Nidetch, Jean (1923—)

American entrepreneur who founded Weight Watchers. Born Jean Slutsky on October 12, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York; eldest of two daughters of David Slutsky (a cabdriver) and Mae (Fried) Slutsky (a manicurist); graduated from Girls' High School, Brooklyn, New York; briefly attended City College of New York; married Martin Nidetch, on April 20, 1947 (divorced around 1973); children: son who died young; David (b. 1952); Richard (b. 1956).

"I'm sure that my compulsive eating habits began when I was a baby," theorized Jean Nidetch in The Story of Weight Watchers, her book about the successful weight-loss business she started in 1963. "I don't really remember, but I'm positive that whenever I cried, my mother gave me something to eat." As a result, Nidetch explains, she developed into a chubby child, a fat teenager, and a seriously overweight adult. By 1945, when she met her future husband Martin Nidetch, she wore a size 20 dress. "We ate together," she writes of their courtship. "We didn't go dancing or bowling, or roller-skating. We ate." After marrying in April 1947, the couple lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, then Warren,

Pennsylvania, before returning to New York, where Martin went to work for a limousine service. By 1956, Jean had given birth to three boys, the first of whom died as an infant, and had developed an outgoing personality to compensate for her ungainly body. "After all, if you're fat, you have to make a joke about your weight before somebody else does," she wrote.

Having held a variety of jobs during the early years of her marriage, Nidetch now joined every organization she could find, and usually ended up heading all of them. Along with her frantic round of activities, she continued to eat and diet compulsively, trying every manner of weight-loss plan and appetite-suppressant on the market. In 1961, carrying 214 pounds on her 5'7" frame, and desperate for help, she signed up at the New York City Department of Health Obesity Clinic. Given a reasonable diet, she was instructed to lose two pounds a week and to return to the clinic each week for a weigh-in. She followed the diet faithfully, but locked herself in the bathroom at night and gorged on cookies. Unable to confide her secret eating to her family, or to anyone at the clinic, Nidetch called up some of her overweight friends and invited them over to talk. Soon all of her friends went on the diet with her and, as they encouraged and supported each other, all began losing weight. Thus, Weight Watchers was born.

Within several months, Nidetch had a group of 40 women attending her weekly meetings, which she had moved from her living room to the basement of her apartment building. By October 1962, she had reached her goal weight of 142 pounds and had turned her compulsive eating into a drive to help others. Two members of the group, Albert and Felice Lippert , convinced her to go into business, and in May 1963, the Lipperts and the Nidetches formed a corporation and opened Weight Watchers, conducting meetings in a loft over a movie theater in Little Neck, New York. Five years later, when the corporation went public, it had 81 franchises in 43 states and 10 franchises abroad.

While Albert Lippert oversaw the organization's enterprises, including a monthly magazine, a television program, several summer camps for overweight children, and a line of food products, Nidetch served as public relations director, taking the message to audiences around the country. "She is part Tallulah Bankhead (marathon talker), part Ethel Merman (loud), and part Joan Rivers (funny)," wrote Louis Botto in Life after witnessing her in action. Nidetch also made regular appearances on radio and television, and, in addition to The Story of Weight Watchers (1970), authored two cookbooks: The Jean Nidetch Weight Watchers Cookbook (1968) and The Weight Watchers Program Cookbook (1973). In 1973, Nidetch sold the company to the H.J. Heinz Corporation for $71.2 million, negotiating a healthy consulting contract for herself in the process.

The Weight Watchers system has remained pretty much the same over the years. Members, who must have at least ten pounds to lose, pay a modest registration (there are no contracts) and a minimal fee per weekly meeting. After a weigh-in, the members discuss their progress and receive encouragement from the group leader, a graduate of the program. For a long time, the diet was essentially the same one that Nidetch had received from the New York Department of Health, emphasizing lean meat, fish, skim milk, and fruits and vegetables. In keeping with changing lifestyles, however, Weight Watchers has adopted the mantra "a real diet for real life" and has expanded its menus to include such foods as pizza, burgers, ice cream, and French fries, in moderation, of course. It is perhaps Weight Watchers' simplicity that has accounted for it dominance among diet plans and the backing it continues to receive from the medical community. "It's reasonable, widely available and a sound nutrition program," notes Dr. Kelly Brownell, co-director of the Obesity Research Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. "There's group support and accountability. Before WW there was very little organized help for the obese."

Nidetch divorced her husband around 1973, claiming that they had grown "in different directions," and moved to California, where she took delight in her new-found fame and fortune. She then turned her attention to overweight children. "They are victims of our times," she says. "They're packed with fast food. And these are bright kids. They know you live longer with good nutrition."

sources:

Moreau, Dan, and Jennifer Cliff. "Change agents: Jean Nidetch knew that Weight Watchers' success hinged on more than a diet," in Changing Times. August 1989, p. 88.

Moritz, Charles, ed. Current Biography 1973. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1973.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts