Weight Watchers vs professionally delivered obesity programs in the United States

Published September 12, 2017

Of 141 adults (90% female, 49.7y, BMI 36.2 kg/m2), those who followed Weight Watchers (WW; meetings and digital tools) for 48 weeks lost a statistically equivalent amount of weight as those who followed a professionally delivered behavioral weight-loss program (BWL). Specifically,  -13.2 lbs vs  -11.9 lbs, respectively.

The results of this 48-week randomized controlled trial, published in a 2013 issue of Obesity, also found that three times as many people in the WW meetings lost 10% or more of their body weight by 48 weeks than those who attended the professionally delivered weight-loss program (36.7% vs 13.0%, respectively).  

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