No-nonsense, serious weight loss community via mailing list?

February 7, 2007 11:24 AM

I am looking for an e-mail mailing list in which weight loss is discussed. However, I'm looking for one with a very specific sort of attitude.

Essentially, I'm looking for a weight loss mailing list that approaches weight loss with a certain attitude — practical, logistical, calmly, assertively, tough, without as much of the focus on extraneous emotional baggage. I understand that emotional baggage can be part of weight loss. I'm not saying that it has to be entirely absent of emotional revelations, but this theoretical online community is not the place to expose and wallow in one's angst and drama, and ideally the theoretical list participants would kinda be thinking "get a grip!" if someone did so.

Reason behind this is that it seems the majority of the online weight loss communities that I've found out there are very focused on the emotional reactions to weight loss, and I think it's not assisted me in my own endeavors. When I was writing down a note to myself to remember this question, I wrote down, "A mailing list for serious people getting down to the deadly business of concerted effort towards losing weight." That's more than a little melodramatic, but hopefully it gets the point across.

Preferably food plan-neutral (i.e. not Atkins-specific or South Beach-specific), or at least accommodating of other plans.

A few ideas to kind of convey what I'm looking for: I'm looking for a mailing list whose attitude towards weight loss is similar to the attitude that productivity pundits have towards weight loss (43 Folders, Lifehacker). Bootcamp Buddies has a philosophy statement that's fairly close to what I'm looking for — but the problem with Bootcamp Buddies is that I am strictly looking for a e-mail mailing list. I am NOT looking for an online message board forum. They just don't work for me as a method of online communication.

The above is the primary question I'm seeking an answer to. However, as a corollary to it, if anyone is aware of websites that have the same relationship and approach to weight loss as 43 Folders and Lifehacker has to productivity — "Weighthacker"? — I'd appreciate linkage.

Thanks in advance for any assistance offered!

posted by WCityMike to health & fitness (8 comments total)

Crap — in the next to last paragraph, "a mailing list whose attitude towards weight loss is similar to the attitude that productivity pundits have towards weight loss" should read "a mailing list whose attitude towards weight loss is similar to the attitude that productivity pundits have towards productivity".
posted by WCityMike at 11:29 AM on February 7, 2007

The Hacker's Diet immediately jumped to mind while reading your question. It's very no-nonsense. I know it has been especially popular among the 43 folders/Lifehacker crowd. Unfortunately I can't answer your main question about mailing lists, but perhaps this would give you a place to start googling.
posted by vytae at 11:46 AM on February 7, 2007

I forgot to mention, the hacker's diet isn't a food plan, though the name might sound like it. It's almost exactly what you describe: a "practical, logistical, calmly, assertively, tough" method to get yourself losing weight.
posted by vytae at 11:48 AM on February 7, 2007

I started Hacker's Diet last week! But I don't know of an associated e-mail list. Also, check out the no s diet. They have a bulletin board, but I know that is not what you are looking for. Hopefully you will get a good answer here, as I'd be interested as well.
posted by Roger Dodger at 12:03 PM on February 7, 2007

I don't know of such a thing, but might be interested in participating in such a thing. Perhaps if there is enough interest we could just start our own metafilter-diet-email group.
posted by dpx.mfx at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2007

About the website...a lot of people here recommend Fit Day as a good way to track what you eat/your weight loss. I liked it, it's plain and simple and might be a good fit for your needs. I actually use Sparkpeople which is a little more user friendly and provides things like videos on proper weight lifting form, etc. However, it definitely has an emotional component to it, I just choose to ignore it.
posted by echo0720 at 12:33 PM on February 7, 2007

I have found in the past that weightlifting and fitness forums have that serious and practical attitude you are looking for, and have more posts about weight loss (and weight gain too) than you might think. If you could live with the issue that a whole lot of the discussions are about deadlifting form that might be helpful.
posted by jamesonandwater at 4:58 PM on February 7, 2007

Okay — in response to people's comments above, let's see if there's an audience for such a mailing list: the WeightHacker mailing list has been created. If you don't want to sign up for a Yahoo account, you should just be able to send an e-mail to [e-mail]. It's not an automatic enrollment; I've got moderation turned on to keep out the spambots.
posted by WCityMike at 9:20 AM on February 8, 2007