"Weight Watchers files for bankruptcy as old weight loss scams are supplanted by new weight loss scams"
Fixed the headline for them.
this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
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Wegovy/Saxenda whatever others are (GLP-1) inhibitors aren't a scam, they work.
They are absurdly expensive for the benefit they bring. Of course, fat lot of good it does if you don't use it to the full extent so you can actually get off of it.
Or get caught up in the crossfire where Metformin makes you shit your pants and a new drug for managing your A1C comes out (ozempic) which doesn’t make you shit your pants. Only for a few years later get denied insurance coverage for it because you obviously are using it to lose weight.
In theory once you stay at a dosage of metformin for long enough the unfortunate side effects go away. In practice it's been a year and I still can't trust a fart.
I dunno anything about these drugs but I remember the diet drug fad in the '90s and the disastrous consequences and side effects that came from it. I'm sure these aren't going to give heart attacks to a bunch of people, but I have a hard time believing there isn't some sort of cost to pay for a magic pill that makes you skinny. I'm willing to admit that my view is tainted by the past and will once again state that I know nothing about these pills specifically so I could be completely off base here.
I'll just say that my wife works in medicine and you have to stop Oz3mpic 24 hours before surgery because of the added risk of aspiration due to the stomach retaining food contents for longer. Seems to possibly put strain on the pancreas (pancreatitis a side effect).
That doesn't sit well with me. Neither does it fix the core problem of what caused the vast majority of weight gain cases: poor dietary habits. Then again, our society has short-circuited evolutionary dopamine-driven behavior so it may necessitate intervention to re-wire it back.
could you be referring to this drug, Fenfluramine/phentermine.
fat lot of good
Pun intended...??
😂
They also banned the knock off versions a little while ago since the name brands were no longer in shortage. WW had HEAVILY pivoted into trying to sell subscriptions to those and lost big.
They work!*
*aslongasyoudontstop
When you get to a certain size, food is the same as booze to an alcoholic.. these drugs turn off the food noise telling you to eat.. they let your bodies ability to decide when full reset to normal and give you a chance to form good habits without an imaginary food devil in your ear telling you to binge junk food.. with good habits formed managing your now healthy weight at the end of a program of use is easier.
There are other, cheaper options as well but they require consistent diet/exercise on top of the Rx, so I think they are less popular for that.
The modern them actually has an app that lets you build out recipes and/or scan barcodes to track what you eat, they use a distilled version of nutrition called "points" and you're allocated Y points a day to try stay in your food budget.
I think their older system was also points based just not software.
The app has training content and some kind of social community (that people say is quite terrible apparently because of the other users).
It isn't a bad concept, and helps one understand that a slice of pizza is insanely unhealthy if one didn't already know that.
Where it falls apart is their skeezy subscription model. Best time to sign up is around New Years, if you do bulk pricing you get a discount for the year, if you sign up partly through the year, that discount only lasts 10, 8, 7 months, however many are left. If you want to get a better rate, even their customer service says to just cancel and then sign back up after you're canceled. If they had honest flat-rate pricing and curated their social space/education material better, they'd likely have had something to offer...Instead, like most health tracking/exercise/apps that cost money, it's difficult to manage, expensive, and abrasive to cancel.
Like so many businesses that went "app" - they didn't embrace a usable and sustainable model that fit on a digital platform, and instead basically phoned it in.
I haven't read into any of it, but I thought weight watchers was just a calorie counting thing? I'm assuming the new drugs just curb your appetite to allow your stomach to shrink and then you have to still learn to be a healthier eater to maintain/lose weight. I have no impulse control when it comes to food sometimes so I'd fuck that up real quick. If I am in the mindset of eat healthy I can do that for a while, but soon as I have that one day I'll sit down and eat a whole pizza and not give a fuck which I assume would stretch my stomach or tear any stitches and I'd be back to where I was (or in the hospital)
weight watchers was just a calorie counting thing?
And counseling, according to Wikipedia.
Pretty much. Weight watchers worked great if you adhered to it. Pretty easy to lose weight when you eat fewer calories than you burn. Problem is people's willpower to feel hungry and not eat more calories.
That's exactly what they help with, they turn off the impulse to eat. You feel full and content.. and if you do try force yourself to eat too much you feel sick.
Without the impulse to eat, all you have is the logical part of you deciding an appropriate time to eat and giving you the headspace to make a good decision about making that meal healthy.
It does. It basically slows your entire digestive system way down to the point where you physically can't eat more than you should. Which also kills your appetite.
Interestingly, I've discovered whatever nuerotransmitters are affected by it is completely counteracted by lunesta.
once had the flu(2018 flu) so bad i lost appetite, it was the strangest feeling besides the wierd balance issues, also cause all sorts of other issues.
How is it slowing down the digestive system? Didn't we learn recently that our digestion system / gut bacteria actually plays a strong role in lifespan of a person? Would modifying such processes not potentially impact the lifespan of a person... Guess we'll find out in time
It already has. Ozempic, once weekly injection, can reverse the need of insulin in Type 2 diabetics. My dad still has the symptoms he accumulated, but hasn't had any worsening of symptoms and improvement of a lot.
My blood work is perfect. My heart rate and blood pressure (aside of POTS) is perfect. I can mow the yard without passing out.
My sugar consumption has dropped a lot. And I'm eating way better.
But to me? It's not about the lifespan. It's the quality of life. I can chase my kid around again. I feel more attractive. I can do things that normally I hide from. One day I might even try to get laid. If I get cancer in 20 years directly tied to it, so what? Ain't no "Cats in the Cradle" here.
Chase your kid around, one day might even try to get laid. Are my order of operations wrong or is there some parentsethies missing from this equation? And yes, that was a bad joke, I'm sticking with it
the slowing down doesnt exactly depend on your digestive system. its complex also involves neurological compenent, and certain hormones like ghrelin.
My mom followed their diet plans for years and never lost any weight. But at the same time, she didn't exercise. Diet alone isn't enough unless you're doing one of those extremely calorie restrictive diets and I really don't think that it's exactly healthy to starve yourself. You'd be losing muscle as well as fat.
Losing weight is almost entirely about diet. Exercise plays only a minimal role in that. It’s far easier to not eat something than to burn off those same calories through working out. That’s not to say exercise isn’t important - it is - but you do it for reasons other than weight loss.
seems like an excuse
This is unfortunate. WW is hard because they help you lose in a healthy manner. Drugs will kill ya faster than fat, but at least ya look better faster.
We all wish there was a safe, easy button for life's challenges. At best, pick one.
Drugs will kill ya faster than fat
This is just plain false. The health benefits of not being overweight far outweigh any potential negative effects of the drug itself. GLP-1 receptor agonists have been used to treat type 2 diabetes for decades - we're quite familiar with their risks.
alot of people want a quick fix when it comes to weight loss, dr now and 1000sisters, almost every just want a immediate solution while refusing to change thier eating habits. ive heard they also eat around thier weight loss surgery sometimes too.
the extreme people in denial are the people believe fat is being good.
Doesn’t ww sell frozen food? That food isn’t healthy.
Frozen processed food isn't inherently unhealthy. Eating the right amount of calories from nutritious processed food is still probably a net positive over eating too much of any kind of food.
I'm pretty sure it's not, but I'll eat that before rushing gastroparesis.
Their food has high sodium. At least it did 15 years ago.
Their food has high sodium. At least it did 15 years ago.
Isn't high sodium only a problem if your blood pressure is too high? I have asked this a number of times and the only answers I get back about high sodium dangers are related to high blood pressure. Keep in mind, I'm not belittling the dangers of high blood pressure. Those are known and absolutely dangerous to your health.
However, if whatever sodium you intake doesn't give you high blood pressure, where is the risk in a high(er) sodium diet?
It all increases your risk of cancer.
It's associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer yes