The Humiliation Diet: Tweet What You Eat

Aug. 14, 2010 -- Who knows exactly how much you weigh? Weight has typically been a very private matter for most people, but there's a new trend on Twitter that is bringing the sometimes shaming number out into the open.

The social networking revolution has led to a new way to fight the battle of the bulge, where Twitter users share their weight, along with everything that they're eating, and exactly how much, with the world.

The idea is to force oneself, by fear of public embarrassment, to eat right and get in shape.

Drew Magary is one Tweeter who took the public weight posting plunge late last year.

He went on to post his results -- no matter how painful -- every day for the next five months to his 8,000-plus followers on Twitter.

"On December 15, 2009, I weighed 260 pounds," Magary said. "I had a great deal of back pain because I was so overweight. I know if I keep my weight monitored and I keep it public every day, I'm always going to have an incentive to keep what I eat balanced."

Margay is not alone in the online "humiliation diet" trend. Tens of thousands of tweeters are following suit, posting their weight, eating habits and exercise routines to their friends, family and complete strangers.

Searching Twitter for the hash tags #publichumiliationdiet and #tweetyourweight brings up hundreds of updates from the past week from around the globe.

Tweetwhatyoueat.com launched in January 2008, is the brainchild of Alex Ressi. In the summer of 2007, Rossi was looking for a way to track what he was eating and get fit ahead of his wedding. After finding success with his program, losing seven pounds, Rossi launched the site as a Twitter-based food diary for the masses.