Jean Nidetch, Founder of Weight Watchers, Dies at 91
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Maia Efrem April 29, 2015
Jean Nidetch, the 91-year-old co-founder of Weight Watchers died early Wednesday morning in her Fort Lauderdale, Florida home.
Born Jean Evelyn Slutsky in Brooklyn in 1923, Nidetch, was the daughter of a cabdriver and a manicurist. After she married, the unhappy and overweight Nidetch tried fad diet after fad diet to no avail, but when she ran into a neighbor in a supermarket that asked her when she was due that Nidetch tried something different. She started a support group with her friends that turned into weekly classes and later incorporated Weight Watchers in 1963 — it was a runaway success.
An astounding 16,000 Weight Watchers members attended the company’s star-studded 10th at Madison Square Garden in 1973.
Just recently, Weight Watchers was ranked as the number one diet in the country with the best long-term weight loss rate for its users.
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