Get fit for the new year

Just make sure to keep to your resolution

Pure Weight Loss, formerly known as L.A. Weight Loss, announced last week that they will be closing over 400 of their weight loss centers. Some locations have already closed and all locations will be closed by January 4, 2008.In a news article from the Philadelphia Daily News a spokesperson for a Pure Weight Loss Center in the Philadelphia area did not know whether the company was filing for bankruptcy or not. Pure Weight Loss endorsed and sold the new popular weight loss pill, Alli. Alli has received a lot of criticism since it was approved earlier this year by the FDA for over-the-counter use. Alli is a form of the prescription weight loss drug, Orlistat. Some side effects of using Alli include diarrhea, anal leakage and gastrointestinal problems. Pure Weight Loss released the following statement as their reasons for closing. "Fierce competition from the Internet, the introduction of Alli, the over-the-counter weight loss pill, and other commercial diet programs, combined with a difficult economic environment, have forced us to take this action."Pure Weight Loss/L.A. Weight Loss has been under scrutiny for the past few years for some of their sales and marketing tactics. Lawsuits have resulted due to Pure Weight Loss falsely advertising the cost of the program. Current Pure Weight Loss clients, who posted about the closing on FranchisePick.com, claim that while they were happy with the program they fear they will not be refunded for all of the lites and program and maintenance fees they prepaid. Some comments say that the corporate website has already shut down and phone calls and emails by clients are not being responded to. After reading about the locations closing, I checked the Pure Weight Loss site myself and the only page available is one giving the closing date and contact information. I am not surprised that Pure Weight Loss is closing. As much as I hate to see anyone lose money, I am glad to see this company go. When I joined L.A. Weight Loss 1 ½ years ago, I was told it would cost me $5 a week and that it would take 45 weeks to lose 70 pounds. My $225 program ended up costing over $500 with the initial fee, weekly cost, maintenance and stabilization fees. Then I was told that if I were really serious about losing weight I would purchase the L.A. Lite Bars. So in total my $225 program cost me over $1,500. At first I lost weight rather quickly and I was happy. I continued to follow the program exactly but after about 20 pounds I quit losing weight. I have some complex and multiple health issues so I knew that was making an impact on my weight loss. The staff at these centers are not medical experts or doctors so they really couldn't help me. The manager even told me that the health problems I have are not "real" and that I was not following the program "as directed". I knew that I was following everything correctly. I did not spend all of that money to not take the program seriously. After a few times of being told that my health issues were not "real" and that some "psychological counseling" might help, I refused to return to the center. I then started researching online about the company and found out about the different lawsuits filed against the company.If the current customers are not able to get the remainder of their products that they paid for from Pure Weight Loss, I believe there will be many more lawsuits filed. One Pure Weight Loss customer reported on FranchisePick.com that the employees were told to continue selling contracts to people even when they knew that they would be closing the very next week. If this is true, Pure Weight Loss is a bigger scam than I originally thought.