The Relative Importance of Weight Management

Jenny knows how hard it is to lose weight. She sees the “real” before-and-after photos of dieters in advertisements and secretly wishes one of the ads could be her. And, when Jenny encounters images of celebrities and their “perfect bodies,” she wonders how they do it and rationalizes it is because “money can buy anything.” For her, weight management is an emotionally charged issue; one that has caused her to feel “pathetic” in her battle to reach and maintain a certain weight.

There are literally tens of thousands of stories like Jenny’s across America today, as consumers from all walks of life struggle with how they see themselves and with what are often deeply personal and emotional experiences involving weight management.Yet, one of the most striking findings comes from our research on understanding weight management from the consumer’s viewpoint. A number of people do not recognize the personal need to lose weight, but do see others as needing to do so. On the other hand, virtually all consumers, including those who are underweight, think they would be better off if they lost a few pounds.

Typically, when people hear the term “weight management,” they think “weight loss.” And while many people have a specific number of pounds in mind they want to lose, the presence of a “weight loss goal” does not necessarily imply that consumers think they are obese, dangerously overweight or even think they have a problem with their weight. This is to say, there isn’t an ordained list of “five main reasons” to lose weight.

Preaching the Promise

By now, consumers have to be weary of all the pulpit preaching going on about their lack of resolve, self-discipline and self-control to lose weight; as if words alone will make a difference when so much else has failed. Look at the number of new products that have been introduced or reformulated in recent years to promote healthier “lower fat” benefits. Then consider the policies implemented to ban “unhealthy” products from school vending machines and the cafeteria menus that have been overhauled to eliminate the junk food. The government put its much-maligned Food Pyramid through an “extreme makeover,” and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and Food Marketing Institute (FMI) have joined forces to create a marketing campaign designed to translate the Food Pyramid’s guidelines to help consumers learn more about healthy eating.

Well-intentioned as these products, policies and marketing campaigns seem to be, sadly, nothing seems to be working; Americans, we are told on an almost daily basis, continue to put on the pounds. Products, policies and preaching are not effective in getting people to change their eating habits; but if rhetoric doesn’t work, what does motivate people to want to lose weight, and what can trigger a change in behavior?

Call to Action

Consumers are not all that objective when assessing their weight. Although many use scales, they are devices that produce numbers relative to a prior weight to which they would like to return. The resolve to “do something about it” and make changes is momentary, disappearing by the time they pass the refrigerator door or stop by the nearest coffee shop on the way to work. Equally ineffective in their ability to move people to change behavior are the Body Mass Index (BMI) and scientific and medical assessments such as diet evaluations and DNA testing.

Consumers are aware of the apparent connection between excess weight and health risks. Since most do not perceive themselves to be at risk, however, behavior is not altered. In fact, slightly more than one-quarter of consumers (27 percent) agree with the statement: “there is nothing wrong with being overweight as long as the person is healthy.” Most consumers say they do not believe weight is a good measure of their health and that fluctuations in body composition (i.e., fat and muscle) can be misleading and ambiguous.

The concept of ideal body weight or type is perceived by consumers to be more destructive than constructive and, for many, represents an obsolete way of thinking about health. Not surprisingly, ideals about how one’s body should be shaped are influenced primarily by images disseminated through the mass media (i.e., advertising, television, movies, magazines, music videos, etc.), as well as general cultural politics. For most consumers these ideals serve as desirable goals, but in the form of wishes similar to what Jenny described in our opening, when she wondered how celebrities are able to maintain what she perceives as “perfect bodies.” What she really means is, “I really wish that my body looked like...”

Comparing one’s own body type to that of a thin fashion model or other celebrity, however, may or may not result in behavioral changes. It certainly isn’t as compelling when consumers encounter a photograph or catch a glimpse of themselves in the mirror or a reflection in glass windows. These are triggers consumers cite most often that move them to action.

An old photograph can be a brutal reminder, eliciting the all-toofamiliar response, “I can’t believe I was ever that skinny.” Photographs, especially those in the context of group shots where body types are set into juxtaposition with one another, and reflections are cues of one’s current weight and give consumers otherwise acclimated to their weight a sudden urge of displeasure at seeing their physical shape.

Another powerful motivator can be found in this consumer statement: “These jeans just get tighter every time I wash them.” When clothes no longer fit, especially a favorite pair of jeans, many consumers begin to see themselves as “having a weight problem.” Of all the possible methods of objective weight measurement, this one is the most powerful symbolically. Unlike a higher number of pounds, a higher percentage of body fat or an elevated BMI score, clothes that no longer fit suggest that consumers no longer are the same person they once were. This is often a distressing experience for many, since most consumers have plenty of photographs of themselves lying around the house or stored in files on their PCs in which they wear the very clothes that no longer fit. These form poignant reminders of “what they used to look like” and to what they would like to return.

Making up one’s mind to shed unwanted extra pounds is certainly an important aspect of weight management; actually doing something about it, however, is a different matter.

Industry’s Potential Role

American consumers have a long-standing love affair with selfimprovement as a generalized cause to lose weight. The most arresting explanations consumers give as the underlying cause for being overweight are inactivity—a lack of exercise—and bad eating— defined as eating too much in general, an inability to control portion size or eating too much of the “wrong” foods, such as the ubiquitous junk food.

Diet and exercise are seemingly intertwined into the very fabric of American consciousness. People in general don’t want to mess with their diet.They say instead that they must “get out more” and increase their activity levels. To lose weight, consumers rationalize that they must burn more calories. If they eat a donut in the morning, for instance, they promise to work it off by walking further that evening or spend a few additional minutes on exercise equipment at the gym.

Without question, portion size is a crucial element in the rhetoric of weight management or weight loss strategies. Consumers cite inappropriate or uncontrollable portion sizing as a primary hurdle to proper eating habits, as well as a more general cause of being overweight or obese. Not surprisingly, consumers are also quick to suggest that the reigning in of portion sizes is the cornerstone of any successful weight management strategy. Just over half (56 percent) of those who have dieted to lose weight say they adjusted portion sizes as part of their most recent dieting strategy. And as one consumer put it most succinctly, “I think portions are my biggest problem with eating.”

Yet, while portion size is surely a top-of-mind issue for many, the actual activity of regulating portion sizes proves significantly more challenging.

As the obesity debate rages on and rhetoric is falling upon the collective deaf ears of an entire nation, there is an urgent need for more and higher quality information to help pull Americans out of the “weight management” rut. The government alone can’t fix the problem; no one agency, foundation, corporation or person can fix the problem. The answer lies not in changing food products, but in changing culture. And it will take more than the belief that diet and exercise are the sole culprits—and the only solutions—to fix a cultural epidemic.

Laurie Demeritt is the president and chief operating officer (COO) of The Hartman Group, a leading consulting and market research firm. The Hartman Group specializes in the analysis and interpretation of consumer lifestyles and how these lifestyles affect the purchase and use of health and wellness products and services. For more on the Obesity in America: Understanding Weight Management from a Consumer Perspective report, contact The Hartman Group at www.hartmangroup.com.