While exercising on my elliptical machine this morning watching ABC’s Good Morning America the show captured my attention with a report that Weight Watchers (“WW”) this week filed a lawsuit against one of its top competitors, Jenny Craig (“JC”). The dispute stems from a claim by JC that their clients lost, on average, over twice as much weight as those on the largest weight loss program. WW alleges that this claim is deceptive due it comparing a study by JC done this year versus one done by WW 10 years ago. According to this news release by Weight Watchers the complaint states that generally accepted standards of biomedical research require Jenny Craig to compare the two current offerings of both companies through a head-to-head randomized clinical trial.
“You can’t compare studies that were done in different locations at different times using different groups of people.”
– Louis Aronne, M.D, New York Presbyterian Hospital weight loss expert and author of Eat This, Not That
Although the judge has put a temporary restraining order against their offending ad, I wouldn’t rule out the JC claim prima facie. After all, as Smartmoney Magazine writer Angie Marek stated in her column on The Skinny on Big, Fat Diet Programs “the science on most of these plans is hardly conclusive, since most of the research has been paid for by the diet companies themselves.” In fact, I predict that this case will keep at least two statisticians fat and sassy as expert witnesses (one on each side of this tug-of-war).