First published 2021
Marisa Meltzer started dieting at five years old in Northern California. Nearly forty years later, she discovers an obituary for Jean Nidetch, the Queens housewife who created Weight Watchers in 1963. Meltzer intertwines Nidetch's rise as a weight loss entrepreneur with her own experience joining the program. She traces how both women spent decades trying to lose weight and maintain their losses. The book examines the parallels between their struggles and the broader cultural obsession with dieting. Meltzer, who writes for The New Yorker and New York Times, brings humor and honesty to questions about body image and transformation. She reveals how change extends beyond numbers on a scale. The result offers insight into female entrepreneurship, diet culture, and the personal costs of pursuing weight loss.
Genres: business, contemporary, non-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, self-discovery
Setting: Northern California, Queens
Period: 1963, 21st Century
305 pages · Paperback · Little, Brown Paperbacks