21

Feb

Log Off to Lose Weight

Log Off to Lose WeightOne of the biggest complaints that people have when trying to lose weight is that there just isn’t enough time in the day to really do everything you want, especially when your to-do list includes things like cooking healthy meals after a long day at work, and then getting to the gym for a workout. Time is hard to come by, but when you make the commitment to get weight loss surgery, you make the commitment to work hard to find the time in whatever way you can.

Despite the lack of time being one of the most commonly cited frustrations, there seems to be plenty of time in the day to log onto Facebook or Twitter. Social media use in the United States has been on a constant increase. As of 2016, the average US adult spend about two hours on social media every day—118 minutes to be exact.

What would you do with two extra hours every day? That would be plenty of time to fit in a workout, to prepare the healthy foods that you need to eat as part of your post-surgery diet, and to do any number of other miscellaneous goals that you set for yourself but never seem to accomplish.

Funny enough, simply taking better advantage of those two hours a day may not be the only factor that could help boost your weight loss efforts. A recent study found that spending time on social media could have a negative effect on your weight loss efforts thanks to the massive amount of negativity that tends to plague social media’s news feeds. People log-on to their social media accounts to complain. People complain about how they look in photographs, complain about how they feel about other people or their jobs, they even complain about their own lack of weight loss efforts. Then they go online and to make-up for it, start posting things about their great success in an effort to make themselves feel better. The combination of seeing constant complaints followed by the success of others when you aren’t seeing it in yourself is enough to drive anyone mad. In more than 70 percent of cases, social media use was found to have a negative effect on weight loss efforts.

So, that being said, logging off of your Facebook feed for a few days at a time could provide you with a handful of extra hours to spend on reaching your goals, and can give your attitude a quick boost thanks to the removal of negativity from your life.

Of course, there are other ways to reduce negativity. You don’t have to delete your social media account to change what you follow. Simply unfollow friends or pages that post negative things and find motivational things to have light up your newsfeed instead. After weight loss surgery, you’ll need motivation from wherever you can get it. Try adjusting your social media use to better help you reach your health and weight loss goals.

Log Off to Lose Weight