You’ve probably heard of the South Beach diet, Atkins diet, and even the Subway diet. But the Twitter diet?

A new study shows that the micro-blogging giant could help you shed the pounds, 140-characters at a time—indirectly, of course.

The University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health finds that Twitter “is a valuable support system for helping people lose weight.”

From an article on the South Carolina site:

“ … the study found that Twitter use among participants in a weight loss program enhanced the likelihood of their success at shedding pounds … The study also revealed that participants mainly used Twitter to provide information support to one another through status updates.”

The same researchers are currently study whether Facebook can be used in providing social weight-loss support.

(via Mashable)