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I watched James Corden’s whole interview with Oprah promoting Weight Watchers. There was a large group of Weight Watcher members on Zoom clapping and watching live, which was nice to see. While I didn’t come away with more affection for Corden, he did get vulnerable and it was fascinating how Oprah got him to open up. He even got a little weepy at one point, and no shame in that. I would bawl like a baby talking to Oprah. Kaiser and I talked about that on the last Gossip With Celebitchy podcast, how Oprah is like a therapist. We think Oprah will be able to get Duchess Meghan to open up because she’s Oprah and has decades of experience interviewing people.
We heard early in January that Corden had become a Weight Watchers spokesperson simply by calling them up and telling them he wanted to lose weight. He was emotional in his announcement about that and said he’s struggled with his weight for over a decade. Corden told Oprah that he’s lost 16 pounds in the five weeks that he’d been on Weight Watchers at that point. He was really enthusiastic about being able to eat regular food and not having to give up whole food groups like on his past diets. Honestly this interview made me want to try Weight Watchers again, because Oprah can sell me anything. Here’s some of what they said and you can see the video here. This came out last week but I’m just seeing it now.
On Carpool Karaoke
God bless Mariah Carey for saying yes, because if she hadn’t said yes, I don’t even know if our show would have been on the air for more than three months. She took a real gamble on us and we will always, always love her for itOn his dream Carpool Karaoke guest
It has to be Beyonce, doesn’t it?On losing weight and dieting
I’ve constantly gone on diets and I’ve seen them as diets. A shake in the morning, a shake in the evening, all of that nonsense in between. I may have lost 10 pounds in a month. And then two months after that, I’m 20 pounds heavier than I was at the start. There is no quick fix to this. This is a journey where I have to change my relationship with foods and change the way that I consume food. I don’t have to starve myself of all of these things that I love and enjoy.I’m not going ‘Right, that’s it, I’m on a diet. Breads gone. Carbohydrate, gone. Chocolate gone everything gone.’
I’m down 16 pounds. I’d really like to experience just one day underneath 200 pounds. When I met my wife, I was about 280. And when I started this on WW, I was 236. I’m now 220.
[From Weight Watchers on YouTube]
After that Corden talked about connecting with the other Weight Watchers members and while I didn’t buy that part of his talk, he did seem to be genuinely affected by working with them and being so successful early on. As I often say, Weight Watchers is the best paid program out there. It’s not gimmicky and while they have their own branded foods they don’t push them too much. I’m still using MyFitnessPal but it didn’t stop me from going up a size during lockdown. I considered joining Noom but they seemed to keep changing their prices based on what I was willing to pay. Plus they have a lot of bad reviews. Maybe I’ll try Weight Watchers again, I know they won’t fleece me. I would say James Corden can sell me things, but I think Oprah’s power just rubs off on everyone.
Also I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Corden say before now that Beyonce is his dream Carpool Karaoke guest. I wonder if she talked to Dave Grohl and decided against it.
Please note that I wrote this all last night before I saw James’ interview with Prince Harry! Harry smoked him on the Spartan course, which was cute.
I tried WW about two years ago and I gained 10 pounds on it. So it didnt really work for me, LOL. That said, I think I’m going to try it again starting March 1. I’m going to do the most restricted plan, in terms of zero point foods, and see if that helps.
I did it with the smartpoints or freestyle, I cant remember what they are all called at this point lol, so there were points but not the color groups, and lots of zero point foods. Which sounds great – but I LOVE things like black beans, so I would have three eggs scrambled with black beans and some salsa and cheese and a corn tortilla for breakfast every day. It was something like 2 or 3 points, but it was obviously a lot of calories. So I think trying the plan with the least zero point foods(I think its purple?) will be better for me, at least to start. My big issue is portion control so I’m hoping I can use that to motivate me.
my other big issue is the weekends – on MFP I’ll be within my calorie range every day and then Saturday or Sunday hit and I know I consume WAY too much and it hurts my progress.
I also tried Noom and first – it was expensive and I dont like how their pricing is not transparent (I was doing a free trial and they never told me how much it would cost, just hit my credit card with a hundred dollar charge at the end of the free trial. I complained and got the money back but still.) But it reminded me a lot of WW – emphasis on healthier foods that are more likely to fill you up, etc. I didnt find the coaching to be anything special or helpful though.
So all that said – March 1! I’m ready! I need to lose my quarantine weight and then some, but I’ll start with the quarantine weight.
I’ve had huge success on WW, so I am always happy to promote it. It’s the only “diet” (the forbidden WW word) where I can feel like I am eating normal food. Plus their blue plan pushed me into eating much better proteins and eliminating processed foods. Good luck to you Becks!
I did Noom last year which is very similar to WW. But calorie counting isn’t right for me. Makes me too focused on food. The time I lost the most weight is when I went strict plant based with nothing processed (ie no tofu or meat substitutes). I need to get back to that.
Oh and the WW “simply filling” list is great and can be easily Googled. Especially if you aren’t vegan and want more options for your diet.
I’m so confused. We slam Gwyneth for promoting diet culture and clap for James for promoting diet culture?
WW promotes healthy eating, portion control, and all things in moderation. Gwynnie promotes vagina eggs and snake oil. Her diet culture runs along the lines of starvation. Big difference.
Disagree. It all boils down to the same message: your body is the wrong size; let me sell you something that will make it the right size.
@Lascivious, body shaming is never okay but being very overweight DOES cause extra health problems. It did for me. I chose to go this healthy weight loss route for my health. I’ve never once been ashamed of how I look nor have I ever felt any reason to. WW was great – I was never once hungry and I had a lot more energy because I was putting healthier food and healthier portions into my body. The community on the app is so supportive. It’s not like Beach Body 21 day fix where you’re literally starving yourself to look like the “super hot models” they show you.
@Sandra I don’t want anyone on here to think that I don’t support people doing what’s best for them and taking good care of their health. I’m just pointing out that if we’re against one celebrity shilling diet culture shame-y products, we should be against all of them. There’s also a big difference between a celebrity telling us what works for them and selling us a product that works for them.
I’d argue he is slamming diet culture as well – he talks about all the fade of shakes, and then regaining weight aterwards, and how that’s non sense.
He admits it’s all about making peace with your relationship with food overall, so you don’t have to “give up” on carbs or chocolate. I think that’s the healthy approach. no shade from me for wanting to have a healthier lifestyle which isn’t gimmicky.
Julia – agreed. Even though I stated above that WW isn’t for me personally, I consider them a healthy option that promotes a positive attitude about food. The U.S. especially is out of control with portion sizes and processed foods. WW is about learning better habits in the face of awful influences. I don’t consider that diet culture.
I feel like our whole society has such a messed up relationship with food. I’ve seen some friends and social media accounts post recently about how tracking calories and meals really screwed them up mentally and obsess over every calories and how MFP and WW are basically giving them worse eating disorders. This is not how we evolved to deal with food but if it works for people then good for them. I’m suspicious of these programs as I see them getting more backlash.
I’m so over celebs talking about their diets. Unless you are an athlete or a doctor, I’m don’t care what you eat and I’m not interested in hearing about it.
@MF agreed.
i was on that oprah webinar too! i had done the series earlier during lockdown and wasn’t going to miss out. i really like James.
I joined WW in Jan 2020 and lost 44 pounds over 10 months on the Green plan. I’ve been maintaining since. It really does work and it does not feel like a diet at all. Once you get in the habit of tracking your food it is super easy to follow. Can’t recommend it enough!
I loved Noom. I lost 63lbs in 5.5 months over the spring/summer. I’ve been off the program for 4 months now, and I have maintained my healthier weight so far (and that includes all the indulging I did around the holidays!). I’ve never tried WW, but I think they are very similar programs? During and post-Noom, I think the best thing is I truly don’t feel like I’m depriving myself. I eat what I want, just in smaller portions, and I’ve learned how much I actually need to be full. I’m really surprised to hear that CB has read a lot of bad reviews of Noom – genuinely curious what it is that people didn’t like about it?
I’ve been doing Noom and I’ve lost 25 lbs since thanksgiving! It’s expensive, but if it works it’s worth it! The main complaint I have is the food tracking, the database is kind of a PITA but I’m using Lose It at the same time & that’s a lot easier. I like the Noom weight graph & the lessons though, it’s really been helpful to keep me from freaking out & quitting when the scale goes up. My coach & group are awesome too! If I could mash the 2 apps together I’d be in heaven
I read zillion reviews and they were overwhelmingly positive (except for the people who were complaining about being billed on the billing date because they didn’t read the print). The initial plan that I was offered was like a week free trial and 8 months for $200. I did nothing for several days and they sent me an email for two free weeks and eight months for $134.
They want me to lose 125 lbs. LOLOLOLOL. I’m aiming for 105. The first 20 are gone.
WW is just a complicated calorie counting system that adds another layer of confusion (colors, points, etc ) and makes people dependent on knowing points/colors instead of deep-diving into actual nutritional information and the satiety level of food (and drink). That’s why when a lot of people go off the program, they gain back weight – because they still don’t understand their body’s specific caloric needs for maintaining their weight and think they can eat the way they used to.
To purposely over-simplify, if you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. It’s physiology. There are medical/diseased-based exceptions to this but they are not applicable to most. Also, you are not “big boned” or have a super-fast or slow metabolism. Yes, your metabolism slows as you age (but very gradually) and it’s naturally lower for a short female than a tall male (this is more drastic, the difference can be by a 1000 calories burned per day or more!).
But in the end, if you can roughly calculate what YOUR caloric needs are to maintain your current weight, and create a minor deficit of 500 calories thru diet or exercise (or both), you will lose 1 lb per week. Because we are made primarily out of water and have hormones, the weight loss graph won’t be linear (jumps, stalls) but you WILL be losing fat and it all eventually comes out in the wash if you maintain that deficit.
You could do this eating donuts or salads. If you eat all junk, you’ll feel like hell and crash, eventually, due to nutritional deficiencies. If you eat all salads and completely cut out food you love, you’ll get burned out, see this as a mere diet and not a lifestyle change, and go back to your old ways.
If you maintain a balanced diet (again, for your body, not a 6’5″ male, unless you are one) and aim to make nutritional, yet enjoyable choices the majority of the time and “budget” your calories for cake, cookies, high-calorie/high-sugar ‘less nutrient-rich’ food so you can still incorporate them into your lifestyle, you will transform your relationship with food AND your health goals and maintain them forever.
Noom taught me all this stuff, and doing some nutrition 101 research on my own helped me retain it. Tracking my food in My Fitness Pal now that I graduated from Noom helps me manage my 180 pound loss (about 1.5 years to get to that, I started Noom July 2019). It’s easy, helps me meal plan, and it’s something I’ve accepted I need to do for the foreseeable future until I’ve really got a handle on maintainance (1+ years minimum).
But if you don’t want to pay for Noom, or WW and just want to understand how our bodies use energy and why you can’t eat the same as your taller friend/boyfriend and why the 2000 daily calorie rec from the USDA would make most US women GAIN weight (hint, it wasn’t written for us, it was written for white, tall males), research CICO (calories in/calories out), use a (free!) app to track what you eat, and be HONEST about tracking, and you will see why you keep gaining weight or how you need to restrict to lose it. People sleep on calorie counting because it’s free and corporations can’t make money off it and monetize your pain/demotivation/low confidence, and CICO isn’t a meal plan that be shilled to you and make you dependent on it.
I really do not find this man funny.
How he has such a successful career and has $millions, no idea.