“I was wrong. Losing weight is a choice,” says CEO of WeightWatchers

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Sima Sistani, CEO of the storied WeightWatchers brand, has become well-practiced at saying three little words: “We were wrong.”

At the annual HLTH conference in Las Vegas, weightwatchers CEO Sistani once again explained how a company that’s long preached self-restraint and behavioral change is embracing blockbuster weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic.

“For years, we’ve said ‘it’s choice, not chance.’ That was wrong,” Sistani told Axios.

“And I think that we have to be the first to admit where we were wrong so that we can be part of the change,” she said. “Anybody who took that as a moral failing, we want to change that and say, ‘No, no, it wasn’t you.'”

The move illustrates the way obesity has come to be viewed as a chronic illness treatable by drugs that could account for tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars of sales within a decade.

But while the strategy has been encouraged by investors, it’s left some longtime customers feeling betrayed. And it comes while health experts are still trying to better understand possible health risks connected to the treatments.

The company, rechristened WW International in 2018, this spring acquired telehealth company Sequence for $132 million.

Sequence connects patients with doctors who can prescribe many-touted GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic. (Ozempic, a diabetes drug, is often used off-label for obesity.)

Some analysts say the arrangement could save the venerable brand after years in the doldrums and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue through an expanded customer base, per Insider.

A long-term goal is to persuade Medicare to cover the medications for weight loss — something that congressional scorekeepers last week said could swell program costs.

“Right now, these medications, as part of Medicare Part D, are in the same category as hair-loss meds, Sistani said.

“That’s what I’m talking about. It’s trying to shift the conversation from vanity and a concern within this to actual health.”

Americans spend thousands of dollars, credit card debt to consume products for overweight