Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - For-women-only weight loss facility debuts

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Tuesday, February 8, 2000

For-women-only weight loss facility debuts
Also: January's same-store retail sales were up 4.6 percent nationwide over last year
By Tara Copp
Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times

Penny Witherell demonstrates exercise equipment available at the Slender Lady of Corpus Christi, which opened at 4535 S. Padre Island Drive about two weeks ago. The women-only facility combines counseling with workout sessions to help in the fight against fat.

A new weight loss clinic that combines counseling sessions with workouts opened two weeks ago, just in time to help women who are already giving up on their New Year's diet resolutions.
   Slender Lady of Corpus Christi, 4535 S. Padre Island Drive, is a women-only weight loss center that opened two weeks ago. For a joining fee and $29 a month, customers get a weekly nutritional counseling session and have 30-minute workout sessions on a circuit training system.
   The center is the latest expansion in the city's many weight loss clinics and workout facilities. MarketData Enterprises Inc. estimates that $31.86 billion was spent on weight loss products in 1993, and that commercial or medical weight loss programs account for $2 billion of that. The rest is consumed by diet drinks, meals and workout clubs, the study found.
   As evidence of that growth, 30 of Slender Lady's 38 franchises nationwide were opened in just the last year, said local Slender Lady owner Larry La Touf. And the chain has just sold franchise rights in Canada, he said.
   Commercial weight loss clinics can help people lose weight if they are not clinically obese, said Jim Merker, executive director of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. An obese person, Merker said, is someone who has a Body Mass Index over 30. The body mass index is a measurement based on height and weight. For example: A 5-foot-6-inch tall female weighing 185 pounds would have BMI index of 30, Merker said, and should get a physician's help to lose weight.
   "If someone is not obese, they can do very well in one of these self-help programs like Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anonymous," he said.
   Merker advises combining exercise with dietary counseling and behavior modification. That's what Slender Lady focuses on, said manager Penny Witherell.
   "A lot of our members are wanting more because they're not seeing results just by working out, and they won't," Witherell said. "You have to alter the way you think about food and the way you eat food."
   The weight loss industry is growing right alongside the number of Americans who are clinically obese. From 1991 to 1998, the number of obese people in the United States rose from 12 percent to 17.9 percent, according to an October study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
   What dieters need to remember, Merker said, is that no one element will provide long-term weight management.
   "There is no magic bullet," he said. "It has to be a comprehensive approach."
   Retail sales growth
   Cold weather couldn't stop hot shopping nationwide. The Telecheck Retail Index found that January same store sales rose 4.6 percent from the same period last year.
   "The strong January sales gain reflects the ongoing strength of the U.S. economy," said William Ford, Telecheck's senior economic advisor, in a prepared statement.
   Figures from January spending at Padre Staples Mall and Sunrise Mall won't be available until later this month, spokesmen said.
   In Texas, sales were up 4.6 percent. Austin led the state's major cities with a 5 percent increase. No statistic for Corpus Christi was available.



On Retailing is published every other Tuesday in the Caller-Times business section. The column includes news of new, relocated and expanded businesses in the Coastal Bend, plus retailing trends and profiles. Ideas may be submitted to: On Retailing, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, P.O. Box 9136, Corpus Christi, Texas 78469; e-mail Tara Copp at coppt@caller.com; fax items to (361) 886-3732; or call (361) 886-4316.

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