After more than 30 years working in weight management, Michelle Terracciano has witnessed the industry transform from weekly weigh-ins and printed meal plans to personalised digital programmes, AI-powered support and GLP-1 medications. As Managing Director of Digital Wellness, which powers the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet, she has spent her career watching new trends emerge, evolve and sometimes disappear. Here, Michelle reflects on what has genuinely changed the way we approach weight management – and what she believes will matter most as the industry enters its next chapter.
When I started working in weight management more than three decades ago, the industry looked completely different.
For many people, losing weight meant attending a weekly meeting, stepping onto a set of scales and leaving with a printed meal plan. Support was largely face-to-face, programmes were structured and there were far fewer options available to people looking to improve their health.
Today, people can track their nutrition through an app, receive personalised advice online, speak virtually with a dietitian or healthcare professional, or use medication as part of their weight-management journey.
It’s an extraordinary amount of change in the space of one career. And having spent more than 30 years watching this industry evolve, it has reinforced something I’ve come to believe very strongly: nothing is permanent but change.
I’ve seen plenty of trends come and go over that time. Some have genuinely changed the way we approach health, while others have disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived. Over time, you get a pretty good sense that chasing every new trend isn’t the answer.
One of the biggest changes I’ve seen has been the move away from a one-size-fits-all approach.
We understand so much more today about the many factors that influence someone’s weight and health. Biology, behaviour, environment, lifestyle and individual circumstances all play a role, and people come to weight management with very different needs and motivations.
People’s expectations have changed too. They want support that works around their lives and reflects their own goals and preferences, and health needs.
Technology has helped the industry respond to that. Digital health has made support more accessible and given us the ability to personalise programmes in ways that simply weren’t possible when I started my career.
AI is the latest evolution, and there’s a lot to be excited about. But it also needs the right guardrails and expertise behind it, particularly in weight management, where evidence, nuance and sensitivity are so important.
After this long in the industry, I often come back to a fairly simple question: does it actually make the experience better for the person using it?
If it saves someone time, removes a barrier, helps them make better choices or gives them support that feels more relevant to their life, then it has real value.
Of course, the biggest conversation in weight management right now is around GLP-1 medications. Their rise has been incredibly significant and, understandably, has led to a lot of discussion about what the future of the industry looks like.
What is clear is that these medications are giving more people access to meaningful weight loss. They’re also helping shift the conversation around obesity and reinforce our understanding that it is a complex, chronic condition influenced by far more than willpower.
At the same time, people still need support around nutrition and behaviour, and those things don’t suddenly become irrelevant because the tools available to us have changed.
I believe the future will involve a much broader mix of approaches. Medication will be part of that for some people. Digital programmes, healthcare professionals, nutrition support and behavioural tools will all have a role too.
For all the transformation I’ve witnessed, there are a few things I’ve become more certain about over the years:
1) Evidence matters: There will always be another diet or product promising remarkable results. People deserve to know that the advice and support they’re receiving has a solid foundation behind it.
2) Listening matters too: Some of the most important changes I’ve seen across the industry have come from paying attention to how people’s lives are changing. How they shop, work, cook, exercise and engage with their health has changed enormously, which means the way we support them has had to change as well.
3) Sustainable change takes time: the tools available today would have been almost unimaginable when I began my career. These days, we’re talking about personalised nutrition, digital coaching, AI and medications. In another
decade, there will undoubtedly be developments none of us can predict today.
I’ve never been particularly interested in trying to predict which trend will be the next big thing. I’m much more interested in whether we’re continuing to learn, whether we’re paying attention to the evidence and whether the people we’re trying to help are getting better support as a result.
That philosophy has followed me throughout my career and continues to shape the work I do today at Digital Wellness, which powers the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet. After more than 30 years in this industry, I’ve learned to be comfortable with the fact that it will keep changing, because that really is the definition of progress.
Michelle Terracciano is Managing Director of Digital Wellness, Australia’s leading evidence-based digital weight management platform delivering the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet. With more than 30 years of experience in health, weight management and wellness, she is recognised as one of Australia’s most experienced leaders in behaviour change and sustainable weight management, combining behavioural science, nutrition and technology to deliver better health outcomes at scale
