WeightWatchers & Peloton

In this podcast, Joan Breibart explores the decline of wellness giants Peloton and Weight Watchers, attributing their downfall to outdated methodologies and false promises of weight loss. She sheds light on the industry's misguided focus on appearance over health, advocating for a shift towards a more sustainable approach to wellness based on hunger management and taste appreciation.

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Transcript

Hi, it's Body Conversations Joan. Breibart. And the subject is Peloton and Weight Watchers.

So these are two companies that have dominated this Wellness space for a long time. Of course, Weight Watchers is really a long time. They started it. It was in 1963 that this company began.

And they peaked in sales, I think it was 2012, they were coming close to $2 billion in sales, 2 billion I think was 1,000,009 or whatever, now they're maybe at 800,000 and it's dropping every single day. Their stock is $1.90.

And it's going to disappear, It's going to fall apart. And I'm going to explain to you why soon, But it's important because even though of course they had this point system which everyone knew was just calories, so yes, they added fibre or whatever, but you know, two points were 200 calories about.

Their entire focus was this stuff, your face as much as you want as long as it's good food. And then you got more points if you exercise and it's only now. And I think peloton is going to suffer even more than weight, while they they will really suffer because people recognise that this whole weight watcher points, calories, whatever and exercise.

Was just a financial marketing ploy, had nothing to do with how the body works. In fact, as most people know and experience, when you exercise vigorously, you do hit and you kill yourself on a bike and marathons and whatever. You are really raising cortisol. And cortisol tells your brain you're hungry, so you are hungry even though you might be carrying fifty extra pounds.

You're hungry, Hungry, hungry, hungry.

And then, of course, you have to eat. So aside from the fact that people exercise to torch these calories so they could eat, or maybe they were trying to not eat and have this deficit, it all failed. It just failed because it's not really scientifically correct. So there's that word science. Nobody talked about science a long time ago, and it was never about health. I've said this before, it was all about appearances.

Wish we could go back there, maybe Ozempic will get us back there, but anyway.

What happened was it seemed innocent in the 60s and 70s and even 80s but then it got to the point where we now have 5 eating disorders. 65% of the population is obese.

Today I just read that we don't even rank the United States in happiness.

Survey they do annually.

We used to be not at the top.

But we were there. Now we're not even there. So this is not a happy place and we know that because people are miserable.

And they don't see a way out. But of course I think there is a way out and I think things will get better. And I'm going to talk about that once Weight Watchers is either accepted, my offer to take 80 bites and make that the programme. It's the only programme that works with these drugs actually. And in fact their diet is all about.

You know, doing what people wanted, which was give me a way that I can keep eating.

Now interesting that intermittent fasting, which has been hugely popular and successful, has now been shown to maybe cause heart attacks and be also bad. And I've always thought it was bad, but you know, bad. Not in that it limited how much you consumed, it simply limited the hours. So remember, dining is all about marketing and so they would go through these trends. They couldn't say to someone.

Well, you know, it's OK to have a doughnut, but not the entire box. And so instead of saying that, they came up with a gluten story.

And then, of course, you know, instead of telling people stop snacking every minute, that's for toddlers, They came up with intermittent fasting. So what happens is people get suckered into these things and they're always these testimonials. Now, obviously the testimonials are all false. They're all false. I mean, if you go back to 63 and you gather up all these testimonials, whatever the diet, whatever the exercise, we wouldn't have one fat person in this country.

It's obvious. So. And of course The Biggest Loser. You think after The Biggest Loser, nobody would ever read a testimonial ever. Because you saw these people and we know what happened. Their metabolism was ruined. They regained the weight, they were miserable. None of it works. Nothing works except to consistently.

Eat less, less often, enjoy it, and choose only foods that taste good in your mouth.

I think I'm going to detour here and tell you about my recent taste experience. I have a great palette.

From the time I was a tiny child, it was trained.

And living in New York City, where I do at Chelsea, I can eat every kind of cuisine, including W African block away. But you know, that's Chinese and Japanese and Thai and and Greek and Italian and French and Russian and everything anyway.

And of course, if you are in such a place and you have a very educated, sophisticated palette, it's wonderful, right? But what happened to me was that I got cancer.

And this was a year ago and.

Then I had to do chemotherapy, and immediately my fabulous palette was no longer Everything tasted terrible. I mean, almost everything.

And for the first time, I really understood what it was like.

For people whom I've talked to, people I know who would say, oh, I don't like the taste of that or I can't eat that or I don't want this, whatever. And they everything was a limitation, a problem and they were afraid. And you know, the truth is no one really understands taste. Whereas I will try anything. And almost everything, if it's well prepared, tastes good. Now because I'm not in chemo, I began to understand that many people can experience that and so all these.

Manipulations with diet.

They didn't object to the way, of course I objected to and therefore I nevertheless on diet in more than four hours, but if you already are limiting.

The kinds of foods that you eat and you have all these foods you don't like. I guess you're presented with a diet, with all these things that are, you know, that have been demonised. 

They're terrible, right? And then other things that are glorified. And when they're glorified and it looks like it's going to make you lose weight, even if it doesn't taste good, you don't know it because maybe many things don't taste good. Whatever it is, it all was a mistake, a total, complete mistake. There are no.

Good diets. No one needs to follow a diet. The only thing that matters, and that's what all these.

Weight loss drugs are proving is quantity not calories quantity because once you overload your stomach, this little container.

Your hormones go haywire and then you're hungry. So the real issue is hunger. It's not calories. And take Weight Watchers with their two 200 free foods. I mean, I paid for membership. You know, I just finished Weight Watchers, and every day I get an e-mail to come back, right? Because I'm not paying anymore. And, you know, I would just put down what I was eating. And sometimes I just did.

More things to annoy them like I would have.

American Beaujolais.

Also known as Coca-Cola. And that of course is no, no. And I don't mean the Coke 0. So if I would build up all these points and then immediately they jump in because if there's an app and you record them, it's absurd really. And tell me to eat all the free foods. You know, start out and start with the 200 free foods or go out and exercise and pretend that I am fat, I'm not and think of all that weight on my body that I'm going to be pushing to burn up calories.

What is that going to do for my musculoskeletal system? Hurt it? Harm it? Make me maybe need a hip replacement or a knee replacement or whatever it is. So people got into this and somehow no one other than me, and that's not enough, pointed out how foolish it was. And of course it is foolish, but now there's.

Salvation really. Which are these drugs? Yes, and there are side effects, but they'll be fewer because they're working on them and they'll be in pill form and it'll be cheaper and everything and it'll be hard for people to understand who've never experienced it, but.

Not being hungry all the time is normal. That's normal. Being hungry all the time is abnormal.

So when you're not hungry all the time and you've already given up this idea of glorifying certain foods because basically, if people were blindfolded and fed, they couldn't even tell you what they're eating. They could not tell you because the food is so lacking in taste. And of course we're talking about fruits and vegetables, which is really all you're supposed to eat. And even of course the meats and fish and whatever that you wouldn't know it and. Yet you're supposed to believe that you're getting something magical from these foods. Well, what you may be getting are nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. Hello, vitamin pills, right? People take vitamin pills, they take supplements, they do everything. So it's not like they're undernourished.

But it's better in this diet business to tell you that you must get your nutrition from food where you know, I guess you'd have to move to another country.

Probably France, where they're very regulated in what they can do when they're growing food. Because the food here is tasteless. And I am telling you that I have a Whole Foods in my apartment building, right? That this store in my building and I got a pair left pairs 2 days ago and it was just perfect in terms of its appearance. And it was at the right ripeness, right. And I sliced it and it sliced well. So I was hoping it wasn't merely because most of them are mealy and it seemed to be juicy. And then I took a bite.

And it was tasteless, so it had not really the fragrance, I guess that was what was lacking, but it did have the texture and the juice and it the outside looked very good and it was at the right time. It wasn't too soft or too hard, and it was tasteless. And I had it was delicious cheese, because that hadn't been screwed up. That came over from Ireland, apparently, Anyway.

So now we'll get to tasting the food because we're not going to be afraid of it, right? So let's talk about Peloton, because that is, to me, one of the funniest stories. It's this is sucker dumb personified. And that's because I can remember in 1993 when Spinning launched and everyone laughed because there had been cartoons in newspapers. We had newspapers we read and New Yorker magazine about.

You know, well, it's good to place your clothes this way on the handlebars. You know, with the funny things about how you had a bike. It was in your bedroom, You weren't using it, and it was a good thing to hang your clothes on if you didn't want to put them in the closet, right? And it was just endless jokes. But then spinning launched, had a different kind of bike, and the room was dark and they put in an amplifier in a health club. They charged for it early on. You had to. It wasn't part of your membership. And that thing had candles and it was all of a sudden. Mind, body. I mean, there was just nothing. I mean, here we were starting Pilates, which was mind, body, body, mind. It really was that. So to me, it was just the funniest thing going, and I didn't think it would last. Within a year, people were saying, well, there's nothing for the upper body. All you're doing is working on the lower body. But of course, I was 100% wrong. It was a gigantic success. And it's owned by a company called Mad Dog, which is owned by John Baldwin, who's made a fortune, fortune, fortune, fortune on this.

So, and then everybody could copy it because there's nothing proprietary. So people would call it ride or cycle or bike or whatever. And every health club and then different studios. Garry's boot camp now has a biking element too.

So was I ever wrong people were willing to do it? And of course, if you think about it.

It's something you can.

Figure out though, I didn't, which is you don't need to be very competent bike. You're sitting on a stationary bike and you're peddling a six year old could do it doesn't have anything with proprioception or real flexibility or strength or any kind of any kind of.

Movement quality, right? You're just sitting and you're biking. Anybody can do it. And I guess that was the draw. Also, of course, it wasn't supposed to hurt your joints, but I mean, let's face it, that position is very bad. It's this hugely repetitive thing. And I mean if you did it once or twice a week at a normal pace, and then of course the music, which is really today what everything is about music.

There is no way that anyone will.

Exercise without me is even Pilates.

And so that is really the issue. So right now Peloton, you know in the interim was of course Soul Cycle. Like in 1994, everyone knew that you needed upper body and then I think Soul Cycle happened in the 2000s and then what? What?

They added was some weights, right, two little weights there. That was going to change the whole thing and it was as if.

Everybody forgot they were tired of sitting on a stationary bike and all of this calorie burning wasn't doing anything, but they rushed into that and then we know Peloton, so. Peloton's in deep trouble. Really deep trouble.

Of course, everyone can have a bike and a screen, so you don't need peloton. And at this very moment, no one knows how long it will be with us. And probably no one will even miss it, except for the people who work there who are, as everyone knows, so overpaid. In fact, some of those people who lead you on a bike are earning $750,000 a year.

Compare that to what nurses and teachers earn. So that's a little sum up. And it's important because I like to watch this industry, one because I'm in it, and #2 because it's fascinating.