When you’re trying to drop the extra pounds, a little bit of support can go a long way. With our busy lifestyles, it can be a bit of a struggle to get all the support we need from the people immediately around us. After all, many of us spend more total minutes with our phones and computer screens than we do with our friends and family! For that reason, there are many ways that we can use social media for weight loss support.
Though we might not think of using social media for weight loss because many of us tend to keep dieting and fitness to ourselves, it is actually one of the best tools we have to stay motivated. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to post your weigh-in results on your Facebook profile every week. There are far better resources available to us than that.
Instead, try some or all of the following 4 strategies to use social media for weight loss:
1. Join a healthy lifestyle group
Several social media platforms such as Facebook have groups you can join so you can share with people who have similar interests, regardless of whether or not you know them. Find a healthy lifestyle group that suits your perspective and start participating. Give support to the efforts of others and share your victories and struggles to get ideas and words of encouragement from other members. You’ll be surprised at how quickly this starts to boost your motivation and at how much you learn, too.
2. Use motivational hashtags
Hashtags are funny things. They can convey a lot about your post not only to your readers, but also to yourself. By using hashtags, you create labels for your message and you categorize it. By choosing motivational ones, you’ll give yourself subtle support along the way. That said, it will also help to increase the chances that other people interested in that same motivational hashtag will see your post and will lend you their support, too.
3. Follow inspiring people
By following inspiring people on your various social media accounts, you’ll effectively surround yourself with motivational posts and information. Make sure to read the posts and memes shared by those individuals. They’ll help you to keep your spirits up and to maintain your drive to keep going with your efforts.
4. Share your successes
Take the time to tell people about your various victories. Set goals for yourself along your route to weight loss and, as you reach them, tell people about it! The people who follow you will want to hear about it. Just like you like to follow people who are inspiring, other people will feel inspired by your successes. Suddenly, those “like” clicks will feel like you’re getting a pat on the back from everyone around you. So whether you just mastered a new healthy recipe, you ran your first mile or you lost another five pounds, share it and sit back to wait for the kudos.
Another way to use social media platforms as a part of your weight management strategy is to use a nutrition and fitness tracking site like ShareFit. It has its own social components such as groups and forums but is also integrated with all the major social media platforms to let you share your thoughts, support and successes along the way.