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COLUMBIA (WACH) -- A new study suggests finding the right website might help keep the pounds off.

According to the study, people who shed pounds and consistently logged onto a specifically designed site for weight maintenance were better able to keep the pounds off than those who logged on less often.

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research say people who checked in at least once a month over a two and a half year period were able to maintain an average of nine of their original nineteen pound weight loss.

Those who checked in every month over a fourteen month period were only able to maintain five pounds of their weight loss.

Those who logged in even less often were only able to keep off three pounds.

Study authors say people who regularly used interactive weight loss web sites were looking for ways to keep their new habits going.

The study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was published in the "Journal of Medical Internet Research."