And another one bites the dust…

17th January 2008

And another one bites the dust…

As reported on Junkfood Science, the company formerly known as LA Weight Loss Centers have shut the doors on its 400 corporate centers nationwide, citing “market conditions beyond our control.” La Weight Loss Centers bankruptcy

According to JFS blogger extraordinaire Sandy Szwarc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents in Philadelphia reportedly show the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Friday, listing more than 100,000 creditors and with estimated liabilities at $10 million to $50 million. Annual revenues for the company had been reported as $44.9 million.

Szwarc goes on to give a brief background of the company’s extensive history in the courts, most notably that of civil lawsuits citing the company made false claims about its weight loss program. Both the states of Oregon and Washington also targeted the self-proclaimed diet mavens, charging the company with false and misleading representations of not only the program, but also its costs.

Before its closure, the company claimed that “The LA Weight Loss plan is not a diet — it’s a lifestyle change.” Sound familiar? Yeah, it’s the same drivel the diet company Weight Watchers is shilling, too.

Most recently diet book author Kevin Trudeau came under Federal Trade Commission crosshairs and diet-monger Heidi Diaz, founder of the much-aligned diet scam Kimkin’s, has also been in court to answer claims of false advertising.

LA Weight Loss Centers’ great fall is positive news, but I just can’t seem to muster the same degree of optimism as Szwarc in hearing the news. She writes:

There’s been an air of near desperation in the unparalelled intensity of weight loss marketing this diet season. Does the fall of the largest weight loss chain in the country portend a turning tide on the national dieting pasttime?

The national tide against dieting has turned, but so too has the diet industry. Like the aforementioned Weight Watchers, diet companies are now simply repackaging themselves not as the punitive, restrictive and largely ineffective regimes they really are, but as a “lifestyle change” with a focus on overall health and wellness - see stories here and here on the new trend in the marketing tactics of diet companies.

So, one diet company has fallen - hoorah - but hundreds more persist and new get-thin-quick plans spring up every day. Until we eradicate a disordered and poorly informed culture in which only a narrow weight definition of acceptable exists, the national tide against dieting will never fully turn.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Diets, Health/Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On January 17th, 2008, Charlynn

said:

Hooray! One down, 12 million more to go. This is still a victory because L.A. Weight Loss was one of the biggest, best-known weight loss companies for years. It wasn’t one of the countless “get thin quick” diets that crashes and burns the moment its advertisements air. Who’s to say that some day, Weight Watchers won’t go down? L.A. Weight Loss’s downfall gives me hope.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

2 On January 17th, 2008, Paul

A nearby LA Weight Loss Center became Pure Weight Loss. Six of one….

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

3 On January 17th, 2008, MrsDrC

Paul, LA Weight Loss became Pure Weight Loss not too long ago…Pure is gone too, same company.

I was reading that blog earlier today and it kinda had an “oh, okay” affect on me. I do see it as a small step in the right direction, but I think to make it a big step in the right direction would take some media coverage which I seriously doubt is coming. This story will go under the radar as it does not fit with major media’s fat phobia.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

4 On January 17th, 2008, Sandy

But the only way to create the bandwagon effect and a momentum to change public opinion is to publicize it. Imagine if every fat blogger wrote that the diet industry is dying and “history”… Imagine if every fat blogger wrote about how people are no longer buying into the diet industry’s garbage… People like to get behind a winner. People will often follow what they think most people are doing and believing.

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes true,” has been the diet industry’s tactic.

We need to repeat an honest truth! Not just react and let them dictate the terms of the discussions. Rally the troups, make it positive and the future optomistic. The diet industry is not the truth of us.

It’s how to CREATE change and create a movement. Make the truth a reality in the minds of all.

The diet industry is toast if we don’t buy into it.
JMHO

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

5 On January 17th, 2008, isabella mori

totally with you on the repackaging. reminds me of one of our lovely provincial ministries who decided a little while ago to start calling people who receive income assistance and who they often treat like second class citizens, “participants”. there is something really ugly about using language in such a way: taking a word or phrase that originally has a positive, empowering connotation and twisting it for mindless marketing purposes.

“cleansing” is a good example. according to companies like isagenix, nowadays you don’t go on a restrictive 800-calories-a-day starvation diet anymore to quickly lose those X number of pounds before the wedding/vacation/big date - no, the same thing gets a few vitamins and herbs thrown in and all of a sudden it’s a super healthy “cleanse”.

btw, re weight watchers - i still think they’re the best of the lot. and the sad story is that many people (women mostly) end up going through a whole bunch of these companies before they see the light. by that time, their metabolism is pretty screwed up.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

6 On January 17th, 2008, Sandy

Oh, I meant that comment in a totally positive way, of course.

I totally agree with your suggestions and I loved that you get their latest twists.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 4:58 pm

7 On January 17th, 2008, Rachel

I totally agree with your views Sandy and I think you and increasingly many other bloggers are doing a bang-up job in spreading the anti-diet word. It just seems frustrating at times in the face of a multi-billion diet industry that often has the puppet media at its command.

One of the suggestions I made at the Think Tank meeting back in October was to try and marshal the troops, so to speak, by encouraging everyone to write editorials to their local newspaper about the fallacies of dieting and the stereotypes of fatness. Most newspapers, especially smaller operations, accept guest editorials and all accept letters to the editor. Blogging is great and good, but we need to make the transition into making our voices heard in the larger media.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

8 On January 17th, 2008, Tari

Totally agree. It’s an uphill battle to change the message, but if we keep at it long enough, movement will happen - as my grandma used to say, the truth will out.

I loved your suggestion about editorials, Rachel, and I’ve been writing them. So far, nothing’s been acknowledged or printed. (I’m telling myself that it’s because there’s been a glut of good editorial fodder these days, what with the war and elections and crazy weather…not that I’m a crap writer.)

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

9 On January 17th, 2008, Sandy

Rachel, I hope in time things will change, but I spent nearly ten years writing Op-eds, submitting articles and letters to the editors of mainstream media. MANY years ago, I stopped counting at 300 submissions. Mainstream media follows trends and what’s popular; it doesn’t start them. They want to be safe. And they are beholden to advertisers in ways most people would never ever imagine. I found that trying to publish as a freelancer, or be quoted in articles written by others, doesn’t work, either, after so many of my articles and quotes were changed to support the publication’s bias/agenda.

After working my brains off to no avail, I realized that the only way to get the information out there was to get it out there myself! [Of course, it also means starving, as the truth SO doesn't pay.] But right now, the internet is where it’s at for the best information. IMHO.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 8:25 pm

10 On January 17th, 2008, Sandy

PS. Although I do keep trying… hence, my note in a recent post when rejected AGAIN by an editor who said they had covered “the other side” of the obesity-kills argument a few years ago! Ugh.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

11 On January 17th, 2008, Rachel

That’s a rather disheartening but oh-so-true observation Sandy, about mainstream media. When I interviewed Gina Kolata, she seemed optimistic though about the direction obesity related research is going in, though. So, maybe if we persist, someone will eventually take notice.

Another idea the Think Tank generated is for COFRA to generate press releases and play up studies showing contrasting findings about obesity to send out to news media outlets. Many news organizations are running on minimal staffing so they often they just repurpose a press release for print. If we can get our press releases out there along with all those that claim the health hazards of fatness, we may be able to be to claim more of a voice in the media.

posted on January 17th, 2008 at 9:08 pm

12 On January 19th, 2008, Say NO to Kimkins

Hopefully one day soon you’ll be saying another one bites the dust about Kimkins too!

http://www.casewatch.org/civil/kimkins/complaint.shtml

posted on January 19th, 2008 at 2:16 am

13 On April 16th, 2008, Liza

I’m not anti-diet or anti-weight loss. But I am anti-scam, and that’s all LA weight loss was. A scam. They swindled me out of close to a grand in high school and didn’t know how to deal with the fact that I was a vegetarian or what to do when I was diagnosed with PCOS. Why? Because they hired business people, not nutritionists, to be their counselors. All they wanted was to keep selling you those stupid bar things (which had a lot of sugar - something I was told to avoid with PCOS) and of course they wouldn’t refund a dime when I became medically unable to follow their plan.

Weight Watchers, at least, doesn’t require a giant up-front payment and they don’t really try to force you to buy their products. I mean, sure, they’re available, but it’s not forced on you like the LA things were.

But I think weight loss should be supervised by a doctor or nutritionist/dietitian. At least they have some kind of credentials and you know they are watching your health. Plus, if it’s your regular doctor, they know your medical history. You don’t know who’s being hired at those weight loss centers, what their training is, and if they have any credentials whatsoever. Usually they are just people who lost a lot of weight on the program, so they only know what worked for them, they don’t know how to adapt to other peoples’ situations.

posted on April 16th, 2008 at 1:36 pm