January 26, 2022
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You probably agree that finding ways to make a passive income is essential to be able to retire early.
Optavia suggests that it can provide you with an opportunity to take control of your financial future whilst helping others to live a healthier lifestyle. However the question still remains, is Optavia a pyramid scheme?
This honest and unbiased Optavia review [with videos] will expose the good and bad parts of the program so that you can make an informed decision on what to do next.
Optavia is an MLM company that promotes weight loss through starvation. Optavia’s diet programs are expensive, don’t work long-term, and can harm your health. Many have called it a “pyramid scheme” because they make their money off recruiting new members.
It’s one of many making money online programs centered around selling the company’s products or recruiting other people to join the company as a distributor so they can sell products or buy the products at a discount.
The Optavia diet is a low-calorie, reduced-carb program that combines packaged foods, homemade meals, and personalized coaching to encourage weight loss.
The program offers several plans, all of which involve a mixture of packaged Optavia Fuelings and homemade entrees known as Lean and Green meals.
For people not interested in cooking, the company also provides a line of premade low-carb meals called Flavors of Home as a replacement for Lean and Green meals.
Optavia describes itself as a “holistic health and wellness program” aimed at helping people achieve their goals through “healthy habit creation, clinically proven plans, and scientifically developed products, all reinforced by coaches who provide individualized support.” The program focuses on six key areas of health: Weight, eating and hydration, motion, sleep, mind, and surroundings.
Founded in 2002, Optavia is owned by parent company Medifast, popularly known for selling weight loss and health-related products, often through multilevel marketing.
Optavia’s mission is to change the course of health in the USA and the world!!
Personally… as a former PE teacher for 10 years… I love that!
It comprises of:
All of these things are a great way to help them achieve their mission statement. But there are a lot of unanswered questions that are hidden in plain sight.
As you absorb the information in this Optavia review you will discover that it is also a Multi-Level-Marketing program. You will also find out the answer to the question “is Optavia a pyramid scheme?”
Optavia was founded in 2016/2017 by Dr. Anderson (Dr. A) and Bradley Macdonald.
However, it was rebranded from another company called “Take Shape for Life”, which was founded in 2002/2003.
Both of these companies are part of Medifast, which typically has a good reputation as a weight loss company founded in 1980. But as you will soon find out there are starting to become more question marks over the effectiveness of this organisation.
The core product of Optavia is meal replacements.
These are different processed foods that provide the nutrients your body needs but help control your calorie intake.
Some examples of meal replacements provided by Optavia include:
As you pay close attention to this page you will realise there are a lot of different products to try. They range in price from around $15- $435 but you can find out more in their shop.
The main service that Optavia offers is the coaching community and education.
Just think about it… what is the hardest part of forming a new habit?
Consistency and accountability. This is something your coach can help you with during the healthy change.
However, as you keep reading this review the more you wonder who your “coach” with Optavia actually is.
Optavia’s coaches are certified through the “Center of Obesity Prevention & Education (COPE) through Villanova University”. They are trained to coach healthy habits and lifestyle through this training.
Coaches, as well as clients, are on a healthy meal plan with different goals.
However, I would advise you to be “picky” here and do your research into your coach.
Check out YouTube (like the above video) because finding different coaches is a great way to see if you think you could build a report with this coach and also see who is doing well with their online presence. This could help you if you are interested in the MLM program.
At the end of the day, all the coaches are just like you or me but have been through the “training”.
The extra research, motivation and communication skills they possess will completely vary. Your job is to research them!
This is a guide created by the founder, Dr. Wayne Scott Anderson.
This $29.95 guide will take you through information on:
There is some really good information about general health here. However, this kind of information can be found elsewhere and quite often for free or in a book for below $10.
Other related book recommendations around $10:
Click the above links to buy the books for a discount on Amazon
Are you beginning to notice that a great way to improve your habits is to learn more about it i.e. reading, watching videos, talking about it and taking action?
When you are trying a new venture or trying to form a new habit the hardest part is always consistency.
Having a community around you to seek out support and immerse yourself into is a great way to keep yourself accountable and see better results.
Optavia has different ways to keep you on track and stay part of a community:
There are so many communities available today with the help of social media. However, the most effective communities are those that you truly immerse yourself into.
AKA meal replacements!
Optavia’s fuelings are the bulk of every meal plan — they include bars, shakes, brownie and pancake mix, snack sticks, cereals, pasta, potatoes, soups, and pudding.
Each product is said to be high in vitamins and minerals, probiotics, and protein and doesn’t contain any artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners. The meal plan you choose will determine how much fuel you’ll receive.
While not all fueling products are available in every meal plan, you can customize your fueling kit.
Optavia fuelings (meal replacements) have the following benefits:
Whilst this can be a great way to lose weight fast it is also not sustainable. Even Dr. A acknowledges this himself and the role of the coach should be to help people realise this. However, this next section can cause some coaches to have conflicting interests for their clients…
There are 3 mains ways you can make money with Optavia:
Check out their compensation plan here (it is very confusing so I’ll try to explain it in simpler terms below!)
You earn a commission based on the number of products you sell to other people.
As you can see you can earn anything from 18-31% of all sales you make.
You can also earn startup/ consistency bonuses if you make a certain amount of sales.
Note- these are quite challenging for new members i.e. you need to recruit 5 members to your team within 30 days to get the startup $100 bonus!
As your downline and revenue grow, you can advance in ranks.
And as you advance in the ranks you can earn a higher commission from your “downline” (people you recruit for the program) for all of the products and services they sell too.
This is where the income can start to become passive!
Business Leader Income is earned when you have achieved the rank of “Regional Director” and you’ve helped your downline to achieve the rank of “Executive Director”.
This is where it starts to get very confusing and there are numbers and people coming from all over the place.
Fair play to Optavia’s system that tracks all of this!
The more you read this the more you will realise that the only way you can make BIG money with Optavia is if you recruit a lot of people in your “downline”.
Now I can almost hear your mind screaming…
First of all let’s define what a Multi-Level-Marketing (same as network marketing, pyramid selling or referral marketing) program actually is. Wikipedia’s definition of MLM is…
A non-salaried workforce where your earnings come from a pyramid-shaped commission system.
Simply put:
You earn money from commissions of sales you make and a percentage of the sales the people you recruit make. The people you recruit are in your so-called “downline” so if you help them to sell better it will help you make more money!
A pyramid scheme is defined as:
A business model that pays its members when they recruit others rather than supplying products or services.
MLM programs can be legitimate, but pyramid schemes are unsustainable and often illegal.
As you can see from this Optavia review, there are plenty of products that are being sold.
Therefore, Optavia is NOT a pyramid scheme or a scam.
However, are you going to be able to quit your job and live off of passive income forever by becoming a coach? Continue reading to reveal the truth and common Optavia complaints…
Just to be fully transparent with you, I have not purchased Prosperity of Life myself and I do not endorse it in any way so I will stop short of calling it an outright scam.
I have researched the website, testimonials, information on the Internet and watched the long (boring) sales videos, to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Related content:
The return policy is a great way to tell if a company genuinely believes in their products. If there is no option for this then this is a HUGE red flag that the company may be suspicious or offer garbage.
It’s also helpful for people that just don’t like the taste of a certain product as tastes are obviously subjective.
However, as you will see in the Optavia complaints section later in this Optavia review they may not always honour this guarantee.
You will need your “downline” to get promoted to higher “ranks” for you to progress. This means that every coach is encouraged and motivated to help their downline succeed.
For example, if your coach has found some great little tricks and tips to recruit and sell then it’s in their interest to help you.
It also has a focus on selling the products which means that Optavia is not a pyramid scheme.
Personal mini-rant here:
I HATE diets!
They cause so much confusion around food and nutrition as so many diets contradict the others.
The biggest positive about this whole program is that it is focused on education and people living a healthy lifestyle… NOT just losing weight quick through some fad.
The last 30 seconds of the video shows that Dr A is very aware that meal replacements are not a long term solution but help people see results to get into “teachable mode”.
Most people do seem to enjoy the products (take this with a pinch of salt though as they are likely trying to sell them too!) However, when you compare them to very similar products by shopping around (Googling it) you can find much cheaper options…
Here are some examples:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
I could go on with their products but I think you get the point.
Shop around amigo!
It just so happens that nutrition is one of the things I have researched quite a lot myself. My dissertation in my Sports Science degree was even based on the glycemic index (how quickly food releases energy).
Processed (man-made) food is not good.
FACT!
The China Study is an amazing book reporting the findings from in-depth studies (mainly comparing the diets of people in rural China to the Western world). The book and documentary Forks Over Knives also backs up this research.
The message is that eating a WHOLE FOOD PLANT BASED (WFPB) wins 100% of the time and can reduce the risk of so many diseases and is BETTER than medicine. If you can find any evidence suggesting otherwise then please let me know!
The controversial documentary “What The Health” is an easy watch and a great way to grasp some of this knowledge if you are interested in nutrition. The more recent documentary “The Game Changers” has really started getting people talking.
Yes, Dr. A knows that the meal replacements are a short term fix to get people more interested by seeing quick results. However, coaches may not promote a healthy WFPB diet ever because…
Here’s the truth…
The coaches get paid by selling products to people.
So their interests are becoming a bit skewed rather than advising the best thing for people.
Yes, I like Dr A and I can tell he’s a knowledgable guy who’s trying to good for the world. But the coaches are everyday people (not many people research nutrition in their spare time!) and chances are they have had poor eating habits themselves for most of their life if they have found Optavia.
When the coaches are left to their own devices without Dr A, they may not recommend the best lifestyle for people.
PR Newswire shows that 73% of all people involved in MLM companies lose money or make no money.
I would like to point out that some people do extremely well from MLM programs. But as you can see in the article above the majority do not.
The main reason for this is that people give up. At the end of the day, any business will require perseverance but you cannot argue with the facts.
Check out Optavia’s Income Disclosure Statement 2017.
If you do well from this MLM program you will be in the small minority.
Do you remember reading that Medifast typically has a good reputation and was founded in 1980?
But when researching the company it’s clear to see it maybe wasn’t what it once was. The Better Business Bureau shows that there has been a pattern of complaints:
The complaint seems to be around the lack of communication or people being able to contact the company.
Not a good sign for a company promoting coaching and support.
There are also over 170 Optavia complaints filed on the BBB.
Just check out a few examples below…
These Optavia complaints are not even cherry-picked by me.
Click on the BBB link above and you will see hundreds of people complaining about Optavia about the same kinds of issues as these.
If you are planning on earning a recurring commission from people that buy the products through you, then you would hope the customer service and return policy helped you out.
These customers will now never purchase anything from Optavia again and most of these issues are not to do with the coaches.
Related content:
There’s a one-word answer for me… no!
The weight loss program can work for people but just like any fad diet, it’s not sustainable. There are also many better-priced products on the market.
Optavia’s MLM program obviously does work for some people and it may well suit you.
But here are some questions that you should ask yourself before diving into using the program:
There is nothing that really makes this company stand out compared to other weight loss program, which is why I think so many people struggle to turn this into a full-time home business.
In September 2018 I had no idea how people made money online.
After finding the training and community that I still learn from, I have all the proof I needed to quit my full-time job at the end of 2019.
Some of my personal favourite parts to affiliate marketing are:
Working full time and travelling a lot meant Wealthy Affiliate was exactly what I was looking for.
I could work at my own pace and keep building the business by following the step by step training.
Is Optavia a pyramid scheme?
No.
It is a legit way to improve your health and a legitimate business model.
However, it’s proven that a lot of people do not make any money from MLM programs. Plus there are alternative ways to start a business for small upfront costs.
If you are looking to make money online to free up your time and you would rather not be encouraged to sell to your friends and your family then there are thousands of people over the world that make money from affiliate marketing.
I had no idea what affiliate marketing was in 2018.
But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year…
If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.
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