Will Weight Watchers at Work unsafely goof with my work reputation?

Go for it! If any of my secretaries, or partners, wanted to do this, I would be impressed. I would see it as another way they are trying to advance themselves. It would be as if I found out they were taking Latin classes at night. Best of luck to you!

I agree with many others that you are probably overestimating the reaction you'll get from others. Honestly, it will probably barely register with them. Most people don't think about others that much - they're thinking about themselves, just like you are. But I'd suggest that if you don't join WW at work, definitely join a non-work one. If WW is something that works for you, make sure you make use of it, one way or another.

I think you should try WWAW because WW works for you and it sounds like the convenience of having meetings at work would help you stick with it. If you show commitment to bettering yourself, support any coworkers who are also in the program, and generally maintain your professional attitude in the rest of your job, I'm willing to bet you'll gain respect. My company has a deal with a local gym's weight loss program and a lot of my coworkers have gone through it. People who participate in the program are perceived in a good light because they are working hard and because their visible progress is inspiring to others.

it might become very easy for my weight loss efforts to become associated with my identity This isn't a bad thing, especially as your obesity is no doubt already associated with your identity. I've had obese coworkers who've made it known they're trying to lose weight. People are generally very supportive and discreet about it. I'd venture to say that some people even feel admiration. It's not a problem everyone has, and when I see someone struggling with something I don't even have to think about, I feel they're better than me in some way. They're able to bear something I am completely ignorant of. I guess I feel the same toward anyone who works to overcome a physical challenge of some kind. In any case, people are discriminatory toward the obese. Doing something about your obesity will definitely only help your image.

As others have said as well, I think you're making more of this appearance/identity thing than anyone else will. It's easy to do, and to assume others make more of our weight than they do - it's with us 24/7 so it's hard NOT to see it as overwhelming. Most of the people around you probably already think you can't control your eating. Finding out you joined a program and weren't able to alter your weight is just more of the same to them. I suspect that most won't find out - they probably don't pay enough attention to know. The people who do pay enough attention to you to know... why is that a bad thing? You're a human, you have desires and goals and strengths and failings. It's what makes you who you are and it's your trials and travails that make up your life and what you talk about. Everyone who reads this has tried and failed to be richer or smarter or slimmer or more successful with members of their prefered sex. I guess you could choose to be an inhuman corporate robot and reflect none of those things about yourself where any cow orker could see them, but why? Be a professional and put your work and duties first when you're in the office but don't stress over never seeming to have any flaws.

Let me tell you about my experience with Weight Watchers at Work, perhaps it'll help. I joined WWAW, because I couldn't motivate myself to try it elsewhere, and wanted to see how the meetings would help. I despised the leader, but that's not a problem specific to WWAW, it could happen at any WW location. There were about 20 people in our program, and 2 were men. The men did stand out a little, but not in a particularly negative sort of way. If you're not prepared to hear women kvetch a bit about PMS and bloating, then you might find the environment uncomfortable. I work in a building with 3-400 people, and only 20 of us were in the program, so I rarely saw other people, never mind talked to them. But we'd occasionally run into each other in the cafeteria and consult on points and such. The environment in WW is not big on 'Oh my god you ate a chocolate bar, you scum', but rather 'Oh, had a chocolate bar? Well, remember to write it down on your flex points.' so there's not a lot of watching of other people and what they eat. The meetings were not painfully emotional. There were 'I was having a shitty week, and I ate this much crap,' sorts of moments, but nothing much more than that in our group. Mostly WW focuses as much energy as possible on the positive things, rather than the negative, and the negative stuff is often discusses with a humourous tone so it doesn't get too serious. It's entirely possible that you could join WWAW and not have anyone on your direct team even be aware of it, depending on the schedule of the meetings and how your job usually works in relation to meetings. Here, we all have dozens of meetings a week, with various groups of co-workers and clients, so disappearing for an hour a week is completely normal. I'm sure most of my team never even knew when I switched from just being on the WW diet (which I kvetched about constantly) to joining WWAW. The biggest advantage for me, in joining WWAW over just a regular WW program is that my employer reimburses 80% of health and lifestyle programs, provided they have a defined start and end. So just joining WW wouldn't be reimburseable, but joining WWAW, which runs in 14 week sessions, is. That made the experience quite a lot cheaper for me.

Seriously, JOIN NOW. Every personal goal came be more effectively pursued if you know everyone knows what you are up to. Just this very day, one of my favorite muscle head resources, Testosterone Magazine, had an article recommending that you tell your goals to everyone. Sure, you will feel peer pressure not to eat that donut. But its for your own good.

My company had a 'lose 20lb in 2 months' thing and that's what got me started on my weight loss. I didn't do anything until about two weeks before the deadline, and I lost almost 15 pounds in those two weeks (the rest I was able to make up for by dressing lighter, and how I stood on the scale). I never looked back and in four and a half months I'd lost 60 pounds. There were a lot of reasons for me want to lose weight and, but the work thing was just a little extra motivator, but it helped. Our company is going to have another weight contest in feb, I think, but I might be too skinny to participate. People around the office gave me lots of complements, etc, and that was very encouraging as well.

So what if you are a man? The women will take you under their wing. Trust me. And going to WW will send the signal you are facing your difficulty and doing something about it. That is nothing but positive. Plus you won't fail. One thing I do recommend-find time for some sort of exercise as well. This will train your body to use fat for fuel, and will help you build muscle mass which also burns calories. (I know from experience.) Go for it!