Insight into the diet industry as a weight loss director
I fully believed thinner bodies were the key to happiness upon completion of my undergraduate degree in Community Health Education. To be frank, my education taught me to fear fat and associate it with poor health and less fulfilling lives. I wanted people to achieve life satisfaction, so a position at a corporate weight loss company felt like a dream job. However, it was during my employment at LA Weight Loss that I discovered how problematic the pursuit of weight loss is, i.e. physical and psychological harm, financial and social hardship. Along with the reality that diets do not work.
The small percentage of clients who achieved their weight loss goal discovered, once the euphoria or honeymoon phase of reaching their “desired weight” faded: weight loss did not solve all their problems. They still hated their jobs, relationships did not change, confidence and body appreciation did not flourish and in many cases physical health worsened (hello, gallbladder, reproductive and digestive issues). Soon after weight loss the rebound weight gain began, leading to devastation and a false belief of personal failure and body betrayal.
As I was making my way through some major cognitive dissonance, I came across intuitive eating and weight-inclusivity. It was at this moment that I decided it was time to leave the diet industry. I came away with some powerful lessons; insights that I’ve shared with clients over the years to demonstrate diets are the problem, not your body.
Briefly, about LA Weight Loss; the program was built on a basic food exchange, restricting food choices to around a dozen options per food category, i.e. fruits, protein, carbohydrates. Carbohydrates were the saddest category, e.g. a piece of light bread, 4 fat-free saltines. Meals were extremely bland and basic. Even with the alloted 3 condiments per day. A whopping Tbsp of BBQ sauce or 5 sprays of fat-free butter.
The program was 3-parts: weight loss phase, weight loss stabilization and weight loss maintenance. The weight loss phase was based on 2 lbs per week weight loss. Clever marketing when advertisements stated “only $9 per week.” New clients anticipated the program to only cost them their weight loss phase, but there was the build in 6 weeks of stabilization and 52 weeks of maintenance, an unexpected extra $522 once they came into the center.
Clients were asked to visit the weight loss center 3x week to weigh-in and have their food diary reviewed (for accountability) by a weight loss “counselor.”
The program expected clients to purchase LA Weight Loss bars for their two snacks a day. Marketed as a way to “kill cravings” and “indulge guilt-free.” The bars were around $14 per box, and one needed two boxes per week. Another unexpected cost requirement for the program, often reaching $2000+ for the length of one’s weight loss program. The bars were basically a cheaper version of Balance bars; yet, clients could not substitute the bars, because of the “formulated ingredients and nutrition” of the bars to support weight loss. *read bullshit*
IF THEY CRY, THEY BUY
There was a saying that went around the weight loss company, if they cry, they buy. The idea was if you can break a person down, put their body shame on full display, they will sign up for a program.
The weight loss counselors and directors were taught to ask questions like:
What does your body keep you from doing?
How does your partner feel about your body?
What is it like to go shopping or look in the mirror?
Imagine what life will be like once you are at your goal weight.
And reflect back their intimate fears and shame:
It must be heartbreaking not to get on the floor with your grandkids.
How mortifying to shop at a clothing store called the Dress Barn.
You have to hide your body in front of your partner.
It is humiliating to have your co-workers view you as lazy.
While the deeply personal questions were asked, the potential clients were trapped in small rooms, often with thin, young, attractive women. It is cringe-worthy how body hierarchies were used in these scenarios. There was no safety in the rooms. Weight loss “counselors” had no background in psychology or ethics training and used revelations of body shame as ammo to generate sales.
CAPITALIZING ON DIET FAILURE
The cost of the program, with product, was upwards of $4000.
To lessen the sticker shock, the cost was slowly revealed. First the upfront program cost, then the required products. A tactic to ease price overwhelm was to offer a rebate. It went like this: if you lose the weight, which you know you will, you are eligible to get half of your investment back by maintaining your weight loss for 12 months.
The weight loss company was merely capitalizing on the 95-98% dieting failure rate, knowing the rate of rebate payout rarely occurred. The percentage of clients who received their rebate was 1%. Sadly, people did not dispute it.
The diet industry excels at using a lack of “willpower” as the source of failure. Not getting the rebate was the client’s fault and an effective carrot to get people to sign up for the program.
INITIAL WEIGHT LOSS TRICKERY
After purchasing the program, clients followed a 3-day “jumpstart.” The jumpstart was restricted to protein, certain veggies and “special juice.” As I recall, the product was a concentrated juice with some vitamins added, not worth the price-tag or “special” label.
However, it initiated weight loss, because people lost water weight. In short, glycogen (stored carbohydrates) holds water. The change in glycogen levels results in water loss. To the unknowing participant it appears successful, creating excitement on the scale and added commitment and trust in the program: Perfectly timed for the $1000 to $2500+ product investment reveal.
POOR EATING DISORDER SCREENING
The initial intake form asked: Do you have anorexia or bulimia?
If it was checked YES, clients were ineligible for the program.
It’s difficult to say how many clients with an eating disorder did not check YES while seeking weight loss. Or how many undiagnosed eating disorders joined the program. The form left off Binge Eating Disorder (BED), an eating disorder worsened by restrictions. What I do know is no one within the center was trained to do a proper screening or had eating disorder training.
One former diet industry participant shared:
When I was in my mid-20s and in early recovery from an eating disorder, my constant body dissatisfaction prompted me to attempt to join a popular weight loss program. I filled out the extensive “new client” paperwork and naively marked that I had an eating disorder. A staff member reviewed my paperwork and informed me that I could not join their program due to my history of having an eating disorder. The staff member not only communicated this to me in a matter-of-fact manner which lacked compassion, but also did it in the lobby in front of other potential customers. I was left without any direction, resources, or support. I distinctly recall feeling an incredible amount of shame and embarrassment.
Clients were not offered any support or proper interventions for their eating disorder and each client was prescribed eating disorder behaviors:
A preoccupation on weight loss with 3x a week weigh-ins
Encouragement to refuse and limit most foods
Reduce exchanges (calories), under biological needs, to promote weight loss
Recommendation for appetite suppressant to reduce cravings and hunger, e.g. don’t listen to or respond to body cues
Colluding with the fear of weight gain and anti-fat beliefs
Avoidance of social events or skipping meals and increasing exercise to compensate for dining experiences
Food rituals and disordered behavior, e.g. cutting wine with seltzer water, slowing down eating to prolong eating and to create a false sense of nourishment
Although weight loss programs have gotten savvy, using liberating words, like “freedom” and “peace with food” and positioning diets as a “lifestyle,” the damage still ensues. These programs are fully aware that they are benefiting from body shame and diet failure (therefore, repeat customers). There is absolutely NOTHING liberating about being bound to someone else’s rules or supporting an industry that manufactures the shame from which people want to escape.
Heather Hippenstiel & Erin Passmonick, both former Weight Watcher leaders, shared their stories with me by email. It illustrates a common narrative in our weight-centric society:
My last time on Weight Watchers was like nothing short of toxic. I joined in a meeting center in 2005, and reached “goal weight”, or what a BMI sheet told me I should weigh to be healthy, in 2009. I lost over X pounds, nearly hitting my goal after the first year, the second, the third, and finally the fourth. My body was trying to tell me something I didn’t want to hear, that a BMI sheet’s notes healthy weight was obviously not my body’s. I had to do drastic and harmful things to reach this unhealthy healthy goal. I became obsessed. I was a perfectionist. An actual OCD diagnosis was later confirmed. Finally hitting my goal weight, I was physically and mentally destroyed. Hormones became imbalanced from my body being starved. I soaked the bed at night from intense cold sweats. This became a severe problem. My hair started falling out, I was emotionally unstable. Struggling to maintain this new weight, as a good weight watcher alum should, I become a Leader, so I had to maintain my weight. Weight Watcher Employees were required to maintain their goal weights and stay in their BMI range. Years of trying to maintain an underweight state for my body, resulted in monthly corporate weigh ins looking like a wrestler trying to cut weight in hours. It was very damaging. It saddens me to see how much giant big diet companies profit from the absolute harm that I went through, and countless others have, and continue to under the false premise of a, “New and Improved” – it’s gotta work this time program. The hamster wheel keeps on spinning. I am off the wheel. Healthy at a weight above my BMI. Zero night sweats. Healthy skin and body. No food obsessions, thanks to therapy with body positive providers. My body is enough.my body is good. I trust my body and am learning to listen to it now. ~Heather
Almost exactly a year ago, I left Weight Watchers as a leader and a member. I will begin by saying that diet culture has harmed me more than any diet could. I began my journey with Weight Watchers (for the 3rd time) in December of 2012. I was a success story, losing the weight I wanted to and getting to my “goal weight” in a year. A month later I became a leader. I loved Weight Watchers and being a leader. It “worked” for me in so many ways…until it didn’t. I always had it in my head that I could get thin. Always wanting to get below my goal weight and stay there. A few times I did and only now I realize that those times were me practicing anorexia. I was starving, always cold, losing my hair, and exhausted. But because I was a normal weight, no one would ever suspect. In June of 2017, I decided I needed a “reset”. I did a round of Whole30. I was miserable doing it but I really didn’t even realize it. I was so used to being uncomfortable. After the Whole30, I was starving, losing my hair, and super depressed. I intended to continue with the Whole30 lifestyle but instead I started to binge. That scared me really bad and I looked up help for binge eating. I found Intuitive Eating. Since then, I gave up dieting and started healing myself. I am pretty convinced that I indeed did have an eating disorder( or two) but now I call myself in recovery. I have made huge strides in the last few months and it’s been one of the hardest things I have ever done. I’m in a very good place and right now I working mostly on body image. I will begin working with an IE counselor next month!
Weight Watchers definitely led me easily down the path to disorder but I dieted since I was a child. Weight Watchers makes restricting and hunger and failure seem normal and puts the blame on you. And then takes your money. ~Erin
Erin and Heather are among many folx who have shared Weight Watchers and other diet programs were the catalyst to their eating disorder. It is no surprise that diets are known as the gateway to eating disorders. It’s time that we acknowledge the uglier aspects of the diet industry and weight loss centric programs (looking at you, “wellness” industry), as a failed paradigm that continually perpetuates harm and distracts people from their own body wisdom and personal healing.