Slimming clubs lock members into 'straitjackets' of false hope, says Orbach.

Commercial slimming clubs used by hundreds of thousands of women and men in the UK lock their members into lifelong "straitjackets" of unrealistic expectations about weight loss, a committee of MPs has heard.
Giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry on body image, author and psychotherapist Susie Orbach criticised companies such as Weight Watchers and Slimming World for misleading slimmers by giving them false hope.

Singling out a recent TV advertisement used by Weight Watchers, which cost £15m – thought to be the most expensive advert ever shown in the UK – Orbach told the committee on Monday and the company's representative that in the advert "everyone was my size, but about 20 years younger" to suggest its publicity material always shows slim people.

Earlier, about 50 women who claimed to have been failed by the diet industry protested outside parliament, carrying placards saying: "Riot, don't diet", and complaining that the only thing that had got thinner was their wallets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/17/slimming-clubs-straitjackets-susie-orbach