Someone recently asked a question on a listserve that I wonder about often: the figure tossed about that the diet industry in this country is a “$50 Billion a year” industry. It’s a huge number, and could easily be fabricated for effect.

But lo and behold, one gracious person provided a statistic to illustrate this point - and topped the number.

The new number:

$58.6 billion annually in the United States.

Yep, that’s how much money is spent to make us skinny. Crazy!

And here’s the citation:

Marketdata Enterprises: The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market (10th
Edition). Lynbrook; 2009.

So now we can look it up and be on the same page. That’s a ton of money. What do you think about this figure? What do you think it comprises?

We just got an update for the numbers of the 2010 diet industry:

According to Marketdata Enterprises the weight-loss industry had revenues of $60.9 billion in 2010.

Notable as well is that 75 million Americans - that’s almost 1 out of 4 people - dieted in 2010. The “typical” dieter dieted 4 times in one year, which is the highest rate in 15 years.

Read more here: http://pressreleases.americanbankingnews.com/2011/05/09/u-s-weight-loss-market-worth-60-9-billion/

What do you think about this?

The following reference seemed like a good one to add here:

Reference for 75 million people on diets and on average 4 times per year is:

The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market, Marketdata Enterprises, Inc. March 9, 2011