Biting the Hand that Fed Her, Kirstie Alley's Weight Loss Brand Promises to Be the "Yummiest, Healthiest and Easiest"

Kirstie Alley bids adieu to Jenny Craig, but after the successful stint in the weight loss biz - and undoubtedly after recognizing that there is gold in "them there hills" - she is setting up to launch her own weight loss brand. The 57 year young star of the "Look Who's Talking" movies joined up with Jenny Craig and even became the company's celebrity spokeswoman after her weight topped 200 pounds.

She is said to have lost about 75 pounds on the diet program, and by all accounts the relationship between Alley and Craig was going strong when 2008 brought in Queen Latifah as the new spokeswoman. While rumors are flying about what caused the split - weight gain, scientology, and money grabbing are all asserted in the tabloids - Ms. Alley is undaunted and she discussed with People Magazine her plans to greet 2009 with her very own brand of weight-loss product. From all accounts released by Jenny Craig, it appears that compensation was at the heart of the matter.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Ms. Alley does not have a plan for very own brand of weight-loss product yet and all that she can suggest at this point in time is that it will be new and designed to be for those millions who seem to be unable to put an end to yoyo dieting. Furthermore, word from E! Online has it that it will be the "healthiest, yummiest, easiest and most effective weight-loss program on the market." CalorieLab gossip wonders if this has anything to do with Chinese acupuncture, but it is too early to tell.

To be brutally honest, diets don't work. Losing weight may be accomplished by eating healthier foods, decreasing the daily caloric intake, and increasing the daily expenditure of energy via exercise. Okay, so there is not a ton of money to be made with this statement, but take it from a confirmed yoyo dieter: the lure of the "healthiest, yummiest, easiest and most effective weight-loss program" sounds an awful lot like the flat belly diet that is little more than a repackaged Mediterranean diet with a twist. The odds are good that even an actress as talented as Ms. Alley will not find the philosopher's stone of diets.

Additionally, in some ways her announcement is a bit questionable; consider that the Jenny Craig program supported her by a detailed diet plan that includes preplanned and prepackaged meals. Much time and effort went into the creation of this program, and while I am not a fan of buying Jenny Craig food, it is doubtful that Ms. Alley will come up with anything more revolutionary. As a matter of fact, is it just me or does her announcement sound a bit like a Jared Fogle suddenly selling his very own sandwich diet from a diet sandwich shop, or a Dan Marino launching a NutriSystem knockoff?

Granted, I might not be as charitable as some, but then this dieter has spent ample money on diets and their knockoffs, and it is high time that this whole industry be revamped so that the overweight will listen to their physicians and devise healthy menus to shed pounds rather than hopping from fad to fiction to supplement and back.

Sources:

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20178810,00.html

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/hum/detail/index.jsp?uuid=7c3276de-e761-4100-b234-6aadf03fce3a

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-162258191.html

http://calorielab.com/news/2008/02/20/kirstie-alley-plans-her-own-weight-loss-program/