Wed, Dec-04-02, 05:25
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Weight Watchers to be sued??
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but came across this interesting article in yesterday's edition of the UK daily newspaper, The Daily Mail:
Quote:
Diana Guru's War on Fergie and the Weight Watchers
Many dieters end up larger than they started, says author.
Princess Diana's former therapist is threatening a multi-million pound lawsuit against Weight Watcher because, she says, its members fail to keep off the pounds they shed. Susi Orbach claims that more than nine in ten devotees of the American organisation's eating system regain weight.
She says she is acting on behalf of former Weight Watchers who, despite handing over money based on promises of a slimmer figure, ended up larger than when they started.
The action puts Miss Orbach, who treated Diana for bulimia, in conflict with the Princesses' former sister-in-law the Duchess of York. Ferige has been the US ambassador for Weight Watchers in a deal reputably worth £600,000 a year since 1997. It was reported earlier this year that the 42-year-old Duchess, who has seen her weight fluctuate wildly, had lost 22lbs in four months.
It is unclear whether the planned legal action would be pursued in the UK or the US.
Miss Orbach, 55, is the driving force behind a lobbying group, Anybody, which argues that dieting is positively dangerous. The author of Fat is a Feminist Issue in the 1970s and, more recently, Susie Prbach on Eating, claims that the Weight Watchers philosophy is based on a lie.
"Commercial dieting companies like Weight Watchers sell you the idea that your life will become a whole lot better if you join them. What they do not tell you is that dieting ruins your metabolism. When you diet your metabolism slows down and so dieting actually makes you fat," she said.
The world diet industry is hugely profitable. Profits at the US parent company Weight Watchers Inc increased to £126 million for the 3 months from July to September, up 31% on the same period last year.
Miss Orbach claims to have been told by a Weight Watchers source back in the 1980s that 97% of their members were putting weight back on after completing the diet. She says she also has evidence from members. "We're taking these companies to task for untold harm," she said. "If people believe it works then they should know that it only works for 3 people out of every 100."
Dieting programmes at Weight Watchers are based on a points system. Most food and drinks are given a value, based on their saturated fat and calories content. Members are then allocated a maximum number of daily points, depending on their weight, with the aim to reach a specific target.
The company works mainly with its members through group meetings sessions run by a Weight Watchers leader. The initial registration fee is £9, but members also pay a weekly fee of £4.50 to attend a weigh-in and meeting of up to an hour. The alternative programmes are an 8-week dieting at home package, which costs £44.95 and an online plan costing £49.95 for the initial 3 months and £9.95 for each month thereafter.
Mis Orbach insists that if the system used by companies such as Weight Watchers worked, then customers would have to sign up only once. But instead, she says, the industry relies on clients returning to its diet programmes and products over and over again.
A Weight Watchers spokesman denied the claim that 97% of members fail to keep the pounds off. "I don't know where that figure came from and as far as I'm concerned it's hearsay that just isn't true," she said. "We are a company designed to teach people to keep weight off long term. Group support is incredibly successful and when members leave that environment, they tend to put weight back on. But once they reach their goal weight they are not abandoned. As long as they stay within 5lb of the weight they can receive our services and support free of charge to ensure that they maintain that weight."
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I've written the article out in full because, unfortunately, this article does not appear on the Daily Mail web site.
Would be interested to know if anyone else has picked this story up elsewhere. Had a trawl through US news sites last night but didn't come across anything.
Will be extremely interesting to see if this one goes any further! |
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