One novel way texting may help to lose weight

While prior research has warned that spending too much time hovering over your mobile phone is bad for your fitness, a small new study suggests an upside to the trend.

Dieters in a Weight Watchers programme who opted to receive motivational and reminder text messages lost around 2 kg more in a 12-week period than those who didn't receive texts, according to a new study.

Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, published their findings in the journal CIN.

The study is the first to isolate the effect of text messages on weight loss, lead author Claudia Bouhaidar said.

Plus nearly 80% of the 28 participants said that text messages helped them adopt healthier habits, Mobihealth news reports.

Subjects received texts twice a week and they often involved an interactive component, such as responding "yes" or "no" to whether or not participants had tried a healthy snack tip.

At the start of the study, subjects responded about 66% of the time, but that tapered off to 52% by the end of the study, Mobihealth news reports.

Prior research also supports incorporating smartphones into your weight loss plan.

Earlier this year, researchers from the University of Leeds in the UK created an app dubbed My Meal Mate to trial against a paper-based plan for tracking food intake and an online version.

App users lost on average 4.6 kg compared with 2.9 kg for subjects who used a paper-based plan and 1.3 kg for subjects who used an online diary.