AIBU to wonder what's going on with Diet Companies

[Cutecat78]

I know it's January and the media is inundating us companies selling us diet plans (Weight Watchers and Slimming Worls seem to be bombarding ATM).

Admittedly I have never been on a diet (I am not overweight but I could do with exercising more, eating more healthily and losing maybe half a stone).

I just feel like these companies recruit people to become almost evangelical about their certain plan and have quite a few colleagues who have followed a certain plan, lost weight, hit their target weight and then gone back to eating as before and within a year being back to where they started.

Also have several friends who have used the plans, succeeded and now running their own groups and all FB posts about how amazing their life is etc - and it feels a bit like people that get caught up in pyramid selling.

It's no secret that it's a massive industry and generated millions - but what was "fat club" at the local village hall almost seems to be brain washing when really we need to get behind the reasons why we overeat, and then eat less exercise more and change our lifestyles forever (ideally).

AIBU to think that it's preying on vulnerable people with low self esteem, offering a quick fix not a long term solution then either leaving them back where they started or recruiting them to recruit more people (the food associated with these diets does not seem cheap).

It makes me uneasy - I dunno I am happy to be told I am wrong.

[Cutecat78]

I never said you do - I said its up to you isn't it? If you are happy then great. I don't care what size anyone else is.

Slimming world may well be doing that (how - do they offer CBT?) but as pps have said it's not working if people are having to return and pay more - yet still evangelise about how amazing it is.

[Muskateersmummy]

I'm a slimming world member and honestly I believe in the SW concept because it's simple and works. But it only continues to work if you don't think of it as a diet. I'm not on a diet, I made a change in my lifestyle.

I lost nearly 3 stone and have been at target for a year. Simply I'm still at target because I didn't go back to the way I ate before. Considering it to be a diet means it be definition has an end. A healthy lifestyle is not a diet. If you learn from the plan and change your life then you won't put the weight back on.

For me way to many people want the quick fix, and simply there is no such thing.

[Sirzy]

No it's not working if people don't follow it, they can't force people to eat and behave in a certain way.

Just like following mfp worked for me until I relaxed and then put weight back on, that doesn't mean the principle of mfp doesn't work though!

[JessicasRabbit]

I used to be a ww member. When I first did it I lost 2st, and it did genuinely help me to change my relationship with food. I stuck to it properly, and learned what normal portion sizes are, and learned new, healthier recipes. Its been two years since I stopped going and I'm still within the healthy range and I'm sticking to the same plan until I'm back to target.

The thing is, they do work. If you stick with it. And if you stick with it, they're free.

With AA - if people stop going and start drinking again, you don't blame AA.

[Cutecat78]

No agreed - but there is no benefit to AA if you need to return.

[Sirzy]

So someone who has attended AA is never going to feel themselves relapsing so realise they need the support again? Attending a meeting isn't some sort of miracle sure you realise

[cleaty]

Being a bit greedy is often the reason behind people being a bit overweight. But when you get very fat people I do think there are other reasons behind it, and the diet industry does not tackle that at all. I know women who have put on, and kept on a lot of weight after being raped. There needs to be help to tackle the real issues, there rarely is. Lots of counsellors do not even understand how real issues affect how people eat.

[Sirzy]

Cure not sure

[GiraffesAndButterflies]

I don't think I could trust a company that stood to make more money from me if it achieved the opposite of its stated goals, is what I'm saying. Yes there is an element of willpower, people needing to continue to implement the changes, not relapse, etc. But knowing that true "success" for these companies means gradual reduction of their market size, I can't get rid of my skepticism. They are not out to charitably help people lose weight. They're out to make a profit.

[Muskateersmummy]

Could success for these companies not just be that those of us that are successful, speak others and they then join and are successful? Yes they are a business, and yes they have to make money, but I have been going to meetings as a non paying target member for longer now than I did as a paying weight loser.....

Different things work for different people, are someone is really ready to change, they will. Some can do it alone, others (myself included) need the support.... And I for one am glad that support is available for people like me who need it.

[tabulahrasa]

"But knowing that true "success" for these companies means gradual reduction of their market size"

You think there's a shortage of overweight people?

[Stellar67]

I'm doing SW. I really don't like all the chat and leaflets about becoming a consultant. It does feel pyramidy. And I don't like taking aspartame either, which they all advocate.
I go for the walk of shame. I have to physically go somewhere and pay them to weigh me. I've tried it at home. Doesn't have the same shame.
I also have to go to classes at the gym. Can't go to the gym because I won't follow the routine myself.

So I could pay anyone to weigh me really. That's all I need. Makes me cut out crap from my diet.

[Palomb]

I think slimming world is better than weight watchers TBH and their diet seems to be much healthier. Weight watchers seem to push the low fat high sugar agenda and there is no way that diet is healthy for anyone.

[Muskateersmummy]

I wouldn't say the advocate aspartame ... Have the products with it, or don't. The point to SW is the choices to alter your food choices in a healthy way to fit in with you. There's plenty of options.

I have to say In the almost 2 years I have been going our consultant has mentioned a handful of times that they are hosting events for any if they are interested in being a consultant..

As with all things, different groups, different consultants, different experiences. Some may be much more pushy than others I guess

[Cutecat78]

I have a friend who has done SW and looks great. She suffers with arthritis so losing weight has clearly benefited her greatly. I am genuinely pleased for her.

Her FB posts during this period were pictures of her food presented on a plate at home as if in a restaurant with mini fryer etc along with MEMES about life change etc.

She has now become a consultant, she is rightly proud (good for her) as she has achieved something but just is totally evangelical about her SW group and SW in general trying to get other FB friends to come along to her group which does feel to me a bit like pyramid selling (luckily she lives hundreds of miles away).

[Stellar67]

Good to know muskateer. I think our consultant has the area to herself, as I couldn't find anyone else close by. So maybe she's got her own style.
But I do like the ethos of all the fruit and veg. So that's why I chose it as my pay to weigh. Just can't listen to the chat.

[Muskateersmummy]

She's happy and proud and setting up a new "business".... So she posts about it a lot, like new mums tend to post lots of baby pictures. Some friends are fanatical about dogs, some about travel. Hers is about her weigh loss, and she wants to encourage others.....

[Cutecat78]

Why is it ok to do this with weight loss groups but not Lighter Life and the like .....

[Muskateersmummy]

For me... To each his or her own. I prefer SW myself because the plan suited me and I learnt to change my lifestyle. If lighter life, juice plus etc works for someone then fab for them ...

I guess it's similar to the younique stuff that floods my fb newsfeed daily. These are all ways for people to boost their income and fb is the easiest way to get the message out to your potential new customers.

[RaisingSteam]

The thing is, most diet plans, not bonkers ones, are just putting in writing a version of what people who don't put on weight, normally eat. Or a bit less to actually lose weight steadily. If you (I) "start eating normally and put the weight back on" there is something wrong with your idea of "normal" balance of food and exercise. If you think eating sensibly is a diet, and can't manage it without tracking or classes, then yes you need to be on a sort of diet for ever.

Obviously we would all be better off not to be obsessed and just get the habit of snacking on an apple not a huge chocolate muffin etc - but that's quite hard work for some of us for all sorts of reasons.

[Cutecat78]

Don't start me in Yonique

I just hide friends that use their personal FB to sell stuff (Avon too) it's annoying - start a business page and I will choose if I want to like it.

[tabulahrasa]

"Why is it ok to do this with weight loss groups but not Lighter Life and the like ...."

I know not a lot about lighter life tbh, it's one of the few I've not tried.

Juice plus is one I see a lot of though and that's not the same because, well, it is mostly a pyramid scheme isn't it? It's definitely not a sustainable way of losing weight, maybe I'm wrong about the business model and just selling it to new people all the time makes money? I've never known anyone to lose weight with it though.

[Cutecat78]

I always wonder what happens to the digestive system with juicing

[Muskateersmummy]

Yeah I'm not a huge fan of juice plus either, it seems to me to be very unsustainable. I know people who have lost loads, but no one who had kept it off

[thelouise]

"Weight watchers seem to push the low fat high sugar agenda and there is no way that diet is healthy for anyone."

Erm, no they don't. They never did. Their diet has changed now, so that sugary foods and higher fat foods are high in their new points.