What helped Melissa Blickem, 36, take off some of the 245 lbs. she had been carrying on her 5-foot-2-inch frame? A computer mouse! After the premature death of her father in August 2004 — he was only 58 — Melissa knew she had to lose weight right away. “I felt my health was on the same path as my father’s,” says the Monee, Ill., wife and mother of Sarah, now 5. “I didn’t want my daughter to go through what I had.”

Surfing the Web one day, Melissa learned about a free online food journal called fitday.com. The site, she found, offered an easy, anonymous way to help her count calories and monitor her progress. Melissa also discovered other weight-loss Web sites, all of which helped her lose 13 lbs. — in the first week!

Support System

Melissa calculated the carbs, protein and fat in every bite she took, and soon she was balancing her diet and designing a weekly menu online. “I’d log on to fitday.com from home or any computer to count what I ate.” She also would check the site’s message boards for weight-loss tricks posted by other dieters. (She learned to brush her teeth right after dinner to get the taste of food out of her mouth and thwart snacking as she put away leftovers.)

The anonymity of message boards meant she didn’t have to talk about her diet with strangers in group meetings, but the lack of personal accountability meant no one was telling her to exercise. “I knew I had to work out, too, but I was embarrassed because I’d failed in the past,” admits Melissa, who didn’t tell her husband she was joining a gym until she felt sure she could stick with a program!

Cyber Success

Steadily, Melissa kept losing weight. She relied on the Web to maintain her food journal, but also for ways to make dieting easier all around. She found free low-cal recipes to cook at home; before her family ate out, she checked chain restaurant sites to get the caloric information about their food.

By May 2006, Melissa had dropped eight dress sizes and 80 lbs., reaching her goal weight of 165. Her mother, Veronica Miller, couldn’t be prouder. “She went from being a couch potato to a healthy person,” says Veronica. By just moving from the sofa to a desk chair, Melissa found her ideal diet.
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Q: When is the Web a better dieting tool than a diet book or a weight-loss program?

A: “When you’re dieting, you need support to keep going,” says Jennifer Barnett, one of three sisters (the others are Amy and Suzanne) who in 1997 started a diet Web site called 3fatchicks.com as a way to stay connected as they tried to lose weight. “The anonymity of the online community is a great environment for this, especially if you’re embarrassed to tell people that you’re dieting.” Today the site has more than 60,000 members and one million postings. Not big on computers? No problem. The sisters have a new book of dieting tips and recipes: 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet: Because We’re All in It Together.