After the Super Bowl, men look to diet companies for help
Forget New Year’s Day. The biggest diet start date — for men — is the day after the Super Bowl, according to some nutrition companies.
Nutrisystem said they receive a gluttony of calls on the day after the big game — which they dub “Super Monday” — from men who are looking to start a diet.
The company said male football fans will either call or visit its website every 1.5 seconds following the Super Bowl, making it the “top diet decision day of the year for men.”
According to a previous survey from the weight loss company, one in four NFL fans pack on an average 10 pounds during football season. That is one of the reasons it enlisted former NFL quarterback Dan Marino as its brand ambassador for more than a decade.
In 2017, Marino told FOX Business that he always resets around this time of year because “it’s easier to stick with it.”
“It seems that once [the] Super Bowl is over, many men are ready to get their diet started because for the last five months they’ve been chowing down on wings, beer and pizza every Sunday as they watch the games,” Marino said. “And with only 16 weeks until summer and the distraction of Sunday football in the past, it’s easier to start a diet.”
Dawn Zier, CEO of Nutrisystem, said the company typically see men’s diet food orders spike on Super Monday.
Monty Sharma, CEO of Jenny Craig, a diet plan initially aimed at women, has also seen opportunity in the male category in recent years. In 2011, the company launched “Jen Works for Men,” and in January 2017, they released a new male-focused campaign centered around a military veteran’s personal story.
Sharma said over the past year, its average number of new male members on the program has increased to 25 percent from 15 percent.
“We plan to continue to encourage men looking for science-based nutrition and health programs to consider Jenny Craig,” Sharma told FOX Business, adding that they are currently running a male-focused campaign starting the day before the Super Bowl."
And, it’s not just football season. The big game is a massive calorie killer on its own. According to the USDA, Super Bowl Sunday is the second highest day of food consumption in the United States, after Thanksgiving. Additionally, the Calorie Control Council reports that while Americans are watching Super Bowl LIII, they will eat an estimated 30 million pounds of snacks — and not particularly healthy ones either.
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To top it off, a 2013 study from Psychological Science found that fans of the losing team tend to load up on saturated fats and sugars, whereas fans of the winning team opt for healthier choices. Sorry, Rams fans.