Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has a found a great incentive to keep using Twitter, as she’s now crediting the network with helping her lose 50 pounds — mostly by making herself accountable for her weight-loss progress by sharing it with others. She began tweeting about her weight in May, where she wrote that she was “tired of looking and feeling fat” and noted her desire to “be more disciplined,” and since then she’s shared updates on her diet and fitness habits on her profile — which has nearly 60,000 followers — aiming to reach each one of them by allowing them a glimpse into her private life. “I think it’s important for people to see that I’ve got the same kind of problems and challenges that everybody else does,” she told CBS News on “The Early Show” Wednesday, adding, “obviously, for a woman in her 50s, figuring out how to stay in shape with a really hectic schedule is a big part of everybody’s daily struggle in my state and, I think, all across the country.” Though McCaskill is planning to keep working out and eating healthy – so as not to fall back into old habits and gain the weight back, which she said would amount to “public humiliation” — she did admit that sharing such details with the public could cut both ways. “That public accountability — sometimes it’s not fun to be so public – believe me, when I go to the grocery store, I hear about it,” she said.
