BODi (formerly BeachBody) Dietitian Review

Since BeachBody rebranded last year to BODi they have stated that their approach has changed when it comes to fitness, nutrition and mindset. BUT is that really true? It's time that I answer all your questions, review the research, and offer up my honest insights.

I shed light on BODi's history (2 men with 0 qualifications???), why I suspect they chose now to rebrand, we explore the MLM (multi-level marketing) side of the business, and the issues I have with it.

Curious about their nutrition programs, and if what they promote around "helping you see food differently and love every bite" is fact or misleading? I'm sharing what I think about everything they offer, and you might be surprised that not everything is as bad as people suggest.

So here's a long-awaited, highly requested, info PACKED dietitian review of BODi (formerly BeachBody).

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

BODi (formerly Beachbody) article on my blog 

Letter from Beachbody CEO

TOPICS COVERED 👇 

History of Beachbody (00:02:05)

CEO's Letter and Mission: Rebrand to BODi (00:07:23)

Trailer and Marketing Strategy (00:12:21)

MLM Aspect of BODi (00:18:27)

Class Action Lawsuit (00:22:33)

Independent Consultants vs. Employees (00:23:41)

MLM Tactics and Scripts (00:24:40)

Qualifications of BODi Partners (00:25:56)

Diet and Nutrition Programs (00:28:11)

Portion Fix Program (00:30:16)

2B Mindset Program (00:39:40)

Shakeology and Its Claims (00:48:27)

Contradictions in Nutrition Plans (00:53:24)

Shakeology and MLM Concerns (00:55:23)

Final Thoughts on BODi (formerly Beachbody) (00:57:38)

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Transcript

Michelle (00:00:01) - Welcome to Nourished and Free The Podcast, a show dedicated to helping you create a healthy and realistic relationship around food, your body and all things wellness. I'm your host, Michelle Yates, a registered dietitian specializing in eating disorders and disordered eating, as well as health psychology. If you're new here, welcome to what might possibly be your new favorite show? If you enjoy digging into topics like nutrition and mental health, we talk about that a lot here. You'll love the show if you're interested in topics like eating disorders, debunking popular wellness trends, body image, food psychology, and any other challenges that we face today with our relationship with food, be sure you subscribe so you won't miss when a new dose of nourishing free magic drops. Let's dig into today's episode. Perhaps one of the most requested dietitian reviews is Beachbody, so I'm excited to dive into this because I've been deep into research mode for about a week and a half on this thing. I've listened to a lot of podcasts, I've read a lot of articles.

Michelle (00:01:01) - I have scoured their website up and down. I've talked to people. I mean, I've tried my best to give you the most unbiased, open minded, yet informed dietician review that I possibly could on this company. And the first thing that you need to know is that they rebranded in the spring of 2023, and they're now called BODi. They're not called Beachbody. So rebranding right off the bat is always somewhat of a flag for me. I wouldn't necessarily say a red flag, but it is a flag of something that I want to dig in more on. Why did they feel like they need to rebrand? So rebranding is something that we see a lot with diet companies. We've seen this with Weight Watchers, we've seen it with Optavia, which used to be take shape for life. In the case of Optavia, they rebranded after having a lot of heat from lawsuits. And then in the case of Weight Watchers, it seems like they rebranded to WW and they brought in these new like, body positive type of messaging and stuff like that.

Michelle (00:02:05) - From what I can tell, it seems like they did that in light of bad press about Weight Watchers, about people not really wanting to have a diet anymore or be on a diet anymore. It seemed like Weight Watchers way to stay relevant, right? And so with Beachbody rebranding the BODi, that was right away. Kind of what I was expecting to see was that the rebrand was an attempt to stay relevant, to appeal to the masses more now that their market is kind of shifting in terms of what they want. So that's what I was expecting to find out of this. And I would say that, well, I'll get into it. So let's backtrack just a little bit and talk about the history of Beachbody. Beachbody was founded in 1998 by two guys. The first one, Karl Diggler. I might be saying his name wrong and the second one, John Congdon. Interestingly, neither of these guys have a background in health sciences or nutrition or exercise science kinesiology. Neither of them have any background in that declares degree.

Michelle (00:03:15) - I had to dig a little bit to find this, but it looks like Danglers degree is actually in corporate organizational media, and Coughlin's degree is in political science. So a poli sci degree and an organizational media degree doesn't exactly spark, oh, you should start a weight loss company in my mind. But again, this is not uncommon. Noom was started by a couple of guys with computer science degrees. Weightwatchers was started by a housewife in the 50s who was tired of not being able to keep the weight off, like it's not uncommon for these diet companies to have been founded by somebody who's not in the fields. So most of the time when we see somebody that has zero prior interest in health sciences, starting up a diet company, it's usually because they're an entrepreneur who is an opportunist. Now, in the case of Beachbody, now, Bodhi, these two guys, maybe they are passionate about fitness. I'm assuming they are, but it's just something to keep in mind that they don't have experience in the field.

Michelle (00:04:20) - And to my knowledge, they did not bring on people who were experienced in the fields to create their programs, and I'll get more into that later. The exception of that is to be mindset, the nutrition program created by a dietitian. But I've got my issues with that too. So we'll get into all of that a little bit later. But that's a little bit of the backstory there with who created that, who created it, and when. When Beachbody first started, it was really just exercise videos and maybe a little bit about nutrition. Um, I'm not 100% sure on when shake ology came to the picture, but I know for me, I used to do my very first exposure to. Working out was doing P90x in my dad's workout room at home when I was a kid. I don't know how old I was, maybe like 12 or something. So P90x is kind of near and dear to my heart, because that was where I first started to fall in love with exercise, and that was really well catered to me because I was embarrassed about starting to work out.

Michelle (00:05:23) - So it was really great that I had this DVD that I could plug in and watch and work out to in the privacy of my own home, and the privacy of a room where nobody usually disturbed me. So I was embarrassed about sharing that. I started to work out because I didn't want people to think it was a phase, or think that I was trying to impress anybody. I really was just trying to do it for me. In some sense. I was trying to impress others too. But, um, it was it was great and I loved it. And I felt like I accomplished a lot when I would do that program. All that to say, I have a little bit of personal history with this and and do enjoy those programs. And that's kind of how Beachbody started, was these workout programs that you would buy separately. So it's been around since the late 90s, and it's been pretty heavily focused on the fitness piece, but they also have nutrition programs that they offer as well, the most popular being Portion Fix.

Michelle (00:06:16) - And then they also offer their supplements like shake ology shakes. They have a pre-workout, I think it's called energize. I mean, they've got all kinds of supplements. If you look at look it up on their website. So I want to dig in a little bit more to the rebrand and what the CEO, Carl Diggler again, could be butchering his name. Sorry, Carl, if you're listening to this, but let's talk more about his letter to the public when they had their rebrand take place in 2023. And in his letter, which I am going to link on the article that I write to accompany this episode, it should actually already be live now as you're listening to this. So I'll put a link to the article that I wrote in the show notes. That way, if you have any resources that you're interested in seeing or learning more about, that's where all the links to those are going to be. Such as this letter from CEO of Beachbody, Carl declares. So in his letter, he states in regards to this rebrand, that quote, the flaw is not in the program or the approach, it's just missing the step of detaching our self-esteem from the outcome.

Michelle (00:07:23) - That message, amplified through social media, has become if you look good, you will be happy. He goes on to say, deep down, we all know that message is not true. You're not happy because you look good, you're happy because you feel good. And that's why over the next several months, we are making a significant pivot to serve people with a platform designed to do exactly that, support the whole person and help them achieve that kind of instant satisfaction, a positive health esteem, end quote. So obviously he is doing a little bit of a play on words here with this concept health, esteem. It's like a blend between health and self-esteem. Honestly, I'm kind of here for that. I think that's like not a terrible way to go about trying to focus more on the whole person and making sure that they aren't hyper fixated on their body weight or the calories that they're consuming, or comparing themselves to other people who they wish they looked like. I'm like, I don't hate this, I really don't.

Michelle (00:08:22) - With that being said, though, I still am skeptical that this is coming from a good place and it's not coming from a desperate place to keep the company relevant. Because in the few years before this year where Beachbody rebranded the BODi, they weren't doing that well financially. And I've got a link to their stock reports in the article I wrote. So. I really I want to like this, and I want it to be like, I really want to believe that they are focusing more on this concept of health esteem and creating a really positive type of program and like offers that people can use to feel better about themselves and have fun with fitness, have fun with nutrition, etc. but I just can't help but shake the feeling that maybe somebody is just really good at market research and seeing what's coming up for a lot of people right now and what they want. And so they're they're kind of just catering to maybe what the customer wants right now. And I don't think that that's unreasonable to to think because we see this a lot.

Michelle (00:09:23) - Again, with diet companies, they'll pivot, they'll rebrand to try and be what the customer wants and to stay relevant. But again, I do really want to have an open mind about this. And there's people that have been talking about this rebrand that I've been listening to who immediately are like, no, I refuse to believe that. And they're pretty harsh on the fact that there's absolutely no way that this could be coming from a genuine place. And I don't want to have that disposition or attitude towards this. I don't think that's very fair to just assume that everybody's a liar because they ran a diet company. So I don't want to have that attitude about this, and I do want to keep an open mind. So as I was going through everything about BODi, I was really trying to see, hey, does what they offer really support this new mission that they have and does what they offer online and what they say it is, is it actually what it is when you get into the program itself? So that's the direction I want to take the rest of this episode is really looking at is BODi supporting its own claims to be focused on detaching our self-esteem from the outcome and focusing on how we feel.

Michelle (00:10:37) - I also want to point out that in his letter, he talked about the name Beachbody itself and how, quote, part of this shift was also acknowledging the possibility that for some, we played a role in projecting the notion that fitness and nutrition are about chasing an ideal. And for that I apologize. End quote. So again, it's like tough to know what these things if it's really coming from a genuine place or if it's something that somebody just wrote for him and was like, hey, this is what people want to hear. So we're going to make you say it, sign off on it, whatever. But you do have to give them props for acknowledging that a lot of people are offended by the name Beachbody, and the fact that it implies that you have to work out and be fit and lose weight in order to have a beach body. But think about when this company started. It started in the late 90s, and that was a time where people were saying that all the time. It was pretty normal.

Michelle (00:11:26) - That was on the magazine covers, tabloids, talking about beach bodies. So for me, as a millennial, like I grew up with hearing that word and and associating that to, oh, that means you're super hot and you look great in a bikini. So I can see why they named their company that in the late 90s, because that's what people wanted was a beach body. Now, of course, again, the climate's different, the market's different. People are more focused on body positivity, where we're accepting the fact that actually everybody has a beach body. All you have to do is have a body and then sit on a beach. And so I think it's cool that they're apologizing, that accepting that commenting on it even. But I say that with a grain of salt because again, you just never really know how genuine these things are. So BODi is now stating, and this is a really big thing that we see on their website and in their trailer, which, oh my gosh, we need to talk about the trailer.

Michelle (00:12:21) - So if you go to BODi's website, you can play a trailer about the whole system, the whole program, the whole company. It's about a 4 to 5 minute video, and I really wanted to play clips of it on the podcast and then, you know, comment on the clip. But then I was like, oh, I could probably get sued for that for copyright. So I'm not going to do that. But I really want you to go watch the trailer, go to their website, watch the trailer for the whole company. So they they talk a lot about helping people love themselves, which of course, this is a really big thing right now, like self-love, self-acceptance, body positivity that is certainly really big right now and becoming really popular as people are really seeking happiness. Right. And so before they thought they could get happiness by having a beach body, you know, society's version of what a beach body is. Now we're shifting to I want to be happy by by being happy with where I'm at.

Michelle (00:13:17) - So not surprised that BODi is is talking about loving yourself, where you're at, etc. because that seems to be what people want right now. But the trailer is just like you have to watch it. It just feels like they crammed so many keywords and things that they think people want to hear into this video, and it's kind of cringe. Like the lady narrating it. The videos are showing. It just seems like that really overly positive infomercial that just, I don't know, it doesn't sit well with me. I'm like, nobody's this happy. I don't know, you're just gonna have to watch it to and then let me know what you think about it. But what I really wanted to know with this rebrand to BODi is, are they actually focusing on people loving themselves, or is this a ploy to just get people to sign up? And then once they're on the inside, they're being told how they need to lose weight in order to have a body that's beach ready. I don't know, right? Like you never know with these things, once you actually get on the inside how it's going to go.

Michelle (00:14:24) - So I did ask around a little bit in some different Facebook groups that were like, there was an anti MLM Facebook group that I asked, there was a moms group that I asked, and I wanted to know if anybody had been a part of it since the rebrand. And if you're listening to this and you have any thoughts on BODi formerly Beach Body since the rebrand, let me know if you feel like it really is helping people love themselves. So anyway, when I did ask these Facebook groups, I didn't get a ton of responses from people who had done it since the rebrand, but the ones that I did get, most people were upset about the price increase, so they just canceled. And then there's actually a lot of really negative reviews. If you go to like Trustpilot or there's another website too, that I linked in the article that has really bad reviews about people being mad, that I don't think they were notified about the price increase when BODi rebranded, and so when they got charged for it, they were obviously surprised unpleasantly so didn't want to pay it.

Michelle (00:15:22) - And then maybe they realized it after this 30 day window and so the BODi wouldn't give them a refund anyway. I don't think they have the greatest customer service from what I've been seeing online with these reviews. But generally speaking, that seems to be what people don't like about the rebrand is the price increase, which I will say embodies defense. This is still a really cheap membership for all of the programs. I mean, you get hundreds of exercise programs on demand for like 15 bucks a month max, and depending on the plan you choose, it can be 12 bucks a month. So I understand, obviously, if a price is raised and you weren't notified or maybe you were notified, but it was an email, it was kind of an afterthought and a random marketing email or whatever. I can understand being upset about that. But also, let's keep in mind the cost of a gym membership. And I mean, I honestly think that this is a pretty good deal to get access to hundreds of programs.

Michelle (00:16:24) - And and it's only like 12 to 15 bucks a month. So anyway, I know that was a bit of a tangent. Back to the Facebook groups that I asked about people's experience after the rebrand. Most people, like I said, were upset about the price increase. Some people did say they really enjoyed the the rebrand. I had somebody say that they had updated some of the programs and they thought they were fantastic. They hadn't dug into, oh, I didn't even mention this yet. But BODi now has, um, like a whole mindset section of the company where you get if you're if you have a BODi membership, you now get access to all these mindset trainings and all of that. So I don't know anything about the mindset piece because nobody was able to tell me about it. Nobody seems to have really done it in terms of the people I've talked to. But from some of the responses I got, they do really like that that's being offered. So I think some people are happy with it.

Michelle (00:17:20) - But I did have this one really interesting response that said, quote, I have a friend who quit after the rebrand. She was diagnosed with diabetes shortly after, and her upline, which are the people who recruited her and a few other people on her team, accused her of faking it to justify her weight gain. End quote. So obviously, those particular people didn't get the message about body positivity being inclusive, not harping on people for their weight. Yeah, they didn't get the memo, I guess. Um, so anyway, I would love to hear from you if you're involved with them in any sense. Client, coach, whatever. I would love to know your thoughts after the rebrand, because I really wasn't able to get a lot of information from people since it is still new. So let's talk about the MLM aspect of BODi, formerly Beachbody. If you don't already know, there is a big MLM aspect to this company. If you don't know what MLM means, it's multi-level marketing. You should definitely dig into the anti MLM groups.

Michelle (00:18:27) - They're super entertaining to listen to the stories of people who got out of it. MLMs are notorious for having a cult like mentality and and basically scamming people, and they are just one step away from being illegal because pyramid schemes are. Illegal, but MLMs get away with being a pyramid scheme that's legal by selling product. So as long as there's product involved, it's not considered a pyramid scheme. Therefore it's legal to operate. So how this looks, if you're unfamiliar with the MLM model, is pretend like you've got somebody at the top who is promoting a product and they sell it to other people. And so now they've got like multiple people underneath them who have become their customer. The idea is that you get those customers to also become distributors of the product or salespeople. So they start to sell the product to and have multiple people underneath them. So there's this branching out effect that if you draw a triangle over it, it should contain everybody into this one pyramid. That's why it's called the pyramid scheme because people are recruiting and then those people are recruiting, and then those people are recruiting, and it all connects back up to the people above you.

Michelle (00:19:38) - That's why they call it upline or downline. And so the concept is that when you recruit people there's a buy in. And so you're actually making money off of bringing on staff, so to speak, to the company. Plus you're making money from the commission of the product that they're buying from you. So this can become super scammy super quickly, because it can be a greedy process of trying to get more people underneath you so that you can make more money. And these people are buying in. And the crazy things about MLMs is they sell you on this idea of financial freedom and oh, you're already buying the product. You might as well sell it and get it so that you can get it for a discount, and then earn commission when you sell it to other people. Like if you're already talking about it, you might as well give people a link to buy it themselves and then earn a commission on that. Right? Like it's seems like a really good idea. But there are fees involves for you to be a distributor of the product.

Michelle (00:20:36) - And the crazy thing of all this is what I'm getting at is that the Federal Trade Commission, also known as the FTC for short, estimates that 99% of people involved in an MLM lose or make no money. Think about that. You're sold on this idea of financial freedom, being able to sell it to other people and make all this money, it's another source of income. Um, and then you're like, trying to recruit other people. You're selling them on that same idea. But 99% of people make no money. They just break even, or they lose money because of all the buy in that is involved, or all of the products that you have to buy in order to keep up with selling it. As far as I can tell on this might not be the most up to date. This is just based on my research and what I was able to figure out. From what I've heard from other people who are ex coaches, etc. is it costs about $40 initially to become a Beachbody Coach, which is now called a BODi partner.

Michelle (00:21:42) - And these are the ones who are a part of the MLM side of the company where they distribute the products, make commission on it, etc. then every month you have to pay $16. Now, I don't know about you, but I have never been hired on to a job where I was supposed to pay them. It's kind of crazy when you think about it now. When you think about these fees, they're small enough that they can kind of be a throwaway fact. When you're thinking about the dream of having a second stream of income, the financial freedom that will come with that, the fact that, oh, I'm not going to be doing any more than I already am. So a great way to make extra money. Right? But the problem is that you also have to buy the product, which shake ology alone is 130 bucks a month. Distributors, in other words, the BODi partners. In other words, the Beachbody Coaches. They do get a discount, so it's about a hundred bucks a month.

Michelle (00:22:33) - But I mean, in general, like, yeah, you're paying to do a bunch of labor for this company selling their product, marketing, recruiting people. And and you're getting little to nothing in return, or you're even losing money. There's actually a class action lawsuit right now against Beachbody that is is still active. There's not any resolution yet, so I'm really interested to see where it goes. But it's start. It was started by an ex Beachbody coach who claims that she spent $20,000 on being a coach with only 50 bucks a month in return. That's insane. That is insane. So the idea behind this lawsuit and the motivation is that Beachbody is exploiting their distributors. In other words, they're Beachbody Coaches, which are now called BODi Partners for a lot of labor and very little pay in return to them. So really interesting. I'm very curious to see where that goes. The kind of call to action, as far as I can tell in that suit, is a request to get Beachbody to start hiring people as employees.

Michelle (00:23:41) - Is instead of independent consultants. So just a quick explanation on what that means. When you're an independent consultant, you're responsible for yourself. Beach body or BODi is not responsible for you. If you were an employee, they would be. But because you're an independent consultant, you're the one that gets in trouble. If you violate like let's let's say that you're talking about psychology and you say that it's going to cure cancer. You're the one that could get in trouble with the FTC for making unsubstantiated claims, not BODi, even though you're talking about their product, even though they might have even recommended you say that. So it's a really sneaky way to get a lot of people to do work for you with very little responsibility of that person. And then obviously, if you're not paying them a wage, a salary, then this is super cheap labor. So when I think about just the MLM component of BODi alone, this is not a company that I personally want to support because I'm pretty sketched out by MLMs.

Michelle (00:24:40) - I think they really take advantage of people, and also I just hate the tactics that they teach their people to use. I was listening to a podcast episode of somebody who was a former Beachbody coach, and she was talking about this script that they're given. So first of all, they were supposed to friend five people a day on Facebook. If you're a Beachbody Coach now, BODi partner and send anybody who accepts that friend request a message. And I'm sure you've received a message like this from somebody before that says, hey hun, so good to connect your fill in the blank. Whether it's dog or family or kids, whatever looks beautiful, and then you're supposed to be back and forth with them for about five sentences, then introduce that you think this product or challenge or whatever would be a great fit for that person. I am guessing that if you're listening to this episode, you have experienced a message like that from somebody before and you're probably really annoyed and you get a guard up as soon as you see a message from somebody that says, hey hun, or hey boss babe or hey girl, and it's usually somebody that's got an ulterior motive, then actually getting to know you.

Michelle (00:25:56) - They don't care about you, they're just following a script so that they can get you to buy into their product, or even recruit you onto their team so that they can make money off of you. It's unfortunate, and it makes me super annoyed with about 70% of the DMs that I get from people. Okay, last thing I'm going to say about the MLM component of BODi, if you haven't already, kind of put the pieces together yet, is that Beachbody coaches are now called BODi Partners, and these are the people who sell the product. They're independent contractors for the company and they have no experience in nutrition health. I mean, you do not need to be qualified in any way, shape or form. On the topic of health to become a what's now called a BODi partner. So if somebody is DMing you about how they think this product would be great for you, they have no education or knowledge to be able to genuinely know if that would be right for you. And they didn't even take the time to get to know your health history.

Michelle (00:27:03) - They were just talking to you about your dog. So it's a huge problem that these coaches now call. The partners are representing a health and wellness company and selling all these supplements for them because they have no experience. They're not dieticians. They're not qualified to talk about nutrition. So that's a huge problem that they're recommending supplements to people and selling them to them because they aren't able to help that person. And I guarantee you they have scripts on how to answer questions from people that probably a dietitian should be answering. So I just wanted to, like, clarify that, that if you're talking to a BODi partner about the supplements that the company offers, that person is not qualified to be talking about nutrition, health, wellness supplements, none of it, at least not in order to become a BODi partner. Are they qualified? There might be crossover. They might have pre-existing qualifications. But I mean, any self-respecting dietitian or nutritionist that I know who knows what they're talking about is not going to sell these products.

Michelle (00:28:11) - So let's dig into my favorite part of this whole review. We're going to talk about the diet and nutrition programs that BODi offers. And I'll talk a little bit about psychology too. Again, I want to give a plug for my article on this, though there is a lot more in the article than I'm saying in this podcast episode, just for the sake of time. It is a robust article and you can find just about anything you want to know in there, including links to different sources and stuff like that. So again, I'll put that in the show notes for you. So when you get. BODi membership. I just thought of the office when Creed becomes manager and he has that random acronym that says Bo body. I just said body like that Bo body. When you have a body membership. Oh my gosh, I hope somebody out there gets that reference. Me and my husband say bo body to each other all the time. Okay, back to it. When you have a BODi membership, um, you pay, uh, typically on an annual basis that shakes out to about 12 to 15 bucks a month.

Michelle (00:29:16) - So it's like, I think 170 bucks for the whole year. And you get access to all of their workout programs. You also get access to nutrition programs, which is called portion fix. And then to be mindset. If you want to do the supplements like shake ology or anything like that, that's additional. I think you can bundle you can like a do a bundle membership where you pay for a year and then get a box of shake ology free. And I don't know, like they've got ways of trying to upsell you on it, but generally speaking, the cost of psychology is separate or any of their supplements is separate. But as far as I can tell, portion fix and tube mindset are included in the BODi membership. So these are two different options for nutrition programs that you can follow. So let's dig into both of those. Because I am a dietitian this is like my area of expertise. I want to give you my thoughts on these programs in particular, and I want to try and do this in a respectful and unbiased way to I'm not trying to come into this with like a hot head or thinking that any diet, any nutrition plan is just total crap.

Michelle (00:30:16) - I don't want to have that attitude about this. I really want to have an open mind and give you as much of a balanced and grounded opinion on this as possible. So let's start off with their first flagship diet plan, which is portion fix. Portion fix was created by Autumn Calabrese. She is a celebrity fitness influencer person. Uh, she has a very large following and she does not have any qualifications in nutrition. Now, somebody might be listening to this such as autumn and want to correct me and say no, no, no. Autumn has a certification in holistic health coaching from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Notice that I said earlier that she doesn't have any qualifications in nutrition. I said that knowing that she has that certification, that certification is meaningless to me. But that's another episode for another day. Being certified in holistic health coaching does not make you qualified to talk on nutrition. So knowing that that this was created by somebody who's not an expert in the field of nutrition, let's talk about what it is and what it teaches.

Michelle (00:31:27) - So the idea of portion fix is to use these special color coded containers, which by the way, you can buy those same containers for $13 on Amazon. And if you buy portion fix ad hoc on its own, it's about $100 to get access to all the materials, including the containers. So if you really want to portion your food into containers, you can do it for 13 bucks on Amazon. But with portion fix, you're supposed to be given a certain amount of containers per day based on your goals. If you want to lose weight, if you want to maintain weight, and then based on like who you are, obviously your caloric needs. I did listen to a previous podcast episode by two dietitians who reviewed Beachbody before the rebrand, and they were talking about a method of calculating the calorie needs for people that was super messed up, not evidence based, and I'm tempted to share it with you, but I don't know for sure that they still do that, because when I went on BODi's website to see if they have a calorie needs calculator, they actually were pointing people to a website that is evidence based now.

Michelle (00:32:29) - So I don't know if they still use that calorie calculator or not. But from what it sounds like earlier, at some point in the program, they were estimating calorie needs with a super made up caloric calculation, which would give people very few. I mean, it going off of the calculation that I heard from these two dietitians that they used to use, I was given I would be given 900 calories a day. So, you know, this isn't surprising because the goal of people starting that program usually is weight loss. So they want to put you on a really low calorie diet. That way you do lose a lot of weight really quickly and you feel like the program is working. So again, I say this though, and I don't think that that's true anymore. It might be, though I'm not 100% sure because I'm not on the inside. So this is all this. This is speculation here. Anyway, back to the model of this program portion, folks. You're given a certain amount of containers every day, and you're supposed to portion out your food into those containers.

Michelle (00:33:32) - They're color coded so that a certain food group will go into a certain container. For example, the green containers for vegetables, the purple containers for fruit, the red containers for protein. So on and so forth. And then once a week you're allowed a fun thing like alcohol or treats, etc. as long as it fits into that container though, of course. So the concept of this program is once you're out of containers, you're out of food. You're not supposed to eat anymore. And this could be I could totally see how this would be appealing to somebody who wants to be told exactly what to do. And they really thrive on having somebody almost, like, do all the work for them. Now, of course, there's still the physical labor of putting your food in those containers, which just sounds so cumbersome to me. And having to wash all those containers sounds insane. I mean, think about when you make your meal and you put it into a bowl or you put it on a plate, that's one dish that you have to wash.

Michelle (00:34:35) - But if you have to segment that meal into 5 or 6 containers, now you've got six dishes for every meal you eat. That's just that alone is a no for me, dog. I hate doing that many dishes all the time. And who who would enjoy that. So anyway, the other like serious issue that I see with this though, is just, well, two things. How are you supposed to eat a food that's a combination food, like a casserole? How in God's green earth are you supposed to take apart a casserole and put it into the separate containers? Are you just not supposed to eat casseroles then? So that's a question I have for anybody who's done portion fics. Is there a recommendation on how to handle those types of foods? I honestly don't know. I tried to find the answer and I couldn't find it. And then the other concern I have with this is just the the logistics. Are you going to bring your food and containers everywhere you go? Are you going to bring your containers to a restaurant or to a friend or family member's house who's serving you a meal, and then put all the food in the containers? I mean, just and I have heard of people doing that, and I think that for them it's super cumbersome.

Michelle (00:35:48) - It's kind of embarrassing. And it's it seems unrealistic, quite honestly. And, and maybe the program doesn't say that you should do that. Maybe they say this is for you to do most of the time, but not all the time. I don't know, but what I do know is that for somebody who is a Dieter, it's very easy for them to take guidelines and recommendations as gospel and want to follow that to a tee. And so if you tell somebody, hey, you should put your food in these containers, they're going to think they should do that for every single meal. And if they don't that they're failure or that they're going off plan, and then they're probably going to like binge eat because they're like, well, whatever, I'm not using the container, so I'm just going to have as much food as I want, because now I don't have the containers to, like, tell me how much to eat. And that's just that's the risk associated with something like this, right? Is that well, just the risk of quality of life.

Michelle (00:36:39) - That's pretty annoying to do. All those dishes, bring the containers. Other places have to always put your food in them. But then the risk to of of an obsession over making those containers, but then the risk to of obsessing over those containers and always having to bring them everywhere and then binging if you don't bring them somewhere because now you don't have them anymore. So you have this reckless abandon mentality. So there's a lot of opportunity, I think, here for a lot to go wrong and and to go sideways. And I've certainly heard a lot of people say that they've tried this program before, and it has gone sideways and it has created obsession. And it was super cumbersome, and they hated it, and it didn't help their relationship with food. But with that being said, I do want to acknowledge that there are some people out there who may really enjoy this, and may really like the fact that they don't really have to think about how to portion things out. I mean, I've worked with clients who that alone is really hard for them, just figuring out how much to eat.

Michelle (00:37:38) - And for me, like I teach them how to listen to their fullness and their hunger and all of that. But sometimes we're not great at detecting those feelings yet, and we kind of have to train ourselves to sense hunger and fullness in the early stages. And so it can be hard to figure out how much to eat when you're not really solid on eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full. Um, so having some sort of black and white system like that could be exactly what somebody wants. But there are risks associated with that, and that's what I wanted to point out. So going back to that BODi trailer on their website, they talk about how they reject this is a direct quote. They say we reject diet and deprivation culture, and then they go on to say that they have their portion fixed program and their tube mindset program. So let's think about this. Is portion fix really rejecting the deprivation culture? I would argue that it's directly in line with deprivation culture because even though you're allowed a variety.

Michelle (00:38:44) - Of foods, you're allowed them in a very specific quantity. So what happens when you run out of containers according to the program, you're just supposed to stop eating. So what if it's 3 p.m., you're out of containers. And you have a big event that night, or you or you're just living your life, right? You just exist. And you do need more food for the rest of the night, but you're not supposed to eat anymore. How is that not depriving us? So I disagree with this program supporting their claim to rejecting diet and deprivation culture. I think that that's exactly what this program is. Is a deprivation program. Okay, moving on from portion folks. Let's talk about tub mindset. So this was created by a registered dietitian which is what I am. Her name is Alana Muhlstein and she has I guess, lost £100 in her life and kept it off. And so that's a really big selling point for this program, is that not only is she a registered dietitian, but that she's lost £100 and kept it off.

Michelle (00:39:40) - So I was intrigued by this program because it was created by a dietitian and because it has the word mindset in it. And if you know me at all, you know that I love mindset and and food psychology. I think that's a really big piece that gets missed a lot in our ability to keep healthy behaviors going and create sustainable ones, and have a healthy relationship with food and with our body, etc., etc.. So I was interested in this for sure, but I have to admit, I did laugh when I learned what the to be stands for. So to be is short for two bunnies. Yeah. I know. I hear it to the ridiculousness. How could that possibly be what that stands for, right? It is. It stands for two bunnies. And the premise of this program is that it operates off of four principles. Water. First, you're supposed to drink 16oz, which is two cups of water before each meal and each snack. The second principle is veggies most. The third principle is use the scale every morning and the fourth is to track your progress.

Michelle (00:40:55) - So what does this have to do with bunnies, you ask? We're still really confused about that. What? Why? Well, remember in grade school when you would take a picture, somebody would take your picture and. And then some idiot would come up behind you and give you bunny ears behind your head and you wouldn't know it. And then you'd see the picture, and you looked like a bunny because somebody came up behind you and gave you the bunny ears. If you make bunny ears with your hands like that, you have two fingers pointing up. And those are your four principles. Water. First veggies. Most use the scale. Track your progress. So I guess that's how somebody is supposed to remember the principles. Yeah, I mean, I, I think about that strategy meeting and I, I don't know, I would have loved to have been in the room doing that when they created that concept and said, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's actually do that. I just feel like somebody probably tossed it out as a joke, you know? And then they actually did it.

Michelle (00:41:50) - So anyway, moving on. So this program also comes with a visual guideline of a plate similar to my plate, if you're familiar with that, where it's supposed to show you like what your plate should be made up of. Now again, we have an issue when there's combination foods that makes it a little bit tricky to be able to go off of a plate method like that, like if you've got a casserole or whatever or soup. But generally speaking, this can be a helpful visualization for trying to figure out what to eat and what portions and everything. So each meal has a different plate method of what they're recommending to eat. So breakfast is supposed to be water first, and then half of the plate should be protein and the other half should be fiber rich carbs and fruit. Um, I think from what I've heard that vegetables are encouraged with breakfast too. That's kind of like a bonus, but it's not the required breakfast plate. This is a great opportunity for them to plug in shake ology shakes, which you better believe they do to help then upsell that portion of their company because their breakfast is supposed to be 50% protein.

Michelle (00:42:59) - So there's your ability to get protein in is by using a shake. And then lunch is again water first and then 50% vegetables, 25% of fiber filled carb, and then 25% protein. So half the plate is vegetables, a quarter is carbs, a quarter is protein, and those carbs need to be fiber rich. So you're not supposed to have any white bread like it needs to be whole grain and needs to be brown rice. It needs to be something with fiber, which I'm not like, totally against. I love fiber, and I think most people aren't getting enough of it. Dinner is 75% veggies, so three quarters of your plate is a vegetables and then a quarter of it is protein. So take notice here that the dinner does not have any carbohydrates. It is literally 75% vegetables and 25% protein. It's the meal we all hate to eat. It's broccoli and chicken and mostly broccoli at that, right? Of course it could look different than that, but most people are probably going to do that because that's what they're most familiar with.

Michelle (00:44:05) - And like, you're gonna run out of options at some point. And that's the meal everybody hates and dreads when they're on a diet. And then snacks are something that they say are optional. So if you're really, really hungry, you can have one. But they're not like built into the day like breakfast, lunch and dinner as. So snacks are supposed to be water first, then half vegetable, a quarter of fiber filled carb sauce. And then the other quarter is protein. Similar to what lunches actually exactly the same to what lunches. So you're honestly encouraged to skip snacks. And if we remember to what I said about portion fix, the problem with a lot of people who will do something like this, is that our temptation to follow it to a tea is so intense that if we're not that if we're told snacks are optional and we're only supposed to have them, if we're really, really hungry, then we're probably going to try and white knuckle our way through them and never have snacks when maybe we really need them.

Michelle (00:45:06) - Especially since this meal plan is really low in carbohydrates. And you know what happens when you don't have a lot of carbohydrates? You want carbohydrates. Now they they try to skate around the reality of this being restrictive by providing a more sure guideline. I mean, honestly, the marketing on this. But anyway, you are encouraged to follow a process if you absolutely need more food. So they're trying to say like, no, no, no, you can eat as much as you want, but follow this guideline if you're still hungry and that guideline is water first, then vegetable. If you're still hungry, then protein. If you're still hungry, then a fiber filled carb. And then the last thing I want to note is that you are encouraged to eliminate quote unquote silly carbs. And silly carbs are muffins, cookies any other low fiber, high sugar product? So foods that are really fun baked goods, candies, cakes, whatever. You're encouraged to just eliminate those completely. You're also told that emotional eating is never okay and to never do it.

Michelle (00:46:19) - So. Let's go back to that claim that they that BODi rejects diet and deprivation culture. Do we really think that this program is not restrictive? It's telling you that you can never emotionally eat. Now, speaking as somebody who works with women, who struggle with emotional overeating and binge eating every single day, saying that it's never okay is not helpful for somebody who struggles with that. That's basically like saying, oh, you struggle with binge eating, just stop. All right? I'm just going to stop now. Really? So they they say it's not okay. But as far as I can tell, there's no actual tools to help you with overcoming that. If you do struggle with that and then saying that you should eliminate those silly carbs. What if you want them though? What if it's your birthday? I mean, this is the issue that I have with these absolute statements, which they kind of like bait you in by making it seem like they're not making those absolute statements and saying, you can eat as much as you want, it's not a diet.

Michelle (00:47:30) - But then they turn around and they say, actually, you can't eat these foods though. You're never allowed to emotionally eat. You should always drink water and have vegetables first if you're still feeling hungry, like it is. I mean, this feels like a diet and so let's just call it what it is. I think it's a diet. But with that being said, I do want to point out the pros of this type of an eating style, which is that there is a lot more vegetables and fiber being included. And that's really awesome. We do know that most Americans don't eat enough vegetables or fiber, so to be encouraging that is great. That's wonderful. However, this is a volume based eating approach. And the creator of this program, Alana, the registered dietitian, she has owned up to this, which I respect and said I'm a proud volume eater, so she knows that's exactly what's going on. And she's also like, clear about it too, that this is a volume based eating plan.

Michelle (00:48:27) - So let's talk about shake ology before I close this thing out, because I know a lot of you are probably wondering, what about psychology? What do you think about that? So let me just give you a couple of thoughts on that. Overall, let's first acknowledge that shake ology is a part of the MLM aspect of this company, and it's super profitable. They make a lot of money off of shake ology, and I'm not surprised because a box of psychology, which has 30 servings is 130 bucks, which shakes out to about $4.30 per shake. Now, for something that you're making at home and mixing into water, that seems like a really high price tag, especially if that's something that you're buying every month, which a lot of people who use shake ology do buy it every single month. So that's 130 bucks a month to pay for these shakes. And honestly, on their website, they talk about these shakes like they're really magical. And they've got all of these qualities that you're never going to find anywhere else.

Michelle (00:49:23) - And because of all the ingredients they use, they're so special. You're never going to feel this way after drinking any other kind of shake. And that's just B.S.. I mean, it's just a low calorie, low carbohydrate, high protein, high fiber shake at the end of the day, and you can make that at home for much cheaper. And they talk about a study that they've done, which I'm going to link in the article about how shake ology was proven to help people stay fuller, longer and more satisfied and help them lose weight. And when you look at the study that they did, they compared shake ology shakes to, I mean, it was a well-designed study by the fact that it was randomized, it was double blind, it was controlled like those are all good things. That helps to remove bias as much as possible. But when you look at the shakes themselves that they offered, this study was rigged to show shake ology and favor. Because the shake ology shakes are high in protein and fiber generally, things are going to be more satisfying when they're high in those two things.

Michelle (00:50:23) - And then the like placebo shake that they offered was high in carbohydrates, low in fiber, low in protein. So just from like a macronutrient nutrition profile standpoint, of course, they felt more full after having shake ology. What they should have done is given them a shake or smoothie or whatever you want to call it, that was also high in fiber and high in protein. And then compare the two. And I guarantee you, what they would have found was that there was no difference in people being satisfied and full. So it was a poorly designed study. I mean, it was it was looking good up until the point where we saw what kind of shakes they really gave them. So overall, poorly designed, not something that you should like be citing if you're trying to support those those shakes. So overall, I think these things are really overhyped. They're over priced and you can make something similar at home. So let's wrap up this, this episode with some overall opinions that I have about BODi formerly.

Michelle (00:51:20) - A beach body. I want to say that my opinions are just that, their opinions. Personally, I think they're on the educated side and they're on the informed side because I did try to do a lot of research and I do have a background in health sciences and nutrition, obviously, but they are just opinions at the end of the day. And honestly, if you enjoy BODi and you enjoy the nutrition programs, the workouts, the supplements, then I think that's great if you find that they're helpful for you. Like, honestly, I'm not going to rain on your parade about that, but I do want to talk about the things that I think are risky about it, because you should be informed about that. And for me, the brand itself is a little bit risky right from the get go, because it's an MLM, and because they did undergo this rebrand on the tail of of a few years of not doing well financially. So right off the bat, that's just a little bit of a red flag, right? Like are they do they really mean everything they're saying, or is this just a desperate attempt to say relevant? And then when it comes to the workouts, I really can't speak much to those because I don't have a background in kinesiology.

Michelle (00:52:24) - I'm not a personal trainer, physical therapist, or anybody who would know if those workouts are really solid and helpful. Maybe they're not. Maybe they're going to create injuries in people I don't know. I don't have like the background to say. So if you do and you want to reach out about what you think about those workout programs, please feel free to. But as far as I know, just being a consumer of those workouts, I think they're really fun. I think that it's a really good price to get access to so many different workout programs with the subscription that BODi offers. When it comes to the nutrition plans, though, I do hesitate to recommend them. One of them was founded by an illegitimate nutrition professional. I mean, I shouldn't even say the word professional at all. And then the other is a volume eating approach that says you can never emotionally eat or eat quote unquote silly carbs. When we think about the rebrand that bodies had and their claim to reject diet and deprivation culture, I don't think that that statement is being backed up by the nutrition plans they offer.

Michelle (00:53:24) - I think that those are in direct opposition with each other, because with both of these nutrition programs, at some point there is a plea to restrict in some way, whether it's because you've run out of containers or because you want to emotionally eat, or you want to have silly carbs, or you don't want to drink a bunch of water and eat a bunch of vegetables before your meal, like you usually do. At some point, you are being encouraged to restrict, right? Because what these boil down to is that they are weight loss programs. I don't know anybody that would do portion fix or tub mindset just to maintain their weight. Like what? Like it's obviously a weight loss program. And so I think that BODi is in this predicament right now where their nutrition plans are clearly supposed to help people lose weight, but they're also trying to say that they're not a diet, and they're trying to appeal to people who don't want to be deprived. And at some point, if you're trying to help somebody lose weight, there is going to be restriction involved.

Michelle (00:54:21) - So they're in a predicament with trying to let this rebrand support their nutrition programs. But right now they just seem to be in opposition with each other. I could be wrong. Maybe they've made a lot of updates to those nutrition plans, but as far as I can tell from the website and from what I've heard of how these programs typically go, I don't think that they've really changed much since the rebrand. So in my mind, they are in opposition to BODi's new ideals. Now, that does depend on the person though. You could do a nutrition plan like portion fix and see it as a really helpful way to get started on portion sizes and use it as a loose guideline, but not feel married to the containers and be able to go off plan without feeling guilty or without obsessing over the scale or whatever it is. And if that's true for you, then that's great, and I don't see any problem in you doing that. But if you do find yourself likely to obsess over things or to feel bad if you don't follow a diet to a tee, then I don't think that either of those programs are all that helpful.

Michelle (00:55:23) - And then the last thing that I want to recap on is shake ology. Honestly, save your money and just make a shake at home that's high in protein and high in fiber. Throw some flaxseed in there, throw some oatmeal in there, throw some protein powder that you got on your own, or you don't even need to use protein powder. You can use Greek yogurt. You can put eggs in your smoothie. I don't recommend that if you're immunocompromised. But like there are ways to add protein to your smoothies and to add fiber to your smoothies and to create a shake that's basically really similar to shake allergies. There's nothing special about shake ology, it's just expensive. So I don't think it's worth it. And I mean, honestly, do you really want to be supporting an MLM company that has a class action lawsuit right now about how very little the people who sell psychology get paid and for how much work they do? I didn't even mention to this is in my article, but in 2021, a quarter of the work.

Michelle (00:56:20) - Force for Beachbody didn't even get a paycheck. So yeah. I mean, do you really want to be supporting a company like that? That's up to you. It's not for me. So when it comes to BODi, which was formerly Beachbody, it really boils down to how are you going to use the program? Are you going to use it for some ideas here and there? For some fun exercise ideas to follow? A group fitness workout at home? If yes, then I think this can be really great for you potentially. But if you're going to follow everything to a tee and obsess over the recommendations they gave you and following those, and if you feel bad going off plan or eating silly carbs or emotional eating when I mean, of course we're going to emotionally eat at some point. Birthdays celebration, like emotional eating, is healthy to a degree, right? It's when it's overdone that it becomes a problem. So to say that you can never emotionally eat, I think is irresponsible. So are you going to feel bad for emotional eating? Are you going to feel bad for not putting your food in containers? Or are you going to spend send thousands and thousands of dollars each year on supplements that you probably don't need and that are unregulated? You know, like overall it's a no for me dog, but I totally respect and can see how some people would find this program to be useful in some ways.

Michelle (00:57:38) - So like I said, I wanted to approach this as much as I could from an open mind and try to be unbiased. I hope you found this episode helpful and enlightening. I'd love to hear your thoughts on BODi, formerly Beachbody, and what your experience is with the program.