France's Unlikely Import: Weight Loss Centers

Shortly before Christmas in a 19th century stone building tucked in a tony Paris residential neighborhood, a dietician was advising a client about how to savor her holiday meals without compromising her diet. “Enjoy yourself, but keep portions reasonable and remember to have either cheese or dessert,” but not both, she counseled. Such advice may sound like heresy in a land renowned for its rich food and naturally thin women, but the French public’s embrace of eating habits from abroad has lately taken a toll on waistlines across Gaul.

The dietician’s employer, diet center operator Jenny Craig, thinks it has a solution for French women intent on losing weight: Let Jenny do the cooking. The California-based chain has found success in France by pushing a diet method that combines prepared meals and regular counseling. The country has become one of the brand’s biggest growth engines less than two years after parent Nestlé launched the weight loss program there.