Why Customers are Moving Away from Weight Watchers: The Easier Path to Weight Loss with Oprah Winfrey

Customers no longer want Weight Watchers diets. Today there are easier ways to lose weight. And Oprah Winfrey knows that too.

Oprah Winfrey spoke in an interview about how she suffered from being overweight.

Chris Pizzello / AP

“I’m ready. Are you too?” Oprah Winfrey used this slogan to promote Weight Watchers for years. A company that promises its customers that they can lose excess weight.

The concept is that Weight Watchers creates a points system for food and customers use this system to put together their personal diet and share their experiences in group meetings. Weight Watchers promised a cure for a widespread American disease: obesity.

Winfrey has been a major shareholder and board member of Weight Watchers since 2015. She came to lead the then-struggling company back to the top. Because the brand lost popularity. Experts said the concept was outdated and couldn’t keep up with modern apps.

Winfrey became the face of Weight Watchers. She says she lost 40 pounds on the company’s diet. Numerous Americans wanted to do the same and signed up for Weight Watchers.

But now Winfrey has announced that she will not run for re-election to her position at the company in May 2024. After Winfrey’s announcement, Weight Watchers shares fell 25 percent.

Was that just Winfrey’s fault?

Winfrey – an American institution

Winfrey has earned a lot of respect and influence over the past few decades. For decades she put her finger on the wounds of American society on her talk show. She shaped the discourse, gained influence, and amassed a fortune worth billions. It became a national institution.

This was most impressive in 2018. Confused by Donald Trump’s policies, leading media asked at the time whether Oprah could lead the country to calm and stability. As the first female president in history.

By then, Winfrey had become the most popular problem solver in the United States.

In recent years she has devoted herself to a new topic. She repeatedly spoke publicly about her excess weight and sparked renewed public debate about this issue.

The business of losing weight has changed

Last December, Winfrey said in an interview that she was taking medication to lose weight. In an interview she spoke of a “gift”, of “relief”, “redemption”. Winfrey said she has a predisposition to being overweight. Willpower alone is not enough to get this under control.

Suppliers of weight loss medications have recorded massive share price gains in recent months. For example, the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.

The company is a leading provider of weight loss injections. Novo Nordisk was recently valued at the equivalent of almost 480 billion francs, making it the most valuable European company.

However, demand for Novo Nordisk’s products is so high that the company has to massively increase its production capacity. The same goes for competitors like Eli Lilly.

And there is another problem.

The syringes contain the same active ingredient as diabetes medications. This always leads to bottlenecks. For people who want to lose weight. But also for diabetes patients. But the trend is likely to continue for the time being. All the more so because Winfrey did the best advertising for these drugs.