Healthy snacks eat into diet aids sales

Sales of diet aids are rocketing across retail right now thanks in no small part to the 38% of Americans who made weight-related resolutions for 2017. Of course, it won’t last long. As many as 25% of New Year Resolutionists lose their conviction in the first week. And less than half will still be weight-loss focused at the mid-year mark.

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On an annualized basis, however, sales of diet aid tablets are down 10.2% to $326.3 million across total U.S. multi-outlet channels, according to IRI. That means one of two things: Either more and more people are actually not overweight anymore, or more and more people have stopped caring that they’re overweight.



As much as your gut may lead you to believe in the latter, the truth may actually be in the former. U.S. adult obesity rates in 2015 actually decreased in four states (Minnesota, Montana, New York and Ohio), marking the first time in the past decade that any states have experienced decreases, according to a report from Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.



And the culprit behind diving diet aid sales? It’s most likely an increased awareness in healthy meal-replacement options (sales of Slim Fast, for example, are up 231.6% to $126.3 million) and the upsurge of fitness as a social norm in America. More than 100 million U.S. adults in the United States regularly exercise two or more times a week, an increase of 54% since 1995, according to 2015 data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence.