Weighting the evidence: a scoping review of UK regulation of the commercial weight-loss industry and its harms
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Commercial weight-loss companies in the UK wield considerable cultural and economic power while occupying a lightly-regulated policy space. Drawing on zemiology and feminist political economy, this scoping review maps the statutory, quasi-, and self-regulatory frameworks that govern slimming clubs, weight-loss apps, and branded meal-replacement regimes. Thirty-three sources published 2015–2025 were charted. The analysis reveals (1) fragmented, reactive oversight that prioritises pharmacological risk over psychosocial harm; (2) regulatory capture that privileges corporate narratives of ‘personal responsibility’; and (3) a gender-blind neglect of the harms of body surveillance, weight cycling and eating distress. It is argued that these omissions constitute a form of state-corporate harm that sustains profitable cycles of ‘failure’ while displacing responsibility onto female consumers. The article concludes by outlining a justice-oriented regulatory agenda that centres structural accountability, embeds mental-health impact assessments, and aligns with movements resisting diet culture and weight stigma – highlighting how fragmented UK regulation continues to externalise the structural, gendered harms of the commercial weight-loss industry onto individual women and the NHS.
Source: Justice, power and resistance
Author: Jaimie O’Connor
Institution: University of Bristol
Language: English
Topic: Obesity and Health Practices
Subfield: Pharmacy
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7127400515
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