Weight loss conglomerate Jenny Craig is closing their scales for good after 40 years. This is huge news for a couple of reasons. The first is because the company has been synonymous with weight loss for some of us our whole adult life. So I just don’t understand a world where we can’t sign up for a Jenny Craig meal plan. Since I don’t follow Bloomberg closely (which explains why I’m not poolside at a luxury resort sipping cocktails brought to me by Paul the Cabana guy) I missed that they reported on bankruptcy rumors surrounding Jenny last week. The company was $250M in debt and shopping for a buyer but didn’t get a bite. However, at that time, Jenny said they were just shutting down the “brick and mortar” shops and taking their biz online. It was a complete shock to employees when they got the email that they were out of a job Tuesday night.
Jenny Craig, the weight loss and nutrition business, is closing its doors after four decades, according to internal communications obtained by NBC News.
The company reportedly announced to employees in an email late Tuesday that they are shutting down “due to its inability to secure additional financing.”
PEOPLE has reached out to Jenny Craig for comment.
The decision comes less than a week after Bloomberg reported that the company had about $250 million of debt and was considering a bankruptcy filing if efforts to find a buyer for its assets failed.
Jenny Craig — which was founded in 1983, has 500 weight-loss centers in the United States and Canada, and boasts “millions of successful Jenny members” — said that Friday will be the last day for corporate and salaried field employees while this past Tuesday was the last day for hourly center employees, NBC reports.
According to NBC, employees were unaware of the company’s downward spiral.
In the termination letter, Jenny Craig reportedly told employees that they will receive a “final paycheck, including your full compensation earned through your last day of work and all accrued, unused paid time off.”
I have mixed emotions about this. First and foremost, I feel bad for the newly unemployed Jenny workers. I am happy to see they are getting some sort of package, though. Granted, it’s not great. I’m surprised they didn’t take the business online, that does seem to be the future of weight loss. Although perhaps their model doesn’t fit as snugly as others. So much of their business relies on their food sales.
I also feel bad for those who are currently relying on the Jenny system – kind of. As many of you know, my eating disorder has taken so many colorful forms. Of course, I did Jenny. My husband and I signed up together. For reference, I am 5’4”. At the time, I weighed 143 lbs and wore between a size 6 and an 8. On my initial visit, Jenny listed me as “Overfat.” I have since had a doctor almost pop a vein upon hearing that. I needed to lose a little weight, or convert some fat to healthier muscle, but what in the absolute hell is Overfat and why is someone who still fit in a reasonable BMI being told she fell in that category? A month after joining, I found out I was pregnant, so I had to stop the program. My husband, however, lost a bunch of weight. I won’t even tell you how they categorized him, but Jenny’s model was ideal for him. He works best when you hand him what to eat and tell him to just stick with that. (I’m better with the Weight Watchers model of eat what you want, but it has to stay in this calorie range.) However, during a check in a few months down the road, another Jenny employee said they were starving him and his plan was completely undernourished. He saw some results with his ‘correct’ plan, but things were never quite right after that.
I know Jenny was a big part of many people’s lives. So this is going to leave them reeling. I hope they find somewhere they feel comfortable. Maybe it will cost them less, too, because OMG, Jenny wasn’t cheap.
Photo credit: Instagram
The entire weight loss industry is SO problematic.
So, I say, BYEEEEEEE!!!
Sorry to the employees. But, again, this whole concept is toxic af. Hope they all find better jobs that aren’t based on making people feel bad about themselves.
This! I highly recommend everyone listen to the podcast Maintenance Phase – it has completely changed the way I think about my own body, bodies in general, and the entire weight loss (and wellness) industry, which (SPOILER ALERT) is really just all about capitalism.
It’s a great podcast, full of humour and great research.
The weightless industry is part of the ‘improvery’ industry, aimed at making people–principally women–feel bad about themselves so that they can sell them the fix that makes them feel better. Eat this way, wear this, try this mascara, that hair color, your body is x-shape so you should wear this, and on and on and on. I wish I could remember the name of the book or the author who essentially said, I’m done with this ‘improvery’ stuff, I’m fine & my life is good.
Honestly it wasn’t like that at all. I wanted to lose weight after baby and struggled on my own because I just didn’t know how. Never had to diet in the past. Jenny was amazing. I was never hungry, and the whole plan was designed to get your metabolism back on track. You’d eat hamburgers and pizza and pasta and cookies, but it was all in moderation and accompanied with other things you needed for proper nutrition. I’m truly sad for the brand to go.
I’m sorry, I submitted a post below before reading everyone’s comments, and I need to learn not to do that. But I wanted to reply that these companies going out of business does NOT mean that society is changing how it views weight (especially for women) — the reason is that drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic are filling the weight loss demand, in a way that is easier and requires less discipline than traditional weight loss programs. I didn’t just make that up, I read it in a financial publication predicting business trends some time ago.
I will say that the Jenny Craig company probably knew this was coming (if they read the same economic predictions) and should have done something so their employees had more notice.
This.
I did Weight Watchers in my late 20s, and it worked, because I added up points and stopped eating after I reached my daily allotment of “points”.
To no one’s surprise, I gained it back. The only thing that can actually change your body is exercise, and even then, a lot of us aren’t ever going to be “skinny”, and that’s okay.
Finding a good therapist and working on some general trauma helped me more with weightloss and my relationship to food than any diet program.
Truly this is what most people need, in my opinion. Sure, some people need education about nutrition, portion size, macros, etc. Especially at first and if they didn’t grow up in an environment where nutrition was taught and discussed. But I think most people – particularly chronic dieters – would benefit from examining their emotional relationship with food. Whether it relates to trauma, using food to soothe, deal with stress, combat boredom, whatever. Food is great and of course it’s more than just fuel, but it shouldn’t be the go-to solution for dealing with emotions. Therapy can really help with this.
In my ED journey I’ve found both approaches valuable. Information about proper nutrition for my body, and tools to help maintain that; and mental health care to deal with the issues that led to the behavior.
But the weight loss industrial complex is not about mental or physical health, it’s about separating people from their $$ through pseudoscience and psychological manipulation. So no tears shed for this company.
Agree with both of you, Bernie & AmB.
I agree that diets are not the answer long-term. It should be a whole-life approach to see what led someone to this and how to change what we can (poor nutrition growing up poor, or currently poor, or lack of knowledge of various good/bad foods, addictive personalities, stress eaters, etc.). I know it can’t all be changed and some like poverty is out of an individual’s control, but knowing what is contributing can help us make what choices are available, going forward.
Good riddance.
Over fat? JFC.
Fourth grade. That’s when this toxic AF weight loss worldview crept in for me via commercials like Jenny Craig. Byeeeeeeee. (Sorry for the employees.)
Weight loss with the objective of weight loss is so passé. Aim for health and body wellness!!! Our kids are so good with knowing their food, their exercise, their gym time. They’re gonna do so much better than us in this field.
They went bankrupt cause they don’t care about you or any other customers. They paid celebrities millions in endorsements while they were going bankrupt. They are not a good company.
I found the Half Size Me Community and it is fantastic! Heather Robertson focuses on learning to maintain your weight and make small sustainable habit change to lose weight. I’ll never do anything else!
OVERFAT??? My brain did a little somersault.
I think weightloss as a goal is simply not very 2023. You’re not supposed to want to lose weight, you’re supposed to want to get “fit” and looooove your body. Weightloss is associated with low self esteem and conforming to patriarchal norms and reserved for people who are obese. Who of course are only allowed to want it for their health, not their looks. All of it is simply a rebrand of weightloss as an aesthetic pursuit. I don’t know this company as a customer but if their motto is still weightloss, they just haven’t seen the writing on the wall.
Goodbye
143 lbs and they called you “overfat”. -_-
IDK…most of the folks I know who’ve done JC lost some weight with limited success while doing the program only to gain most of it back when they stopped. It just never seemed really sustainable to me.
But hearing about your experience, they just sound abusive TBH. 143 lbs is a completely normal weight for a woman who is 5′ 4″. If they were a responsible company, they would have told you you’re fine and sent you on your way. Instead, they took your money and fed into your disordered eating patterns. Unscrupulous business practices IMO.
This is so improper. Didn’t give clients the chance to transition. Didn’t give employees the chance to keep in touch with clients. It explains why the ran jenny craig into the groud.
The best thing is it stops autopay. I know some weightloss places make you sign a contract.
Their business existed to profit from human insecurities, and they left their employees high and dry with no warning. Good riddance.
As someone who has spent her entire adult life deprogramming herself from the body shaming, eating-disorder-inducing “weight loss is the only goal that matters” messages of the 80s and 90s, I say good riddance to JC, and I hope WW is next.
I see all these “good riddance” and “goodbye” posts but all that I can think of is that, even if Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers both went out of business, there would still be other companies and weight loss programs cropping up. There would still be gyms, gurus, personal trainers, or other ways (both brick and mortar or online businesses) offering ways for people to lose weight. Times have changed and people have definitely evolved in the last 40 years but, regardless of how it’s presented, many people still want to keep in shape or “be healthy” or however it’s presented. It’s true that more people are openly accepting of themselves and how they look but the issue is still deeper than one company.
If you had told me this was a story from 10-15 years ago, I would have believed it. I haven’t heard anyone mention Jenny Craig in eons.
They ended up in the same position that’s going to kill off a lot of companies in the next couple years. They loaded up on debt when interest rates were super-low and they can’t afford to service the debt now that rates have risen. Good riddance.
Aside from people losing jobs, I feel like it’s a good thing that they are closing. I just wish there weren’t like 4 probably springing up in it’s place already. I’ve learned SO MUCH about how predatory and misleading weight loss stuff is from the Maintenance Phase podcast. And I’m reading Aubry Gordon’s new book right now. It’s heartbreaking and eye opening. Anyway I’d recommend both of those!
There was a Jenny Craig store near me in the early 00’s I had a good experience with them. Lost some weight. And the women were really kind and supportive. But then they just shut down the location. Didn’t even give a warning. I was really let down by it. Never used them again.
I read a financial article predicting this a while back. The reason/speculation was that Ozempic and Wegovy would put these types of weight-loss companies out of business. The article was related to purely financial impact, not anything about the morality or wisdom of using of these drugs to lose weight.
I would have bet $20 that JC went out of business a good 10 years ago.
This is why I gave also a 3 day notice in my last job. One year later and they still want me back. Companies don’t give an eff about their employees. JC spent millions in celebrities sponsorships and the employees get a 3 days notice.
JC seemed like a relic that didn’t keep up with the times. You had to eat their highly processed, expensive food. WW, although still problematic, changes its program according to latest nutritional research and has de-emphasized weight loss language. I have used WW a couple of times successfully to shed a few pounds (post baby and much later, some added covid pounds). I just wish they would lose the weekly weigh-ins.