Tesco takes on Weight Watchers with ‘My Fit Lifestyle’ range

Tesco is accelerating its healthy living charge with a service to help time-strapped professionals avoid unhealthy foods through better planning, a move that brings it into competition with weight maintenance companies such as Weight Watchers.

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Tesco is trialling a service that helps people avoid unhealthy food through better planning.

The “My Fit Lifestyle” sub-brand is being trialled in London where customers will be able to visit specialised zones in stores and online to purchase meals from the new range. Products are colour-coded into five different calorie bands to help match diet plans the supermarket is helping customers develop as part of the service.

People can count their calories on Tesco’s “Health and Wellbeing” website and app with the company claiming the offer builds on a “new and emerging trend” in the US for personalised eating plans. It also brings the supermarket’s health kick more inline with the offerings from companies such as Weight Watchers as it accelerates into an area it has claimed is “growing rapidly”.

Jill Easterbrook, chief customer officer at Tesco, says the launch aims to help customers overcome the pressures of sticking to a healthy eating regime each day. Most (90 per cent) of Brits say they make unhealthy food choices due to a lack of time, according to a study commissioned by Tesco, while more than half eat whilst on the move or at their desk.

Easterbrook adds: “By combining fresh, healthy, delicious meals with a personal eating plan, we can support our customers and help them achieve their health and well-being goals.”

A free “restaurant-on-wheels” service launches today to promote the new range for five days. Consumers can book a ride in a branded taxi to sample meals from the sub-brand while travelling to meetings and work across the capital.

Earlier this week Tesco moved UK marketing director David Wood to lead its revamped ‘Health and Wellbeing’ division.

Last month, Tesco became the firs of the big four supermarkets to pull confectionery from checkouts at all its stores, including smaller Metro and Express outlets.  It also says billions of calories have been removed from its soft drinks, sandwiches and ready meal ranges to meet its Responsibility Deal commitments.

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