I recently shared seven great tips that will help your healthy habits stick for the long haul and today I’ve got more good news for anyone who’s trying to win the battle of the bulge. What you’re doing right now—simply reading this blog—could be helping you win the weight-loss war. That’s right: A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that people who regularly logged on to a weight-loss website maintained their weight loss better than people who didn’t use the online support site.

Published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the study looked at 348 people who used the same Internet weight-management program designed specifically for this study. While the name and precise details of the program were not released, reports say the website provided tools for dieters to record their weight, exercise minutes, and the number of days they kept food diaries, as well as interactive boards where they could talk with one another and get answers to their questions from nutrition and fitness experts. (Wow, those features sound familiar, right?) Participants were encouraged to log on to the website at least once per week and would receive reminders via email or phone messages if they failed to do so.

Two years later, more than half (65%) of the participants were still using the website and, according to researchers, people who logged on the most and weighed in at least once monthly had kept more weight off. People who did not continue using the site, unfortunately, did not maintain their losses.

That probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise since most of us know that for a weight-loss program to work long term it has to be something you can stick with for the long haul. Logging on, tracking your food and exercise, getting support and weighing yourself—even when performed less often than during your weight-loss phase—are keys to keeping the weight off. Without these reminders to stick with healthful choices, it’s easy to fall off the wagon. The problem that many dieters run into is in the maintenance phase. You’ve probably heard countless people say that losing weight is easy and keeping it off is the hard part. After losing the weight, many people find themselves becoming a little more lax about their food choices and exercise habits, which can lead to a slow (or sometimes fast!) regain over time. That’s why SparkPeople.com offers several resources for people entering the Maintenance Phase after reaching their goal weights, and tries to set people up for success in the first place with a program that emphasizes small, sustainable lifestyle changes.

A lot of people these days may still be skeptical about whether online weight-loss programs work at all, or whether they’re as good as programs that have been around longer, such as those that require in-person meetings or weigh-ins. More and more research is showing that online programs do work and that the support and accountability offered by online friends and coaches is helpful, accurate and just as good as getting that support in real life. There are a lot of online weight-loss programs available these days. Some are free. Some are basic. Some cost a lot of money. Still others are complex and have a wide variety of features. Not all of them are safe, reliable or accurate in their recommendations. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research who conducted this particular study advise consumers to look for a weight-loss website that:

• allows you to track your weight, exercise, and calories consumed
• provides personalized information or programs
• features interactivity between users and with nutrition and fitness experts
• has accurate health information

I know where you can find all that and more for free: SparkPeople.com.

Update: After posting this blog, we discovered a U.S. News and World Report story that named SparkPeople.com one of "5 weight-loss websites that work," according to registered dietitian Susan Burke March. Ours was also the only free site mentioned. WooHoo!

Do you believe that logging on helps with losing weight or that websites are the future or weight loss? Have you found weight-loss success by using an online program like SparkPeople?