Dieters point and click the extra pounds away

Many like the convenience of online weight-loss programs, where help is just a mouse touch away.

[Times photo: John Pendygraft] Shellie Fry checks out a Web site on her computer. Dietitians warn that cyberdiets are no replacement for face-to-face help.

By JOUNICE L. NEALY

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 8, 2000

Shellie Fry is a dieting chocoholic.

Determined to battle her cravings, Ms. Fry now turns to the Internet and surfs her way into the chat room of eDiets.com to see what others like her do in similar situations.

"I wanted chocolate ice cream," Ms. Fry said about one particular craving. The 34-year-old single mother who lives in St. Petersburg found a tip from a fellow cyberdieter.

"She took Jell-O fat-free pudding and put them in freezer," Ms. Fry said. "I said, "Okay, I'll try it,' and it was really good." On Aug. 17, Ms. Fry will mark her four-month anniversary as a member of eDiets.com.

She is one of the thousands of men and women who are turning to the Web for weight loss. Dozens of online sites are popping up for people who want to battle the bulge in cyberspace and count calories on the computer.

But dietitians warn that cyberdiets are no replacement for face-to-face help. The warnings -- see your doctor before beginning a weight loss or exercise regime -- still apply, despite the convenience and abundance of guidance on the Internet.

On the Web, after typing in some information -- height, weight, gender, age -- the unseen wellness specialists give guidance on eating, exercise and mental attitude. Some sites will collect psychological information and assess eating habits.

There are no public weigh-ins, no group confessions and no one to scold you when you haven't done all the right things.

"The anonymity is very attractive to some people," said Susan Burke, the manager of nutrition support for the Deerfield Beach-based eDiets.com. "The convenience is attractive. The other beauty of the program and being online is that you don't have to even check in every day."

Valerie Lavigne, 38, of Tampa turned to the Internet five months ago after finding it difficult to attend Weight Watchers meetings.

"It's been great. I've lost 30 pounds. I could have lost more, but I didn't follow it perfectly," said Mrs. Lavigne, a mother of three who logs on daily and chats with Ms. Fry online.

Mrs. Lavigne, who wants to lose another 50 pounds, doesn't feel any more tempted to cheat just because the program is online.

"I think, mentally I'm in a good place and I want the weight to come off," Mrs. Lavigne said.

Like off-line organized weight loss programs, some Internet memberships come with a price that can range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.

For a fee, eDiets.com offers personalized diet plans, a daily checklist of personal goals, recipes, grocery lists and fitness tips. There also are member forums, which allow dieters to talk with a psychologist or nutritionist. For the personalized plan, it costs $10 to join and $10 a month.

But Ms. Fry said it is worth it.

"If you're having a craving at 1 a.m., you can get online. If you get in the chat room . . . you can chat until the craving is gone," said Ms. Fry, who had tried several off-line programs with varying success. This time, she is ignoring numbers and measuring how much she changes her lifestyle.

There are other sites that are free. Nutrio.com, based in Fort Lauderdale and driven by advertising, is one of them. Each day an estimated 500 to 600 people visit the site, which also features eating and fitness logs that can be downloaded, according to Steve Spiro, the company's chief marketing officer.

The company also has added corporate wellness Web pages that offer tips, for example, on cafeteria food nutrition, food choices when traveling and office exercises.

Nadine Pazder, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based American Dietetic Association, recommends that consumers be aware of what they are getting from these sites.

"The Internet unfortunately has got a lot of junk out there. Just like (with) the diet books, consumers really need to be cautious," Pazder said. "Once again, you really don't know how legitimate the credentials are and what their underlying agenda is."

With pictures and bios, officials at both sites said they want consumers to know who is helping them.

"We have gone way out of our way to list our experts," Spiro said. "If people want to check those credentials, they can."

Pazder said consumers also could turn to other agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for information on the Web.

"As far as the menus, there are programs that you can buy that will do that on your home computers," Pazder said. "So I don't know that that's necessarily anything special."

Plus, none of it replaces actual meetings with a nutritionist, she said.

Spiro said that nutrio.com is not intended as solely a replacement for other weight loss programs.

"We see ourselves as a pretty good complement to offline things," he said. "If people need ongoing support (with those programs), we're a good complement."

And Burke, who worked as a nutritionist in a hospital for five years, said that giving online advice is not hurting offline business. In fact, it improves relationships with those who need help.

"A lot of my practice involved trying to instruct people following heart attacks or surgery ... (I'd spend) an average of about 10 minutes to talk to each patient and you never see them again," Burke said.

"Here I have an opportunity to follow up with people."

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