Want to cut some extra calories? Social media may help. Researchers have found that it gets easier for people to exercise when they get motivated through Instagram. For the findings, the research team tested how social media can help and revealed a clear effect of targeted motivation on Instagram.
“Several platforms are having a big impact. It’s interesting how some exercise apps promise exercise enjoyment and motivation without having any clear theories for how they want to achieve that,” said study first author Silje Berg from Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) in the Norway.
“Now our study has shown that theoretical content can have a positive effect, so we should encourage more people in this market to become knowledge-based,” Berg added. According to the researchers, over 500 study participants were recruited through Facebook and other online channels. One group was able to follow an Instagram account called #dinmotivation. The researchers posted motivational posts on this account every three days over four weeks. “We tried to make participants aware of their own motivation to exercise, and to increase their awareness of why they were training,” said study researcher Frode Stenseng.
“Participants who followed the account postings developed more positive feelings related to their training. The other participants didn’t,” Stenseng added. According to the study, The results were clear. The people who had followed the Instagram postings reported enjoying their exercise much more than the ones who hadn’t.
