The icon of a bygone dieting era seeks to shed debt and restructure as women gravitate toward drugs to lose weight

By Alexander Gladstone

May 6, 2025 5:27 pm ET|WSJ Pro

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The WeightWatchers logo on a smartphone, with plates of food on either side.

WeightWatchers plans to reduce its debt by about $1 billion with the bankruptcy filing. Photo: WeightWatchers

WeightWatchers, whose dieting and wellness programs were once a central part of U.S. fitness culture, has filed for bankruptcy to adjust to the increasing use of drugs like Ozempic for weight loss.

WeightWatchers has been offering drugs as a complement to its legacy business model of providing food consumption and exercise plans, though the company’s clinical business hasn’t grown fast enough to offset the decline in subscriptions to its core programs as many women decide the drugs are all they need.

WeightWatchers has also struggled with the advent of free fitness apps and advice from social-media influencers, which have provided other channels for women who seek guidance to hit their weight-loss targets.

WeightWatchers Chief Executive Tara Comonte said the company’s debt load has been a burden and she is hopeful that deleveraging will help free up cash flow so it can innovate and compete. WeightWatchers intends to invest in expanding its clinical business while also rejuvenating its legacy programs, she said in an interview.

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The Wall Street Journal reported last month that WeightWatchers was preparing to file for chapter 11. The company now enters the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware with a plan to be taken over by a group of institutional investors that own its loans and bonds.

WeightWatchers’ stock will be largely wiped out as the new ownership group takes control, though existing shareholders are set to retain a 9% stake under the company’s plan, which will cut its debt by roughly $1 billion.

WeightWatchers was founded in 1963 by Jean Nidetch, a homemaker and mother in Queens, N.Y., who battled obesity. The business was originally centered on weekly in-person meetings for women in need of solidarity and guidance for their weight-loss journey. As WeightWatchers meetings took off throughout the nation and abroad, the company developed recipes and cookbooks and started publishing its own magazine.

Food giant Heinz acquired WeightWatchers from Nidetch and her business partners in 1978. After owning it through the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Heinz sold WeightWatchers to private-equity firm Artal Luxembourg, which then took it public in 2001.

Oprah Winfrey wearing a dark suit at an event.

Oprah Winfrey. Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Oprah Winfrey backed WeightWatchers in 2015, buying a 10% stake and joining its board of directors. But even with Winfrey adding her star power as the public face of the company, WeightWatchers lost ground due to the plethora of fitness apps and influencers, as well as its difficulty in attracting a younger generation of customers. The company has also made efforts to attract men as members, though only a single-digit percentage are male.

The more recent introduction of Ozempic and other drugs like Wegovy was another game-changer. Sensing a changing market, WeightWatchers entered the clinical prescription business in 2023 by acquiring Sequence, a telehealth portal, which enabled the company to offer weight-loss drugs to its members.

Later that year, Winfrey said in an interview with People magazine that she was taking weight-loss medication as a “maintenance tool.” WeightWatchers soon announced that Winfrey was stepping down from the board, and that she planned to donate all of her shares to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Winfrey said that the reason for her departure was because she was making an ABC special about weight loss and wanted to avoid the perception of any conflict of interest.

WeightWatchers’ clinical business has been growing rapidly since the Sequence acquisition. But activity in WeightWatchers’ core business has continued to erode, with subscriptions and membership enrollments falling.

Naomi Nemtzow, 75, a Brooklyn-based artist who was a WeightWatchers member for decades, said she was disappointed when the company abruptly stopped doing weekly meetings in her community in 2023.

“Basically they gave up on the kind of work they had been doing and went on to selling Ozempic. They jumped on that bandwagon,” Nemtzow said. “It’s become a quick fix, a fashion thing. But no one knows the long-term effects.”

Comonte, the CEO, said community remains central to the company’s brand and value proposition, and acknowledged that this part of the business has been neglected and needs some investment.

“The majority of our members do not want to be on these medications for life,” she said, noting that weight-loss drugs are most effective when paired with better behavioral and nutritional habits, as well as emotional support from other community members. “They want to build a healthy life. They want to make sure these gains can be sustained through to the other side.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/weightwatchers-files-bankruptcy-to-adapt-to-chemically-induced-weight-loss-future-a63aa8ac

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721262&forum_id=2E#48909379)