This study examines the slimming practice produced by Internet-based weight-loss services and their use. Drawing on theories of practice, the study analyses the script of use that is constructed by the services, and the meanings, materialities and competences that are enacted in their use. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews with women who were users of two Finnish online weight-loss services, the study concludes that the services transform food into quantitative depictions of calories and nutrition. They configure slimmers as calculative agents and slimming as a practice based on incessant recording and monitoring. For online slimmers, the services acted in the double role of a control device with a focus on calorie restriction, and a learning device used to develop a skill of healthy eating. In the latter role, online slimming was hoped to result in an internalisation of a lifestyle change that would make calculation and constant monitoring unnecessary and the services redundant for their users. The results suggest that for its practitioners, online slimming is temporary rather than long-standing, but it may and is expected to act as a mediary in establishing other practices related to healthy lifestyles.
AkrichM (1992) The de-scription of technical objects. In: BijkerWELawJ (eds) Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, pp. 205–224.
2.
CallonM (1999) Actor-network theory – The market test. In: LawJHassardJ (eds) Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 181–195.
3.
CrawfordR (2006) Health as meaningful social practice. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Health, Illness and Medicine10(4): 401–420.
4.
CrossleyN (2005) Mapping reflexive body techniques: On body modification and maintenance. Body & Society11(1): 1–35.
5.
Duodecim (2013) Current care guidelines: Obesity. In: Working group appointed by the Finnish medical society Duodecim and the Finnish association for the study of obesity. Available at: http://www.kaypahoito.fi/web/kh/suositukset/suositus?id=hoi24010 (in Finnish, accessed 3 October 2014).
Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity (2009) Ethical principles of research in the humanities and social and behavioural sciences and proposals for ethical review. Available at: http://www.tenk.fi/sites/tenk.fi/files/ethicalprinciples.pdf (accessed 16 September 2012).
8.
GermovJWilliamsL (1996) The epidemic of dieting women: The need for a sociological approach to food and nutrition. Appetite27: 97–108.
9.
HalkierB (2010) Consumption Challenged: Food in Medialised Everyday Lives. Farnham and Burlington, ON: Ashgate.
10.
HalseC (2009) Bio-citizenship: Virtue discourses and the birth of the bio-citizen. In: WrightJHarwoodV (eds) Biopolitics and the ‘Obesity Epidemic’: Governing Bodies. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 45–59.
HelldánAHelakorpiSVirtanenS. (2013) Health Behaviour and Health among the Finnish Adult Population, Spring 2013 (Report 21). Helsinki: National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
13.
HeyesC (2006) Foucault goes to weight watchers. Hypatia21: 126–149.
14.
Hunt PetersL (1918) Diet and Health. Chicago, IL: The Reilly and Lee Co (Republished 2005 by Project Gutenberg EBook).
15.
IngramJShoveEWatsonM (2007) Products and practices: Selected concepts from science and technology studies and from social theories of consumption and practice. Design Issues23(2): 3–16.
16.
JallinojaPPajariPAbsetzP (2009) Negotiated pleasures in health-seeking lifestyles of participants of a health intervention. Health14(2): 1–16.
17.
JauhoM (2014) The social construction of competence: Conceptions of science and expertise among proponents of the LCHF-diet in Finland. Public Understanding of Science. Epub ahead of print 21November. DOI: 10.1177/0963662514558167.
18.
JohnsonFWardleJ (2011) The association between weight loss and engagement with a web-based food and exercise diary in a commercial weight loss programme: A retrospective analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity8(1): 83–89.
19.
KrukowskiRAHarvey-BerinoJAshikagaT. (2008) Internet-based weight control: The relationship between web features and weight loss. Telemedicine Journal and E-Health14(8): 775–782.
20.
LuptonD (2013) Quantifying the body: Monitoring and measuring health in the age of mHealth technologies. Critical Public Health23(4): 393–403.
21.
McGintyHLDark-FreudemanAWestRL (2013) Health hopes and fears for the future in relation to health behavior and current health status. Journal of Health Psychology18: 1509–1518.
22.
MillerP (2001) Governing by numbers: Why calculative practices matter. Social Research68(2): 379–396.
23.
MudryJJ (2009) Measured Meals: Nutrition in America. New York: State University of New York Press.
24.
MurrayS (2009) Marked as ‘pathological’: ‘Fat’ bodies as virtual confessors. In: WrightJHarwoodV (eds) Biopolitics and the ‘Obesity Epidemic’: Governing Bodies. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 78–90.
25.
National Nutrition Council (2014) Terveyttä ruoasta: Suomalaiset ravitsemussuositukset 2014 [Health from food: The Finnish nutrition recommendations 2014]. Helsinki: Helsinki National Nutrition Council (in Finnish).
26.
PantzarMRuckensteinM (2015) The heart of everyday analytics: Emotional, material and practical extensions in self-tracking market. Consumption, Markets and Culture18(1): 92–109.
27.
ParviainenJ (2011) The standardization process of movement in the fitness industry: The experience design of Les Mills choreographies. European Journal of Cultural Studies14(5): 526–541.
28.
PetersenALuptonD (1996) The New Public Health: Health and Self in the Age of Risk. London: SAGE.
29.
PostrachEAspalterRKollerM. (2013) Determinants of successful weight loss after using a commercial web-based weight reduction program for six months: Cohort study. Journal of Medical Internet Research15(10): e219. Available at: http://www.jmir.org/2013/10/e219/
30.
SassatelliR (2010) Fitness Culture: Gyms and the Commercialisation of Discipline and Fun. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
31.
ShoveEPantzarMWatsonM (2012) The Dynamics of Social Practice. Everyday Life and How It Changes. London: SAGE.
32.
SwanM (2013) The quantified self: Fundamental disruption in big data science and biological discovery. Big Data1(2): 85–99.
33.
WardeA (2005) Consumption and theories of practice. Journal of Consumer Culture5(2): 131–153.
34.
WardeA (2013) What sort of a practice is eating? In: ShoveESpurlingN (eds) Sustainable Practices: Social Theory and Climate Change. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 17–30.
35.
WardleJHaaseAMSteptoeA. (2004) Gender differences in food choice: The contribution of health beliefs and dieting. Annals of Behavioral Medicine27(2): 107–116.
