Consumers Are Not Receiving Needed Information about Costs, Duration, Risks, Staff Credentials and Outcomes (Average weight Lost, Weight Loss Maintained)

Representatives of consumer groups participating in the consumer panel (Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumers Union, National Consumers League, American Obesity Association) agreed with Ms. Byrne that prospective purchasers of diet plans offered by commercial weight loss firms are entitled to receive basic information about the program including total cost and duration of the program, the credentials of the program staff, the risks associated with the particular treatment offered, and the efficacy of the program in terms of weight loss and maintenance. The consumer panelists were also in agreement about the overall failure of commercial programs to provide such information. According to the research conducted by several panelists, a few programs were better than others in providing some of the information at issue, but no program provided all of the information, with information as to program efficacy (outcome information) the least available. The panel heard anecdotal evidence (Farzan, Pappas) of program counselors offering inaccurate nutritional advice and the substitution of atypical testimonials when shoppers asked for outcome information. Some consumer panelists (Byrne, Farzan) were of the opinion that the weight-loss industry should be given the opportunity to voluntarily respond to this need for information by adopting voluntary guidelines, but if a voluntary solution should prove to be impractical, mandatory measures such as federal legislation or regulations prescribing what information programs must provide should be adopted. According to Leila Farzan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest:

This conference is focusing on an industry that not only affects people financially, but also affects their physical and psychological health. Many people who go to commercial weight loss programs are desperate to lose weight, and companies should not be allowed to prey upon their vulnerability.

Lynn McAfee, representing the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, stressed the need for understanding that people are motivated to lose weight not only for health concerns but also for appearance concerns so that large-sized people can escape social prejudice. She also questioned whether it was appropriate to rely upon losing weight as the only solution to social prejudice. Ms. McAfee suggested that while many obese people would clearly realize health benefits from weight loss, it is not clear that all people do so. She stated that the current approach by many health care professionals who try to “scare” people into losing weight is ineffective and offensive, arguing that, for many people, overweight/obesity is more than a failure of will power; it is a product of a “very complex mechanism that we clearly do not understand yet.” She called for a new approach to consumer information disclosures, suggesting that the commercial weight-loss industry should be recast as “commercial health programs,” so that benefits of dieting and exercise can be stressed in terms of improving health, regardless of whether they produce weight loss.