--- title: How the 'Fat Ladies Non-Anonymous Club' Revolutionized Weight Loss description: Long before Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, Take Off Pounds Sensibly revolutionized the way women approached weight loss. canonical: https://time.com/3977716/women-weight-loss/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-10T12:00:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:12.026Z og:title: How the 'Fat Ladies Non-Anonymous Club' Revolutionized Weight Loss og:description: Long before Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, Take Off Pounds Sensibly revolutionized the way women approached weight loss. og:url: https://time.com/3977716/women-weight-loss/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte47beea67b9d7cbd/69885d1c524fc046b0df3ceb/150729-fat-ladies-club-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Fat Ladies Non-Anonymous Club og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the 'Fat Ladies Non-Anonymous Club' Revolutionized Weight Loss twitter:description: Long before Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, Take Off Pounds Sensibly revolutionized the way women approached weight loss. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte47beea67b9d7cbd/69885d1c524fc046b0df3ceb/150729-fat-ladies-club-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the 'Fat Ladies Non-Anonymous Club' Revolutionized Weight Loss  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 10, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Weight of fat is dramatized by lady with 16-pound bowling ball. She has lost 24 of her original 274 pounds. Caption from LIFE. Weight of fat is dramatized by lady with 16-pound bowling ball. She has lost 24 of her original 274 pounds.Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 10, 2015 12:00 PM UTC “See you lighter.” This was the standard farewell used by members of Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS, a weight-loss club for women founded in 1948 by a former employee of a Milwaukee brewery. The group, described by LIFE Magazine as “a kind of Fat Ladies Non-Anonymous,” was modeled after the famous alcoholism support network in all ways but the one. “Excess weight being what it is,” LIFE explained, “it is hard to keep secret.” Esther Manz conceived of TOPS while sitting around her kitchen table with some friends. The key to the group’s success, they believed, would be just that: power in numbers. As with Alcoholics Anonymous’ sponsor system, TOPS members had a “pal system” wherein randomly assigned partners would offer moral support “when the urge for a bonbon seems irresistible.” Manz may not have been a dietician, but her hunch was supported by science. [Dr. Frederick Stare](http://www.economist.com/node/1086689), who founded the Department of Nutrition at Harvard’s School of Public Health and was considered the leading dietician in the country, spoke to LIFE about group therapy as the best possible way to lose weight. More than six decades later, this approach continues to be backed by new [research](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/267537.php). At weekly meetings across the Midwest and on both coasts, TOPS members weighed in, sang songs (“Every mealtime check your eats; count the calories, dodge the sweets”) and planned low-calorie meals for the week ahead. Each woman received a stripe on her TOPS pin to acknowledge every five pounds lost. Though the programs it inspired, like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, may have greater name recognition in 2015—thanks, in part, to a strategy of employing celebrity spokespeople, which TOPS does not pursue—TOPS continues to be a player in the weight loss world, with members losing a collective 400 tons in 2014\. That’s a lot of stripes. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Caption from LIFE. Dancing at TOPS party ladies lose ounces whirling around. They play games which require bending. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Weight of fat is dramatized by lady with 16-pound bowling ball. She has lost 24 of her original 274 pounds. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Choosing pals to help them control their calories until the next meeting, the TOPS draw strings from a bag and then look around for matching length. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club during a meeting, 1951. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club, 1951. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club get weighed in, 1951. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Founder Manz displays TOPS pin with stripe for each 5 pounds lost, star for 25 pounds. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club take measurements, 1951. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club exercise together, 1951. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club exchange awards, 1951. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Tempting TOPS use pal system when shopping together to make it easier to pass up pastries. One TOPS motto is "Feast your eyes and nothing more." 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