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.

[ghostyslovesheep]

I am not sure you can assume people doing SW or WW need counselling

I have been doing WW since just before Christmas - lost a stone - got a stone to go - I don't bang on about it - I don't over eat or have comfort food - I exercise regularly and to a high intensity - I am just 46 - have had 3 kids and have a dicky thyroid so it's just crept on over the last 3 years

I am hard obese I just want to be 8 and half stone again!

[GiraffesAndButterflies]

You think there's a shortage of overweight people?

No, I think the clubs have a vested interest in keeping as many people as possible overweight. Doesn't matter how big that market is objectively, they are fighting for it. They want more market share and they want a bigger market, any business does.

[rookiemere]

I found WW wildly annoying.

Rolodex system from the 1980's, get annoyed if you don't go to the "right" meeting (this is to do with their payment system - did you know that the leaders are on minimum wage), allegedly promoting healthy eating but encouraging people to eat those weirdy tasting expensive bars filled with artificial sweeteners.

Annoyingly I do lose weight by going and sticking to the plan but it's just so tedious and it all comes on again.

I think it's more the fear of being weighed every week and the excitement when you have actually lost something that works more than anything else.

[Muskateersmummy]

Oh giraffe, that is so not how the clubs work! Everyone is supporting each other lose the weight and keep it off. Can't comment on WW but with SW, as long as I go to weigh in once every two months, I have access to all the information and on line support I need, without paying a penny. I still have access to the group, and my consultant for support and help any time. All without paying. Because I'm at target and they want you to lose the weight and keep it off. They are not in the market of keeping people overweight!

[Sirzy]

Realistically target members are the best PR for them! That's what they want to them make more people want to start their weight loss journey with them.

[DownstairsMixUp]

I've yo yo dieted for ages and deciding no more diets. I've bought Lean in 15 and am just eating healthier, not reaching for carbs all the time and exercising. I was starving all the time on WW, despite choosing the "good" foods and SW is too restrictive. I don't like using the spray oils/aspartame laden yoghurts and my treat is vodka at the end of the week, diet or not, which I then can't drink as I use my syns on proper olive oil or butter! I thinl healthier fats/less carbs/move more with the odd treat is the only answer.

[DustyCropHopper]

I am on Ww now, I did it 7 years ago, lost 52lb in a year, 6 months later fell pregnant and it all went to pot. I have tried several times since then but just not had the commitment. This time I have the incentive of a holiday abroad in May. I need to have someone to face each week, knowing I am paying to lose the weight helps. Talking to other members have been a great support. 2 weeks in and I have lost 6lb so far, a drop in the ocean to what I need to lose but I am feeling positive. I have tried to do it alone, I can not do it.

[WaitrosePigeon]

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

Wrong.

They have introduced Smart Points this year. Focusing on high protein low sugar. Any food high in sugar is now very 'expensive' points wise. Just wanted to totally disregard that comment as it's incorrect.

[Palomb]

Forgive me if their advice has changed recently. The last time I went to WW was 3 years ago and their diet advice was appalling. I am glad to hear it has changed.

[rookiemere]

Ww still pedalling their nasty processed snack bars though full of artificial sweeteners.

[Palomb]

I won some of the WW snack bars on my second appointment (for losing a ton on weight by low carbing !) and the ingredients lists was terrifying so I couldn't bring myself to eat them. Sorry to hear they are still selling them.

[SuperDuperJezebel]

You don't HAVE to buy them tho! I lost 8 stone doing WW and have kept it off (18 months and counting). I love it in that it worked amazingly for me, I would never push it on anyone else. What works for me might not work for someone else. I didn't need counselling or cooking lessons, I'm a pretty good cook. What I needed was moral support, guidance and someone to keep me in check. Plus some education on portion control. I have a lot of respect for anyone who tries to lose weight/eat healthier, regardless of the approach.

[WaitrosePigeon]

8 stone! Amazing well done! I don't buy any weight watchers products so can't comment on them!

[GodImtired]

Two years ago I starting dieting using a well known dieting company. I lost 6 stone and have not put it back on. Whilst doing the diet I really started to notice how junk food is everywhere, how it's arranged to attract your eye, and how pretty colours are used, and attractive packaging etc. I talked too and observed the eating habits of slim friends who were my age (50) basically they are thin because all the time they are careful about what they eat, or eat in excess one day and then the next two days they significantly reduce their calorie intake.
I personally think it doesn't matter what diet you do but it has to work for you, you have to like the food they are asking you to eat and it has to fit in with your life style.
I look so different for having lost weight, I'm unrecognisable, I feel so much better, my skin looks great, as does my hair, my confidence has returned (I was thin up until I was 40) and I wear clothes that I like. I had zero will power when it came to food, but I've somehow managed to change this. Ive come to the comclusion that being slim has to be very very important to you therefore you'll make them effort to stay slim.

[MabelBee]

I had the shocking realisation recently that I have been dieting for 25 years. 20 of those have been Weightwatchers. I'm bigger than ever, although I have had long periods of maintaining various goal weights. I am now trialling a vague idea of not wasting one more second of my life criticising or hating my fabulous body, or punishing it with food deprivation or exercise that I don't enjoy. Instead I am starting to investigate mindfulness, doing some lovely hatha yoga and focusing on rewarding my body with good health. Which may or may not lead to weight loss. But certainly should lead to happiness.

[Muskateersmummy]

I think Mabel you hit the nail on the head by referring to the diets you have done as punishing your body with food you don't enjoy or restricting food.

The best way to lose and keep weight off is to live a healthy lifestyle, not to diet. I eat plenty of food, am never restricted, and can have food I really enjoy. Healthy food doesn't have to be horrid and boring. I have cake, just not every day ! a healthy diet, to me anyway, is about moderation. My diet is way more varied and interesting now than it was before I lost the weight. And I enjoy cooking much more now.

It doesn't matter what plan you follow as long as you can make those changes for life and you still enjoy what you do. If it feels like a chore you will give up, probably binge and end up either back where you started or even potentially worse off.

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

Can I ask a question to those who have used WW or SW? Do they just weigh you? Because using scales/BMI is a really innacurate way of determing the percentage of fat to lean tissue. If you want to lose fat rather than water, muscle, and bone mass then you need to monitor fat rather than body mass as a whole.

[tabulahrasa]

Yes they just use scales, WW then give you a weight based on height and BMI, with SW you pick your own target.

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

As I expected tabulahrasa. They should be using far more accurate measures of body fat such as skin fold calipers or non-stretch tape measures, but that would mean they'd have to be trained in anthropometry. If I had a slimming club I'd "ban" scales.

"The Men Who Made Us Thin" is an eye opening series InsufficientlyCaffeinated, and one that I think everyone should watch. It's all about profits at the end of the day, which is obvious, but to think that someone from WWs admitted that it needs people to fail so they come back and spend money with them just brings it home. What GiraffesAndButterflies said about their dream customer is right; diets don't work long term, much to the joy of the diet industry and their shareholders.

Then there are companies, like Unilever, who until 2014 owned Slim Fast, but also owns Wall's, Viennetta, Cornetto, Carte D'Or, Magnum, Solero, and Ben & Jerry's, it makes me twitch. Sell stuff that will help people along the road to obesity then sell them something to get slim. Brilliant business plan.

[tabulahrasa]

"They should be using far more accurate measures of body fat such as skin fold calipers or non-stretch tape measures"

I'm not going to argue that they wouldn't be more accurate...but there is no way in the world I'd have gone back if that's how they worked.

If you're a stone or so overweight it might be different, but if you're starting out knowing full well you're at the top end of obese, firstly accuracy isn't that important, secondly that would be completely humiliating.

SW do encourage you to take your own measurements by the way, I don't remember if WW do.

[Throwingshade]

Giraffe is actually right. Slimming clubs DO want you to keep putting it back on and coming back and remaining a member. That IS how they make the lionshare of their money.

Saying that, of course WW 'works' as do all the rest if you stick at it them. And they can be very helpful for those of us who need guidance with nutrition, portions and the balance of consuming and expending calories.

[GiraffesAndButterflies]

I still have access to the group, and my consultant for support and help any time. All without paying. Because I'm at target and they want you to lose the weight and keep it off. They are not in the market of keeping people overweight!

At the local level I can believe that. But what do you think their board members, who have never met you, want you to do: keep using all these free services, or put weight back on and then pay them again to help you lose it?
And at a strategic level, what do you think that does to the business decisions they make?

Although I'm replying to your post I'm not intending to get at you directly it's just an example of the kind of "doublethink" between the companies' professed aims and their business model.

[albertcampionscat]

Diets, all of them, cabbage soup to 'lifestyle changes' help people lose weight. None of them help people keep it off, but, as this thread shows, people then blame themselves.

[tabulahrasa]

Their business model actually relies on target members, they're their good PR for recruiting new members, both in general and in group.

In fact I've told you that before Giraffes, you might not want to believe it, but that's what SW's strategy is based on - new members joining because they can see it works, the same members losing the same two stones over and over again is a crappy business model because new members would leave after their first session already thinking it won't work longterm.

That's why they can attend for free, because they don't want them to put weight back on, they want them there showing new members it can be done.

[MistressDeeCee]

Im fine with SW and WW I think anything that will help people with their weight and to gain a better quality of life is useful. What gets to me more is the media. & can you find even ONE women's magazine without a diet headline somewhere on the cover?

Im rubbish at diets. It took looking and feeling more llke crap each day for me to sit down and evaluate. I don't diet but I have cut out all white foods/carbs to the point I no longer miss them, and only have them occasionally. Im a plain-ish eater so don't get into struggling to think of weird and wonderful recipes. I graze, really. Never have a huge plate of food. & I use a mini-trampoline, dumbells and a kettlebell as I can't be asked to go to the gym, although I will go for a brisk walk as opposed driving if I've a task to do.

But if I could eat cake & custard every day, then I would. I do that every couple of weeks instead. The thought of no treats would make me miserable I know a few who've used a slimming club, Slimming World seems really good, but those I know who've used it have put the weight back on. Perhaps thats due to certain crises in life..but I do think its better to have these slimming clubs than not, for some people the group support as opposed to trying to go it alone is invaluable