I saw the headline and I could feel my blood pressure rising. Poor Oprah. She lost $48 million because her Weight Watchers stock took a dive. I really wish Oprah would invest her money in other businesses that empower women and kids.
This is the news story about Oprah’s losses is here if you want to check it out.
This is from a thread on my personal FB page and this is from one of my friend Kim Wagerman :
“I think the big problem I have is that the messaging is that if you want to be healthy, happy and long lived, you need to lose weight. Dieting in any form, but especially through programs like WW give people the false impression that somehow, if they fail, or if they lose a lot of weight and regain it, it is their fault.There is real, hard science that states that yo-yo dieting is harder on the body and your system than remaining at a steady weight.
Caloric intake and individual needs are variable, we are not all “one size fits all” and that is what the diet industry would have us believe. Success is measured by pounds lost and not in actual health improvements.There are plenty of free resources out there on how to improve the quality of your food and health through diet that do not also include the over used mantra that skinny is the only way to live healthy.And Chrystal is absolutely correct about the long term prospects of losing a large amount of weight and keeping it off. The doctors and scientists will tell you that less than 4% of the population is able to achieve long term weight loss results with diet. The statistics for long term success of WLS with diet is 70%. These aren’t acceptable odds nor are they good outcomes. And the long term effects on metabolism are measurable for any amount of significant weight loss. But knowing this, we still buy into the notion that somehow we are fundamentally broken. And can just fix it if we try hard enough.
The statistics just don’t support it.
The fact is that there is no magic diet pill or dietary prescription. No way to find an equilibrium that makes sense for your body and the mental and emotional stress that continuous causes dieting is devastating.
We all know someone who knows someone. If you are, or know someone who is part of the 4% that manages it, good for you. I hope the best for everyone who makes this tough decision because it is exactly that, tough.
I’ve made my own unpopular decision recently to go through bypass surgery to reverse my diabetes and take a grasp at gaining back some of the health that was rapidly declining in me. But I do not advocate this path for others or delude myself that this is anything but a lifelong struggle. That I will ever have a normal relationship with food. I’ve traded some pretty serious health issues for the possibility of others. And I’m lucky so far that I’ve not had complications. But my path is uncertain and the likelihood of being part of the 30% failure rate is high.
Extreme weight loss of any kind is hard on the body. Hard on the brain and hard on relationships.
WW May be trying to approach dieting in A healthy way but at the end of the day, it’s still pay to play and they are constantly changing the parameters of what it takes to be successful which means more money and more time in their seats making them more money. They aren’t there for anything but profit. And the fine print is there. It just isn’t made readily available.”
Thank you to Kim for sharing so eloquently what I could not. I see RED every time I think of all of the money WW takes from people and I just cannot think so clearly. So thank you, Kim.
This is a link on the Washington Post about 5 Reasons Diets Do Not Work that I often share with the trolls of the world.