Yes, that's right. The latest motivational technique for weight control is betting on whether you can actually lose weight, exercise and get in shape. Just log on to www.Stickk.com, register, choose your goal (weight loss, exercise more, etc.), pick what's at stake (e.g., money), get a referee and you're done.

Some sites, such as www.fatbet.net and www.makemoneylosingweight.com, allow bettors to challenge one another. You can set up an office weight-loss challenge and bet that you'll achieve your goal weight first. These sites help you track everyone's progress and create excitement, bragging rights and rewards for hitting your goals.

Several sites are springing up that help the nutrition-conscious keep track of what they're eating using the microblogging tool Twitter. Some help with charts, calorie information and more. www.Tweetwhatyoueat.com offers a simple food diary that lets you track your food and weight on the Web or your mobile phone using Twitter by sending direct tweets to "twye" listing the foods you eat. You can either include calories as part of the tweet, or the site can fill them in for you using its database. It also provides daily reminders if you forget to update your diary.

www.Nutritter.com is somewhat similar. After you join, you simply tweet your foods, add a code word, and presto — Nutritter posts your foods with caloric information to your food diary.

In the strange, but true — and helpful — category, there are several sites. The first, www.FitFatFeed.com, allows you to vote on which famous bodies are fit — and which ones need a little help. It's a bit silly, but all in good fun. Right now Andre Agassi tops the list as the fittest celebrity.

Two sites, www.Gluttonyisabliss.com and www.ThsIsWhyYoureFat.com, allow visitors to post photos of foods that are extremely high in calories. For instance, chocolate-covered bacon, a deep-fried cupcake with chocolate syrup and sprinkles, etc. The idea is to show you how ridiculous these foods look, on the theory that the photos will remind you not to indulge. The pictures are easy to view and, at least to me, the food looks unappetizing.

www.WeightView.com, helps you visualize what you would look like at your target weight. You simply upload a photo of yourself, specify how much weight you'd like to lose, and www.WeightView.com sends you back an image of yourself at that weight. You can then print the photo and post it on your fridge for motivation.

Ever wonder what 200 calories looks like — check out this link and see for yourself: www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm.

There are some new sites that actually help you to find restaurants and make healthier choices while dining out. Since eating out typically means eating higher-calorie foods than you would at home, these tools can be very helpful in the quest for a healthy body.

www.HealthyDiningFinder.com, for instance, features dietitian-approved healthy menu items served at 60,000 mostly fast-food and family-style chain restaurants. The site also provides detailed nutrition information (e.g., calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, protein, carbohydrates, fiber and fruit/vegetable servings) for each dish.