“See you lighter.” This was the standard farewell used by members of Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS, a weight-loss club for women founded in 1948 by a former employee of a Milwaukee brewery. The group, described by LIFE Magazine as “a kind of Fat Ladies Non-Anonymous,” was modeled after the famous alcoholism support network in all ways but the one. “Excess weight being what it is,” LIFE explained, “it is hard to keep secret.”
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At weekly meetings across the Midwest and on both coasts, TOPS members weighed in, sang songs (“Every mealtime check your eats; count the calories, dodge the sweets”) and planned low-calorie meals for the week ahead. Each woman received a stripe on her TOPS pin to acknowledge every five pounds lost.
Though the programs it inspired, in part, to a strategy of employing celebrity spokespeople, which TOPS does not pursue—TOPS continues to be a player in the weight loss world, with members losing a collective 400 tons in 2014. That’s a lot of stripes.
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| Dancing at TOPS party ladies lose ounces whirling around. They play games which require bending. |
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| Weight of fat is dramatized by lady with 16-pound bowling ball. She has lost 24 of her original 274 pounds. |
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| Choosing pals to help them control their calories until the next meeting, the TOPS draw strings from a bag and then look around for matching length. |
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| Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club during a meeting, 1951. |
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| Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club, 1951. |
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| Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club get weighed in 1951. |
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| Founder Manz displays TOPS pin with stripe for each 5 pounds lost, star for 25 pounds. |
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| Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club take measurements, 1951. |
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| Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club exercise together, 1951. |
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| Members of the Milwaukee TOPS Club exchange awards, 1951. |
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| Tempting TOPS use pal system when shopping together to make it easier to pass up pastries. One TOPS motto is “Feast your eyes and nothing more.” |
