And then at the scientific advisory board meeting, my first month here, they read all the clinical trials that happened with these drugs. The FDA had approved Wegovy. We dove in. We even met with Novo Nordisk, who really tried to understand what was going on. And I just thought, “We’ve unlocked this amazing thing. How can we embrace it? How can we pick it up and help our members? We have a significant number of lapsed members, some of whom have lapsed because they were successful with the program and moved on, but others who have lapsed because our program alone could not help them. And so here is this opportunity to help people.”
A friend recently said, “Why would I ever use Weight Watchers if one day we’re all going to be getting injections that will suppress our appetite?”
That probably comes from someone who is privileged and understands healthy eating. For many people, they will still need education. We are now able to deal with the hungry gut through the drugs, but the part that is still missing is the hungry brain. It’s about understanding foods with a high nutrient density, ways for me to make sure I’m protecting my lean muscle mass. All of which will be important for the drugs to work well in the long run.
Can you explain the difference between the hungry gut and the hungry brain?
Behavioral change therapy targets cognitive patterns – the hungry brain – but there’s only so much you can stick to with behavior change when your biological factors are working against you – the hungry gut. The dual-action support with drugs and behavioral interventions empowers members [with this chronic condition] to make behavioral changes more easily, as each – brain and gut – receives the necessary support.
You can already see that, by the way. If you go on TikTok, you will find a lot of people on drugs that do it alongside Weight Watchers.
I often ask technologists this: Many of these innovations, as exciting as they are, are based on the idea that most of them will be used for good. I also think of scenarios where a doctor rejects a patient for potentially life-saving drugs because they see in the Weight Watchers app, “Oh, but you’re not actually eating that healthy.” I mean, that judgment is happening now. They think they are lazy. That is it.
There’s a lot in it. The part that’s interesting, in terms of how we’re entering the medication space, is that we’ve heard from people who don’t want to go to their GP who have been telling them all their lives, “Just lose the weight, just eat healthier.” Many of these people have had chronic conditions that went unrecognized, it wasn’t about their own behavior, so they rather choose this kind of path – because of the shame they experienced in those offices.
The separate thing then is, if you’re on these drugs, are you going to change your diet alongside them? That’s a tough one. If you are hypertensive and on ACE inhibitors, but you still eat steaks and high-sodium foods, does that mean you shouldn’t get the medication? That seems like a wild judgment I wouldn’t make.
Going back to the question you started with, which is, “Did you feel like you were going to be left behind or what does this mean for your core program?” It’s even interesting to me that you ask that question here. Because the difference is that we would never, say, condemn a more traditional tech company for introducing new features or adopting AI or trying to do something new.
Oh, we review them often though.
You think?
It depends. But yeah.
But we also all have an expectation and a desire for those companies, the establishment, if you will, to self-dislocate and understand when maybe they were wrong in the past or when they could do better. And so the question is, “What can we do better?” I think this is an opportunity for us to say, “Oh wow, we haven’t recognized the hungry gut for most of our existence. But the science has evolved now, we know more, we’ve learned more, we’re going to do better for those members.” That’s how I see it.
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