Shame Based Dieting
June 3, 2010
Ready for the latest diet fad hitting the internet? It’s Shame Based Dieting. It utilizes Twitter or Facebook as a tool to keep dieters on their nutritional track by using online food journaling that the whole world wide web can see.
How does it work? . Dieters simply create a Facebook page or a Twitter account and post everything they eat, think about eating, fantasize about eating, or accidently eat. The dieter then rounds up a bunch of fans or followers to hold herself accountable(or himself, but between you and me, this sounds like a total girl thing).
The premise is that the dieter would feel so much shame if they had to tell their Facebook friends that they just ate a Whopper, so they resist the temptation to avoid the public shame.
This seems like a good idea right? Firstly, it’s free and secondly, I think that’s part of the magic of Weight Watchers and their weekly weigh-in. There is value in knowing that you are accountable to someone other than your own private self. The catch? You have to be HONEST. And it’s my belief that the first time you are NOT honest and “fudge” about what you ate, it’s over.
Here’s how you do it: The most effective way to try Shame Based Dieting is to create a Friend List (with only my name on it if you want!), then when you make a post,and before you send it, click on the little lock symbol, click on edit and click on the Shame Friend List that you’ve set up with the names of those Friends you want to Shame you, I mean be accountable to. Of course, you could also send your status updates out to ALL your friends, but if you are like me and have some Friends that would LOVE to see you fat, then perhaps a more selective list would be better. Then again, perhaps the shame of those schaedenfreudian people seeing your slip-ups might be just the level of shame needed to motivate you to keep you on your diet!
I’d be happy to be anyone’s Shame Based Facebook Friend if it helped them get to goal.
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[...] I wrote an article about a new dieting fad called Shame Based Dieting which is all the rage on Facebook and Twitter. Bottom line: You just post every bite of food you [...]