Weight Watchers twice as effective as doctor-prescribed diets, study claims

OVERWEIGHT patients told by their doctors to go to Weight Watchers lose around twice as much weight as people receiving standard weight loss care over 12 months, according to a study.

In the first randomised controlled trial to directly compare a commercial weight-loss programme with standard care by family doctors, Weight Watchers was more than twice as effective.

More people stuck to the Weight Watchers diet, lost more weight and fat mass, and also shaved more off their waist measurements than those assigned to standard care.