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June 18, 2009—
It's a sign of our tech-savvy times: turning to technology to battle the bulge."Texting isn't going to cause you to lose weight. It's the awareness of telling someone what you're eating is going to bring," says Clinical Nutritionist Tara Coleman.
That's right, kids are texting to shed pounds. It's a new way to log everything you eat each day. By signing up through a variety of text-diet websites, you'll receive virtual messages about the foods you're consuming.
"Before you would go through and you would write down what you ate all day, then you would go and look up counting the fat, the calories, the protein...now there's multiple ways to really get that information instantaneously," says Coleman.
Coleman says the key to losing weight is by keeping a food diary, but counting calories can be dangerous to children.
"There's a lot of compulsiveness that can potentially go along with that and it could potentially lead to eating disorders," she says.
Instead, Coleman says young adults can join a free online diet diary that you can access through your cell phone.
But Dr. Christine Wood of the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative says when it comes to losing weight, children need additional outlets besides technology like coaching, professional help.
She says if you're going to text your way to a perfect body, use common sense.
