Dispatches: Expose of Weight Watchers

[cat yoyo greaves]

well heres my take on it

thanks to my lovely hubby who recorded it for me as i was working and thought id like to watch it hes a sweetie

oh i loved watching it i previously did ww and yes i lost weight and put it back on as i didnt really learn any new and better eating habits from group other than excercise more and weigh weigh weigh i didnt change much and spent a fortune on ww products because i didnt buy an expensive calculator as i didnt have a great deal of money and the wheel was a nightmare to use

i didnt find at the group i went to that there was much importance on upping the veg and reducing portions of the higher fat stuff

and alot of the ww products are just healthier junk food crisps choc sweets ready meals etc etc so dont actually adress the problems that cause weight gain

also by excercising you get more points ..... oh i know about this one because its partly what caused me an eating disorder i got crazy with excercise and would work off everything i ate i made myself ill

i was always hungry and not losing a great deal of weight either

im now on sw and things are very different the only thing i buy at sw is the mag and hi fi bakewell bars (they are amazing)
i cook from scratch and make healthy balanced meals that arent full of preservatives

i excercise more

im never overly hungry or feel deprived

joining sw last jan was the best thing i ever did

its changed how i think about food how i cook food and i dont rely on any pre made foods these days i can eat out too and stay on track whilst doing it on ww i struggled with eating out so never did

im sure for some ww is the bees knees but im a sw girl .... ive seen the light and wouldnt go back if you paid me

 

[AnnaFaraday]

She gets ALL of the takings from the night? I don't think so. The more members a consultant has, the larger the percentage of the takings he or she gets to keep, but a lot of it goes to SW. And the margins on sales items are very small.


Of course consultants are running a business - one could hardly expect them to work for nothing.


And yes they do care.

I know a number of consultants, and they are always delighted when their members get to target, even though target members don't pay.

Update to this post - I now have the figures.

Up to 25 members attending, the consultant takes away 25% of the takings
25-50 members attending, the consultant takes away 40% of the takings
50-70 members attending, the consultant takes away 45% of the takings
Over 70 members attending, the consultant takes away 50% of the takings (and that is the top rate)

And out of that the consultant has to pay any expenses, such as petrol, and of course the rent for the venue.

The consultant gets 10p for every pack of hifi bars sold, and 30p for every magazine sold.

 

[cat yoyo greaves]

class is a waste of money if you weigh and go. the support i get at image therapy is fab so many hints and tips and we have a good laugh too if your only gonna use the scales you may as well just buy a set from argos

 

[kingleds]

class is a waste of money if you weigh and go. the support i get at image therapy is fab so many hints and tips and we have a good laugh too if your only gonna use the scales you may as well just buy a set from argos

I do think that I would still rather weigh & go than buy my own scales though. 1, cos if I had them in the house then I'd be tempted to jump on them every day. 2, cos I need the structure of a weekly weigh in that I am forced to go to.

So, for me it's not a waste, but I can see how it would be for others. I just wish these stupid tv shows wouldn't generalise

 

[sparty]

yes i think this is the problem. It is horses for courses and what works for you might not work for me!

 

[kingleds]

yes i think this is the problem. It is horses for courses and what works for you might not work for me!

Exactly. They are the same with giving up smoking etc. I gave up with an inhalator & patches. Other people go completely cold turkey. Surely as long as we all get to where we want to be it doesn't matter how we do it (as long as its legal & doesn't hurt anyone obviously )

 

[gazter]

Update to this post - I now have the figures.

Up to 25 members attending, the consultant takes away 25% of the takings
25-50 members attending, the consultant takes away 40% of the takings
50-70 members attending, the consultant takes away 45% of the takings
Over 70 members attending, the consultant takes away 50% of the takings (and that is the top rate)

And out of that the consultant has to pay any expenses, such as petrol, and of course the rent for the venue.

The consultant gets 10p for every pack of hifi bars sold, and 30p for every magazine sold.

And like all sales based businesses there are other bonuses as well. Weight loss, number of people who stay for body image, number of target members who still come to class etc.

 

[ThatBubbs]

I watched the first 10 mins or so and was so infuriated by the way it was demonising slimming clubs in general I had to change the channel. I think KingLeds is spot on that people need to decide who the real enemy is - which the companies peddling crap and the advertisers endorsing it IMO, rather than fat people / slimming clubs.

I was surprised at the small portions of ww crisps compared to Walkers, as we all know you get bog all in a bag of walkers anyway Generally I thought they were not great value, but then Poundland here has an aisle of WW stuff, so clearly it's possible to get branded things cheaper. The ease of the obvious branded packaging helps some members I'm sure, and I think if people choose to spend their money that way fair play to them. Yes people *should* pay more attention and know how to work out what's the best value for money / points / syns whatever, but not everyone will / can. C'est la vie

 

[kingleds]

And like all sales based businesses there are other bonuses as well. Weight loss, number of people who stay for body image, number of target members who still come to class etc.

This is all very true but most consultants don't break even for 6 months at least! The license to run a group is £2000 on its own. If you get 50
Paying members then you'd get £250 turnover, of which you give at least 55% to SW. Pay for room hire (where I live that's about £80 for 3 hours) plus all the other stuff. You don't actually lake much money without those incentives & bonuses as well.

Personally I have no clue how anyone does it!

 

[Mrs.S.]

This is all very true but most consultants don't break even for 6 months at least! The license to run a group is £2000 on its own. If you get 50
Paying members then you'd get £250 turnover, of which you give at least 55% to SW. Pay for room hire (where I live that's about £80 for 3 hours) plus all the other stuff. You don't actually lake much money without those incentives & bonuses as well.

Personally I have no clue how anyone does it!

Not strictly true.

The room hire costs come out of the pot before your earnings are calculated, so technically Sw go halves with you on that.

You can set up a group for the smaller franchise package which is approximately £700, the larger franchise is £1200.

The licences to run the groups are included in those costs, and are certainly nowhere near £2000!

I do see how it can be done, however I don't think for one minute it's easy, and I think you need to be really successful in order to see some decent returns.

Not only that but you've got to have real passion! xx

 

[gazter]

This is all very true but most consultants don't break even for 6 months at least! The license to run a group is £2000 on its own. If you get 50
Paying members then you'd get £250 turnover, of which you give at least 55% to SW. Pay for room hire (where I live that's about £80 for 3 hours) plus all the other stuff. You don't actually lake much money without those incentives & bonuses as well.

Personally I have no clue how anyone does it!

Dont get me wrong, the world is motivated by profit. There is nothing even remotely incompatible with making cash and providing a good service. All the profit the better. Good on them. Self employment is always a risk.

 

[gazter]

I do see how it can be done, however I don't think for one minute it's easy, and I think you need to be really successful in order to see some decent returns.

Not only that but you've got to have real passion! xx

On this point, i only ever came to slimming world because i met the consultant while providing some IT support. She is motivational, and good at her job. On a wednesday she runs five classes through the day. 10, 12, 2:45, 5 and 7. And her classes are always busy. I do the late evening one, just because that's the first one i went to, it's quieter than the others.

She must be doing well, but that's based on her skills, through word of mouth etc.

Oh, and if i had never gong to class i wouldnt have lost nearly 8 1/2 stone.

 

[hootiemcboob]

I'm glad I read this post. I have recorded it as it's on again tonight as I missed last night. I can just see this program really frustrating the life out of me based on what I have read here, so might just do some exercise instead!!

 

[kingleds]

Not strictly true.

The room hire costs come out of the pot before your earnings are calculated, so technically Sw go halves with you on that.

You can set up a group for the smaller franchise package which is approximately £700, the larger franchise is £1200.

The licences to run the groups are included in those costs, and are certainly nowhere near £2000!

I do see how it can be done, however I don't think for one minute it's easy, and I think you need to be really successful in order to see some decent returns.

Not only that but you've got to have real passion! xx

Blimey - my consultants getting stiffed! I remember her telling me that she was actually out of pocket when she started her 2bd group cis she didn't get enough to cover the room hire. I think 1 week she worked it out that she earnt £4.70!

Don't get me wrong - she does a 3 session group
As well so she does do fairly well overall buy it must be very rough starting one up from scratch x

 

[Tylar]

Look up Christakis's Network of Obesity article in google. This is a reflection on academically researched effects of how our social world affects our weight mindset and supports the use weight loss groups. Groups help drug addicts and alcoholics, too!

 

[gazter]

Look up Christakis's Network of Obesity article in google. This is a reflection on academically researched effects of how our social world affects our weight mindset and supports the use weight loss groups. Groups help drug addicts and alcoholics, too!

It is quite clear that the support offered gives better results, in many spheres of life. I just wonder the motivation for going after WW. I suppose its easy journalism.

 

[kingleds]

It is quite clear that the support offered gives better results, in many spheres of life. I just wonder the motivation for going after WW. I suppose its easy journalism.

It's probably because they have a lot more adverts at the moment. Plus they use celeb endorsements.

 

[Tylar]

Never argued it wasn't clear, however, I thought an example of academic research on the subject to help critique what everyone was calling poor journalism would be relevant because no matter how common sense something may seem, it's nice to know it is academically founded, especially with research spanning over 30 years. It is a strong and founded argument against the journalist's assertation that weight loss can be achieved just as easily at home, rather than just a mere conflict of opinion.

 

[Browsie]

Hm interesting read this thread!! I didn't watch the programme so am not fully up on what was reported but based on the comments on here just wanted to leave my own opinion!

SW like WW like any other club you would go to is a business, it is a very selfless person that would do anything like that for free.
I don't mind paying the money for a service that is going to help me. Whether this be help to lose weigh, fix my car or whatever. I can swim so paying for swimming lessons would be a waste of money. If we could all do it at home the world would be a wonderful place, but we can't and it isn't!

Regarding the WW meals, they are not the healthiest thing that a person could eat, no ready meal is they will all have crap (for want of a better word!) in them to keep the flavour. As far as I'm aware SW don't do ready meals because there are all about eating healthy and cooking from scratch, to then make a ready meal would go against their own advice. I don't know WW stance on this so can't comment but personally I don't think recommending people to eat ready meal rather than cooking their own meals is the best way to help them lose weight.
As someone has said people don't HAVE to eat the WW own products, but to be honest how easy is it to pick up a ready meal with the points already worked out rather than standing in a kitchen cooking your own meals from scratch. I think a lot of people, not all, make have been living on convenience foods in the first place and this is why they put weight on, saying to them this is still the best way to eat AND you can lose weight while doing it is not really helping them long term.

This is my opinion based upon what I have read on here, I didn't watch the programme and have never followed WW so if I have got things wrong then please don't hurt me!!!

 

[Starlight]

Ww don't encourage using ready meals they are the same as sw in as much as they emphasise on cooking from scratch. We get a weekly handout in class which has several recipes in it and do cooking sometimes in class or the leader brings in something shes made. Ready meals are just handy for now and again personally if I was going for a ready meal I'd go for asda own brand which are far nicer but it's good business sense on ww part having a range. I've had to laugh at sine comments I've seen elsewhere about ww being a business. Yeah cos sw. Cambridge and all the other diet plans do everything free out if the goodness ofvtheir heart. They're all big business ww just happens to have tapped into the Market in a different way.