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  #286   ^
Old Thu, Jan-04-18, 10:40
barb712's Avatar
barb712 barb712 is offline
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Posts: 1,435
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 240/188/185 Female 5'11"
BF:
Progress: 95%
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I think the title of this thread sums it up for me. Weight Watchers is about manipulation of the masses and $$$$. "Smart Points" and "Freestyle" are just catchy names for the same-o-same-o, Points and Core. After you get reeled in by images of slender, attractive women smiling brightly as they shove bits of food in their mouths and claims that you can eat all you want, and it's in your control, blah-blah-blah, the reality hits that it's all about deprivation, limitation, self-denial, restriction, admonishment. Sure, you can lose some weight on it. But is it sustainable? Not in the vast majority of cases.

I can't stand Oprah Winfrey but must say she's the perfect Pied Piper of yo-yo dieting. I secretly wish for her to blow up like a balloon while pu$hing product. The infuriating thing is people won't care.
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  #287   ^
Old Thu, Jan-04-18, 12:55
Calianna's Avatar
Calianna Calianna is offline
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Posts: 1,851
 
Plan: Atkins-ish (hypoglycemia)
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 63
BF:
Progress: 50%
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Quote:
Originally Posted by barb712
I think the title of this thread sums it up for me. Weight Watchers is about manipulation of the masses and $$$$. "Smart Points" and "Freestyle" are just catchy names for the same-o-same-o, Points and Core. After you get reeled in by images of slender, attractive women smiling brightly as they shove bits of food in their mouths and claims that you can eat all you want, and it's in your control, blah-blah-blah, the reality hits that it's all about deprivation, limitation, self-denial, restriction, admonishment. Sure, you can lose some weight on it. But is it sustainable? Not in the vast majority of cases.


Exactly. If it was truly sustainable, all their customers would get to goal, stay at goal with no special effort. That would also mean no one would need to continue to pay their monthly fee, and since it's all about making money on the hopes and dreams of people who are desperate to lose weight without giving up their bread, pasta, and birthday cake, its never going to be a sustainable diet. The list of free foods may give the idea that there's a lot of food you can eat that won't count towards your points - and there is a long list (I like that they finally don't need to spend so many points to eat a tiny serving of protein), but they will never be revamped to the point that it's sustainable long term. If they did that, they'd miss out on the January surge of New Year's Resolutioners, and the Swimsuit Weather's Coming surge of new customers.
Quote:


I can't stand Oprah Winfrey but must say she's the perfect Pied Piper of yo-yo dieting. I secretly wish for her to blow up like a balloon while pu$hing product. The infuriating thing is people won't care.


I think when (most likely WHEN, not IF) she balloons up again on this diet, her following will care - but in most cases, it won't be in a critical way. It'll be in a sympathetic way. They'll identify with her struggles to stay on plan, and you can be sure nothing will be said about it until she's ready to go back on plan, but then her followers will be thinking "Aww, poor Oprah, she has trouble sticking to a diet too, even one as wonderful and freeing as WW. I don't feel so bad now about needing to go back on it after gaining all my weight back. Besides, I know it works, I just have to get back on the diet, just like Oprah." Meanwhile, Oprah will be raking in the $$$$ from their gullibility.

Unless she decides to sell her interest in it instead - can you imagine the damage she could do to WW if (after years on the diet, being spokesperson for how great it is), she sold her interest in the company, then criticized the diet as being damaging or unsustainable?
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  #288   ^
Old Thu, Jan-04-18, 15:19
deirdra's Avatar
deirdra deirdra is offline
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Posts: 4,324
 
Plan: vLC/GF,CF,SF
Stats: 197/136/150 Female 66 inches
BF:
Progress: 130%
Location: Alberta
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This year's TV ads have Oprah stuffing her face with TACOS. I guess her Bread, Bread, Bread motto wasn't working.
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  #289   ^
Old Thu, Jan-04-18, 18:14
Calianna's Avatar
Calianna Calianna is offline
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Posts: 1,851
 
Plan: Atkins-ish (hypoglycemia)
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 63
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Progress: 50%
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deirdra
This year's TV ads have Oprah stuffing her face with TACOS. I guess her Bread, Bread, Bread motto wasn't working.


I wonder how many points Oprah gets now, and now many points a taco is worth?
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  #290   ^
Old Fri, Jan-05-18, 00:16
Meme#1's Avatar
Meme#1 Meme#1 is offline
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Posts: 12,456
 
Plan: Atkins DANDR
Stats: 210/194/160 Female 5'4"
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Progress: 32%
Location: Texas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deirdra
This year's TV ads have Oprah stuffing her face with TACOS. I guess her Bread, Bread, Bread motto wasn't working.


Her Commercial eating tacos was on twice tonight!
I notice that the camera never shows her bottom half..She's standing behind a kitchen island in this ad.
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  #291   ^
Old Fri, Jan-05-18, 04:41
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cotonpal cotonpal is online now
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Plan: very low carb real food
Stats: 245/125/135 Female 62
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: Vermont
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I think that Oprah means well but she is just sadly deluded, making her not so different than most of us about all sorts of things. Unfortunately for Oprah her influence extends far beyond the small circle of people who most of us have some chance of influencing, which means she is capable of doing more harm with her delusions than most of us can do (I can think of a lot of politicians who have the same problem).

I have no way of knowing what motivates Oprah. I can't get inside her head and I have no experience with having the kind of money and influence that she has. She makes me more sad than angry.

It is clear to me that our culture embraces so much that is plain wrong that the best thing for me to do is to ignore it. So much junk is being passed off as science and good advice. All I can do is support a few things that I hope help counters all this junk if only in a tiny way and continue taking care of myself the best way I know how.

Jean
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  #292   ^
Old Fri, Jan-05-18, 05:19
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
Posts: 13,371
 
Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
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In ten minutes of watching early morning local news, I did Not see Oprah but saw an effective ad for Atkins with a man who seemed vaguely familiar. Turned out it is Rob Lowe, an actor , says he has done Atkins for years and then shows people eating good real low carb foods in the ad, food similar to recipes in the book.
I liked it, And the newest Atkins Cookbook and Plan. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=478777
Go to Atkins.com and see Rob and the new Cookbook. The other ad in that one break was for Duke Bariactric Surgery which completely fries me, since they will not advertise the Lifestyle Clinic. Oprah can pay for the big dollar National News shows placements, doesn’t need to bother with a local station.
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  #293   ^
Old Mon, Jan-08-18, 09:27
tess9132 tess9132 is offline
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Plan: general lc
Stats: 214/146/130 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 81%
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So I finally saw an Oprah ad. Here’s a snippet of it. (I think the one I saw had more oprah, less slides). https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wEDg/weight...featuring-oprah

I blurted out, “she’s fatter than I am! Why is she selling a weight loss product?” My husband immediately teased me for fat shaming, but I wasn’t trying to fat shame. I just don’t think she’s a great spokesperson for an aspirational weight loss product. I’ve never aspired to her current body shape, even though when I was at my heaviest I probably should have. Im not sure what Weight Watchers is doing. Maybe they’ve got a really large target demographic in mind? That said, if I owned stock in WW, I’d sell.
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  #294   ^
Old Mon, Jan-08-18, 09:53
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
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Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
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She might be fatter than you are, but is she fatter than she was?

I guess the fact that WW's keeps needing new celebrity sponsors might be a point, though. They might be an excellent support system for standard, mainstream dieting, for sake of argument, I don't really know. But lots of people are excellent at losing weight, judging by the number of times that they've managed to do it.

Oprah has had access to personal chefs, personal trainers, has the resources to make her environment as conducive to weight loss and maintenance as possible. She can live on her own personal Biggest Loser ranch if she chooses, and I'd guess she probably has chosen to do that at times. Having that much potential control really only works if you know what to control. The idea that WW's adds resources for weightloss that Oprah didn't already have seems kind of faulty.
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  #295   ^
Old Mon, Jan-08-18, 10:28
barb712's Avatar
barb712 barb712 is offline
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Posts: 1,435
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 240/188/185 Female 5'11"
BF:
Progress: 95%
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teaser


... Oprah has had access to personal chefs, personal trainers, has the resources to make her environment as conducive to weight loss and maintenance as possible ...


Let's not forget her special wardrobe and lighting people. It's all illusion. It's all I can do to keep from going off on a rant.
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  #296   ^
Old Mon, Jan-08-18, 10:58
tess9132 tess9132 is offline
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Posts: 873
 
Plan: general lc
Stats: 214/146/130 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 81%
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Quote:
She might be fatter than you are, but is she fatter than she was?


Well, she’s a lot bigger than when she did that slim fast type weight loss years ago, and my point was that even when I was fatter than Oprah is now, I never wanted her current weight to be my after picture. I don’t think these new commercials will appeal, weight loss wise, to run of the mill obese people.

Edited to add this link to a 1988 pic of Oprah for all the young’uns here

https://static01.nyt.com/images/201...CA3-blog427.jpg

Last edited by tess9132 : Mon, Jan-08-18 at 11:08.
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  #297   ^
Old Mon, Jan-08-18, 11:21
bkloots's Avatar
bkloots bkloots is offline
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Posts: 10,147
 
Plan: LC--Atkins
Stats: 195/162/150 Female 62in
BF:
Progress: 73%
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Oprah looked pretty good on the Golden Globe tape I viewed this morning. No possibility of air-brushing on a moving target--and certainly she was carefully "adjusted" with undergarments and Hollywood glamour cosmetics. She struggles, like most of us do, with body size, stereotypes, and eating plans. Having a ton of money doesn't solve that--and having cameras on you 24/7 adds to the pressure, right?

Me? I don't like paying for any eating or exercise plan I can do for myself for free. But some people find a financial incentive motivating, and there's always someone out there willing to coach, advise, and provide food that's easy to use for a price people are willing to pay. It's the American way.
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  #298   ^
Old Mon, Jan-08-18, 14:48
deirdra's Avatar
deirdra deirdra is offline
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Posts: 4,324
 
Plan: vLC/GF,CF,SF
Stats: 197/136/150 Female 66 inches
BF:
Progress: 130%
Location: Alberta
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Oprah admitted that she was only at that 1988 weight for less than 24 hours before she went on a binge and started gaining again. That is the problem with all fad diets and why individuals need to find out what works for them, and a lifetime of 800 calories on a protein-sparing modified fast won't cut it (Oprah's metabolism probably slowed down to not use more than 800 calories/day). Losing weight is the easy part.

Last edited by deirdra : Mon, Jan-08-18 at 15:08.
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  #299   ^
Old Mon, Jan-08-18, 14:59
Verbena Verbena is offline
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Posts: 1,056
 
Plan: My own
Stats: 186/155/150 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 86%
Location: SW PNW
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Personally, I don't consider myself "at" a particular weight until I've succeeded in staying there for a reasonable amount of time. Less than 24 hours doesn't count.
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  #300   ^
Old Tue, Jan-09-18, 12:37
madeyna's Avatar
madeyna madeyna is offline
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Posts: 936
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 168/128/130 Female 5.3
BF:
Progress: 105%
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Wow I am surprised at how much hate for Opra and ww is on this thread. The program works I have used it in the past and didn,t get a huge repound regain . I did it with friends who also didn,t get fast rebound regain. Unlike atkins where almost everybody I know that goes on it sees a regain of more than they lost much faster than they lost it. Opra may not want to see but she is a carb addict just like a lot of us here. I see her justifying her carbs just like a drug or alcoholic does. Reality is if your any kind of addict that's a process you will probly spend much of your life doing over and over and you convince your self its okay. Hopefully at some point everybody will break that cycle and find something that works for them, all diets work they just don,t all work for everybody. I applaud anyone finding a plan that works for them at their current stage of life. There is nothing wrong that she will make money pushing some thing she believes in. That's what America is all about, if you don,t like it don,t buy it .Pretty simple.
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