Fooducate did a little summarizing of a study that recently came out regarding the “weight loss industry” that I think was a little interesting. Apparently, selling us on every method – except the sensible one – to lose weight is big business:
1. Consumers spent $61 BILLION to trim down last year. that’s $200 for every man woman and child in this country!
2. If you consider that “only” 75 million Americans are trying to lose weight, that’s $800 per person per year!
3. $3 billion were spent on weight loss chains such as Weight Watchers.
4. Diet pills and meal replacement solutions are a $3 billion market too!
5. Diet food home delivery services such as NutriSystem are a comparably “small” market, just under $1 billion.
6. 80% of dieters try to do so by themselves instead of joining a group or seeing a registered dietitian.
7. The typical Dieter makes 4 attempts per year to try and lose weight. Which means at least 3 fail.
8. Fads are a big part of the diet industry. This year’s hot trends include the Dukan Diet and the 17-Day Diet.
2. If you consider that “only” 75 million Americans are trying to lose weight, that’s $800 per person per year!I’m kind of, just… do you know what I could do with $800 dollars? Shoot, do you know what I could do with $200?!
While you’re playin’, give me a cold hard twenty and watch me do my thing!
It makes a lot of sense, though – if you don’t know or understand whatever weight problem you might be experiencing, you’re going to seek out the “popular” resources, the “long-standing” resources and the stuff that everyone tells you that you need to do in order to be successful. I get it.
But at the same time, if the typical dieter tries, four times a year, to diet and at least three of those attempts fail… not only is that demoralizing, it’s also a little dangerous.
It just makes me sad… not in a “pity” sense, but in a “sympathize” sense. I remember living off of tea for 11 days straight – not the master cleanse… just regular tea bag tea – and I lost 14lbs. I gained that weight back so damn fast that I didn’t even get to enjoy the fact that it was gone. I lost the weight, but since you can’t live on tea forever… I was going to gain it back. SuperCoolFoodDeliveryService can’t deliver my food to me forever.
The point I’m trying to make is… for the average person, I don’t believe that most of the stuff this $61 billion is being spent on is actually sustainable. Particularly in the diet realm.
Am I alone in this? Thoughts?
3 comments
Man, I need to get in on this diet racket! LOL
I wish we could just erase the word diet from our vocabulary. It took me a long time to internalize that diets really just can’t work, so I understand the desire for the quickest fix money can buy, but man, I wish we could just erase it, move on, and get people to lead healthier lives.
Well of course its not sustainable for the long term. That’s why there’s a market for dieting and weight loss schemes. If it worked a little, once, then why not again? Perhaps its something “new” and “untried”.
You can tell some one they need to change their routine, their habits and their lifestyle until you’re blue in the face but its not going to create change for them, unless the actually do it. Consistently. FOREVER.
I also think there is still a very high level of guilt and shame associated with being fat and/or obese; we’re not really “allowed” to talk about it, and so RD’s get under used.
My friend once told me that a friend of her’s thought I must be very comfortable in my body because I never make comments that even mention the “f” word (fat). But the truth is, I was taught through young women magazines that telling the world you are unhappy with your body or your life meant you were insecure; insecure people don’t do that, and of course, I didn’t want to be perceived as insecure. Ergo, I stopped doing that.
But that doesn’t mean the thoughts stopped. They just became internalized. They became dangerous, and I would have been willing to try any quick fix to get out of the nightmare my mind had become.
I think if anyone feels even a quarter as badly or hopeless about themselves as I did at my lowest point, then there will always be a market for diet and weight loss schemes. A quick fix in this society generally seems to trump actual hard work. (…which is ironic because that’s not how this country started; but now I’m getting long winded and about to get off topic!)
I stopped dieting at the age of 25 and a half . I been on so many diets from Atkins ( high school), Fat smash diet, eat under 1200 calories diet, South beach etc. Now I am changing my habits and lifestyle and also learning the importance of mental health, physical health, and wellness.
The importance of self love. Lily this is important : A friend once told me that a friend of her’s thought I must be very comfortable in my body because I never make comments that even mention the “f” word (fat). But the truth is, I was taught through young women magazines that telling the world you are unhappy with your body or your life meant you were insecure; insecure people don’t do that, and of course, I didn’t want to be perceived as insecure. Ergo, I stopped doing that.
Excerpted from How Much Is The Weight Loss Industry Worth? | A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss
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