It seems an online support system may help people lose weight.

Finnish Researchers enlisted more than one-thousand obese or overweight volunteers into a web-based health behaviour change support system, along with a behavioural training conducted by a trained nutritionist.

The biggest weight loss effect came from the combination of the health behaviour system and cognitive behavioural training.

People in the study arm lost an average of 4.1 per cent of their body weight at 12 months, compared with people in the control group who lost an average of just 0.5 per cent of body weight during the same period.

You can read about the study in the Journal of Internal Medicine.