Thanks. Wow, guess they pay by the word.

To pick at a nit, I might wish I could stay on WW forever. But all good things must come to an end.

I was in for about 5 years before Points Plus came around. With PP I watched my sparsely attended Sunday morning meeting become SRO.
WTW stock had always been around $35 since I'd joined. I sat there with my finger in my ear while the room filled up and the stock went to about $75. As noted in the article, the membership number tells them how much money they will make.

By the time Oprah came around the stock was well below $10. When she bought first thing I did was check the price. At one point in 2015 WTW was trading close to $3. There's a stock market saying- sometimes when they are sick, they die.
WTW was about dead.

In my experience WW meetings are a women's club. Hasn't stopped me from going. I've been to 100s of meeting. Sometimes I meet other people who are interested in weight loss and maintaining. Mostly I meet people who are nagging themselves to weigh less but unwilling do a few simple things to lose.

If I'm at a meeting with 25 people, I'd bet at most 5 have kept a journal for 7 days. That would be on a good week.

Definitely noticed when WW went out of the weight loss business. ML just flat out told us one day. But nothing really changed, they just dropped the pretense. Sure all the new stuff was focus grouped to the max. And besides, why risk losing a member over a WI?

Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed reading the article, although @GoRun2 is right that there isn't any new information presented.

The article encapsulates why I'm no longer a WW member though. The scale is not my focus, healthy choices are, and WW at it's core is still a weight loss group that is centered around the scale (no matter what their marketing team says). I prefer to stay mindful of my intake, keep active, and I believe the scale will follow my habits. The amount of stress the author has over losing weight is not something I ever want to experience again, although it is definitely something I experienced in the past.

I remember the meeting where they presented the 'data'. That when looking at people's new years resolutions, weight loss was 3rd or 4th on the list (getting fit and eating healthy being higher on the list). I actually laughed out loud. Because really, what is 'getting fit' or 'eating healthy'? Other than nebulous, non-measurable (for the most part) things to say so one can be successful without doing what they really want to do. Which is to lose weight.

I don't know if WW's recent financial recovery is due to Ms. Oprah, the new approach or the fact that people are losing more weight on a regimen that, for all the talk about how nobody wants to be on a diet, is more diet-y than it has been in years.

When I started 1 of the semi misleading mind tricks was "eat anything you want."

Then Points Plus jammed the room with free fruit. That was really a version of "eat as much as you want."

Now it seems to be "do what you want."

Didn't catch this in the article, but I wonder what their customer retention # is. Always been fascinated with the WW revolving door.

Rachel0778 wrote: »

I think this is a really interesting point and one that doesn't get talked about enough. I think there are definitely gendered differences to weight loss and weight expectations. One that came up in weight watchers a lot for women is the expectation that they always put everyone else first and their own health last. One positive thing I think Weight Watchers has done over the years is to tell women it's okay to prioritize themselves.

For guys, there's a whole different set of challenges since it seems to be more taboo to be openly on a diet. I see this with my SO sometimes, especially since he has a job that requires a lot of networking/social events. It's hard to stay OP when you're constantly going to happy hours/getting invited out to burgers and it almost reflects poorly on him to choose seltzer water and salads over burgers and beer, as if those options make him less masculine. Whereas as a female, these seem like completely normal choices when eating out.

You hit the big pink elephant squarely in the butt here! I know that for me, when people at work look at me funny for weighing food and make comments - it's MUCH more comfortable socially to excuse myself with an upcoming weigh in for competition than to explain that my goal is to get to an ideal weight and fitness.

Socially, men aren't supposed to have health issues... we are supposed to suck it up, walk it off, etc... and basically pretend that they don't exist... and excess weight/fat is a health issue... so if a man is "manning up" (aka ignoring their health), then they are expected to eat as if nothing can possibly hurt them, regardless of what they look or feel.