New York housewife, Jean Nidetch, started by simply talking to her friends about how to lose weight. They weighed each other and swapped dietary advice, but soon Weight Watchers had turned into a franchise. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Lauren Cohen who joined in the 1960s and eventually became a 'trainer' leading her own Weight Watchers group.
Photo: Jean Nidetch in 1969. Credit Alamy.
