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Thursday, February 12, 2015

Marilyn Wann about Weight Watchers

If you want to lose weight, eat healthy foods, not nasty heavily processed foods from some weight loss company.

When asked about weight watchers she replied...

"I think Weight Watchers has no value at all. It's a for-profit company whose business model relies 100% on the near-total failure rate of its product and on the rampant weight bigotry of our society. I find it horrific that Weight Watchers inserts itself into other for-profit companies and uses their employees for targeted marketing, uses their meeting rooms for their own pursuits, and expects gratitude white it's getting such huge freebies. I think it's completely unfounded that Weight Watchers has the reputation as the least damaging, most sensible weight-loss approach, given their aformentioned near-total failure rates, promotion of prejudice, and creepy use of hardcore cultists as group leaders. The Super Bowl ads mock precisely what WW does: How many Weight Watchers spokes-losers have done alluring voiceovers to images of WW food, extolling their alleged deliciousness? Clearly, Weight Watchers is expanding from targeting mostly women as potential customers to targeting men. (See, recent Super Bowl ads, etc.) The sort of food fixation that the WW ad you linked to depicts is precisely the worldview that weight-loss dieting like Weight Watchers fosters in people. Deprivation — no matter how much coaching someone gets — is going to lead people to think more about food and crave food more than they would if they satisfied their hunger throughout the day. And I seriously doubt the qualifications of Weight Watchers coaches! Ugh. For anyone who's experiencing issues with food, especially binge eating disorder or other EDs, I would hope they find support for resolving those issues from a professionally qualified person who uses a weight-neutral, non-weight-loss approach. I consider weight-loss goals in general to be unethical and hate mongering. Weight Watchers is a leader in this yuck."