Is Optavia A Scam? Or The Real Deal?

Welcome to my Optavia review.

So, is Optavia a scam? No, they are not a scam. And they are not a pyramid scheme as some people have suggested. Optavia has a legitimate homebased business opportunity.

But my question is. Is this homebased business opportunity right for you? Is it going to give you the ability to build a business that will satisfy all your financial wants and needs?

Well, if you’re here I have to assume you have the same questions.

Now, I’ve been reviewing homebased business opportunities for years and during this time I’ve always been honest in my reviews. If an opportunity is worth your time and investment, I’ll let you know.

And if a homebased business opportunity is something you need to avoid; I’ll tell you that too. And this review is no different.

And with that said, let me first say, good on you for taking the time to do your own research before getting involved with any business opportunity. That alone tells me your serious about finding a legitimate way to make money online.

Disclaimer: I am not a member or an affiliate of Optavia. All the information researched for this review is available online within the public domain. This review is my personal opinion and any recommendations/conclusions are my own which you may or may not agree with. What you decide to do after reading my review is up to you. You can see the full disclaimer here for more info.

Alright, let’s see what Optavia is all about.

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So, What Is Optavia?

Optavia is a multi-level marketing company marketing products in the health and wellness niche. The company was launched in 2017 and its headquarters are in Baltimore, Maryland.

The company was co-founded by Dr. Wayne Andersen a well-respected doctor, bestselling health author. As well as being a board-certified physician in critical care.

Now something you won’t find on their website is that Optavia is a subsidiary of Medifast. And who is Medifast? Medifast is a weight loss company that’s been providing their Medifast Meals for losing weight since 1980.

Now the concept behind Optavia is to provide health coaching to its clients. So, your coach will guide you through what they call the “Habits of Health”. Which is designed to help you develop healthy habits as well as making healthy choices.

And this change to healthy habits and healthy choices can increase your chances of reaching your optimal weight for a lifelong transformation.

Now all of this is done not only with your coach but with their products and meal plans.

The Products

The products they carry are listed as Optavia Fuelings and Plans.

Fuelings

The Fuelings are designed to help you make easy simply changes that help you build new healthy habits.

Optavia Essential Fuelings

The Optavia essential fuelings are comprised of snack bars, pasta, chocolate brownie & yogurt chips, jalapeno poppers, pancakes, fudge, maple & brown sugar oatmeal, cereal, smoothie/shake powder, etc.

There are 29 different products to choose from. Each pack contains 7 servings and are all priced at $21.45 (US).

Optavia Select Fuelings

Here you find 3 different types of snack bars and a Buttermilk Cheddar Herb Biscuit. Each has 7 servings and are all priced at $23.45 (US).

Classic Fuelings

Here you’ll find 20 different products such as pancakes, snack bars, etc. All have 7 servings and are all priced at $19.95 (US).

Optimal Health

Here you’ll find 4 different food packages. A yogurt bar, dark chocolate bar, and two shake flavors (Chocolate/Peanut Butter and Cookies & Cream). All are priced at $19.95 (US). And all contain 7 servings.

Purposeful Hydration

These are powdered juices. 1 orange and 1 berry. Each contain 30 servings and are priced at $39.95 (US).

Snacks & More

Here you’ll find a variety of products. Such as different flavored popcorn, beef stew, tea, etc. As well as information guides.

Plans

The plans are the different weight lose plans they have available.

Optimal Weight 5&1 Plan

As I understand it, you’ll going to be eating 6 times per day. Eating every 2 to 3 hours. 5 of these meals will be fuelings. You have more than 60 fuelings to choose from. And with the 6th meal you’ll learn how to make a lean and green meal for you and your family.

You have 2 kits to choose from. The Essential Optimal Kit or the Essential On-The-Go Kit. Both priced at $414.60 (US) and contain 119 servings. (about 30 days).

Optimal Weight 4&2&1 Plan

With this plan you’re still eating 6 times a day. But on this plan, you’re going to eat 4 Optavia fuelings. Then you’re going to prepare 2 lean and green meals and 1 snack. Again, eating every 2 to 3 hours.

The Essential Optimal Kit for this plan costs $408.00 (US) and contains 140 servings (about 30 days).

Optimal Health 3&3 Plan

This plan consists of eating 3 Optavia fuelings and 3 lean and green meals. And like the other plans you’ll be eating every 2 to 3 hours. The cost for this Optimal Health Plan is $333.00 (US). And contains 130 servings (about 30 days)

So, How Do You Become An Optavia Coach?

If you want to start your business with Optavia. There are 3 simple steps to becoming an Optavia coach.

1. Talk to your Optavia coach
2. Buy your business kit
3. Engage with the Optavia community

The business kit is going to cost you $199.00 (US). This kit will provide you with the business tools such as a coaching guide, brochures, and product cards.

You’ll also get business accessories for your home office such as a desktop organizer, a pen set, etc.

Your kit also provides you with 12 months of free access to your own personalized Optavia website and back office. As well as virtual support training videos delivered to your inbox.

How Do You Make Money With Optavia?

Optavia is a multi-level marketing company so there are 2 ways of making income. The first is by simply retailing their products and earning commissions from those sales.

The other and the way most people know and understand MLM is by recruiting people into your business (downline).

And by doing that you can work your way up the compensation plan to the different levels and by doing so you have the opportunity to make more money.

Of course, there are requirements you must meet and maintain in order to be eligible for the bonuses at each level within the compensation plan.

Below is an overview of how you can earn money. You can also check out their compensation plan by clicking here.

Client Support Commissions (retail)

These commissions are paid weekly and you will earn 15% commission on orders done through your personal Optavia website from orders placed by your frontline (Level 1) clients.

Certification Bonus

This bonus is paid monthly. And you can earn this bonus by continuing education through Coach Certification. And by doing so you can earn 3% bonus from your frontline volume.

Client Support Bonuses

Client support bonuses are tiered and are paid on frontline volume.

Consistency Bonus

This consistency bonus has 3 levels. It must also be noted that in order to be eligible for this bonus, your frontline volume cannot fall below 2,000 in any month.

• 2,000 in FLV (frontline volume) for 3 consecutive months you’ll be paid a $250 bonus
• 4,000 in FLV (frontline volume) for 3 consecutive months you’ll be paid a $500 bonus
• 6,000 in FLV (frontline volume) for 3 consecutive months you’ll be paid a $1,000 bonus

Client Acquisition Bonus (CAB)

You can earn a 1 time $100 bonus within the first 30 days of becoming a coach. And in order to be eligible for this bonus you must generate a total of 1,000 frontline volume (FLV) within your first 30 days from 5 new frontline clients and/or coaches.

Assist Bonuses

If you help a newly sponsored coach earn their client acquisition bonus. You’ll earn a matching $100 assist bonus.

Team Growth Bonuses

This bonus is only available to business coaches at the Senior Coach level or higher. And is earned only on business teams outside of a coach’s frontline.

Fully Integrated Business Coach Consistency Bonus

This bonus is available to a Qualified Executive Director (who is Certified) achieves 6,000 in frontline volume, has 5 Qualified Senior Coach Teams, and 15,000 in group volume. Achieve this for 3 consecutive months and you’ll be paid a $1,000 bonus.

Executive Director Generation Bonuses

The executive director generation bonuses are paid to business leaders that have the rank of Regional Director or higher. This bonus is paid for developing executive directors within their team.

This commission is between 1.5% and 2.5% and be can be earned up to 6 generations depending on the leaders’ rank.

Elite Leadership Bonuses

This bonus is paid to leaders that have the rank of National Director and higher. You can earn 0.5% override on your entire business down through the first business leader at or above the qualifying bonus ranks of National Director, Global Director, or Presidential Director.

These compensation plans can be confusing. I know they give me a headache when I read them. Again, here’s the link to their compensation plan again so you can go through it in detail for yourself.

Which I recommend you do. You need to know what you have to do in order to make money with Optavia.

And speaking of making money, that raises the question…

Can You Make Money With Optavia?

When it comes to the opportunity to make money with Optavia just like other MLM companies the percentages are not in your favor.

It’s only a small amount of people that actually make any real income. As you can see from their 2019 income disclosure statement below the percentage of people making any real money is very, very low. I mean crazy low.

Personally, the percentages I see for you or anyone making any real money sucks. Just look at those percentages.

You’ll notice that the bigger percentages of earnings are less than $2,500 per year. That’s a whopping $208.00 per month. Not what I call life changing money. And the percentages don’t get any better as the yearly income potential goes up.

And remember this does not take into account the time and money coaches are spending to earn that few hundred dollars per month. So, I think it’s safe to say those monthly income averages are even lower.

But this is no surprise to me. Every MLM company I have reviewed always sell people on the opportunity of making big money. And yes, the opportunity is there. But the reality is that most people will not make any significant money. If fact 99% of people will lose money.

Now you may be the exception and not the rule when it comes to building a business within an MLM company. I don’t know. Only you can answer that question.

And if you are and you think you can beat the odds. Then Optavia may be your path to a successful homebased business.

What Are People Saying About Optavia?

I found an article on the Healthline website and I do recommend you read it before making a final decision about joining Optavia.

And while they say that Octavia’s products do work. It’s not a long term weight loss solution.

And this comes as no real surprise. This is very low calorie pre-packed heavily processed meals and snacks.

What I Like About Optavia

#1) Easy Program To Follow

If you’re going to get involved with this company it only make sense to me that you’re going to be on one of their meal programs. And the great thing is this weight loss program is easy to follow.

Most of your fuelings are pre-packed meals with you only having to cook 1 meal per day if you’re on the 5&1 plan.

#2) Ongoing Support

As both a coach and a client you have access to ongoing support while building your business and on your weight loss journey.

#3) There Is An Opportunity

If you have the right personality to be in an MLM there is a real opportunity that you could build a successful homebased business through Optavia.

#4) The Products Do Deliver

The products do help people lose weight quickly. And you and I both know; people want results fast when it comes to weight loss.

#5) Low Startup

Compared to other MLM business opportunities that charge hundreds and hundreds of dollars to get started. Optavia’s startup cost of $199.00 is pretty reasonable.

#6) Return Policy

The company offers a 30-day return policy.

What I Didn’t Like About Optavia

#1) Expensive Products

These meal programs (fuelings) are not cheap. You’re asking people to spend $300 to $400 plus per month. Not including the other green food they will need to buy. That’s a lot of money each month.

#2) Processed Food

When you get right down to it this is heavily processed pre-packaged food that has a very low caloric level. Take the 5&1 plan it is between 800 and 1000 calories per day. Of course, people are going to lose weight. People are starving themselves.

On average a female that is between the ages of 26–50 needs should have 2,000 per day to maintain her weight. And 1,500 calories per day to lose 1 pound of weight per week.

A male between 26–45 needs 2,600 calories per day to maintain his weight. And 2,100 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week. Resource for this information can be found on the Healthline website.

#3) Low Success

The success rate for not only this MLM but other MLM’s is very, very low. Even their own income disclosure statement shows you that the odds of you making any significant money though their compensation plan is crazy low.

And I’m taking between $30,000 to $50,000 per year, you have is 2.19% chance of making that. And if you’re hoping to make more the odds get even worse.

#4) Recruiting

No matter how you look at it. You’re only hope of making any significant money is by building your downline. And in order to do that, you’re going have to be constantly recruiting people.

And that typically starts with approaching your friends and family first. Which rarely goes well. And once you’ve burned tghrough your friends and family.

You have to start trying to recruit people you don’t know. And this is where the majority of people struggle when it comes to building a business. And because of that most people will quit within the first year of starting with an MLM.

#5) Very Low Retail Commissions

Let’s say you decide you’re just going to retail the products. Well, at a 15% commission you’re going have to sell a lot of product to make any sort of money. And I mean a lot!

#6) Not Health Professionals

These coaches are not certified health professionals. They are salespeople. Their focus is on either selling products or recruiting people. So, their focus is probably skewed when it comes to providing the best advice for people.

These people are not qualified to provide any dietary or medical advice. So, I would make sure any advice you get you take with a BIG grain of salt.

And more so if you do decide to join this program and start using the product. Before you do, make sure you consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before you do anything. Psst, I know what they are going to tell you. I bet you do to.

My Final Opinion Of Optavia

Ok, Optavia does have an opportunity to build a business with them. And sure, while their products do deliver on helping people lose weight and putting aside all the reason why using pre-packaged processed food is not a long term solution for healthy weight loss.

The percentages in the income disclosure statement does not lie. The chances of you making any real money is slim to none.

Now of course I don’t know you. And you could be a sales, recruiting machine and if that’s the case you have a better shot of making a success of this than 99% of the people that get involved with MLM and lose money.

And if you’re still on the fence about this opportunity you should read this article on the FTC website about MLM’s. It also includes a check list of things you should do if you’re seriously considering joining an MLM.

Look if you’re going to do this, I want you to go into this with your eyes wide open.

Personally, I would never get involved with an MLM every again. Yep, you read that right. I was sucked into an MLM called Melaleuca many years ago.

And like most people I got drawn in by the sales pitch of how much money I could make and how easy it would be to make all this money.

Well after busting my ass for a year I was in more debt than I was before I started. And I got so sick and tired of trying to convince (sell) people on the idea of joining the company. I quit. And it’s the best decision I ever made.

And that’s because not long after that I found an online business model where I never had to or have to recruit a single person or sell anyone anything to build my business.

And that business model is Affiliate Marketing.

And thanks to affiliate marketing I have been making a full time online income since 2005.

Now if you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing that’s ok. You can find out all about it, as well as discovery how you can build your online business around your hobby or passion.

Think of that. Building a business around something you love to do. Already that’s better than MLM.

And the place you can get all the training, tools, resources, and personal one-on-one support to build your business is Wealthy Affiliate.

And the great thing is it won’t cost you a single penny to see everything wealthy affiliate has available for you.

Now is affiliate marketing for you? I have no idea. But if you’re having second thoughts about MLM you might as well see what affiliate marketing has to offer as an alternative to MLM.

I hope you found this review helpful and I hope I answered any questions you may have had about Optavia and its business opportunity.

Of course, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below and I’ll get back to you right away.

And if you did find this review helpful and enjoyed it please feel free to share it with your audience. And as always anytime you need a hand don’t hesitate Emailing Me anytime.

I believe in you!!
Leo