To date, no study has used Twitter to explore the relationship of these temporal trends by examining discussions related to weight loss over time. In addition, studies have found PA levels among adults to be higher in the summer versus the winter. adults has shown that weight gain tends to occur over holiday periods (between Thanksgiving and New Year’s), with a renewed interest in losing weight around New Year’s Day. This may be particularly evident for weight loss and relevant weight loss behaviors related to eating and PA. In free-living adults, certain measured health-related behaviors have shown temporal trends depending on time of the year. However, very few studies have examined temporal trends in health-related posts to Twitter, particularly in the area of weight loss. Previous studies have examined temporal differences in posts related to cardiac arrest and happiness. Twitter, which has been in existence since 2006, also presents a unique opportunity to examine trends over time. Recent studies have used Twitter to develop a classification model to categorize posts with hashtags related to physical activity (PA) and examine posts to Twitter with the hashtag #childhoodobesity. Words that a user may wish to highlight are often preceded by a hashtag (“#”), which allows other users to follow relevant topics of interest. Also, unique to Twitter is the use of symbols to emphasize particular words. Studies have used Twitter to predict the outcomes of the stock market, assess scientific impact of journal articles, and track influenza outbreaks. This open access allows a unique opportunity to use Twitter as a data collection tool. As compared to other social network sites, Twitter users are more likely to have public accounts, allowing anyone to read and access posts. Online social media sites, such as Twitter, have grown over the past decade. Examining social networks for trends in health-related posts may aid in timing interventions when individuals are more likely to be discussing weight loss.

Regarding #weightloss, there were 145 (95 % CI 79, 211) more posts/day during holidays and 143 (95 % CI 76, 209) more posts/day after holidays as compared to 480 pre-holiday posts/day 232 (95 % CI 178, 286) more posts/day during the winter versus summer (441 posts/day) there was no difference in posts around New Year’s. Temporal trends in #weightloss mentions and #fitness, #diet, and #health tweets which also had the word “weight” in them were examined using three a priori time periods: (1) holidays: pre-winter holidays, holidays, and post-holidays (2) Season: winter and summer and (3) New Year’s: pre-New Year’s and post-New Year’s. To examine the temporal relationship of Twitter messages about weight loss over 1 year (2012). Few studies have used social networking sites to track temporal trends in health-related posts, particularly around weight loss.

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