Table 1.

Strengths of eHealth Weight Management Interventions

Ease of use	Behavior(s) can be tracked in real time and with minimal effort (e.g., participants can easily and discreetly look up nutrient content of foods and do not have to manually record; Coons et al., 2012, 2015) Portability of eHealth treatments may increase self-monitoring, which is a key component of traditional weight loss programs (Berkman et al., 2014; Burke et al., 2011, 2012; Stone et al., 2003)
In the moment feedback	Participants can receive “just in time” encouragement and reinforcement related to healthy eating and activity choices (Duncan et al., 2011)
Increased treatment access	e-Health treatments have been tested in a variety of settings outside of academic medical centers (e.g., worksites, primary care physician offices, community locations; Coons et al., 2012) Shift workers, rural dwellers, and individuals with limited financial resources who cannot participate in traditional behavioral treatment can have access to treatment via eHealth eHealth modalities preferred by at-risk subgroups could increase interest in treatment among those who need it most [e.g., text messaging might be appealing to individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds given that this communication medium is preferred by this group (Siopis et al., 2015)]
Tailored treatment	Participants can use their own device as opposed to devices chosen by researchers (Coons et al., 2015; Turk et al., 2013) Participants can receive individualized feedback, which has led to significantly more weight loss than generic feedback (Gabriele et al., 2011; Tate et al., 2006)