Who Cares About Weight Loss?

Things have changed to the point that we’re beginning to wonder, who cares about weight loss anymore?

Consumer marketers are coming to understand this fact as they watch trends in consumer attitudes. Supermodel Kate Moss declared in 2009 that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Now, that phrase evokes such backlash from the public that Hudson’s Bay Company last year faced torrential criticism when they sold a t-shirt with those words. They promptly removed it from all channels of trade.

 
 
Among American adults, 72% will tell you that weight management is more important than weight loss for their health. As consumers shift away from dieting to healthy eating, major brands linked to dieting and deprivation — like Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Jenny Craig, and Lean Cuisine — find that they are appealing to a shrinking customer base.

Prescription drugs for obesity are no longer labeled for “weight reduction” or “weight loss.” Instead, all of the new drugs approved by FDA are simply indicated for “chronic weight management.”

Even in bariatric surgery, people are coming to realize that the real challenge comes with long term weight management. As satisfying as significant weight loss is when it comes rather quickly after surgery, success is defined by achieving a stable healthy weight for the long term.

So if someone wants to sell you on weight loss promises, beware.

Click here to read more on the importance of taking the long view on obesity treatment.

Light Weight, photograph © Sandeep Somasekharan / flickr

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