March 18, 2021
Marketdata LLC, has just released the new 16th edition of its best-selling report: “The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market”. This is a 438-page analysis of ALL segments of the market — commercial chains, medical programs, diet foods, soft drinks, meal replacements, diet books, Rx diet drugs, bariatric surgeries, the health clubs industry and more. This report has been issued every two years since 1989.
Some Major Findings:
The total U.S. weight loss market hit a new peak in 2019, growing to $78 billion. However, that growth came to a halt when the Coronavirus hit last March, shutting the doors of many weight loss centers, doctors’ offices, clinics and other businesses for 8-10 weeks. As a result, the market’s value is estimated to have fallen by 21%.
Part of the weight loss market was hit hard in 2020. Customer volumes at medical weight loss programs based in hospitals, franchises and regional chains, and physician offices plummeted. However, there were bright spots, namely: commercial chains that pivoted to Zoom and Facebook meetings and home delivery and drop shipping of diet foods, multi-level marketers, booming retail sales of frozen diet dinners, and shelf stable meal replacements.
- Revenues of the major commercial weight loss chains such as WW, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, Medifast and others actually held up well last year, growing by an estimated 6.8% in 2020 to $4.07 billion.
- Sales of frozen diet dinners and low-carb foods are estimated to have risen to $2.1 billion, as homebound consumers stocked up on them for convenience during the pandemic.
- Hospitals and clinics, focused on treating Covid-19 patients, cancelled elective surgeries such as weight loss procedures. Consequently, this segment of the market fell 20% from $8.8 billion to $7.1 billion in 2020. Bariatric surgeries declined from 256,000 to an estimated 205,000.
- Revenues of health & fitness clubs took a major hit, declining by 37% from $35 billion to $22 billion, due to pandemic-related closures. This is one of the hardest hit segments of the weight loss market, as these facilities were among the first to close and among the last to reopen for business. An estimated 17% of health clubs went out of business last year in the U.S.
- Multi-level marketing companies constitute a major force in the weight loss market, with the top 8 firms accounting for $3.4 billion in 2020 sales. Included in this group are Medifast, Herbalife, Shaklee, BeachBody, AMWAY, USANA, Isagenix and more.
- Meal replacements and retail appetite suppressants (diet pills) sales held up well in 2020. They have largely escaped effects of the pandemic due to their easy availability and low price. MLM and internet/mail order channels remained open during the pandemic. Meal replacements (shakes, nutrition bars) accounted for $3.0 billion and retail diet pills accounted for $2.08 billion in sales.
More Information, To Order:
The report is sold at Marketdata’s website, Report FS67. The complete report is priced at $2,195 but individual chapters are sold at lower prices. A 46-page Executive Overview is also sold for $99 (report OV4). The detailed Table of Contents is available on the website: www.marketdataenterprises.com. Questions? Contact Marketdata at: 813-971-8080.