Jean Nidetch

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Jean Nidetch (b. 1923, Brooklyn, New York), is the founder of the Weight Watchers organization.

An overweight housewife with a self-confessed obsession for eating cookies, Nidetch had experimented with numerous fad diets before, in 1961, following a regimen prescribed by a diet clinic sponsored by the New York City Board of Health. After losing 20 pounds (9.07 kg), and finding her resolve weakening, she contacted several overweight friends and founded a support group which developed into weekly classes, and incorporated in 1963 into the Weight Watchers organization.

In 1978, Weight Watchers was sold to the H. J. Heinz Company. Nidetch, who remains a consultant to the organization, has established scholarship programs at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Nevada. She currently lives in Parkland, Florida.