The Highs and Lows of Consumer Expectations in Relation to Commercial Weight-Loss Programs: An Abstract

Globally, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has risen over the last 35 years, and is associated with higher incidence of a range of non-communicable diseases (Poirier et al. 2006; Ng et al. 2014). Commercial weight-loss programs (CWLP) support the population’s desire and need to lose weight (Cleland et al. 2001). This study is positioned as ‘transformative consumer research’ which seeks to understand consumer behaviour in order to benefit or improve the well-being of consumers themselves (Crockett et al. 2013; Ozanne et al. 2011).