By Sean Poulter
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For decades, WeightWatchers devotees have gathered in the evening in church halls and community centres.
They meet each week to encourage each other to shed the pounds using the company’s points system.
But now WeightWatchers is moving on to the high street, opening a chain of shops designed to pull in working mothers and anyone else who wants to fit in a weight loss consultation during their busy day.
Modernisation: Weight Watchers has launched a store on the UK high street for the first time in its 48-year history, appealing to time-strapped customers
The Lifestyle Centres will provide dieting services and products such as ‘grab and go’ meals.
The centres will offer group sessions and â€" in a first for the organisation â€" one-to-one consultations, including ‘express weigh-ins’, to help dieters stick to the weight loss plan.
The first centre has just opened in Reading and is selling meal deals and 150 other food products that meet the rules of the plan. From a starting price of £3.50, shoppers can get a healthy wrap, sandwich or a chilled ready meal, plus crisps or fruit and a drink.
Takeaway choices include a Chicken Caesar wrap at 259 calories, a chilli chicken wrap at 257, a prawn mayonnaise sandwich at 243, a pack of cheese puffs at 76 and mini-cookies at 88.
Spokesman Chris Stirk said: ‘The centre will offer a more personalised and flexible service for busy people like working mums and office workers who can pop in when they have time.
‘With many of us working longer hours and demanding a more personalised, flexible service, we continue to adapt and enhance our products and services to meet the needs of the community.’
Tackling obesity has become a multi-billion-pound global industry with leading names constantly reinventing themselves to appeal to new generations.
Weightwatchers already has stand-alone stores in the U.S., Australia and China. There are now plans for a chain in the UK with sites in London, Birmingham and Leeds being considered.
The WeightWatchers Lifestyle Centre currently offers meal combinations - including wraps, sandwiches, crisps, fruit and drinks - from £3.50
Weightwatchers, which was founded by New York housewife Jean Nidetch in 1963, holds more than 6,500 weekly meetings. They are run by leaders, all of whom have lost weight.
The regime is based on a points system that allows people to identify the healthiest food choices. A recent independent study published in The Lancet medical journal found people using the WeightWatchers programme lost twice as much weight as those who relied solely on advice from a GP.
In England 61 per cent of adults and 28 per cent of children are overweight or obese.
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I hope this scheme spreads here. It is a great idea. Any diet program will work if you work the program. But WW seems to have the highest sustained success rate.
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I normally don't agree with paid diet programs. I'm thin due to healthy diet exercise. However many people just don't know how to eat well, have emotional issues or lack motivation. Weight Watchers isn't a program where you must buy pre-packed meals. They seem to offer the best lifestyle change/diet instruction available from any of the programs out there. They teach healthy choices moderation. They even have emotional support groups (for free) that you can attend along with the program.
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What a sad indictment of our society this is. Eat less, make healthy choices and move about more - that's how you manage weight. WW is a money making machine, not a way of life. Having said that, if it brings new jobs to the UK then that is a great positive.
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Weight Watchers is one of the sillier choices for overweight people. It's a business and like all businesses its goal first and foremost is to get as much money from you as possible. That's why you take forever to reach your goal, because the longer it takes the more they make. You DO lose weight with it, just very slowly and very miserably, eating bland and flavourless fat-free microwave meals. You can save yourself a LOT of money, and lose weight much faster and more healthily, by making very simple and sensible changes to your diet, like having porridge for breakfast, eating only wholemeal bread, rice and pasta, instead of the plain white varieties. It's all very, very simple. WW only complicates thing for monetary gain.
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Minnie mouse has sure got feisty since her children's character days!!
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MinnieMouse, Disneyland, 23/4/2012 23:19- well actually i have tried dieting by myself and weighing myself for many years but it never works. i started weight watchers a few weeks ago and have already lost 1 and a half stone! thats the most i have ever lost on any diet. do you really think i would be wasting £20 a month if i could do it myself at home anyway? going to classes gives me motivation, encouragement and new ideas that i wouldnt get myself at home. if im having a bad week my leader is at the other end of the phone were as if i was on my own i would probably give up and put all the weight back on. i bet you have never had a weight problem in your life. just because you think its so easy doesnt mean it is! its just like smokers not all that easy to quit smoking isit?
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There's just one thing their ship is devoid of..........products!! Not a thing to see for sale?!?!
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I hope this soon spreads to other towns, it sounds like this could be a bit of a winner.
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Lost 9 stone with weight watchers when it was the old plan but the pro points didn't work 4 me. Swapped 2 slimming world n I love it! Have continued 2 follow the plan throughout my pregnancy n I will after my son is born! Paying the weekly fee is totally worth being given my life back! Being 20st was no fun at all!
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I'm upset as its my life, my lifestyle, my battle that ive been going through all my life. I have finally found something that works for me alongside my Zumba and my bootcamp. To be be patronised and basically told that what I'm doing is a waste of time is upsetting. I have met some inspirational people along the way with my journey and they have been supportive and more encouraging than a few mates around a set of scales. I cannot do this journey on my own and nor do I wish too. It would be terribly lonely. My strife to be happier with myself and the various strategies I take to do this does not end and start with weight watchers but it is a big part of it. My desire to live a healthy life does not centre around my giving money to someone who weighs me. It works for ME and it is MY choice. There is no way I'm getting myself in a state where I need surgery and believe if I was left to my devices it would do.
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