Fat whores rejoice ! WW declares bankruptcy

I guess Oprah doesn’t love bread anymore.

WW was a very old and outdated business model and they weren't able to modernize.

They were on borrowed time as soon as Ozempic came out and fat whores got the wind of it. My take? People shouldn't be struggling with fat loss and turning that struggle into their personality. You take these new drugs, you lose weight, and then you can live your life without having to obsess over your weight and food 24/7.

I was listening to an interview on the radio this morning with one of the CEOs who explained rather succinctly what was going on and why. Very delicately, she got the point across that adding Oprah to the board and letting her make changes to the program was not the best choice for the company. Oprah then coming out and letting members know she succeeded in weight loss through Ozempic (or Wegovy, etc) was the final blow which they could not recover from.

Why this is bad news for Harris/Walz voters who refuse to destroy their internal organs from using Ozempic.

Oprah was the last person they should have let on the board. I remember 30 years ago when she first lost a tone of weight, brought a red wagon of plastic fat onto the stage to show her audience how much she was carrying around. She ballooned up the very next year and then some.

But I get it, she's a billionaire so they probably needed her money. I am guessing with Ozempic, not too many wanted to invest in that old school AA inspired fat farm social network.

A lot of people realize you don’t need these expensive weight programs to lose weight. People are more attuned to following a holistic lifestyle.

People realize now that morbidly obese people statistically have a VERY low rate of success with long-term weight loss when using dietary and exercise modification alone. Adding either bariatric surgery or medication greatly improves the success rate.

R8 It’s because they don’t stick to the diet. Thats what it is. I don’t know why they won’t acknowledge that in the data. If you don’t stick to the diet and physical regime that got your fat ass skinny you are going to get fat again because you obviously have the genes that make one have the propensity to be fat. And in America you have to be extra conscious of what you eat because they put is so much sugar in bread and everything.

R4- That and the IDIOTS that decided to change their name to WW.

Ha! That's what you get, bitch!

R9 It really doesn't matter why. The fact is that it rarely works. It's like saying if gay men would just have sex with women and stop having sex with men. It's not that easy.

I am gonna WW this thread ha ha ha

I went on Weight Watchers almost 20 years ago, lost 40 lbs and have kept it off. What worked was going to the weekly meetings and getting weighed and getting your card marked to see your progress. I believe WW is only online now which is a mistake IMO. People need the accountability of a public weigh in.

They still have meetings.

Of the people that I know that have gone to WW, Jenny Craig or gone or Adkins or similar many have lost weight then gained it back and often plus some. I known more people to have long-term success with Adkin's/low carb diets than the other options, but it's a small pool of people. It's the same with trying to manage cholesterol with diet. Most people fail in the long-run.

I am very lucky. I am 6'1 1/2" tall (was 6'2" before I shrank) and weigh 185lbs. I could stand to lose10 pounds, but I've really never been out of the normal range for my height, ever. I eat anything that I feel like eating and I'm not great about exercising. This despite being now approaching my mid-60s. I know many people who are not so lucky.

They’re rebranding.

I read an interview with Weight Watchers’ founder, and she said the tipping point for her was when she bought all the equipment to make eclairs, and was making them for herself fresh every day.

What? This is like a 12 step program declaring bankruptcy. What did they spend their money on for corns sake? A couple of leased buildings?

[quote]Very delicately, she got the point across that adding Oprah to the board and letting her make changes to the program was not the best choice for the company. Oprah then coming out and letting members know she succeeded in weight loss through Ozempic (or Wegovy, etc) was the final blow which they could not recover from.

That's terrible, though not surprising; years ago, I belonged to WW on & off and before there were apps and other (often free) tools, it standardized some of the weight loss tools that are common today. But I think the program was always intended for the hefty frau that needs to lose 20 pounds and not for people with serious food/weight issues. So I think they were probably on borrowed time anyway, but I'm not surprised that Oprah's toxic influence were their undoing.

R10 it was Oprah who changed the official name to "WW" when she joined the board a decade ago. She claimed "Weight Watchers" was 'body shaming' and keeping potential members away - and after 50+ years they believed her and did what she suggested. And now, we all know how that turned out.

R14 Agree 100% - I could've written your post myself. I also lost 40+ pounds in 2006, and loved going to meetings for my public weigh ins. It was a sense of community.

R15 In my area, when the pandemic hit, they 'pivoted to Zoom meetings' as did every one else. They never opened their physical locations again (saving a lot of money on rent, utilities and payroll) and continued with Zoom which didn't work for everyone. (At one time in my area radius of about 30 miles, there were at least a dozen meeting locations throughout the week - storefronts, church halls, college campuses, etc. - all closed and never reopened).

I should also point out it was Oprah who changed the programs from point-based to 'color based' (or something crazy like that), because she thought counting points was 'fat shaming'...this way you just stuck to your color group and ate foods from there, without anyone knowing. Total failure.

Some members hate the color-coding and the change to zero point foods that used to have points. They are finding it harder to lose weight. Couple that with getting rid of the paper food tracker and closing a lot of onsite meetings and you have a disaster on your hands. When they closed the meeting sites, they also lost the opportunity to have POS purchases on items they sold. Now, you have to order and pay for shipping.

The change to WW was also to entice those who just want to learn how to eat healthy but are not trying to lose weight. They could save a lot of money by getting rid of their frozen foods. I'd rather eat cat food than that shit.

Oprah was just on tv crying about Joan Rivers fat-shaming her.

[quote]It’s because they don’t stick to the diet. Thats what it is. I don’t know why they won’t acknowledge that in the data. If you don’t stick to the diet and physical regime that got your fat ass skinny you are going to get fat again because you obviously have the genes that make one have the propensity to be fat. And in America you have to be extra conscious of what you eat because they put is so much sugar in bread and everything

Is there any analysis of obesity that DOESN'T acknowledge that people gain the weight back because they overeat? You're like Donald Trump announcing that not a lot of people know Lincoln was a Republican.

The point is that the success rate of weight loss for the long-term severely obese is almost zero. The body fighter very hard to return to its long-term weight. Essentially nobody has the willpower to fight that.

When I hear these supposedly heart warning stories of massive weight loss, I always hope the result is due to Ozenpic. Otherwise, the weight is coming back on.

WW was designed to help people adopt a long-term lifestyle change by eating smaller portions, healthy foods, and getting exercise. The problem for some is that they adopt a food-style they don't maintain. People are buying fat-free this and fat-free that and going to extremes to hit their goals. The goal weight has become their mark of success rather than eating more healthfully for a lifetime. Instead of one slice of pizza, they go back to eating 3 or 4 slices. No more diet soda or water, it's back to full-sugar soda. There was one person online who was posting about being at the gym at 5 am. If she had been doing that all along, she might not have had a weight problem. You just know she stopped going when she hit her goal.

I was most successful with opting for smaller portions and doing 80/20; being good 80% of the time and allowing myself one day on the weekend when I could enjoy myself but not gorge on fattening foods. I don't eat quinoa and flax seeds now and won't just to lose weight.

WW had a fat ass, but it couldn't live forever.

[quote]Some members hate the color-coding and the change to zero point foods that used to have points. They are finding it harder to lose weight. Couple that with getting rid of the paper food tracker and closing a lot of onsite meetings and you have a disaster on your hands. When they closed the meeting sites, they also lost the opportunity to have POS purchases on items they sold. Now, you have to order and pay for shipping.

That's exactly how they lost me, as I've explained above. As 'simpler' as Oprah thought she was making the program, she was making it harder, and didn't realize at least 50% of success for members was engaging with other members in the meeting spaces. Another big % was 'writing down' in your journal, not keeping track of your loss by scanning barcodes.