Rosemary Jean Neil Conley

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, DL (''née'' Weston, 19 December 1946)''The International Who's Who of Women 2002'', Europa, , p. 113 is an English businesswoman, author and broadcaster on exercise and health. Conley authored a low-fat diet and exercise programme, ''The Hip & Thigh Diet'' in 1988, which sold more than two million copies. However, her spot theory of fat reduction which claims people can lose fat specifically from the hips and thighs has no scientific basis.

Early life

Conley attended

Bushloe High School Bushloe High School was a middle school with academy status located in Wigston, Leicestershire, England. Admissions It was a middle school, using the three-tier education system (invented in Leicestershire in the early 1960s as part of the '' ...

in Leicestershire and Goddards Secretarial College in Leicester. She then studied for an

RSA RSA may refer to: Organizations Academia and education * Rabbinical Seminary of America, a yeshiva in New York City *Regional Science Association International (formerly the Regional Science Association), a US-based learned society *Renaissance S ...

in Exercise to Music.

Career

After losing weight herself, Conley began by running evening classes for local women looking to lose weight in 1972, under the name the ''Slimming & Good Grooming Club''. She established a number of slimming clubs, which she later sold to IPC for £50,000,Cooper, Glenda (1998)
Profile: The slimmer's evangelist; Rosemary Conley
, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'', 4 January 1998, retrieved 2010-11-14 working for the company to oversee the expansion of the club network. After suffering from

gallstones A gallstone is a stone formed within the gallbladder from precipitated bile components. The term cholelithiasis may refer to the presence of gallstones or to any disease caused by gallstones, and choledocholithiasis refers to the presence of ...

, she adopted a

low-fat diet A low-fat diet is one that restricts fat, and often saturated fat and cholesterol as well. Low-fat diets are intended to reduce the occurrence of conditions such as heart disease and obesity. For weight loss, they perform similarly to a low-car ...

as an alternative to surgery, and the resulting fat-loss inspired her to promote the diet to others. From 1993 - 2014 Conley had a franchised network of clubs which became one of the "big three" alongside

Slimming World Slimming World is a weight loss organisation based in Derbyshire in England that caters for men and women of all ages. It was founded in Derbyshire in 1969 by Margaret Miles-Bramwell, who remains its chairman. Its focus is predominantly weight ...

and Weight Watchers but the distinguishing feature of the clubs was that in addition to diet advice the classes offered a 45-minute aerobic workout with a trained instructor. Thus it provided a fitness club for people wanting an alternative to gym membership rather than simply another slimming club, although there were similar product endorsements of foods and kitchen equipment. The

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

expanded to 180 clubs by 2004, with 80,000 members.

Hip and Thigh Diet

Conley became internationally famous in 1988 via her book ''The Hip & Thigh Diet'', which went on to sell over two million copies.Bridge, Rachel (2004) ''How I Made It: 40 Successful Entrepreneurs Reveal All'', Kogan Page, , p. 43-46 The Rosemary Conley approach is characterised by a low-fat diet regime. Conley's ''The Hip and Thigh Diet'' is a low-fat spot-reducing diet and exercise programme that promoted the idea that it could help people lose fat from the hips and thighs.Kent, Michael. (1997)
''Spot Theory of Fat Reduction''
In ''Food and Fitness: A Dictionary of Diet and Exercise''. Oxford University Press. p. 280 However, medical experts do not believe that "this or any other diet and exercise programme can help you shed fat from some parts of your body but not others." The idea has been disproven by scientific research as studies have confirmed that "it is not possible to manipulate diet or use exercise to lose fat from specific parts of the body." In Conley's 1993 book ''The Complete Hip and Thigh Diet'', she promoted the idea of anatomically selective weight loss by dieting. Professor of Surgery

Henry Buchwald Henry Buchwald (born June 21, 1932) is an Austrian-American surgeon and academic. He is the Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering and the Owen and Sarah Davidson Wangensteen Chair in Experimental Surgery Emeritus at the University of M ...

and colleagues noted that "there is no known basis in this book or elsewhere for the support of this incredible claim." Dietician Catherine Saxelby has described the ''Hip and Thigh Diet'' as a

fad diet A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. There is no single defi ...

.Saxelby, Catherine. (2009)
"Fad diets - false promises and magic bullets"
foodwatch.com.au. Retrieved January 24, 2020.

Honours

In 1999, Conley was appointed as deputy lieutenant of Leicestershire. In 2001, she became the first woman to be granted the Freedom of the City of Leicester.Celebrity health - Rosemary Conley
,

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

, 23 January 2006, retrieved 2010-11-14 She was appointed a

in 2004.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conley, Rosemary 1946 births Living people 20th-century English businesspeople 21st-century English businesspeople 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers British magazine founders British women business executives Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deputy Lieutenants of Leicestershire English company founders English exercise instructors English exercise and fitness writers English health and wellness writers English television presenters British women television presenters English women writers People from Leicester Pseudoscientific diet advocates British women company founders 20th-century English businesswomen 21st-century English businesswomen