Category Archives: Lose Weight Fast

Men's Health

Would You Swallow a Balloon to Lose 40 Pounds? Men's Health Nothing stuck until her mother forwarded her an article about the Obalon Balloon System, a new FDA-approved weight-loss program that uses balloons to aid in weight loss. It's basically exactly what it sounds like: Over a period of six months, patients ...

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Would You Swallow a Balloon to Lose 40 Pounds? - Men's Health

As March rolls around, your New Years weight loss resolutions may be in the rearview mirror. If so, youll have plenty of company: According to a study conducted by the Statistic Brain Research Institute earlier this year, only 9.2 percent of people surveyed felt they were successful in achieving their 2016 resolution.

THE BEST GUT-FRIENDLY FOODS FOR WEIGHT LOSS

But what if youve stuck to your diet and exercise program, and still arent seeing results? Fox News spoke to Los Angeles-based personal trainer Astrid Swan and dietician Ashlea Braun to get their thoughts on the most common reasons for weight loss plateaus, and how to push past them.

1. Your body has adjusted to the amount of exercise youre doing Over time, your body adapts to the exercise youre doing, Swan told Fox News. Once you get to that point of being comfortable, thats when you need to push it and start taking it up a level, Swan said.

Swan recommended challenging yourself with new elements to your workout, such as taking a new class or going to a fitness bootcamp.

FITNESS BLOGGER PROMOTES BODY CONFIDENCE WITH VIRAL PIC OF ARM CELLULITE

2. Youre not eating a balanced diet While calories are an important part of weight loss, so is paying attention to an overall balanced diet, Braun told Fox News. At The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where she works, dietitians typically recommend a primarily plant-based diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables which also tend to be lower in calories, Braun said.

3. Youre eating more than you think you are Most people tend to underestimate the amount of food they consume, Braun said. To stay vigilant, you can track your food intake on an app or just via pencil and paper, Braun said.

4. Youre not eating ENOUGH calories Oddly enough, sometimes eating too few calories can be the problem. If youre eating too little after upping your number of workouts, you may affect your metabolism, Swan said. The solution? Make sure that youre not skipping meals, that youre eating a proper amount of lean protein and fat, and really dissect whats going on with your diet, Swan recommended.

EAT TO LOSE: 7 FOODS THAT FIGHT FAT

5. Youre not actually in a plateau When you first start an exercise or diet program, you may lose a large number of pounds right away, Braun said. Youll then slow down to a healthy 1 to 2 pounds a week. This doesnt mean youre in a plateau, though it may feel like it if youre weighing yourself often, Braun noted. Make sure you set realistic expectations and have a sustainable plan in mind.

Excerpt from:
5 possible reasons your weight loss has plateaued - Fox News

Medi Weightloss Clinics

Katherine Gaudet, nurse practitioner, left, and Elizabeth Camacho, senior regional operations director, right.

Posted: Monday, February 27, 2017 9:16 pm | Updated: 9:18 pm, Mon Feb 27, 2017.

Personalized weight loss the approach at Medi Weightloss

BRISTOL Medi Weightloss Clinics, which moved into Bristol Commons earlier this month, prides itself on being the one that works coming up with personalized weight loss plans for customers and helping them stick to it.

The clinic, which opened Feb. 6 at 99 Farmington Ave., is one of 130 locations in 31 states, including five in Connecticut. According to Elizabeth Camacho, office manager, Medi Weightloss Clinics have helped patients lose a combined 3.2 million pounds. Since opening in Bristol, she said the location is very busy. She added that the city has been very receptive and that she is considering joining the Bristol Chamber of Commerce.

We would love to get involved and hold health fairs to educate people on what we do and how we can help them get healthier, said Camacho.

Camacho said 34 percent of adults 20 or older in the U.S. are considered obese and that people who are obese typically pay 42 percent more on health-care costs. Medi Weightloss provides clients with the tools and resources they need to get back down to a healthy weight.

Schools are cutting athletic programs and adults and kids are spending more time on electronics and less time outside, she said. Medi Weightloss is a multi-step program, which depends on the weight loss plan that best fits each person, said Camacho. We can have one-on-one discussions about estimated costs and how we can help you get healthier. Our program also includes weekly visits so we can check in on progress and us providing resources such as food recipes, nutrition and different exercises to support you. Education is what really helps to keep the weight off.

Medi Weightloss also offers a free assessment which includes a body mass index analyzer. This machine lets clients know what percentage of their body is fat, what percentage is water, what percentage is muscle and what their ideal weight should be. Another machine tells people what their metabolism rate is, how many calories their body needs and their resting energy expenditure.

Medi Weightloss Clinics accept Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cigna insurance. Their hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

For more information, call 860-516-5900 or visit their website at mediweightloss.com.

Brian M. Johnson can be reached at 860-973-1806 or bjohnson@bristolpress.com.

Posted in Bristol Press, News, Bristol on Monday, February 27, 2017 9:16 pm. Updated: 9:18 pm.

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Personalized weight loss the approach at Medi Weightloss - Bristol Press

Blandine Lacroix talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed at the 2016 AACE Meeting.

In part 2 of this Exclusive Interview, Blandine Lacroix shares the weight loss tools that Novo Nordisk provides to help practitioners as well as patients with the disease of obesity, including websites that share the science of obesity and weight loss.

Blandine Lacroix is the Vice President of Obesity Marketing at Novo Nordisk.

Transcript of this video segment:

Steve: Thats great. I find it interesting that Novo Nordisk has always been involved with the patient aspect of diabetes. And now were talking about obesity. One of the things, first of all, most of the, if not all of the people here are attending are endocrinologists. But 90% of the people dont go to endocrinologists if they have diabetes and certainly for obesity Im sure its the same number, they go to family practitioners. Those are the people that have to deal with it. And they usually only have 5-10 minutes to deal with obesity which is certainly not enough time to get a person to change their lifestyle. And I know that Novo is always participated by providing tools, not just for the physician but for the patients. I assume youre here and you have some tools and probably new tools because obesity, and you have a new drug for that, and basically you want to help that physician and make it easier for them, and thats great. So, if youre talking to physicians and educators, pharmacists, dietitians, what kind of tools can Novo provide to help them in their practice and help them with their patients?

Lacroix: So youre right Steve, a lot of our efforts is around how do we support the team that support the person with obesity and that team is a medical team. We do have, over the last 3 years, been engaging a lot of people to understand their needs. And weve been able to develop tools to help them engage in their dialogues with each other. So we do have a platform, called Rethink Obesity with a website called rethinkobesity.com that is open to the medical community to understand how to engage the person with obesity successfully and set some achievable goals together and to engage in that critical weight management journey. So thats the element of information and tools that we have at the disposal of the person in the medical community. We also have on the other side, the platform called truthaboutweight.com which is focusing on the person with obesity and of society for them to understand what are we talking about. So many of those people have engaged in trying to lose weight for many, many years, and what theyve experienced is Im sometimes very successful in losing my weight but my weight comes back, and it comes back sometimes more than I used to have it before I tried to lose weight. And with the progress in the science of obesity that are very recent. People are now able to understand now that obesity is a disease, and every time you lose weight, your body is going to try to work against you to bring that weight back on, and theres a number of mechanisms in your body that drive that phenomenon. And with the science of obesity and the medical understanding of it, were are now able to have the person understand that there is help at hand in the medical community around the journey of losing weight. So the truthaboutweight.com platform allows the person to understand more about obesity and their journey around weight but also understand how they can engage their practitioner, their nurse, their pharmacist in a different dialogue around that weight journey.

Steve: So maybe we can repeat those two websites.

Lacroix: Yes, so Im going to be advertorial and Im going to talk about rethinkobesity.com, so its rethinkobesity.com for the healthcare professional, and truthaboutweight.com which is about obesity in the weight journey for the person with obesity in the society.

Steve: What kind of tools do you use on the website for well its actually for the patients its for the physician to send the patients there. Otherwise they would have no way of knowing where that website is.

Lacroix: Yeah, so Truth about Weight is something that you can, when you google anything around weight you should be able to land on that website. Its something that from the traffic that we have to date, we see that people find this information on their own, what weve learned over the last 3 years engaging with the person with obesity, they dont necessarily rely or think that the practice or the physician or the pharmacist is the person that can help them. So they dont actually ask for information. So they usually use the internet and their friends and family to find information. So weve found ways to reach them through a number of avenues online so that they can find the truth about weight. On that website they have the opportunity to document the journey theyve engaged into for weight. As an outcome they can print out, kind of a journal that they can bring to the practice or to the physician or to the pharmacist for them to start showing them the journey theyve gone through. So thats the patient coming to the doctor saying look this is my journey, I need your help. Another thing weve learned over the last 3 years is, as I said, that the person with obesity doesnt always think about the practitioner, the pharmacist or the nurse as someone who can help. So on the other hand what we are trying to do through the rethinkobesity.com website and the tools is were providing some training opportunities and education for the medical community to understand what are the questions you can ask to uncover this whole journey the person has gone through around their weight? You may have the health record that shows the weight progression, the losses and the regains, throughout time, but have you ever spent the time, sat down and said so let us understand whats going on here? So theres an important tool which is what we call motivational interviewing, so the person knows how to engage positively in that dialogue with the person with obesity, which allows the two people to connect and to start the engagement, so thats one set of tools. The other tool is around tool that they can share with their patients so they understand the science of obesity, so they understand whats going on in their body and that is fighting against your will, as you wish, and start looking at options. Theres a lot of work in that Rethink Obesity platform around how do we engage in changing the way we eat, the way we work around food, so healthy eating. Theres information around how do we engage in the right program for physical activity. Theres a lot of conversations or information outside of rethinkobesity.com on the medications that are available, so thats outside of that obesity conversation, but know about some of the medical solutions. We also have tools and sites around the products that are available including Novo Nordisk products.

To view other segments in this video series:

Part 1: Understanding Obesity the Disease

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Blandine Lacroix Part 2, Weight Loss Tools - Diabetes In Control

Women's Health

This Is The Best Workout For Weight Loss, According To Science Women's Health For the study, published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, researchers set out to determine how different aerobic training programs affected weight loss, fat mass, muscle strength, and overall physical fitness in a group of ...

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This Is The Best Workout For Weight Loss, According To Science - Women's Health

Nicole Fornabaio/Rd.com, iStockYouve heard it over and over again: Diet and exercise are the key to a healthy weight. As it turns out, though, one is far more important than the other. If youre looking to drop pounds, your best bet is to focus on food.

Despite the constant message to burn fat and calories away at the gym, people who only change their diets lose more weight than those who only increase physical activity, according to a report in the journal Systematic Reviews. In fact, another recent study in the journal PeerJ found that over three years, people who got 30 minutes or more of physical activity a day actually had higher rates of weight gain than those who exercised less. So why isnt gym time the miracle weight-loss machine weve been led to believe?

Basically, its way easier to avoid calories in the first place than to try to burn them off, says registered dietitian nutritionist Marjorie Nolan Cohn, MS, RDN, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Working off a 100-calorie cookie is one thing, but it would take hours at the gym to negate 1,200 calories from a burger and fries. You cant exercise off a weekend of terrible eating, says Nolan Cohn. Committing to a 30-minute workout program? Easy enough. Turning your entire eating plan on its head? Not so much.

Plus, if you dont pay attention to portion sizes, you might eat more after you start a new workout routine, says Nolan Cohn. Not only will your appetite increase naturally from the energy burn, but you might also slack off on healthy food choices. Theres this idea that youve earned it to eat something because you worked out, says Nolan Cohn. It winds up holding people back. Half an hour on the treadmill might blast away 300 calories, but just one slice of cake could totally negate that hard workand then some.

You might have heard that muscle weighs more than fat. Thats true, but it doesnt mean you should claim that bigger number on the scale is all muscle. Thats a few pounds, not 20 or 30 pounds, says Nolan Cohn. Its not an excuse for the weight gain. If youve been exercising without results, your diet is probably to blame.

Still, dont cancel your gym membership. The Systematic Reviews study found that pairing diet with exercise was even more successful for weight-loss than diet alone. Exercise doesnt just burn calories and build musclesit boosts endorphins too, says Nolan Cohn. It improves feelings of positivity or accomplishment, she says. When you combine those forces [of diet and exercise], it reinforces losing the weight and keeping it off. While adding exercise to a healthier diet doesnt lead to additional weight loss in the first six months of a program, those who both diet and exercise have better long-term results over a year, found a review in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Plus, weight maintenance is just the beginning when it comes to reasons to exercise. Studies have linked physical activity to all kinds of other healthy benefits, from heart health and immune system function to mental health and sleep improvements. The list just never ends, says Nolan Cohn.

MORE: 8 Exercises That Flatten Your Belly (Without a Single Crunch)

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Diet or Exercise: The Final Verdict on Which Is Better for Weight Loss - Reader's Digest

Nutrisystem Inc (NASDAQ:NTRI)

Q4 2016 Earnings Conference Call

February 27, 2017 05:00 PM ET

Executives

John Mills - Managing Partner at ICR

Dawn Zier - President and CEO

Mike Monahan - CFO

Keira Krausz - Chief Marketing Officer

Analysts

Frank Camma - Sidoti & Company

Mitch Pinheiro - Wunderlich Securities

Linda Bolton-Weiser - B. Riley

Alex Fuhrman - Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Matthew Gall - Barrington

Chris Krueger - Lake Street Capital Markets

Mitch Pinheiro - Wunderlich Securities

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Nutrisystem Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2016 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. An interactive question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. John Mills of ICR. Thank you. You may begin.

John Mills

Thanks, Matt. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss Nutrisystems fourth quarter and full-year 2016 financial results. Today Dawn Zier, President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide an overview of the business and insight into the 2017 diet season. Mike Monahan, Chief Financial Officer, will review the fourth quarter results and provide first quarter and full-year 2017 financial guidance. And Keira Krausz, Chief Marketing Officer, will review and provide insight into the companys marketing initiatives. We will then open up the lines to take your questions. Please note, on todays call we would appreciate participants to limit themselves to two questions and rejoin the queue for any follow-up questions.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that during this conference call, Nutrisystem management will make certain forward-looking statements about its outlook for 2017 and beyond that involve risk and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words such as believe, plan, intend, expect, anticipate, or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are protected by the Safe Harbor contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risk, and changes in circumstance that are difficult to predict, and many of which are outside of the companys control.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors set forth in Nutrisystems filings with the SEC. Nutrisystem is making these statements as of February 27, 2017, and assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of the forward-looking statements made during this call. In addition to the GAAP results, Nutrisystem will provide certain non-GAAP financial measures on this conference call. Nutrisystems earnings press release for the fourth quarter and full-year 2016 can be found under the News Release link on the Investor Relations page of the companys website at nutrisystem.com. The tables attached to the earnings release include reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most direct comparable GAAP financial measures.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Dawn Zier.

Dawn Zier

Thank you, John, and thanks everyone who has joined. Today I'm pleased to report our third consecutive year of double digit revenue growth at 18%. We were also able to grow our earnings per share by 34% as our business continued to scale and we maintained a disciplined approach to cost management. These result exceeded our full-year revenue and earnings per share expectations. Based on our performance of the first two months of the diet season, Im pleased to share that we are on trajectory to deliver our fourth consecutive year of double digit revenue growth in 2017 led by the continuing strength of our core brand NutriSystem. We focus on several strategic areas in 2016 that just set up for success in 2017 and beyond. Let's start with product innovation. Turbo 10 resonated well with consumers in 2016 as did Uniquely Yours and our other flexible meal option. Our science based clinically supportive programs appeal to a broad set of consumers looking to safely and effectively lose weight. Lean 13 which we launched for diet season 2017 appears to be another home run resonating with new and existing customers.

Next, we had tremendous success this past year growing our shakes and a-la-carte sale. Our shakes are an important component of our program and are also available as an ala carte option. With now many customers adding ala carte products to their program and migrating to more flexible options as they continue on their weight loss journey. We expect continued growth of these products offerings throughout 2017. Third, NutriSystem continues to attract new customers and win back former ones. Our advertising messages resonate and we set a high bar for efficient and successful marketing campaigns in 2016 as our media team creatively capitalized on TV viewership space, while simultaneously testing across many new digital channels. Were seeing continued breakthroughs in 2017. Keira will go into greater details in her remark. Fourth, new customer growth achieved over the past three years feeds 2017 reactivation pool. Our pools continued to grow; we are offering more options and as a result have seen revenues increase due to both volume and rate. Reacs, as we refer to them, are very profitable since the majority of marketing costs are assigned to new customers.

Turning to retail. We remain stable at Wal-Mart and made continued progress in expanding into the grocery channel. We anticipate modest growth for retail in 2017 and although retail remain a small part of our total business, we believe it provides a halo effect to our direct business and it's an attractive opportunity for us as an alternative sales channel to some products. And last but certainly not least the South Beach Diet. It's hard to believe that we just acquired the brand a little over a year ago, just the brand, and have taken it from concept development to product actualization. I'm happy to report that in January we showed strong consumer interest in the South Beach Diet. We plan to build and capitalize on this brand equity as we fine tune key levers that drive length of stay such as pricing and product configuration. As with any new product launch, optimization continued iteration is expected and we're deploying that same disciplined and methodical approach that we use our NutriSystem to South Beach. Our early read is that we expect the South Beach Diet to drive 20 to 25 million in revenue for 2017 positioning the brand for meaningful growth in 2018 and beyond as we build out customer pools and increased marketing spend.

In short, heading into 2017, we believe our core NutriSystem brand is stronger than ever and its not one thing that is working right, its many things. We expect our direct to consumer business to continue to be the major driver of growth in 2017. Furthermore as I just mentioned, the steps we took to build on our multi-brand strategy have us well positioned for addictive growth through the South Beach Diet brand and more flexible options including ala carte coupled with state of the art marketing engagement tool will continue to extend our relationship with the customer and deliver additional lifetime value.

I will now turn the call over to Mike who will walk through our 2016 financial results and discuss our first quarter and full-year 2017 guidance. After that Keira will add more color to the success were seeing this diet season and at South Beach.

Mike Monahan

Thanks Dawn, and good afternoon everyone. 2016 finished strong, revenue for the full-year 2016 increased nearly 18% to 545.5 million compared to 462.6 million last year driven by new customer growth, improved reactivation and continued improvements of the customer experience in our economic. Adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share increased 31% and 34% year over year for the full year respectively. Gross margin for the year increased 140 basis points to 52.9%. Marketing spend increased 23% further expanding our customer reach profitably. And marketing as a percentage of revenue was 27.9%. Revenue in the fourth quarter was especially strong and came in at 108.9 million, up nearly 21% year over year. We continued to benefit from increased viewership surrounding the presidential election. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was 18.7 million with earnings per share of $0.29 representing year-over-year increases of 54% and 123% respectively. We invested 14.8 million of capital expenditures into the business during 2016 and finished the year with 33 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments on hand.

During 2016, we returned 21 million of cash to shareholders through our dividend. Driven by the continued success of NutriSystem brand, we are projecting 2017 to deliver our fourth year of double-digit revenue growth. For the full-year of 2017 we are projecting revenue to be in the range of 630 to 650 million, adjusted EBITDA of 95.8 to 100.3 million and consolidated earnings per share of $1.55 to $1.65. Capital expenditures are projected to be 12 to 14 million for the full year. For the first quarter of 2017 we're projecting revenue to be in the range of 202 to 207 million, adjusted EBITDA in the range of 11.6 to 13.6 million and earnings per share of $0.14 to $0.19. We expect of course the first quarter of 2017 to be particularly strong due to favorable television viewership and timing of retail shipments. The revenue contribution for quarter as a percentage of the full year consolidated revenue should follow a similar cadence to 2016. Due to the success of Lean 13, our model assumes incremental marketing spend in the second quarter of 2017 year over year. This spent helps to drive full year profit but impacts the cadence of EPS contribution in the year pushing some of the Q2 EPS contribution into the second half of the year.

As Dawn mentioned were pleased with the launch of the South Beach Diet. For 2017, we expect the brand to drive roughly 20 to 25 million. Were excited that the customer response to our advertisements has been favorable demonstrating that demand for the brand and product is there. Through customer feedback weve recently learned that customers are experiencing some storage issues due to the freezer space constraints which is leading to delays in second shipments and some early cancellation. Unlike NutriSystem, our South Beach Diet currently has very few grab and go or non-frozen items available. To resolve this, the product development team is focused on introducing more grab and go offerings in the upcoming month. As a result, 2017 guidance factors in modest solution for the brand primarily in the first half of the year. We believe the South Beach Diet is resonating with customers and we are confident in its future growth. We are continuing to deploy marketing dollars to build brand awareness and the customer database, this will position the brand for growth and profitability in 2018. With each of our brands we are focused on and investing behind four core principals to support long-term growth. One, attract more customers, revenue from customers in their initial diet cycle were up over 18% year-over-year in 2016 primarily driven by increased customer starts, improved pricing and increases in upsell and ala carte sales. Our marketing campaigns and product improvements have been effective.

For the full-year 2017 we are projecting continued increases in new customer revenues due to increased product demand and our ability to profitability deploy marketing dollars to reach new consumers. Reactivation revenue continues to strengthen as a result of increased customer count and improved reactivation yield. We delivered nearly 33 million and 142 million of reactivation revenue in the fourth quarter and full-year 2016 respectively. For the full year this represents approximately 26% of consolidated revenue and 20% growth year-over-year. We expect reactivation revenue to continue to be doubled to be double digit growth driver in 2017. Two, improve the overall satisfaction and economic contribution of each customer. The average customer profit contribution continues to expand as we introduce new product offerings and manage our cost of goods. Revenue per customer has improved due to pricing and product enhancement. This increase was also complemented by meaningful increases in upsell rates. Gross margins on an annual basis are improving due to increases in average selling price and effective management of food and distribution costs. For the full-year 2016 gross margins increased year-over-year by 140 basis points to 52.9%. 2017 guidance assumes additional improvement in gross margins as we continue to grow revenue per customer and manage cost of goods.

Three, extend our marketing reach. Marketing expense for the fourth quarter of 2016 was 23.9 million or 22% of revenue compared to 20.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. Our improved customer economics continue to enable us to deploy additional marketing dollars to attract more consumers. For fiscal year 2017, our Lean 3 campaign is strong. We are projecting increased media spend in both online and offline channels as we continue to profitably expand our customer reach. In 2017, year-over-year revenue growth is projected to be largest in the first quarter as we continue to see increased viewership as a result of the presidential inauguration. We are expecting viewership to return to more normal levels for the remainder of the year. Marketing as a percentage of revenue is expected to increase year-over-year due to two drivers. One media investments to support the South Beach Diet and two, improve lifetime value of NutriSystem customers enabling us to reinvest dollars to expand our media reach while still improving our operating margins. Retail continues to be an important channel for us. In addition to product sales, we believe having a presence in both direct to consumer and retail provides improved brand awareness. The retail channel is expected to grow in 2017 and reach approximately 35 million in revenue for the full year.

Four, invest in the business to support future growth. In early Q2 2017 we will be opening our fourth frozen warehouse to support increased volumes and reduce shipping time to the end consumer. We also continue to invest in our digital platform making improvements to our websites and enhancements to our tracking tools and content site. Finally, we are focused on the South Beach Diet brand and positioning it for top and bottom line growth into 2018 and beyond. During 2016, we returned 21 million of cash to shareholders through our dividend which has been consistently in place since mid-2008. Our business model remains capital efficient enabling us to both return capital to the shareholders and invest in strategic growth initiatives to drive shareholder value. The board of directors has declared a dividend of $0.175 per share payable March 20, 2017 to stockholders of record as of March 9, 2017.

I'll now turn the call over to Keira.

Keira Krausz

Thanks Mike, 2017 if off and running. We had an exciting January with the healthy rise in customer starts, continued growth in the popularity of our Uniquely Yours program and an increase in customer engagement via our digitally delivered content and apps which in turn enabled increases in incremental sales to existing customers. We expect to grow revenues from new customers by double digits in the first quarter. In addition, our ramp up of the South Beach Diet is going well and we are pleased to have two well known differentiated brands in the weight loss space. The keys to our continued success are many, but can be grouped into two main themes. First, we embrace trends in the larger consumer environment and adjust our offerings accordingly to serve consumers better in order to help more of them lose weight and improve their health in ways that are simple, effective and easy to follow. Let me share some observations about our world and then mention quickly how we seek to meet consumer needs.

The world is increasingly complex. We keep things simple to make it easier for people to take control. People want healthier food options at an affordable price, NutriSystem and South Beach food has no artificial colors, sweeteners or flavors; most of our South Beach food is gluten and our frozen food is as fresh as home delivery gets at a price accessible for millions. There is no such thing as a one size fits all loss approach. We now have two distinct approaches NutriSystem which allows people to eat favorite foods made healthy and the South Beach Diet which makes following to low sugar, low carb, high protein light snack. Everyone uses their mobile devices 24/7, we've invested to make our sites responsive, are optimizing for every device and have apps that support our customers and keep them connective, expect everything on demand, our counseling group is the most accessible in the industry, customers can email, chat online or call us seven days a week, 17 hours per day. Buying online and home delivery are now the norm. So we have a simple shopping experience and a supply chain ready to pick and pack each customized order of hundreds of items and deliver quickly. A second theme being that underlies our success in our team. We fight hard for every next inch of progress, employ rigorous analytics on our never ending quest to uncover problem, bring forward solutions, identify the next big opportunity and better serve our customers.

With those overarching themes in mind, we've had some specific breakthroughs that are making this diet season a success. Our Lean 13 program with clinically support results is quite strong and is attracting more new customers and reactivations alike. We've been able to expand our television reach. Were on more stations, more network, more shows in more dayparts. We've expanded our digital reach. We're able to use digital channels like display, social media, email and content marketing to introduce ourselves to new consumers. Our television channel is healthy and we're growing our digital channels so that we meet consumers wherever they are. Our Uniquely Yours program which allows customers to select from over 150 frozen grab and go items continues to grow. Last January, we shared that just over 50% of our customers choose Uniquely Yours. Now that percentage has jumped to 60% and we expect that it will continue to climb. We're happy that our freshest nutritious great tasting frozen food has become such a customer favorite. Our add-ons like ala carte items and shakes which we sell primarily to existing customers also continue to expand. More people are adding them to their orders and average spend per annum order is increasing.

Engagement with our digitally delivered content and apps is way up this year. NuMi users are up to 50% in January and we had over 26 million page views in one month. We had over a 1.5 page views on the [indiscernible] content site. This level of engagement demonstrates how much are customers look to us for simple credible advice. We are building what we hope are strong and lasting relationships. These high used platforms are also on their way to generating significant revenue as we have more ways of communicating with our customers throughout their weight loss journeys which means more opportunities to offer appropriate products. In addition to having a great start to 2017 for NutriSystems Lean 13 campaigns, we are equally excited to have launched the South Beach Diet. The programs nutritional approach with the focus on lean protein, healthy flats and low sugar with groundbreaking when Dr. Agatston first introduced it and we believe it is even more relevant and on trend today. We had a solid start to acquisition in January and spend in order to build brand awareness and start testing expansion opportunities. Going forward well be disciplined and methodical about balancing our desire to grow reach with a need to achieve a profitable acquisition costs for customers.

Now that we have the basic South Beach Diet customer acquisition engine up and running, we will employ the same quick and highly iterated approach to maximizing revenue per customer as we have used with NutriSystem. As a reminder its this approach that allowed us to grow the percentage of customers taking NutriSystems highest price program option from about 30% to over 60% over the past few years. It also led to success of price increases on our basic, core and Uniquely Yours program without lowering demand and motivated NutriSystem customers to add ala carte and shakes to their program. Frankly, maximizing our RPC and customer lifetime value is where our team excels. We hypothesize that having two strong brands in the market will allow us to expand more quickly and so far we are encouraged by our ability to attract new non-NutriSystem customers with South Beach. Perhaps because of the differentiation in die tapproaches, food portfolios and branding the vast majority of South Beach customers are not on the NutriSystem database and the overlap in new leads is low. This is a good sign that our multimedia strategy should generate long-term incremental revenue and EBITDA.

The addressable market segment is large and growing and the South Beach Diet should allow us to get a larger portion of the $10 billion to $15 billion opportunity. We believe every woman and every man has the power. The power to dream of improving one's body and health, the power to take control. Our job is to help by developing simple easy to follow effective programs and to communicate with customers anywhere they are anytime they need us. We look forward to the rest of 2017 in which NutriSystem and the South Beach Diet, two great weight loss brands expand side by side.

Now Ill turn the call back over to Dawn for some closing remarks.

Dawn Zier

Thanks Keira and to everyone on the call today for your interest in NutriSystem. As we head into 2017 we believe the NutriSystem brand is as strong as ever and our multi-brand strategy is taking hold. Based on our diet season performance during the past two months, we're well on our way to achieving our fourth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth fueled by our continued focus on our key initiatives, proven business model and analytical rigor that drives continuous improvement. As we look to the future we are operating from a position of strength having not one but two powerhouse brands to help us extend our reach to new customers and capture more of the large addressable weight loss market. Our priorities are to, one, continue to grow the NutriSystem brand in a financial meaningful way. Two, continue to build our multiband strategy making us well positioned to achieve 20 to 25 million on revenues from the South Beach Diet in 2017 positioning the brand for meaningful growth in 2018 and beyond; and three, run a very disciplined business that is focused on topline growth through price and marketing innovation while not taking our eyes off cost. Im really proud of all that the NutriSystem team has been able to accomplish. The engagement across every level of the organization and the private eye employees take in helping people become healthier versions as themselves are extraordinary. The strategy and vision that the leadership team has said, outlines the path forward but it's the exceptional companywide execution that runs gold into results. So big thank you to the entire NutriSystem team for 2016 that delivered results beyond our expectations and for a great start to 2017.

With that Id like to open up the lines for questions. Operator?

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Frank Camma from Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead.

Frank Camma

Just with respect to Mikes comments on the cadence of the guidance, because obviously that kind of sticks out, I mean so it's a nice jump in Q1 and granted I mean I understand you don't want to be too aggressive here and also you did get obviously the bump from the inauguration. But is there any reason to believe that the average customer for example wouldnt be as sticky later in the year. I mean I know you get a lot of visibility in Q1 but I wonder if you can just talk about that a little bit.

Mike Monahan

Frank, its Mike. As I mentioned on the call we expect the quarterly revenue as a percent of annual revenue to be reasonably similar to last year. On a year over year basis there's two reasons why the growth is a bit heavier in the front half of the year. First is timing of retailing QVC revenues, in 2017 the revenues from retail and QVC are a little bit more front loaded due to timing and shipments in the shows. And the second really has to do with the fourth quarter of 2016 similar to new customer acquisitions and reactivation revenue we're able to deploy a higher percentage of media dollars to attract customers in that quarter due to increased viewership as a result of the presidential election. So for this year in 2017 we modeled in more seasonal growth.

Frank Camma

Ill go back to my model. I was just looking as you're coming up against pretty difficult comp in Q1 and obviously youre going up against that even higher, so that was unusual. My other question was related to the gross margins since you talked about the expansion. Is there any reason to believe that the South Beach Diet, do you get a similar margin profile on that product or is it lower in the beginning since your scaling up? And thats all I have.

Mike Monahan

So we're still early on with the South Beach Diet, but we've modeled gross margins to be a little bit less than NutriSystem for the year but we continue to adjust the program and expect them to rise over the long term. But for 2017 the South Beach Diet isn't having a material impact on our consolidated gross margin.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mitch Pinheiro of Wunderlich Securities. Please go ahead.

Mitch Pinheiro

Yeah. Hey, good afternoon. That was a heck of a quarter and even probably better guidance, which I want to ask about. So when I try to sort of back in to new customer revenue growth for 2017. And if I take the bottom end of your guidance range and subtract the 35 million of reactivation revenue and call it, 25 five million of South Beach, I get to a number that somewhere, it looks like new customer revenue growth -- somewhere in the mid -- maybe mid to high teens. Is that about right?

Mike Monahan

Yes. And new customer revenue and reactivation revenue are kind of within the guidance ranges that we gave. So you're not far off. That's in the general direction of where it should be.

Mitch Pinheiro

And that feels like -- I mean so that's a continuation against, I think Mike you said 18% new customer revenue growth for 2016.

Mike Monahan

A little more than 18%. Correct.

Mitch Pinheiro

A little more than 18%. So that's also strong growth. I mean how do you see the components. Is it like an equal parts new customers, average pricing like the mix and want to stay, I mean how do we look at the components of that generally?

Mike Monahan

Yeah. So -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

Mitch Pinheiro

Well, generally speaking. I mean I know you don't get out exact, but just need to understand if it's weighed to more average pricing or mix or how do you look at it?

Mike Monahan

And so a large portion of our growth factored into the guidance comes from overall customers, the combination of new customers and reactivated customers that are driving it. Were also getting a good percentage from an increase in upsell rates. So these are things like our shakes and a-la-carte items that have been improving. And the next piece of it is the revenues were collecting from the South Beach Diet. So those three things are modeled into 2017 growth. We are getting a small benefit from pricing and length of stay, but those are a little bit less of the drivers we've factored into the guidance for 2017.

Mitch Pinheiro

And just follow-up on that, on like -- you talk about upsell, I mean how significant is the upsell component of the new customer revenue growth?

Mike Monahan

So we don't get the exact dollars for it, but where we're seeing an upsell is were able -- for new customers coming in, were able to sell about a third of those new customers, some sort of an upsell on their initial order and then we're also able to keep them a little bit more sticky after they're done with the program by selling them a-la-carte items in more of a transition sense.

Mitch Pinheiro

Okay. And then just so second question just around South Beach is when you look at just your initial feedback, the initial economics that you're getting, is there any material difference in the way South Beach is behaving on those metrics compared to Nutrisystem, core Nutrisystem. Is there anything fundamentally different that you've learned that is, that changes the way your longer term look at South Beach?

Mike Monahan

Initially, I can speak to initially what were seeing. So we launched South Beach as we said in the script, we launched the South Beach Diet with primarily frozen offerings. So after watching customer behavior, we're seeing slightly higher delay rates and second order cancellation due to storage. So people receive the product and they -- it's a little bit more difficult to Nutrisystem to set it in your freezer space. So this is the one issue that is impacting length of stay in the near term for South Beach that makes it different than Nutrisystem. But what we're working on right now and the product development team is going to be launching in the upcoming months are more Grab `n Go items. So these are things that you can put in your pantry that don't take up freezer space where it would look a little bit more like the product configuration Nutrisystem and we expect that to address the length of stay and have it come up closer to where Nutrisystem is.

Operator

Our next question comes from Linda Bolton-Weiser from B. Riley. Please go ahead.

Linda Bolton-Weiser

Hi. Congratulations on the strong growth. So when you look at the sales growth projections for 2017, it looks like it's about 16% to 19% sales growth, but then if you add back the $0.14 of investment in 2016 and the $0.03 from the [indiscernible], I mean really the EPS growth is like 14% to 21% is what I calculated. So it's kind of in line-ish with the top line growth. So am I thinking of that the right way? So I mean on a base level business, you're not really getting really a lot of margin expansion or am I thinking of that the right way for 2017?

Mike Monahan

Well if you're looking on an adjusted basis, I would say just looking at the revenue and taking out the South Beach revenue component that we've talked about because thats not really contributing in year one to the bottom line. That's going to be more of a long term into 2018 contributor. So if you look at the growth there, you're going to notice you should see that there is scale in the business where on an adjusted basis, the EPS is growing at a faster pace than the top line revenue.

Linda Bolton-Weiser

Right. I got you. So is South Beach like around break even in 2017 or is it actually a little bit loss making on the operating profit?

Mike Monahan

So we mentioned that there would be some dilution this year, primarily in the first half of the year for South Beach as we build the database.

Linda Bolton-Weiser

Okay. And then so I know you're probably still testing and whatnot, but I guess one of the things I always understood was the frozen food leads to higher customer satisfaction and longer lengths of stay. So I'm wondering if you [indiscernible] into the South Beach, do you think theyre going to have a compromise on the satisfaction or length of stay that you might otherwise achieve?

Dawn Zier

No. This is Dawn. No, we don't actually -- as Mike had said, the issue that were having right now is the freezer space issue where they cant fit all the frozen into the freezer and what we know from feedback from the customer is that it depends on what meal occasion you're talking about. So for breakfast and lunch, people do like to have some ready to go actions and for dinner, it's more the frozen. So we're looking for -- we're going to get some more of a mix where people can do Grab `n Go. We think it will be -- and even as we about Uniquely Yours, which is our premium option, remember that's not all frozen, it does have a longer length of stay, but that is a mix of frozen and ready to go item.

Read more from the original source:
Nutrisystem's (NTRI) CEO Dawn Zier on Q4 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha

OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Feb. 23, 2017 // PRNewswire // - Medifast, Inc. (NYSE: MED), a leading United States manufacturer and provider of clinically proven weight-loss and healthy living products and programs, will announce financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 on Thursday, March 9, 2017, after market close. The Company will host a conference call to discuss these results with additional comments and details. Participants from the Company will be Daniel R. Chard, Chief Executive Officer, and Timothy Robinson, Chief Financial Officer.

The conference call is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET on March 9, 2017. The call will be broadcast live over the Internet hosted at the Investor Relations section of Medifast's website at http://www.MedifastNow.com, and will be archived online through March 23, 2017. In addition, listeners may dial (855) 560-2579.

A telephonic playback will be available from 6:30 p.m. ET, March 9, 2017, through March 16, 2017. Participants can dial (877) 344-7529 to hear the playback and enter passcode 10102163.

Medifast (NYSE: MED) is the leading easy-to-use provider of clinically proven weight-loss and healthy living products and programs. Medifast aims to help customers lead a healthier lifestyle through a holistic approach to weight-loss and weight management. Medifast's proven results are based on the use of structured meal plans featuring Medifast Meals, which are nutritionally designed to assist customers with successful weight-loss and weight management. Medifast was founded in 1980 and is located in Owings Mills, Maryland. For more information, log onto http://www.MedifastNow.com.

Take Shape For Life is a thriving, vibrant community that is redefining the path to wellbeing and Optimal Health. It achieves this through a network of Independent Health Coaches, who provide support and personal encouragement to help Clients safely and effectively reach and sustain a healthy weight, and adopt habits for a lifetime of health. Within the Trilogy of Optimal Health, Take Shape For Life offers individuals an opportunity to create sustainable health in all areas of their lives building a healthy body, developing a healthy mind, and generating healthy finances. Take Shape For Life provides Health Coaches with tools and support; an innovative, leading-edge lifestyle program; training and knowledge; and best of all, a community of like-minded individuals working toward the common goal of getting America healthy. In 2016, Take Shape For Life was ranked in the top 20 of the Direct Selling Association's largest companies, and is a Code of Ethics member of the same organization.

MED-F

SOURCE Medifast, Inc.

Katie Turner ICR, Inc. (646) 277-1228

###

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Medifast, Inc. to Announce Financial Results for the Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2016 - Franchising.com (press release)

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Link:
Yes, There Is A Type Of Pot That Helps You Lose Weight - Forbes

PHOENIX, AZ--(Marketwired - February 27, 2017) - Even after following a consistent weight loss process and achieving positive results, many obese and overweight individuals experience weight regain. Weight maintenance depends on a variety of factors, including genetics, personal behavior, and the environment. Following a regular diet and reducing daily caloric intake also has a significant effect. Behavioral therapy may be provided to those continuously struggling with weight regain. The stability of body weight can also be increased by avoiding harmful behaviors like emotional eating, late-night snacking, consuming excessive amounts of sugar, binge eating, and relapsing into an inactive lifestyle.

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At Diet Doc, patients are encouraging to follow healthier alternatives to dieting and regularly consult an in-house doctor throughout the weight loss process. With various prescription medications available, it is possible to adopt a more flexible diet program that involves consuming 800-1250 calories daily without impairing weight loss. The Simeons method for hCG dieting is not only outdated but also unnecessary and unrecommended. High-calorie programs offering safe weight loss are the ideal option for patients considering the hCG diet treatment. Doctor-supervision and diet customization based on nutritional needs is highly recommended.

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Patients can get started immediately, with materials shipped directly to their home or office. They can also maintain weight loss in the long-term through weekly consultations, customized diet plans, motivational coaches and a powerful prescription program. With Diet Doc, the doctor is only a short phone call away and a fully dedicated team of qualified professionals is available 6 days per week to answer questions, address concerns and support patients.

Getting started with Diet Doc is very simple and affordable. New patients can easily visit https://www.dietdoc.com to quickly complete a health questionnaire and schedule an immediate, free online consultation.

About the Company:

Diet Doc Weight Loss is the nation's leader in medical, weight loss offering a full line of prescription medication, doctor, nurse and nutritional coaching support. For over a decade, Diet Doc has produced a sophisticated, doctor designed weight loss program that addresses each individual specific health need to promote fast, safe and long term weight loss.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DietDocMedical

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DietDocMedicalWeightLoss/

LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/diet-doc-weight-loss?trk=biz-brand-tree-co-logo

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Diet Doc Offers Weight Loss And Weight Maintenance Alternatives To The Dangerous Original hCG Diet - Marketwired (press release)