What’s the most cost-effective route to weight loss? A recent study compared the most successful weight-management programs and medications to find the answer. (Stepan Popov/Getty Images)
A good weight loss program will not only trim inches from your waistline, it can add healthy years to your life. But spending months on diet pills or participating in a weight management program can also be pricey.
Researchers at Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Graduate Medical School took a look at the most successful programs and medications to see which one offered the most cost-effective path to becoming slim and trim.
Three diet programs — Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and Vtrim — and three medications — phentermine/topiramate (Qsymia), lorcaserin (BELVIQ) and orlistat
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(Alli, Xenical) — met the criteria for inclusion in the study. Liquid meal supplements and weight loss surgery were excluded.
The researchers found that Weight Watchers and the drug phentermine/topiramate offered the best value (cost of pounds lost) for the money. The Jenny Craig program generated the most weight loss per year, but it was the most expensive of the six options.
Dollars Per Pound
Weight Watchers cost an average of $377 a year and participants lost an average of about five pounds. Jenny Craig users lost an average of 16 pounds, but the annual cost was more than $2,500. The study attributed the high cost of Jenny Craig to the number of prepared foods and products needed to complete the program.
Phentermine/topiramate cost $1,336 per year, compared to the most expensive medication, lorcaserin, which runs $1,743 a year. The study data brought Weight Watchers in at about $155 per kilogram and Jenny Craig in at about $355 per kilogram.
The information is not only helpful for consumers; the research team hopes to provide information for insurance companies who are considering covering weight loss programs.
“The obesity epidemic is raising serious health and cost consequences, so employers and third-party payers are beginning to consider how to provide some coverage for commercial weight loss programs,” said senior author Eric Finkelstein, Ph.D., professor at Duke-NUS and the Duke University Global Health Institute, in a Duke interview.
“These results will help them make better purchasing decisions to maximize the health gains using available resources.”
