Why I Will Never Sign Up With London Weight Management

This post details my recent experience with London Weight Management and how they tried to sell me a $4000+ slimming package.

Close friends would know I've become more conscious of my weight a few weeks ago, after seeing how dancing doesn't seem to help me burn off excess calories anymore. Partly out of personal motivation to lose weight and curiosity, I visited London Weight Management recently to see if they could help.

What resulted was a treatment that barely reduced my weight, which I felt was totally not worth the $4,000+ package they tried to hard-sell me into buying.

A few weeks ago, I was offered 5 free treatments at London Weight Management via my ez-link rewards app Perx, where I was redirected to key in my personal details to make an appointment via an online link. The folks at London Weight Management were really efficient - the very next afternoon, I received a call from them to fix my appointment date and time. I requested for a slot 2 weekends after, and they tried to push me to come sooner, claiming that there was a "limited time offer" to claim my free treatments.

Of course, that line fell flat when I told them curtly that I would be overseas for an entire week.

Suddenly, the "limited time offer" didn't seem to apply anymore. That was the first red flag for me in my experience with London Weight Management.

Two days before my appointment date, they called me to confirm that I would still be turning up for my appointment. When the day came, they also called me 30 minutes before my appointment time to make sure that I was on the way.

Wait a minute, what's with the anxiety? *rolls eyes* That was my second red flag.

When I arrived, I was first directed to a weighing machine where my height and weight was recorded (54.7kg). I was then whisked into a brightly-lit consultation room, where a therapist spent some time asking about my lifestyle habits, my problem areas that I was dissatisfied with, before asking me to strip so that she could take some photos and measurements.

Here were more red flags:
- She told me I was overweight. (My BMI is 21. Overweight is when you're above 23.)
- She told me I needed to lose 7kg. (Which would bring me to the borderline of underweight and normal weight.)
- She deliberately bent down to take photos of my tummy, thighs and arms at a very unflattering angle. (Even a fool knows that when you take photos from bottom up, you're going to look fat!)

Here's a recent photo of me. I'll let you be the judge - do you think I honestly need to lose 7kg?


She then "customized" the following treatment plan for me:
Part 1:
1. Aroma herbal steam bath ($80)
2. Lavender sea salt therapy ($300)
3. Thermo hot blanket treatment ($60)
Part 2:
4. Ampoule
5. Fat reduction machine ($300+?)

But guess what I found? After reading other reviews online, it turns out that the "customized" treatments seem to be the same for everyone!

Hmm. Suddenly I didn't feel that special anymore, in contrast to how the consultant tried to make me feel while in that room.

The fourth red flag came when she tried to get me to sign a package for 10 treatments for over $4,000, claiming that it would help me in my weight loss and that their results are so good that they even guarantee a 8 - 22cm reduction within every session! When I baulked at the price, she then said they had a "special promotion" and reduced it to $3,000. After I commented it was still too expensive, she said she could give me a "special rate" and the price went down to $2,170.

Do you think all those price reductions made them seem credible? I certainly didn't.

I told the consultant I'm not the sort to buy anything unless I'm convinced it works for me, and that I wanted to claim my free treatments first before judging for myself whether it was worth signing a package with them. She then reluctantly brought me to the weighing machine again to take my measurement before proceeding to start the treatment.

Weight: 54.5kg

Aroma Herbal Steam Bath


I couldn't smell any difference in the air vs. that of a normal sauna room in condos or gyms, so I wasn't exactly convinced that there was indeed "a mix of botanical herbs targeted for weight loss" as claimed by my consultant.


Lavender Sea Salt Therapy + Thermo Hot Blanket Treatment


My treatment ended here. After showering and blowing my hair dry, she guided me to a room to take my measurements.

Weight: 54.4kg

She also measured my arms, tummy and thighs like before, but didn't show me the chart detailing the before and after measurements. My guess is that there probably was not much difference, or perhaps even no change at all.

Instead, she focused on exclaiming that I had lost 100g of water retention, and that it was a "really good result". She then tried to get me to sign up again for the package, saying that my weight loss would be even better with continued treatments.



Nice try. Did you realize what had happened?

Weight before consultation: 54.7kg
Weight before treatment: 54.5kg (wow! I had lost 200g without even doing anything!)
Weight after treatment: 54.4kg

Suffice to say, I wasn't convinced that the treatment even worked for me. 

She then gave me a kit consisting of 4 x 15ml "body perfect" cream. I'm now on my second tube, and have yet to see any results.

The staff wanted me to set my next appointment date there and then, but I shrugged them off by saying my week ahead was completely packed and that I would call them the day after to confirm. Before I left, they emphasized that I needed to come back within 3 days for the next treatment.

Remember how persistent they were in calling BEFORE my appointment previously?

Well, they've not called me ever since to fix my second appointment.

When I reached home, I went to sign up for another "free" treatment online at a different outlet, to see if they would call me again. Like I expected, no one called me this time.

What a drastic change from the first time I booked my appointment!

Anyway, here's more of what I found.

The fifth red flag came up during my lavender sea salt treatment, when I commented that the lavender sea salt had just a faint lavender smell and asked if the product was organic. The consultant said it wasn't, but it was made from botanical ingredients. When I asked where they got the product from, she proudly claimed that they get all their products (sea salt included) from London, as that's where they are from.

Anyway, that sounded promising, right?

I went back to check, only to discover that London Weight Management doesn't seem to be from London at all! It is owned by a Singaporean company, AMES United. I could not find any evidence that they originated from London or even anything that suggested they had links with London.




Interestingly, the owner, Mr. Andy Chua, recently paid over $2 million for a meal with Warren Buffett and even bought a St. Regis penthouse for $12.2 million in cash.


Wow.

However, when I searched online for reviews on London Weight Management, there were more positive reviews than negative ones which accurately reflected my own experience with them.

Here are the links, if you're interested.

Positive reviews:
KelynnStory: London Weight Management Review
Michelle Hon: My Trip To London Weight Management
Nadnut: Sponsored Review: My London Weight Management experience!
Samantha Joy: Advertorial: Getting In Shape at London Weight Management
Esther Xie: London Weight Management Review (ad)
Clara aka Dblchin: [Review] My experience with London Weight Management (sponsored post)

Negative reviews:
Chiharu aka Domokie: A Day At London Weight Management
Lydia Chai: London Weight Management
Chency CCY: A Day With London Weight Management





You also start to see similarities between the positive blog reviews, namely:
1. Talks about their awards and credentials (KelynnStory, Nadnut, Samantha Joy, Dblchin, Esther Xie)
2. The line "exclusively for first-time female customers who are troubled by..." or the common weight problems (KelynnStory, TheChillMom, Samantha Joy, Esther Xie)
3. Their 10 outlets (KelynnStory, TheChillMom, Dblchin, Samantha Joy)
4. Promotion or a freebie (All the bloggers)

Not all the positive reviews were declared as sponsored posts, but I'm skeptical now after looking at all those similarities.

Conclusion (TLDR summary):

• Budget Babe wishes to lose a little weight and tried out London Weight Management. I felt it was a really bad experience with lots of hard-selling by the consultants.
• My therapist told me I am overweight, which is NOT true, according to BMI levels by HPB.
• They told me I needed to lose 7kg, which I found incredulous.
• They emphasized on how effective their treatment was for me with a 100g weight loss, when I had lost 200g while in the consultation room itself without any treatment.
• The sales consultant claimed that London Weight Management is from London, but I found out their parent company is from Singapore.
• The chairman of their parent company recently paid over $2 million just for a dinner with Warren Buffett and $12 million in cash for a St. Regis penthouse.
• Budget Babe thinks London Weight Management packages aren't worth her money.
• It'll be cheaper to go to a sauna in a gym than fork out $80 for their Aroma Steam Bath each time.
• I would rather substitute their Lavender Sea Salt Therapy with the organic sea salt scrubs from Blended instead.