Queens the birthplace of Weight Watchers

Queens - The Birthplace Of Weight Watchers

Queens is the birthplace of Bob Costas, Ray Romano and 50-Cent. But did you also know it's the birthplace of Weight Watchers?

Back in 1961, Queens housewife Jean Nidetch went to the New York City Department of Health to start a diet.

“Jean came home one afternoon and said, ‘There's got to be a better way,’” says Herta Prechtl, who joined Weight Watchers in 1963. “She called up six friends, they sat around the kitchen table and they talked about a better way. And talking about it and sharing their experiences actually made it work.”

Those first meetings were in Jean’s home at the Deepdale Garden Apartments in Little Neck. By 1963 it became a business.

“I came home from my meeting and I called four people, and those four people probably went to a meeting too and they called four people,” says Prechtl.

“I think the genius in what Jean did was that she realized that to help herself she needed to connect with other people and talk about the issues surrounding the weight management and food management challenges that she suffered,” says Weight Watchers member Stephanie Del Valle.

The first official meeting 40 years ago was on Northern Boulevard. It was above - of all places - an Italian restaurant.

“The smell from downstairs was the most wonderful, and as Jean was talking people got hungry,” says Prechtl.

From those humble Queens roots, millions of people have lost billions of pounds. And the reason is simple, according to Prechtl: “Only someone else who has the problem and who struggles with it can understand that losing a pound is a big deal.”

“It's the connection and the comraderie - the sense of community that occurs in the Weight Watchers meeting room - that really helps people feel that they're not alone, and that if someone else can do it, they can do it,” says Del Valle.

In Bayside - the meeting place closest to where Weight Watchers began -- there are meetings seven days a week. So, on the 40th anniversary of Weight Watchers, why is America so overweight? Portion size.

“When you think about what a sit-down dinner looked like, what the plate looked like in 1968 versus the way it looks now in 2003, it's just out of control,” says Del Valle.

Today, more than one million people in 30 countries attend Weight Watchers meetings every week, and it all began in Northeast Queens.

But I'm still wondering why Jean Nidetch had the first meeting above an Italian restaurant.

According to Del Valle; “Maybe she knew she'd be able to get a lot of folks to come in and visit her after they ate there.”

Re: Queens the birthplace of Weight Watchers

Thats so cool. I am starting to do my points agin. i dont go to the meeting but I had joined and have all the info.
Thankd Chipp for posting that

Re: Queens the birthplace of Weight Watchers

I go to the meetings. As for journaling, i havent done that in a month. But i just keep track of what i am eating in my head and if i am going out i'll write down