and a user of Ediets.com for 4 months. She says the idea of an online diet is good, but not as convenient as it sounds. “It requires a lot of time to lose weight; doing it online does not make it easier,” Regnier said.
Matavuli would not recommend online diets to her clients because she feels that behavioral changes are needed to lose weight and change lifestyles. “I like to have an emotional attachment to my clients in order to really have them understand the changes that must be made,” Matavuli said, “On the Internet, words are just words.”
Ediets.com makes dieting and losing weight look so easy. While it promotes healthy living, there are gimmicks all over the Website, like 'Lose 10 pounds by May 7'.
Millions of people lose weight, but keeping it off is the key to success.
The National Weight Control Registry is a research study that disproves the theory that people who lose weight will gain it back.
NCWR's Web site, http://www.nwcr.ws/,cites success stories of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and have kept it off for at least one year. Within these success stories, all of the people have lost the weight gradually by exercising and eating smart.
“Fitness,” a health magazine, publishes two or three success stories published each issue. The people featured have incorporated exercise and ate smartly, while treating themselves to their indulgences in small portions.
All of these success stories have the same basic principle, eat healthier and stay active.
There are success stories to Ediets.com as well and one can be unsure of how long the weight has stayed off, but Regnier testifies of the setbacks of fad diets.
“I went on South Beach and lost 20 pounds in three weeks,” Regnier said. “But after I lost weight, I went back to my old habits and gained 25 back.”
According to Clay, the slower the weight comes off, the better chance that it will stay off.
Losing weight is not to be looked upon as a quick fix. It takes a lifetime commitment and Matavuli and Clay are unsure how Ediets.com can help clients do that when it promotes the fad diets. “Losing weight is rooted in behavior change, and Ediets.com doesn't support that lifestyle change,” Clay said. It's easy to cut out food groups all together, but it is unhealthy. The hard part is to learn how to balance all of the food groups and still be healthy.
“People believe drastic measures are needed in order to feel like they are making a change in their life,” Clay said.
Despite the negatives of online and fad diets, this business will continue to thrive, according to Matavuli. People may realize that it is not the best way to diet, but these diets are meant to attract yo-yo dieters.
“It's appealing to people with low self-esteem,” Clay said. “Authors of the fad diets aren't going out of business; people love the idea of a quick fix.”
Although Ediets.com may not be the best way to lose and maintain weight loss, it does have good features from which people can benefit.
Barbara Murray, diabetes educator at Bloomington Hospital, has clients who use the forums and chat groups to stay focused and get advice from fellow dieters.
Regardless of America's obsession with dieting and finding new and advanced ways to lose weight, there is that simple formula of exercise and reducing calories that gets pushed aside by new fads that pop up everywhere.
“Fad and online dieting are mimicking the mass media and really have no components of a good, healthy diet,” Clay said. Read more about Shawn Kinzer's battle with weight loss. Did online dieting work for you? Share your experiences by e-mailing Diana Koo.
Page designed and edited by: Kate Soderberg Last updated: May 2, 2005
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