Oprah Winfrey stepped down from the board of Weight Watchers, ending her longtime affiliation with the brand. If you’re looking for a bellwether to judge the future of the diet industry, this may be as good as any. Earlier this year she had admitted to taking a GPL-1 weight loss drug, and shortly after her move, Weight Watchers shares had a significant drop. In another indication of this upheaval in the diet industry, and Weight Watchers has also joined the party by releasing their own GLP-1 drug.
For years, the diet industry has focused on habit formation and encouraging willpower while offering things like diet meals and prepackaged food products. Thanks to the results people are seeing now from weight loss drugs and how they work to combat hunger by mimicking the body’s satiety response … diet programs are quickly becoming obsolete. As new formulations come on market, usage of these drugs become more widespread – the question is what these current diet programs will become. Or whether they might disappear altogether.
