Meister couldn’t be reached for comment. A WeightWatchers spokesperson said the company is “grateful for her contributions to our weight health mission” and said that she has been “an asset to our organization.”
WeightWatchers has come under pressure as Americans increasingly turn to new drugs to lose weight. Last year, WeightWatchers acquired Sequence, a telehealth startup offering prescriptions for weight-loss drugs.
The company’s shares are down 85% since the start of this year as injectable obesity treatments from Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. have grown into blockbuster products, sapping demand for the diet programs on which WeightWatchers made its name. The market for weight-loss medication is expected to exceed $130 billion by the end of the decade, according to analysts.
Earlier this year, WeightWatchers pulled the plug on an ill-fated attempt at influencer marketing after efforts to set up a TikTok-friendly hype house for GLP-1 users sparked a social-media backlash. Oprah Winfrey, a longtime spokesperson for WeightWatchers, said in February that she would leave the company’s board, causing the stock to lose nearly a third of its value in one day. In March, Winfrey used a prime time special on ABC to talk about her own experiences with weight-loss shots, asking an audience of millions: “Why do we need WeightWatchers if we have Zepbound and Wegovy?”
The company’s pivot to pharmaceuticals for weight loss was a jarring change for members accustomed to WeightWatchers’ system of assigning point values to every meal and driving behavioral change through dietary measurements. WeightWatchers’ evolution is the work of Chief Executive Officer Sima Sistani, who joined the company from Silicon Valley in 2022.
