| Date: | May 1, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 7:00 a.m. |
| Appearance: | Social Sharing Makes Losing Weight Contagious, Finds MyFitnessPal |
| Outlet: | recode |
| Format: | Other |
Social Sharing Makes Losing Weight Contagious, Finds MyFitnessPal
– recode
MyFitnessPal is a popular smartphone app that helps people lose weight by tracking what they eat. It works a lot better when people share their food diaries with friends.
MyFitnessPal users who share their daily calorie counts with friends lose two times the weight, on average, of those who don’t share.
Users who share their food diaries with 10 or more friends lose four times as much weight as the average — an average of 22.75 pounds during the total time they spend using the app.
That’s according to a new analysis of user data as well as user surveys by the app maker. It seems to align with academic research about behavior spreading between social groups like a contagion, according MyFitnessPal VP Tara-Nicholle Nelson.
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