Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992 TAG: 9201280027
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SABIN RUSSELL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
DIET MARKETERS FEEL PINCH OF RECESSION
January is the most important month of the year for America's $30 billion diet industry, for marketing the pills, powders and plans that play to the nation's obsession with weight loss.The Calorie Control Council, a trade organization, estimates that 5 million Americans will go on diets because of holiday feasting, in addition to the 48 million who say they are on a diet at any given time.
This season, the industry is feeling an added sense of urgency: The recession is causing consumer belt-tightening despite bulging waistlines.
Sales by commercial weight-loss clinics fell by 12 percent during 1990 to $2 billion, while those at hospital-sponsored programs plummeted 20 percent to $1.6 billion, according to Marketdata Enterprises. The number of Americans who say they are dieting has been level at 48 million since 1989, but that figure is down 26 percent from 1986, the Calorie Control Council said.
Competition is especially fierce in the $2 billion market for commercial weight-loss clinics, dominated by chains like Jenny Craig Inc., Nutri/System Inc., Diet Centers Inc. and Weight Watchers International.
Weight Watchers, a Jericho, N.Y., unit of ketchup giant H.J. Heinz Co., doubles its monthly ad budget in January, when it rolls out a new campaign each year.
"January is very important to Weight Watchers," said company spokeswoman Anna Moses. The company spent $10 million on advertising during the first three months of 1991, according to Leading National Advertisers Inc., a New York-based media tracker.
Jenny Craig puts 10 cents of every dollar collected from clients into ads designed to lure new business - not an unusual amount in that sector of the diet industry. Sales during the fiscal year ended in August were $412 million.
Indeed, advertising budgets are enormous throughout the business. Studies show that the American diet industry as a whole paid $543 million for ads in 1990.
And for good reason.
The industry was hit hard by the Persian Gulf War, which kept potential clients glued to their TV sets during the strongest recruiting weeks of the year. And fallout from 1990 congressional hearings criticizing the industry still lingers.
Just as significant was the well-publicized girth of talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who lost 60 pounds on medically supervised diet Optifast in 1988 but then gained most of the weight back.
John LaRosa, president of Marketdata, said the economy has driven much of the diet business toward the do-it-yourself dieter, benefiting companies that sell powdered meal substitutes, like Ultra Slim-Fast, in supermarkets. Driving those sales: a $100 million ad campaign by parent company Thompson Medical Co. Inc.
Yet for all the money spent on dieting, there is little scientific evidence to suggest that quick weight-loss programs are anything other than short-term fixes.
"As hard as it is to go on a crash diet, it's even harder to keep the weight off in the long term," said Dr. Lynn Bennion, a Stanford Medical School professor.
Dr. Jules Hirsch, a Rockefeller University diet expert, said he believes that 95 percent of people who begin a diet gain back all the lost weight within three years. "For most people, it is a waste of money," he said.
A recent Yale University study suggests that dieters whose weight fluctuates frequently may be at as much risk for heart disease as those who are obese.
Most of the major weight-loss clinic programs advise clients that they can lose 1 1/2 to two pounds a week on low-calorie diets. But many medical experts say such a rapid loss in inherently unhealthy.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which once considered safe a loss of one to two pounds per week, has changed that standard to one-half to one pound per week.
"Rapid weight loss is clearly associated with the formation of gallstones," said Dr. Wayne Callaway, a diet expert at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Nutri/System has been hit by more than 1,000 lawsuits from participants who claim they suffered gall bladder disease as a consequence of the diet, according to San Francisco attorney John Hill, who represents one of the plaintiffs. Jenny Craig has also been accused in at least four such suits.
Nutri/System spokeswoman Delphine Carroll said that the company won the only case to go to trial.
Commercial diet clinics also are under scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission. In October, the FTC reached settlements with three operators of doctor-supervised liquid diet programs, including Swiss drug-maker Sandoz, the maker of Optifast; National Center for Nutrition, which makes Ultrafast (unrelated to Ultra Slim-Fast); and Jason Pharmaceuticals, makers of Medifast.
The FTC charged the three with making deceptive medical claims, and the companies agreed to comply with an order requiring that they "replace unsubstantiated hype with documented facts."
Most experts agree that the key to losing weight is to lose it slowly and the secret of keeping it off is not to stay "on a diet," but to change your diet and maintain those changes for a lifetime.