Today we are going to do a diet review of the Optavia diet.
I am not going to lie, Optavia was really tempting to me. When I first heard about it, it was from a dietitian I worked with at a nursing home. She was leaving her 30 year career as a consulting dietitian for nursing homes to become a Health Coach for Optavia. I had only been a dietitian for a few months at the time and was quite impressionable.
One of my long term goals as a dietitian has always been to lose my weight and help other women to do the same. Becoming an Optavia coach seemed like it might be a good way to do that. Another reason I was considering it was because I was about to move to Southern Utah for a job an hour away from where I would be living, and my house was under renovation and did not have a functional kitchen yet. Prepackaged meals that only required a microwave seemed like a decent solution at the time. Now I realize how mistaken I was.
What is Optavia
Optavia is what is called a multilevel marketing company. At the highest level, doctors and dietitians worked together to create prepackaged, dehydrated foods that could be sent through the mail and replace normal foods to help people lose weight. You are also set up with a Health Coach, which is where the multilevel marketing comes in. Anyone can become a coach. By paying a fee and teaching the Optavia Methods, you become a coach.
They have a large variety of foods that you can order from shakes, soup, cookies, brownies and even macaroni and cheese. The food comes in individual, dehydrated food packets that you mix with water and heat or blend.
The Downsides
Your food options are extremely limited
Optavia has a few plans based on how much weight you want to lose. The most common is referred to as the 5:1 plan, which basically means you eat 5 of their meals per day, and 1 “lean and green” meal which consists of protein and veggies.
They have around 60 types of shakes, soup, pastas, bars and desserts. These foods are dehydrated so they can be easily sent in the mail. Each of the food packets is designed to provide the same amount of protein, fiber, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals so they are interchangable.
Since the food packets each have the same nutritional value regardless of if it is a shake, cookie or bowl of soup, the company has to strip the nutrients out and add back in the prescribed amounts. This changes the nutritional quality of the food as we don’t fully understand how each nutrients in food interacts with one another and with our body.
It only provides 800 to 1000 calories per day
This is a ridiculously low amount of calories. I don’t teach my clients calorie counting because they tend to share my views about how restrictive it can be, but I will tell you that 800-1000 calories a day is not enough.
When I was following the 5:1 plan, all I could think about was my next meal time. I never felt satisfied, and I was hungry within an hour. Each packet is only around 100 calories. It is a snack. Not a meal.
I know what it feels like to eat like this, and it is awful. Feeling hungry an hour after a meal is not normal or necessary. I’d rather you ate real food with protein, fat, fiber and produce in an amount that will keep you full for 3-4 hours. Not just a tiny meal packet that leaves you starving in an hour.
Anyone can be a Health Coach
Optavia has what it calls Habits of Health where it teaches you to drink water, increase your vegetable intake, and eat Optavia’s food. They even teach you that to maintain your weight loss that you must still eat 3 food packets and just lean and green meals.
These Habits of Health are what they teach to their health coaches to teach to you. It is a cut and dry program that has no room for food allergies, traditional foods, or family foods.
Most of what I talked to my coach about when I was following Optavia was how to make the foods taste better. If you haven’t tried their food packets, let me tell you they are chalky and the texture of most of them is terrible. The added protein tastes really weird, and I constantly found myself trying to figure out how to make the food edible.
It is also common for your Health Coach to have no nutritional or medical background. They are not qualified to provide nutritional advice beyond what the program allows.
Overall, Optavia is a diet. It is restrictive, does not teach lasting habits, and since anyone can be a coach, you aren’t going to get a high level of nutrition support.
I cannot make decisions for you, so if Optavia is a diet you want to try you can. I personally recommend against it for the reasons listed above. I want you to have all of the information to be able to make an informed decision.
If you are done with dieting and want a new approach, apply for my Habit Based Weight Loss Program. I teach my clients my FIT4 Method, a simple, visual method to show you if you are eating the right portions to lose weight. You don’t have to give up your favorite foods, or overhaul your life all at once. Instead we focus on building habits that will help you lose your weight and keep it off for good.
To learn more about my 3 month coaching program, check out my 3 minute program video here. If it seems like a good fit, go ahead and apply!