WeightWatchers: CEO "got it wrong" over weight loss drugs - even Oprah Winfrey is using them

The chief executive of WeightWatchers (WW) has admitted that the company "got it wrong" by turning its back on weight loss drugs.

As former ambassador Oprah Winfrey opens up about taking weight loss drugs herself, WW's CEO Sima Sistani has launched a new programme tailored to members who are taking the likes of ozempic and mounjaro in tandem with a diet plan. It comes in a year where weight loss medication has exploded into the public health mainstream, with more people expected to start taking these drugs in the next few years.

Speaking to People magazine, Winfrey said: "I had an awareness of [weight loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way - obesity is a disease.

"I eat my last meal at 4 o’clock, drink a gallon of water a day, and use the WeightWatchers principles of counting points. I had an awareness of [weight loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way. I was actually recommending it [ozempic] to people long before I was on it myself."

In an interview with the Telegraph, Sistani - who previously worked for Yahoo and video app Houseparty - said: "I want no part in diet culture [and] I grappled with what it would mean to lead a company that is so deeply associated with it. But where I got myself to was, ‘I need to help reshape that’.

"I believe deeply in body positivity. I teach it to my kids, I try to practise it myself - self-loathing is at the disservice of losing weight."

The new WW programme, which is already live in the UK, USA and Germany, at the cost of £18.95 per month. This is the same as the standard membership price, although at the time of publication there is an offer of £10 for the first month.

Rivals Slimming World has a standard membership fee of £5 per week, with a weekly group fee of £5.95.