![]() Ryan Knutson: And in effect, it essentially works just by basically suppressing people's appetites so they eat less.Īndrea Petersen: That is a major way that it works, yes. So when that happens, you feel fuller longer. And when people took Ozempic, they often lost weight.Īndrea Petersen: Basically, it slows down the emptying of the stomach. It's actually a drug designed to treat type two diabetes, which is the type of diabetes that can appear later in life, often among people who are heavier. But it wasn't supposed to be used for weight loss. Ryan Knutson: Weight Watchers says it's drop in membership has been due in part to a company decision to shift marketing dollars.Īs Weight Watchers was struggling, a new class of drugs was just taking off. So obviously they're looking for ways to try to reverse that decline. That's a pretty significant decline.Īndrea Petersen: Yeah, yeah. ![]() They just reported their fourth quarter earnings, and the number of subscribers slid to 3.5 million from 4.2 million in the year ago quarter. And also their stock price has really struggled, and their membership has been down. They tried kind of personalized diet plans that many members found pretty confusing and also harder for members to talk to each other and about their experience because everyone was sort of on a different plan and so the kind of community support and sharing recipes and tips and tricks was really not working as well. They also launched and scaled back a number of initiatives. And they largely stopped using the word diet and they tried to refocus their mission as being sort of more broadly about wellness. So in 2018, Weight Watchers actually really shifted away from this tight focus on weight loss. It's been a sort of turbulent time at the company. Ryan Knutson: How has Weight Watchers' business been doing in recent years?Īndrea Petersen: They have been struggling. ![]() And the goal is to stay within that number of points to sort of achieve your weight loss goals. And so you decide how you're going to spend those points. And you are given a certain number of points that you can use each day. The company has weigh-ins, branded food, and a famous point system.Īndrea Petersen: What they've done is they've assigned a point value to many, many, many foods. And they did it by pushing lifestyle changes. It's Tuesday, March 14th.Ĭoming up on the show how a new class of drugs is revolutionizing the weight loss industry.įor decades, Weight Watchers was one of the most popular ways for people to lose weight. Ryan Knutson: Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I think people do believe that this is a significant scientific advance and that it marks a real shift in the treatment of obesity. Ryan Knutson: Is it possible that these drugs could just be another fad?Īndrea Petersen: I haven't heard that from anybody I've talked to. Ryan Knutson: These drugs are so revolutionary that even traditional weight loss companies are trying to get in on the game.Īndrea Petersen: Weight Watchers, which is a 60 year old weight loss company, that for the longest time, its whole kind of reason for being is to help people control their eating and up their fitness, and now they are getting into a medical approach to it, and that is a big shift. I've been down overall 30 pounds.Īndrea Petersen: But also by people in the field who really do believe that this is a game changer. Speaker 5: So for my personal experience, it's been really, really good. Speaker 4: I just start dropping pounds left and right. Speaker 3: I started Ozempic four weeks ago at 172 pounds. ![]() She says these drugs, known as GLP-1s, and with names like Ozempic and Wegovy, have become hugely popular lately.Īndrea Petersen: There's been a lot of very sort of breathless testimonials from regular people, from celebrities, from online influencers. ![]() Ryan Knutson: That's our colleague, Andrea Petersen. It is sort of the first medication that has really significant efficacy. It's a new class of drugs.Īndrea Petersen: It's much more effective than anything that has been seen on the market before. The Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet, the keto diet, and the latest craze isn't a diet at all. Ryan Knutson: There have been a lot of fads in the world of weight loss. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. ![]()
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