Commercial Programs - Weight Loss Programs: Obesity

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Commercial programs

Like self-help programs, the commercial programs hold regular meetings to provide encouragement and support. But a significant difference between the two categories of program is money. The commercial programs charge fees to participate in meetings and also sell diet plans, as well as prepared foods and diet aids to go along with those plans.

Weight Watchers. The most popular of the commercial programs, Weight Watchers, has more than 25 million participants worldwide. The heart of the Weight Watchers program is its points system, which attempts to take the guesswork out of calorie counting. Weight Watchers scientists assigned a point value to various foods based on their calories, fat, and nutrients. When you start, the Weight Watchers staff will tell you, based on your weight, how many points you can eat each day to lose weight. You will also receive literature listing the point values of a wide range of foods. You can eat whatever you like, as long as you don't exceed your daily point total. There's no need to buy Weight Watchers–brand foods. The program encourages members not only to follow the points system, but also to get regular exercise.

Weight Watchers doesn't promise that you will lose a certain amount of weight on its points system. Two published trials showed that people who went to Weight Watchers meetings regularly lost about 5% of their weight over three to six months. Weight Watchers charges about $12 per meeting, although the fee varies slightly by region. Including membership fee, the approximate cost for three months is $167. Meetings are led by people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off through the Weight Watchers program. There is also an online version of the program, which costs about $65 for three months.

Jenny Craig. This is the other leading commercial weight-loss program, and it is only for women. Jenny Craig consists of about 640 weight-loss centers around the world. To get started, you visit a local Jenny Craig center and have your weight analyzed by a staff member. These staff members are not dietitians or other health professionals, but they're trained in the Jenny Craig program, which, according to the company, was developed by dietitians. Based on your weight, the staff member recommends a dieting, exercise, and behavior-modification program to help you lose about 1 pound a week.

In general, members are advised to eat three meals a day and three snacks, as well as to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day and to increase their physical activity as much as they can. Jenny Craig also sells a wide array of packaged foods, diet aids, vitamin and mineral supplements, and even devices. One such device, used by many programs, is a pedometer, a small, pager-sized box you wear that counts the number of steps you take, helping you estimate your activity level. People have the option of preparing their own meals, but the prepared foods have been shown to help them stick with the diet. Adding together the membership fee and meal plan costs, the approximate cost for three months is $1,249.

Last updated:	June 20, 2007