Latest news with #WeightWatchers'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
WW Q4 Earnings Call: Product Integration, Subscriber Challenges, and Strategic Reset
Personal wellness company WeightWatchers (NASDAQ:WW) reported Q4 CY2024 results topping the market's revenue expectations , but sales fell by 10.5% year on year to $184.4 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.32 per share was significantly above analysts' consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy WW? Find out in our full research report (it's free). Revenue: $184.4 million vs analyst estimates of $175.7 million (10.5% year-on-year decline, 5% beat) Adjusted EPS: $0.32 vs analyst estimates of $0.07 (significant beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $49.74 million vs analyst estimates of $46.36 million (27% margin, 7.3% beat) Operating Margin: 19.6%, up from -2.9% in the same quarter last year Free Cash Flow Margin: 2.4%, down from 3.6% in the same quarter last year Members: 3.34 million, down 462,000 year on year Market Capitalization: $22.56 million WeightWatchers' Q4 results reflected the ongoing transformation in the weight management industry, as the company navigates both subscriber declines and rapid changes in consumer preferences. Management attributed the quarter's performance to continued headwinds in its traditional behavioral business, partially offset by robust growth in its clinical segment, which benefited from new offerings and improved access to weight loss medications. CEO Tara Comonte noted, 'We're focused on stabilizing and rebuilding for long-term sustainable growth,' highlighting recent product updates and operational changes as leading indicators of future momentum. Looking ahead, management's forward guidance centers on stabilizing the subscriber base, integrating clinical and behavioral programs, and addressing challenges related to medication supply and competitive marketing. The company emphasized the need for disciplined investment given high interest expenses and signaled that 2025 will be a year of resetting expectations. Comonte acknowledged, 'Transformations take time and they take investments,' while CFO Felicia DellaFortuna stated that ongoing cost controls and product enhancements are expected to help position WeightWatchers for gradual recovery. WeightWatchers' leadership focused on the dual challenge of declining traditional subscribers and growing clinical offerings. The company's fourth quarter was shaped by new product features, deeper integration of its clinical business, and ongoing cost restructuring as it adapts to a changing competitive landscape and evolving consumer demand. Clinical segment momentum: Clinical subscriber growth accelerated, driven by improved access to weight loss medication and the addition of generic and compounded options. Management highlighted that clinical members deliver higher lifetime value and retention rates, and that expanding this business remains a top priority. Product innovation deployment: Several new features were launched, including an AI-powered food scanner, a recipe importer, and macro nutrient tracking. Management reported these updates have led to higher member engagement and reactivation, particularly among previously inactive users. Behavioral business pressure: The traditional behavioral business continued to experience recruitment and retention challenges, with management citing ongoing competitive pressures and shifting consumer preferences toward medication-assisted solutions. Cost reduction efforts: The company has actioned the majority of its $100 million run-rate cost savings target, resulting in increased operating margins and a leaner cost structure. Further operational reviews and AI-driven automation are planned to unlock additional efficiencies. Capital structure constraints: High debt levels and annual interest obligations are limiting the ability to invest aggressively in growth initiatives. Management has engaged advisors to explore options for improving financial flexibility and noted that the balance sheet will remain a key constraint in the near term. Management's outlook for 2025 is centered on stabilizing the core business, expanding clinical offerings, and balancing growth investments with ongoing financial constraints amid a highly competitive environment. Integration of clinical and behavioral: Deeper integration of clinical (medication) and behavioral (lifestyle change) programs is expected to improve member outcomes and engagement, which management believes will support a gradual return to growth. Product experience enhancements: Ongoing product innovation—including AI-driven personalization and new digital tools—aims to increase engagement and retention, but immediate impacts on subscriber growth may be limited by market dynamics. Marketing and capital discipline: Continued high customer acquisition costs, combined with heavy debt obligations, require careful allocation of resources. Management plans to shift spending toward higher-impact initiatives while maintaining strict cost controls, but acknowledges this may limit near-term subscriber acquisition. Nathan Feather (Morgan Stanley): Asked about early signs of improved member acquisition and retention following product changes. Management cited higher activation rates but said it is too early to see direct financial impacts. Nathan Feather (Morgan Stanley): Inquired about the role of generic and compounded medications in clinic growth. Donna Boyer, Chief Product Officer, explained that broader access—especially through compounding—drove subscriber gains despite ongoing branded medication shortages. Michael Lasser (UBS): Pressed on how WeightWatchers can avoid a downward spiral of declining subscribers and constrained resources. CEO Tara Comonte emphasized leveraging the brand's legacy, ongoing product innovation, and careful capital allocation. Michael Lasser (UBS): Asked about the sustainability of clinical subscriber growth and the cash needed to service debt. CFO Felicia DellaFortuna stated that a higher mix of clinical subscribers supports stronger margins, but volume challenges remain in the behavioral segment. Alex Fuhrman (Craig-Hallum): Sought clarity on strategies if compounded medication access is lost. Management said it will pivot to branded and alternative medications where possible and closely monitor developments in supply and regulation. In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will watch (1) the pace of clinical subscriber growth and the impact of expanded medication access, (2) execution on integrating clinical and behavioral offerings to boost engagement and retention, and (3) management's ability to further reduce costs and improve capital flexibility. Developments in medication supply, regulatory changes, and the effectiveness of new digital features will also be important to track. WeightWatchers currently trades at a forward EV-to-EBITDA ratio of 0.2×. At this valuation, is it a buy or sell post earnings? Find out in our free research report. Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election sent major indices to all-time highs, but stocks have retraced as investors debate the health of the economy and the potential impact of tariffs. While this leaves much uncertainty around 2025, a few companies are poised for long-term gains regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate, like our Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 176% over the last five years. Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Exlservice (+354% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today. 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Miami Herald
17-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Can Weight Watchers be saved? A look at the company as it files for bankruptcy
Stepping onto the scale is about as American as eating apple pie, watching baseball, and visiting the drive-thru at McDonald's. Since U.S. adult obesity rates have doubled since 1990 (from 21.2% in 1990 to 43.8% in 2022 for women, and 16.9% to 41.6% in 2022 for men), you'd think a weight-loss company like Weight Watchers would be thriving. But when Weight Watchers' parent company, WW International (WW), declared bankruptcy on May 6, 2025, it marked the end of an era for how Americans lose weight-as well as a massive reorganization for the dieting giant. At its peak in 2018, Weight Watchers had a $6 billion market cap, and its stock was trading at $100 per share. In 2020, it boasted 4.4 million members. But digital times change everything. Thanks to the rise of free weight-tracking apps and websites, as well as the introduction of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, Weight Watchers' membership programs, which counted calories and emphasized personal support groups, quickly became the dieting sphere's dinosaur. The May 2024 departure of celebrity spokesperson Oprah Winfrey, who had been candid with her weight loss struggles, did further damage. Oprah revealed that she had lost 40 pounds on Weight Watchers in 2016, but relied on an unnamed weight loss drug to lose even more. Her announcement sent WW shares tumbling 25%. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter In a 2023 CNN interview, Weight Watchers' former CEO, Sima Sistani, admitted that her company had made a "mistake" by not addressing the stigmas associated with failed diets, saying, "We were contributing to the shame some of our members felt if they did our program and it didn't work for them." One of her solutions was to incorporate a telehealth platform, Sequence, which connected members with doctors who could prescribe weight loss medications, but while the app posted 57% year-over-year growth in Q1 2025, it ultimately wasn't enough for stakeholders, and Sistani was ousted in September 2024. Between 2024 and 2025, the company experienced a 12% drop in members, and as of this article's publication, shares were trading at just 24 cents. So, can Weight Watchers be saved? Here's a look at the groundbreaking company's rise to success and decline into bankruptcy, as well as an examination of the possible path forward. Weight Watchers is a popular weight loss system that offers subscription-based memberships to help customers lose and maintain weight. The idea behind Weight Watchers began in the early 1960s with Jean Nidetch, a Queens, New York housewife who ate compulsively. Although she tried everything, from pills to "fad diets" and even hypnosis, she simply could not lose weight. In her 2015 obituary, The New York Times reported that she used to hide Mallomars in her hamper and binged on them at night in her bathroom. By age 38, she weighed 214 pounds and was miserable. So, she invited a group of overweight friends to join her on a diet-with one catch: They had to help talk each other through their "anxiety, doubt, and gnawing hunger." Related: Oprah's net worth in 2025: How the "Queen of Media" got so rich As it turned out, the program worked. Nidetch lost 72 pounds-and maintained her 150-lb "goal weight" for the rest of her life. In the process, she created a hugely successful business, as two of the people who had joined her program, entrepreneurs Felice and Albert Lippert, asked her to join forces and bring her program to the broader public. Weight Watchers officially launched in May 1963. The partners rented out space in public buildings and charged members a $2 weekly fee to attend meetings. 400 people showed up to their first official meeting, so they knew they were onto something. Within a year, Weight Watchers began franchising, keeping 10% of gross earnings. In just four years, the company had grown to 102 franchises across the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Israel, and Puerto Rico. By January 1968, it had one million members. Nidetch published her biography, The Memoir of a Successful Loser: The Story of Weight Watchers, and resigned from the company in 1973 but continued to work as a consultant, motivational speaker, and celebrity, often appearing on the Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin talk shows. Related: What happened to 7 Up? How 'The Uncola' faded into obscurity Through savvy marketing and product development, Weight Watchers continued to grow-not just by holding support groups but also by developing products, including a series of popular cookbooks, a magazine, and later, for working adults who were too tired to cook, a line of frozen dinners. In 1978, Heinz acquired Weight Watchers for $71.2 million. By the 1990s, weight loss had become a $32 billion industry, and Weight Watchers was its clear leader, commanding $300 million in annual sales. Oprah Winfrey was a key player even back then, with The New York Times chronicling her "ever-expanding-and-contracting" waistline as she attempted to lose weight from Optifast, maker of liquid diet products. (Spoiler alert: She didn't.) While it would take another 24 years for Winfrey to partner with Weight Watchers, the weight loss giant had its hands full from competition from other, upstart diet companies, like Jenny Craig, Slim-Fast, and Nutrisystem. To set itself apart-and ahead-of the competition, Weight Watchers introduced its "points" system, an algorithm that quantified a food based on its amount of carbohydrates, fat, and fiber content. More on success: Rihanna's net worth: Inside the superstar's business empireAnna Wintour's net worth: Does the Met Gala contribute to her wealth?Tina Knowles' net worth: Beyoncé's mother is a self-made millionaire Heinz sold Weight Watchers to a private equity firm, Artal Luxembourg, for $735 million in 1999, which took the company public on November 15, 2001, with an opening price of $25.91. In 2003, Weight Watchers went digital, launching its first website. In 2010, its "points" system was again overhauled: Fruits and veggies received zero points, while sugary and processed foods were given extra points. That decade, the company also started branching out from the dieting sphere by incorporating fitness and wellness into its memberships. It acquired the Wello and Hot 5 apps along with Weilos, an online community platform. It also forged partnerships with Fitbit and expanded into mindfulness through partnerships with Headspace. But the company's biggest deal was with Oprah herself. Her decades-long weight loss journey may have been ridiculed by the media, but millions of "everyday" people saw themselves in her struggles, and her endorsement helped foster a positive, trustworthy environment that affected the company's bottom line: By 2016, revenues had risen 28%, and the company had gained one million members. Not only did Oprah serve as Weight Watchers' spokesperson from 2015–2024; she also joined its Board of Directors and took a 10% ownership stake in WW, investing $43 million into the company. Shares skyrocketed 90% on the news, and over the course of her nine-year relationship with the brand, Oprah took home a reported $221 million. Masterful at reinvention, in 2018, in a continuing effort to be bigger than dieting, Weight Watchers rebranded itself as WW International. It also did away with its stated weight-loss requirement and renamed its support group meetings "wellness workshops." Later that year, the company also launched a controversial app aimed at helping children manage their weight, Kurbo by WW. However, Weight Watchers would pay a $1.5 million fine to the FTC in 2022 after it was found to be illegally collecting children's data. But it was the introduction of Ozempic (semaglutide) in 2017, first approved by the FDA to treat type 2 diabetes, that would precipitate Weight Watcher's demise-and trigger a seismic shift throughout the weight loss industry. The drug was originally formulated to help patients manage their blood glucose, but it had an interesting side effect: Patients experienced, on average, 14.9% weight loss. Related: The 5 most startling Chapter 11 retailer bankruptcies since 2020 Celebrities and Influencers began posting selfies showcasing their noticeably slimmer frames, while hashtags like #OzempicChallenge started trending on TikTok, amassing more than 250 million views. Its surge in popularity led to widespread Ozempic shortages, and in 2021, Novo Nordisk, the drug's manufacturer, introduced a new medication with an even higher dose of semaglutide, known as Wegovy. This drug was approved specifically to treat chronic weight management issues for adults with obesity. When Oprah stepped down from the board of Weight Watchers, she herself admitted that points and pep talks weren't solely responsible for the reported 50 pounds she lost in 2023: She had also taken a weight-loss drug. And, while she did not identify it specifically, she did explain on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that she wanted to "be able to talk about whatever I want to talk about" on the subject of weight loss without any conflicts of interest. So, Oprah created an hour-long ABC Primetime special titled "Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution," that aired on March 18, 2023. It featured a panel discussion by medical experts who discussed weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy with a live studio audience. Winfrey, meanwhile, donated her remaining shares of WW stock-valued at around $16 million at the time-to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, telling Jimmy Kimmel her reasons were "so nobody can say, 'Oh, she's doing that [ABC] special, she's making money, and promoting …' No, you cannot say that." Since its beginnings in 1963, Weight Watchers has focused on losing weight through diet plans and communal encouragement. Weekly meetings consist of "weigh-ins" and support groups, where neighbors and strangers provide praise when the scale registers lower-and encouragement when it does not. The Weight Watchers system, which assigns "points" to foods based on their nutritional value, has been updated to reflect each era's guidelines for "healthy" eating; in general, it included increased servings of fish, fruits, and vegetables, limited portions of bread and dairy, and even fewer sweets, fatty foods, and servings of alcohol. According to U.S. News and World Report, WW's current membership program consists of the option to meet online through its mobile app and website, receive coaching online or by phone, or attend in-person meetings. Related: An in-depth timeline of the GameStop short squeeze saga In a press release on May 6, 2025, WW International announced that it had entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, revealing plans for a massive reorganization effort in the hopes of shedding $1.15 billion of excess debt-as well as creating solutions for its customers' long-term health. That doesn't sound like WW is giving up. In fact, in a statement, new CEO Tara Comonte stated, "the decisive actions we're taking today, with the overwhelming support of our lenders and noteholders, will give us the flexibility to accelerate innovation, reinvest in our members, and lead with authority in a rapidly evolving weight management landscape." Weight Watchers has assured its members that it will remain "fully operational" through its reorganization, with a spokesperson telling USA Today, "there will be no impact to members or the plans they rely on to support their weight management goals," and no foreseeable changes to their membership, pricing, or prescriptions. Weight Watchers also plans to fast-track the expansion of its Sequence telehealth business as well as remain a publicly traded company. As of May, 2025, WW is considered a penny stock, with shares trading at low prices (typically under $5): On May 15, 2025, WW shares closed at just $0.24. Penny stocks are typically characterized by low liquidity and high volatility, which means that prices can fluctuate significantly and rapidly. Although penny stocks are usually found trading on over-the-counter (OTC) markets, WW continues to be listed on the Nasdaq exchange. Its reorganization strategy includes plans to further expand into the telehealth sphere, which could drive future growth; however, its $1.15 billion debt obligations present a substantial challenge for the company's recovery. All penny stocks have the opportunity for sizable gains-as well as steep losses-so care should be taken when considering it as an investment. Related: Veteran analyst sends urgent message on S&P 500 The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Scotsman
08-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Are weight-loss drugs to blame for WeightWatchers' demise?
WeightWatchers has filed for bankruptcy as its debts have become too large to manage. Sign up to the weekly Cost Of Living newsletter. Saving tips, deals and money hacks. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The slimming company, which was founded more than 60 years ago, has been overtaken in recent years by the buzz surrounding weight-loss drugs such as Mounjaro and Ozempic. The filing in America is a Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedure, which is a specific type of legal process which reorganises a company's debts to allow it to continue trading. The US government says that a Chapter 11 debtor 'usually proposes a plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For years WeightWatchers and Slimming World were the giants of weight-loss groups, with millions of people signing up. James Corden in a promotional video for WeightWatchers in 2021 | WeightWatchers /YouTube But while previously WeightWatchers was seen as trustworthy and with some star quality - with Oprah Winfrey, Tina Fey, James Corden, Lorraine Kelly and Jessica Simpson among the famous endorsers - the ease and accessibility of the new generation of semaglutide weight-loss jabs blew a hole in its business model. Even though it has already moved into prescription weight-loss services - with WeightWatchers Clinic, which prescribes Wegovy, Ozempic and others - this has not been enough to turn around its fortunes. In the bankruptcy filing, WeightWatchers' parent company, WW International Inc., said nearly three-quarters of its creditors supported its plan, which is to become a 'telehealth services provider' shifting weight-loss drugs. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It hopes to emerge from bankruptcy in about six weeks with $1.15billion taken off its debt pile. The filing was made in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. What has Slimming World said? When rumours of WeightWatchers' impending bankruptcy started last month, Slimming World's managing director Lisa Salmon said: "The decline of WeightWatchers, a big player in the weight loss industry, is extremely sad given the millions of people whose health and happiness is so seriously impacted by their weight. We can only imagine the upset and uncertainty WW's coaches, employees and members must be feeling as they hear this news. 'The news that they're preparing to file for bankruptcy in the coming months means that another lifestyle-based weight loss programme could be removed from the range of options for people wanting to lose weight in this country – and health professionals wanting to support that. 'Weight loss drugs are not the silver bullet for obesity. A poll of 2,000 UK adults, conducted for us by Censuswide late last year, found that 70% weren't interested in or said they weren't sure if they'd use weight loss injections. Healthcare professionals need a full range of treatment choices for people without medicalising obesity as the first and only (and costly) option. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Furthermore, everyone losing weight – with or without weight loss drugs – needs support to make changes to their diet, activity and mindset. And despite living in an increasingly digital age, people enjoy and benefit from the sense of community that comes with being part of an in-person group to receive that support. 'We at Slimming World have stood firm in our tried, tested and trusted approach based around this and want to reassure anyone feeling upset and uncertain at the potential end of a long-standing weight loss organisation, that we're not going anywhere.'
IOL News
08-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy: What it means for South Africa
Understanding WeightWatchers' bankruptcy and its implications for South Africa Image: WeightWatchers Long a household name in dietary aids, 62-year-old WeightWatchers has filed for what US law essentially calls reorganisation bankruptcy – similar to South Africa's business rescue process. However, the process the self-styled 'global leader in science-backed weight management' company is putting itself through is hardly likely to affect any South Africans, given that there is no longer any mention of workshop locations in the country. In addition, IOL's research found that a Facebook group post from February 2024 showed that that WeightWatchers ceased operations in here around that time. There is no information as to why it ended its presence in South Africa, where it launched in 1990. At one stage, the weight-loss programme had a partnership with Discovery Health through its Vitality wellness programme, which provided Discovery Vitality members with benefits, such as discounts on membership. However, this specific benefit with Discovery Vitality ended towards the end of 2017. CEO Tara Comonte said in a statement that 'the decisive actions we're taking today, with the overwhelming support of our lenders and noteholders, will give us the flexibility to accelerate innovation, reinvest in our members, and lead with authority in a rapidly evolving weight management landscape'. The company faces competition from several areas, including commercial weight-loss programmes, digital health and wellness platforms, as well as medicine such as those developed by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly & Company – which recently took the market by storm. WeightWatchers International – officially WW as of 2019 – 'remains fully operational during the reorganisation process and there will be no impact to members or the plans they rely on to support their weight management goals,' it said. The company also stated that its holistic model of care, including being recommended by doctors, its telehealth offering with access to obesity-trained clinicians and prescription weight-loss medications, and virtual and in-person workshops, remain available. South Africans can still access the Weight Watchers program through the international website according to WeightWatchers. Headquartered in New York, the company this week explained that the bankruptcy would enable it to 'bolster its financial position, increase investment flexibility in its strategic growth initiatives, and better serve its millions of members around the world'. WeightWatchers said in a statement this week that the bankruptcy filing will eliminate $1.15 billion (about R21bn) in debt from its balance sheet and position it for 'long-term growth and success'. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The end of WeightWatchers? How the dieting club lost out to slimming drugs
It began as a support group for overweight New Yorkers in 1963 and ballooned into a multimillion pound global enterprise that has spent decades selling people the dream of long-term weight loss. The trademark WeightWatchers' points-based programme has been followed by millions, with accompanying cookbooks, groceries, weekly weigh-ins and 'judgment-free' meetings, and a food-tracking app. But soon members of WeightWatchers – which rebranded as WW in 2018 – may be putting away their scales for the last time. WW International is preparing to file for bankruptcy and hand control to its creditors in the coming months, if its negotiations with lenders and bondholders fail, the Wall Street Journal reported. The financial troubles of the company, which is reportedly struggling with more than $1.4bn (£1bn) debt, has not come as a surprise to scientists and those who work in the diet industry, who have seen transformative change to businesses since the introduction of Ozempic and other weight loss injections. These developments may have a knock on effect on the UK operation. 'I think it's had its day,' says Tim Spector, professor of genetics at King's College London and co-founder of Zoe, the science and nutrition company. He thinks that meetings run by WeightWatchers, which peaked at five million subscribers worldwide in 2020, have in the past been 'a little place of refuge' for overweight and obese people who felt stigmatised elsewhere. They were once a mainstay of church and village halls across the UK, and hundreds of groups still offer meetings across the country. But Spector said: 'I think it's a good thing. Most calorie counting is largely snake oil … it doesn't work on the vast majority of people, because if you restrict calories, you increase appetite – and if you don't focus on the quality of the food, you're still eating foods that make you overeat.' WW rewards dieters for eating low-calorie but, it says, nutrient-dense foods. Spector's advice to people who want to lose weight is to eat 'foods that fill you up because of their quality and fibre: going back to better quality and less highly processed foods, rather than cheap food that says it is 'low calorie', 'low fat' or 'low sugar' '. Spector believes advising people to 'eat less and exercise more' is 'flawed', because the effectiveness of GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro has demonstrated how important appetite is, compared with metabolism. Last week the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro, announced it could be bringing the first daily weight-loss pill – which uses the same GLP-1 technology – to the UK next year after trial results found it controls type 2 diabetes and helps people lose weight. 'Until you've dealt with the problem, which is the appetite signal … that 'eat less, exercise more' approach was just doomed to fail. It's just a reality that GLP-1 drugs are so much better for people who have been suffering for a long time.' Spector says some people have been paying WeightWatchers for too long to help them restrict their diets, while failing to achieve long-term weight loss. 'Now, they're realising that they don't have to keep failing. They can take a drug that works.' After the explosion of weight loss drugs, Oprah Winfrey, WW's most famous ambassador, revealed she had been using the medication. She announced in February last year that she would step down from the company's board, causing its shares to drop by almost 20%, to their lowest since 2001. The company did not respond to a request for comment last week on the reported bankruptcy, but its former chief executive Sima Sistani told the Financial Times last year that adapting for the new Ozempic era was like Netflix shifting from DVDs to streaming. As well as GLP-1 drugs, WW also has to compete with advances in scientific research. Prof Roy Taylor of Newcastle University pioneered a groundbreaking diet programme 14 years ago which showed, for the first time, that type 2 diabetes could be reversed through rapid weight loss. Now, NHS England offers the Path to Remission programme based on his research. Using slimming shakes, it limits calorie intake to 800 calories a day for three months for recently diagnosed overweight adults with type 2 diabetes. A year into the programme, participants lost just over 10kg on average and in a long-term study, remained more than 6kg lighter after five years. Taylor thinks WW, which advocates gradual weight loss, was not as an effective an option for many dieters. 'I've been listening to my patients over four decades explain to me the very real difficulties of losing weight. One of these was the nagging matter of hunger, because if you cut back what you eat a little every day, you'll feel hungry. But once a person is established on a diet of less than 1,000 calories a day – which takes about a day and a half – the hunger becomes really quiteminimal.' For this reason, Taylor argues it's much easier for dieters to aim to lose weight rapidly. 'It's nonsense to say if you lose weight rapidly, you put it on rapidly,' he says. 'Provided the return to eating is done in a carefully guided fashion, people tend to keep the weight off.' He fears people who go to WW have 'an unrealistic view' of just how much weight they may need to lose to avoid being at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 'People talk enthusiastically about losing a few pounds, but that's a drop in the ocean compared with the excess weight that's causing mischief in the body,' he says. 'We need to compare ourselves with our own weight at the age of 21, because unless you become a bodybuilder, any weight gain in adult life is adipose tissue – in other words, fat,' adds Roy. Weight loss club Slimming World, which is the largest of its kind in the UK and runs thousands of local groups, described the decline of its biggest rival as 'extremely sad' last week and reassured its members: 'We're not going anywhere.' 'Weight loss drugs are not the magic bullet for obesity,' the managing director of the club, Lisa Salmon, said in a statement. 'Healthcare professionals need a full range of treatment choices for people without medicalising obesity as the first and only option. 'Everyone losing weight – with or without weight loss drugs – needs support to make changes to their diet, activity and mindset. And despite living in an increasingly digital age, people enjoy and benefit from the sense of community that comes with being part of an in-person group to receive that support.' In-person local meetings are indeed the 'lifeblood' of WeightWatchers, agreed former WW coach Ruth, who asked not to be identified. 'There are a million diets and healthy eating plans you can do digitally – the difference with WeightWatchers is getting together with people who 'get it' – who understand what you're going through,' she says. But during the pandemic, WW International attempted to save $100m and laid off an undisclosed number of the coaches who ran these local meetings. 'There was this confusing mass redundancy, and nobody knew what was happening,' Ruth says. After lockdown was lifted, WW was 'left with too few coaches, and not enough meetings', she adds. In her opinion, 'they didn't handle the pandemic well'. Similarly, the recent introduction of a new points programme for people taking GLP-1 drugs did not go down well with the WW group she coached. 'Members said to me: 'Oh, it's cheating. That's not fair,' ' says Ruth. 'They felt like they'd learned new ways of thinking and eating, for example about snacks, and any members that were on weight loss drugs weren't doing that.' Taylor argues the programme is dated. 'WeightWatchers was started when there was really little contact between people who wanted to lose weight and little discussion of the issue. Having a forum to do that was enormously helpful for people. Now, life has moved on. Society has changed with social media and digital apps.' Ruth recently resigned as a WW coach and had mixed feelings when she heard the business may go bust. 'It's hugely sad, because WeightWatchers is a lifeline for so many people, but it's no surprise to me.'
