Is sharing your diet on social media too much information? WeightWatchers Facebook app treads a fine line…

UPDATED 01/03/11

Sure peer pressure is supposed to help people shed the pounds – that’s the basis of the WeightWatcher philosophy – but you’ve got to think about whether your peers want to hear about your pounds in the first place.

If you’re all in a WeightWatchers session that’s one thing, but WeightWatcher plans for a Facebook app blur that fine line between information and too-much-information.

They say: “the Facebook Make A Pledge app will allow our fans to make a bespoke weight loss pledge for 2011. The app will ask Facebook fans how much weight they want to lose and their motivation behind the pledge. Whether it’s for an upcoming wedding, a holiday, or a birthday, the new app will help to provide additional motivation and advice for each individual’s weight loss journey.”

Seems like your Facebook friends won’t have much choice about whether they get included on your “weight loss journey” or not – they’re in it! I know Farmville sends out annoying notifications too – but just think about your friends before inflicting this on them…

Weightwatchers explain why the sharing thing is important.. “Members using the Make a Pledge app will find it easier to stay motivated, as at Weight Watchers, we know that sharing your weight loss resolutions strengthens your resolve to keep them. The app will also allow fans to track their weight loss as they can update the number of lbs lost or inches dropped from their original stats in the app.”

Though we’re a little dubious about this Facebook thing, other WeightWatchers tech projects have been successful: their iPhone app now has had over 300,000 downloads and been named the top app in iTunes’ Health & fitness category. It allows allows members to track what they eat and drink during the day, and calculate their ProPoints while out and about.

UPDATE:
we got an email from Weightwatchers to say that though you can share your WW updates with all your friends, there’s also an option to just share them with other WeightWatchers – who presumably are a bit more interested in ’em: “The pledge only publishes to the app’s Pledge Wall where it can only seen by other fans who have chosen to make a pledge, so unless the fan wants to share their pledge to their own wall or invite their friends to take a pledge too, their friends won’t have any knowledge of the pledge.”