Will Weight Watchers at Work unsafely goof with my work reputation?

December 28, 2005 6:41 PM

I’d appreciate people’s advice as to whether I should join my firm’s Weight Watchers at Work program.

Reasons for? I weigh 310-320 pounds, and need to lose at the very least about 120-140 pounds. My obesity has caused me many problems, such as back problems and an umbilical cyst. I’m hoping to shed 40 pounds before the end of May; last summer was positively hellish for me, heatwise. I once lost 21 pounds on Weight Watchers (309 to 288) quite a few years ago, and nothing else I’ve tried (off and on) has enabled me to lose that much weight. It is held here at my company, so it would be a lot easier to get to. And Weight Watchers Online is accessible, yes, but wouldn’t have the same advantages, and is much more easily ignored than the meetings that require weigh-ins and such. Plus, there’s a generally recognized statistic that those who attend WW meetings usually have a higher success rate.

Reasons against? I am a man, and have only been on the job about a month; I would most definitely stand out, as I’ve been told secondhand that the group is overwhelmingly female. (I’m only one of two male secretaries at this company.) In a firm this size, it might become very easy for my weight loss efforts to become associated with my identity, and for my personal business to become public. Not on a large scale, mind you – I’m too much of a peon for that – but I feel it might be easily intermixed with what people know about my professional reputation. And should I fail — not a pleasant thought, but one that must be considered, given my history over the last decade — I’d really not like to have people get up in my business about it. I am trying to be very careful in how I “paint my reputation” at this new company, trying to be known as that nice guy, oh, him, hard worker. And, also, in my experience, a lot of WW focuses on recipes and cooking, which is something I have absolutely no skill with. And, I have yet to investigate some ideas that sound interesting to me, such as Volumetrics and FitDay.Com.

Anyway, it’s very possible I’m far too close to the problem to be seeing this clearly. And, yes, I’m posting anonymously because I’m trying to be discrete about my weight loss efforts.

posted by anonymous to grab bag (18 comments total)

weight loss being associated with your identity is a much better thing than being associated with being (frankly) a fatass that isn't losing weight. I think you'd get more respect than you think.

I think it's also time you learn to cook healthy, so why not? Can't succeed without risks. I think you're overthinking it when honestly, it sounds like your main goal should be weight loss at any cost wrt. your health concerns at this point. Your outlook should be that in 12 months, people will be dumbfounded that you're the same guy they hired a year ago.. not that you'll probably fail and everyone will make fun of you for it (not saying that's the case).
posted by kcm at 6:53 PM on December 28, 2005

Any activity involving long-term discipline or sacrifice is always easier with a group. And any feelings that one is being singled out, observed, or gossiped about are always exaggerated.

Go for it, with my best wishes and surely those of the entire Mefi community.
posted by mono blanco at 7:04 PM on December 28, 2005

Your question answers itself: do it.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:05 PM on December 28, 2005

Join.
posted by dpx.mfx at 7:07 PM on December 28, 2005

Join. You stand to lose some weight, and meet some women. As far as your personal business, everybody already knows you're fat anon, OK? So instead of that scenario, you'll be anon who is trying to better himself by losing some weight.

And stop eating out at least one meal per day. We both know you do.
posted by Fat Guy at 7:11 PM on December 28, 2005

I'm a female WW member, and it's the one program I have stuck with and experienced a significant amount of success with, so I can't say enough good things about it. I started off doing the online version, which is great. The online tools provided by WeightWatchers.com are really helpful and intuitive, and it provides you with all of the material you need to DO the program.

However, I chose to join meetings (which is more expensive & time consuming), because I needed an extra kick in the butt to stay on track. Weighing myself every week is easy to blow off, but when you've paid in advance to have someone else weigh you, it makes me work a little harder. I have been in 3 different meeting groups. They all ranged from about 15-20 people total, and most groups had at least 2-3 men.

WW meetings don't tend to put a person on the spot unless they want to be. The leader will ask the group if anyone wants to share stories or ideas or new products or new recipes, which is great because you can learn a lot from other successful weight watchers. However, if you don't feel comfortable being the center of attention, you can just listen and gain a lot from just going. Your weight and progress are kept confidential between you & the leader.

Honestly, I don't think it's a big deal that you are a man. Everyone who is going to join WW at work has the same goal as you, to lose weight.

As far as people finding out you're on WW at the office...well, I was really embarrassed about that too. However I've found that most people are impressed with people for doing something positive for themselves, and you may find that more people are interested in WW and getting healthy than you think.

Also...men lose faster on WW. I don't think it's fair, personally, but you will be the envy of your peers.

As far as non-WW options go, I have also used Fitday. It isn't as structured, as in you make your own calorie & nutritional goals, but it is a great program for keeping tabs of your nutrition, and you can't beat the price. Good luck! And please don't hesitate to drop me a line if you have any questions about WW or other programs.
posted by tastybrains at 7:15 PM on December 28, 2005

I think your health should take precedence over what your co-workers might think about you.
posted by elisabeth r at 7:30 PM on December 28, 2005

I recommend not joining Weight Watchers at work.

WW has a great program; it's worked for you in the past, and there's no reason it can't work again. It's worked for me, too. I've never tried the meeting part, but a lot of people like that, and it may work for you too.

But I still don't recommend doing it through your work. I think this is a personal problem that shouldn't be all mixed up with your work -- if your marriage was having a hard time, and your counselor recommended group therapy, would you want to do it with your coworkers? I would run like hell, which is exactly what I'd do in this situation.

There's just too much potential for problems. Any coworkers you don't get along with perfectly? Even the tiniest chance you might fail -- and it could be attributed to lack of will or motivation? Are you going to be able to commit to the full thing -- and from what I understand, meetings can include the extremes of emotion, and can often almost be called therapy -- while your coworkers are watching? Or this scenario: One day you've had an awful, miserable day, and you go for the vending machine chocolate instead of your carrot sticks. You know you can make it up with less points at dinner, but everyone in the office will be remarking on the chocolate and being disappointed in you. This is not stuff I would want to be tangled up in.

I definitely recommend trying to lose weight, and I recommend WW to do it. If meetings work for you, that's great. But I would not, under any circumstances, do it with my coworkers.

(WW can focus on recipes/cooking, but it doesn't need to. I enjoy baking, but I'm not much of a chef, and that was never a problem for me. Can you grill a chicken breast, boil an egg, put popcorn in the microwave? It's easy to start that way, and you can always branch out slowly when you feel comfortable.)
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:30 PM on December 28, 2005

I second what Elisabeth said. Who cares what people think of you. It's obvious you want to lose weight for yourself in the first place, not for them.

FYI, a recent study showed that WW was by far the most successful diet in the world, in terms of people actually losing weight AND keeping the weight off.

I have a very good friend who works at Oklahoma's largest newspaper. He's a man, and he joined his company's WW program and got down to under 200 lbs. The company obvisouly supports this because it's better for their insurance if their emplyees are healthier (not to mention less sick days, etc. etc.) His company also has an entire gym on one floor of their building free for all employees to use.

GO FOR IT! And good luck.
posted by Brittanie at 7:41 PM on December 28, 2005

Go for it! If any of my secretaries, or partners, wanted to do this, I would be impressed. I would see it as another way they are trying to advance themselves. It would be as if I found out they were taking Latin classes at night. Best of luck to you!
posted by Mhead at 8:01 PM on December 28, 2005

So what if you are a man?

The women will take you under their wing. Trust me.

And going to WW will send the signal you are facing your difficulty and doing something about it. That is nothing but positive. Plus you won't fail.

One thing I do recommend-find time for some sort of exercise as well. This will train your body to use fat for fuel, and will help you build muscle mass which also burns calories. (I know from experience.)

Go for it!
posted by konolia at 8:04 PM on December 28, 2005

My company had a 'lose 20lb in 2 months' thing and that's what got me started on my weight loss. I didn't do anything until about two weeks before the deadline, and I lost almost 15 pounds in those two weeks (the rest I was able to make up for by dressing lighter, and how I stood on the scale). I never looked back and in four and a half months I'd lost 60 pounds.

There were a lot of reasons for me want to lose weight and, but the work thing was just a little extra motivator, but it helped. Our company is going to have another weight contest in feb, I think, but I might be too skinny to participate.

People around the office gave me lots of complements, etc, and that was very encouraging as well.
posted by delmoi at 10:33 PM on December 28, 2005

Seriously, JOIN NOW.

Every personal goal came be more effectively pursued if you know everyone knows what you are up to.

Just this very day, one of my favorite muscle head resources, Testosterone Magazine, had an article recommending that you tell your goals to everyone.

Sure, you will feel peer pressure not to eat that donut. But its for your own good.
posted by ewkpates at 5:50 AM on December 29, 2005

Let me tell you about my experience with Weight Watchers at Work, perhaps it'll help.

I joined WWAW, because I couldn't motivate myself to try it elsewhere, and wanted to see how the meetings would help. I despised the leader, but that's not a problem specific to WWAW, it could happen at any WW location.

There were about 20 people in our program, and 2 were men. The men did stand out a little, but not in a particularly negative sort of way. If you're not prepared to hear women kvetch a bit about PMS and bloating, then you might find the environment uncomfortable.

I work in a building with 3-400 people, and only 20 of us were in the program, so I rarely saw other people, never mind talked to them. But we'd occasionally run into each other in the cafeteria and consult on points and such. The environment in WW is not big on 'Oh my god you ate a chocolate bar, you scum', but rather 'Oh, had a chocolate bar? Well, remember to write it down on your flex points.' so there's not a lot of watching of other people and what they eat.

The meetings were not painfully emotional. There were 'I was having a shitty week, and I ate this much crap,' sorts of moments, but nothing much more than that in our group. Mostly WW focuses as much energy as possible on the positive things, rather than the negative, and the negative stuff is often discusses with a humourous tone so it doesn't get too serious.

It's entirely possible that you could join WWAW and not have anyone on your direct team even be aware of it, depending on the schedule of the meetings and how your job usually works in relation to meetings. Here, we all have dozens of meetings a week, with various groups of co-workers and clients, so disappearing for an hour a week is completely normal. I'm sure most of my team never even knew when I switched from just being on the WW diet (which I kvetched about constantly) to joining WWAW.

The biggest advantage for me, in joining WWAW over just a regular WW program is that my employer reimburses 80% of health and lifestyle programs, provided they have a defined start and end. So just joining WW wouldn't be reimburseable, but joining WWAW, which runs in 14 week sessions, is. That made the experience quite a lot cheaper for me.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:24 AM on December 29, 2005

As others have said as well, I think you're making more of this appearance/identity thing than anyone else will. It's easy to do, and to assume others make more of our weight than they do - it's with us 24/7 so it's hard NOT to see it as overwhelming.

Most of the people around you probably already think you can't control your eating. Finding out you joined a program and weren't able to alter your weight is just more of the same to them. I suspect that most won't find out - they probably don't pay enough attention to know.

The people who do pay enough attention to you to know... why is that a bad thing? You're a human, you have desires and goals and strengths and failings. It's what makes you who you are and it's your trials and travails that make up your life and what you talk about. Everyone who reads this has tried and failed to be richer or smarter or slimmer or more successful with members of their prefered sex.

I guess you could choose to be an inhuman corporate robot and reflect none of those things about yourself where any cow orker could see them, but why? Be a professional and put your work and duties first when you're in the office but don't stress over never seeming to have any flaws.
posted by phearlez at 9:16 AM on December 29, 2005

it might become very easy for my weight loss efforts to become associated with my identity

This isn't a bad thing, especially as your obesity is no doubt already associated with your identity. I've had obese coworkers who've made it known they're trying to lose weight. People are generally very supportive and discreet about it. I'd venture to say that some people even feel admiration. It's not a problem everyone has, and when I see someone struggling with something I don't even have to think about, I feel they're better than me in some way. They're able to bear something I am completely ignorant of. I guess I feel the same toward anyone who works to overcome a physical challenge of some kind.

In any case, people are discriminatory toward the obese. Doing something about your obesity will definitely only help your image.
posted by scarabic at 11:22 AM on December 29, 2005

I think you should try WWAW because WW works for you and it sounds like the convenience of having meetings at work would help you stick with it. If you show commitment to bettering yourself, support any coworkers who are also in the program, and generally maintain your professional attitude in the rest of your job, I'm willing to bet you'll gain respect. My company has a deal with a local gym's weight loss program and a lot of my coworkers have gone through it. People who participate in the program are perceived in a good light because they are working hard and because their visible progress is inspiring to others.
posted by rhiannon at 5:37 PM on December 29, 2005

I agree with many others that you are probably overestimating the reaction you'll get from others. Honestly, it will probably barely register with them. Most people don't think about others that much - they're thinking about themselves, just like you are.

But I'd suggest that if you don't join WW at work, definitely join a non-work one. If WW is something that works for you, make sure you make use of it, one way or another.
posted by orange swan at 6:42 PM on December 30, 2005