THE LANCET CONFIRMS: WEIGHT WATCHERS WORKS

In a very exciting milestone for the Weight Watchers program globally, today one of the world’s leading medical journals, The Lancet, will publish an article which confirms what we have known for a long time - that Weight Watchers works. The article is based around a clinical trial which revealed that participants following the Weight Watchers program over 12 months lost twice as much weight as those who received standard care for weight loss from their GP. The official media release is below. 

THE LANCET CONFIRMS: WEIGHT WATCHERS WORKS

GP REFERRAL TO WEIGHT WATCHERS MORE THAN TWICE AS EFFECTIVE AS STANDARD CARE

New research published today by leading medical journal The Lancet shows that overweight and obese adults referred to Weight Watchers by their GP lost more than twice as much weight over a 12-month period as those who followed a standard care program run by their GP.

As a nation facing the serious healthcare issue of over half its adult population being obese or overweight, Australia played a key role in a groundbreaking weight loss trial assessing 722 overweight and obese adults in Australia, Germany and the UK. Internationally renowned obesity expert, Professor Ian Caterson, Boden Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Sydney, led the study locally.

The study compared the effectiveness of GP weight management care to the Weight Watchers program.  Patients were randomly assigned to receive either 12 months of standard care as usually offered by the GP primary care team or referred to a 12-month membership to the Weight Watchers program.

Weight Watchers participants were more than three times as likely to lose 10% or more of their initial weight. Moreover, 61% of patients in the Weight Watchers group finished the study having lost at least 5% of their body weight (32% did so in the standard care group). Weight loss between 5 and 10% is shown to have significant health benefits and reduces the risks of diabetes and heart disease.

The significantly greater weight loss among Weight Watchers participants was also accompanied by significantly greater reductions in waist size and fat mass; lessening the risk of Type 2 diabetes. 

“The cost of obesity to the Australian economy is $58 billion dollars a year, putting enormous pressure on limited and already overburdened healthcare resources,” said Kate Cody, Director of Publishing and Program, Weight Watchers Australasia. “Not only is the efficacy of Weight Watchers proven, but it is also an accessible, cost-effective and scalable weight management solution, and these results demonstrate that Weight Watchers can significantly relieve pressure on the public health system in countering obesity rates.”

She continued: “In light of this mounting body of scientific evidence, Weight Watchers urges the Gillard government to consider broadening primary care options to include commercial weight management programs.”