Table 2 Overview of Themes and Illustrative Quotes
Themes | Illustrative Quotes |
|---|---|
Social Media experiences | |
Accountability | “Good afternoon everyone! I just wanted to write this post to say I love reading/learning from you guys comments, questions and post… Thanks A lot < 3” “It was good to feel accountable. I know that I have to track calories and record my experiences or I won’t get paid for the study So having accountability really keeps me on track. Thanks, FACE” |
Social and emotional support | “Everyone always says it’s easier to lose weight and be healthy when you have friends or other people doing it with you, so I think this (FACE) is great because of that.” “I think the support of this group has helped a lot with the things that have nothing to do with weight loss!” “The Facebook group gave me a lot of mental support and ideas that I didn’t figure I could get.” |
Shared tips and strategies for success | |
Tips for tracking | “Ok, sometimes I also get confused, how do I measure my school lunch to put it on my fitness pal, so I’ll just take pictures.” “Ever since I got a smartphone it is so much easier because nobody knows what I’m doing. I love it! Plus it makes tracking so much easier.” |
Healthy eating strategies | “Trying to incorporate some veggies any way I can. Since getting protein has to be my priority it’s hard to get fibrous foods into meals, but I’ve been focused on eating green veggies and cauliflower more by adding it to my chicken dishes.” “I have a schedule!! I wrote myself a schedule of when to eat and I try my best to stick to it. PLANNING meals and snacks in advance is the key!! Otherwise I get hungry and over eat or eat the wrong thing.” |
Shared nutrition Knowledge | “Foods that are related to weight gain are generally processed foods like soda and chips, or other sort of fast food things like burgers and pizza. I think this because the food doesn’t have anything sort of natural; it’s just packed with sugar and fat.” “I get surprised at how much sugar I have (and sometimes am) consuming.” |
Motivators for behavior change | |
Family support | “First thing that pops in my mind is all the unhealthy food we threw away and how my family is doing what I am doing and giving me an extra push. “ “My family likes to take walks around the park, play just dance 4 together, try different vegetables for dinner and eat dinner as a family.” |
Personal goals and aspirations | “This week I actually have a different type of fitness goal. For this semester at school, I have physical education. I decided I am actually going to take physical education seriously this year and work hard in it. Not only will it help my body, but it will help my GPA if I do a good job!” “My long term goal is to meet the weight requirement, so I will be able to enlist in the Air Force.” “This past summer my doctor told me I was showing signs of pre-diabetes. This was the first time I had really faced any medical back lash because of my weight. I made the commitment to lose a significant amount of weight that day. I don’t want to be unhealthy.” |
Non-scale victories | “Since I have been exercising and eating lighter meals as well as drinking just water I feel more refreshed, more comfortable, and motivated:)” “Non-scale victories are my favorite kind, today I sat with my legs crossed during class!! Such a small, yet important non-scale victory.” “Walking is a good stress reliever for me and it’s even more relaxing when you got a nice playlist of music to listen to!” |
Perceived challenges to social media group participation and healthy behavior change | |
Negative peers | “Unfortunately I have a friend whose exact words were ‘I don’t want you to lose too much weight because I don’t want to be the ugly one.’ It sucks that there are people like this who will try and call themselves my friends.” “One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned so far is that people are afraid of change especially when they think that change will cause someone to do better than them. Just because everyone around you doesn’t support you doesn’t mean you still won’t achieve your goals.” |
Challenges with planning and tracking | “Dining out, I’d like to say that you can dine out every once in a while but you have to be good with eating good and exercising the week before so you can go out and eat peacefully.” “I’d like to be able to say I hit the gym, which I know is a great stress reliever, but honestly I don’t immediately think to turn to exercise. I guess nowadays I try and take a nap if I can or spend time with my boyfriend if I’m feeling stressed.” “Tracking is hard for me because I spend most of my day at school. It was embarrassing, pulling out a piece of paper or something to write down what I was eating.” |
Time constraints | “Just like you I think I should be posting and commenting more than usual, but between school and work it is a little challenging but I am trying my best.” “Due to personal things such as school, sticking with my diet…and I also broke my phone (no worries I got it replaced now). “ “School and making sure I’m getting enough sleep has been consuming my life for the past couple weeks.” |