Episode 46: Is Optavia Different from the Other Weight Loss Programs?
Watch on YouTube
Episode Transcription
Participant #1:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the upbeat Dietitians Podcast. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode. Today we are talking about Octavia. I think that's how you pronounce it. I'm sure if that's not right, someone will tell us because Optavia is basically another herbal life call. Essentially, we talked about Herbalife a few episodes back and I mentioned that I had like a YouTube video with crazy comments. I also had opted a video with some crazy comments. So opt Avia people are very intense about liking their program. But what Optavia is it is just another low calorie, low carb diet. You essentially get a bunch of prepackaged foods that are supposed to help with portion control. And they quote, It helps people achieve lifelong transformation, one healthy habit at a time. And we'll go over the problem with that in a little bit. But let's first go into what app via all offers. And then we'll go over kind of like the problems with the program as a whole. Like, they're offering specifically that kind of thing. So they have their products which are like meal replacements. They have soups and drinks. They even have meals like Mac and cheese and pancakes and that kind of stuff. But it's like low carb, low calorie versions of those foods. So you can assume that he's like cardboard. And I've had patients that have done at the end and said the food was just terrible. And we'll get to this, but it's like $500 a month for these fueling. Why it's so expensive. So expensive. So, yeah, we'll get to that and the cons of that. But I'm already getting fired up. One of the cause of that is that you can't do that forever. Like, who can do these feelings for longer than a couple of months out going broke. Hold on a second. I need to calculate something. Do they supply all of your meals for the okay, so it's $414 for less than 30 days of feeling. I think it's for 30 or 28 days of feeling. Let me double check, though. That $414. That'd be like if your grocery bill was $103 every week for just one person. Like if you have a family to feed. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Okay. I think they increased it because this is when I made my YouTube video. That was the price. Now it looks like it's $428 for how many days of feelings is this? Oh, my gosh. I don't even know. It's not very clear on the website. I think it's 428. 20 for, I believe, like a month of fuelings, $107. A lot of money for some powders and some bars. That is not within my budget. Me neither. All just for like 1000 calories a day or less. Which brings me to my next point. So they have the product and then they also have their program. So the most popular one is their five in one plan, which is where you get five of their, quote, fueling. And then you're also encouraged to eat one lean and green meal per day. So you have five fuels that they provide you, and then you eat one lean and green meal on your own. And they claim that by allowing that one lean and green meal per day, you are taught how to make healthy choices. The problem with that is there's a lot of rules, which I'll get to that. Actually, let me get my other paper up here because I like to screenshots of their website, because the rules they have. But like what you're allowed to eat for the lean and green is insane. Insane. Like they say, like onions are too starchy. Onions. Yes. And even for the meat, they have like, lean, leaner, leanest. And what is it? Lean. So lean. Like the fattiest lean is fish. So like salmon, tuna, farmed, catfish, mackerel, herring, lean beef, which I think if you got like 99% ground beef, that's super duper lean. But whatever. Lamb, ground Turkey, that's 85% to 94% lean and chicken or Turkey, dark meat. And then Lana cuts like your leaner fish, like swordfish, trout, halibut, chicken breast. If you get ground Turkey or other ground meat. 95, 97 pork chop, pork tenderloin. And then same thing like your leanst, leanest fish, 98% lean, ground meat, that kind of thing. So anyway, they get some of that, right? I guess I guess I got the fish because there is fatty fish. Yeah, exactly. But then they have the veggies listed by lower carbohydrate, moderate carbohydrate and higher carbohydrate. And the funny part is the higher carbohydrate vegetables, the high carb vegetables
Participant #1:
that you need to limit because they're too high in carbs. A little problematic. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I want to better explain what the five in one thing even is a little bit more. Yeah. Okay. So again, you get five of their feelings that they provide that's that for 28 that you're paying for every month. And then you're supposed to eat one lean and green meal. And those are kind of the specifications for that. So if you follow this specific plan, you will only be eating about 800 to 1000 calories a day. That's like what they encourage you to eat. That's very problematic. That's like the needs of not even like a two year old. That's like nothing. That is insane. And so hungry. Exactly. And so, of course, it leads to weight loss when you're eating 800 calories a day. But the problem is you can't maintain that forever. You guys know, we always talk about this. My next point along with that is the leaning green meals don't have carbs. Like, you're not allowed to have, like, rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, cereal, any of those kinds of things. And that also is another reason why it's not sustainable. When we don't have our body's main source of fuel, we really crave it. And so we feel like we're a failure when we actually eventually binge on those foods. Even though it's just Octavia being restrictive as hell, I still can't get over. So we're going back to that first. It's okay. First point is, it said it teaches you, or they say it teaches you how to make healthy choices and all it's doing is giving you food. Deed, it's not teaching you anything. All it's telling you is, like, eat this food. There's no critical thought behind it. It's like, this is what I have to eat today. It's not like they're teaching you like, oh, make sure you have a veggie carbon protein. Make sure I don't, like, really teaching portrait sizes, but make sure whatever from their weight loss standpoint, like, eat this much. But it doesn't teach you anything. If you're just given exactly, like, what to eat. Exactly. And you're supposed to eventually wean off of it and you do start to transition into your own foods and whatever. Yeah, exactly. Your high carb broccoli. The world has a hard enough time eating vegetables as it is, right? Let's not demonize broccoli. Carbs. I'll Google it. Carbs and broccoli. I bet it's like three. What was. Shoot. We should know this. I know broccoli has 6 grams of carbs, but two of which are fiber. So if you're a net carb person for net carbs, four cars that cup, they're just going to take you right out of that ketogenesis and you're going to be screwed. Or ketosis ketogenesis. What am I saying? I would have believed you so many pathways, but, oh, my gosh. Okay, wait, let's keep going. Let's keep going. Because I feel like, okay, I can't get over this, but we need to keep going. They don't teach you a darn thing, but the fuelings that they give you are about like 100 calories each. So even though you get five of them a day, the only actual real meal you get is that lean and green and even that, I wouldn't even say it's a bounce satisfying meal because you don't allow to have any kind of carbs. It's just like a meat and veggie, which is fine. I have nights where I'm cool with having, like, salmon and some Brussels sprouts and all that. I had carbs all day long. You best believe so. I don't feel deprived by just having that, oh, my gosh, 100 calories per fueling. Also, that's exhausting to think about. Like, I have to eat each of these the same time. It's not intuitive at all. Not teaching you anything. It doesn't teach you anything. And that's why you can't maintain it. The amount of patients I have seen, I have done Octovia and then come to where I work because they failed. The Acuvia is just astonishing because Octavia doesn't work. Well. You guys could probably guess that this can be a very slippery slope into an eating disorder when you aren't allowed to have broccoli. The amount of food rules they place is insane. More about the expensive note. I did the math when I talked about this before, and it ended up being around like $3 per fueling. So you're paying like $3 for a granola bar or $3 for a little thing of protein cereal that tastes like cardboard. That's a lot. You can get a granola bar for like $75. Yeah. That will taste a lot better. Yes. And have fun flavors and carbs. Exactly. And then along with paying what I say, like 428 a month for the feelings, you still have to buy the stuff for your lean and green meals. That wasn't included. No, you have to buy your own. So that's only for those 100 calorie fuelings. Oh, my God. Yes. This is so much like me is not cheap. They say you can do, like, egg whites and that kind of stuff, too. But even still, no one's going to eat egg whites every single day. Yeah. Oh, I forgot. I also found a breakdown of, like, I mentioned the calories, but it's also about 80 to 100 grams of carbs per day, at least 72 grams of protein. So that's good. And less than 30% of total calories of calories from total fat. I feel like that's super low. So it's like basically just protein that you're eating. This just does not sound fun. It sounds expensive and not fun. Exactly. Something I like to point out is with the sustainability side of this, how do you do this over the holidays or if you're on vacation or going out with friends? Like Emily said, you don't actually learn how to eat. You're just being fed protein bars and protein cereals. And of course, you're going to lose weight on that, but you cannot do that forever. I think that's a good point. Like, are you going to pack? Hannah and I were just talking about traveling. Like, are we about to pack our powders and our meals and our check in? Right. Put a cooler in there so it's fresh for that. Whatever. Like hour long. Like, how many hours flights or whatever. Or your road trip somewhere? Are you going to, like, you have a six hour road trip, you're going to pack all your food and then make sure wherever you're going has kitchen and whatnot. So you can eat and never eat out. So they say you wean you off, which I hope so, because you can't do this forever. From a logical standpoint, I feel like I personally, if I were to do this, I would not buy in. And it was like, oh, yeah, do this for the rest of your life. It's like a lot of programs. It's like a kickstart. You just kick start your weight loss by this drastic low calorie, low carb diet. But like I always say, if you can't do it forever, don't even start doing it because you'll just gain all the weight back because your buy is going to want to eat more than 1000 calories a day. Oh, that's right. I'm remembering this now. Okay, so you do the five and one. That's the most popular plan. And then you do transition. They have a three and three, which is where you do three fuelings a day and three, quote unquote balance meals. And that is what you're supposed to do to sustain a healthy weight. So they still want you to buy their products and do three fuelings a day, but you're allowed to have three of your own meals. That's a slippery slope. Yeah. If you're suddenly like, oh, yeah, you can eat now, they haven't learned anything. Another thing that I had seen is they talk about exercise a little bit, and they actually recommend that you don't participate in intense exercise because of the extreme caloric restriction. Any weight loss program that tells you not to exercise, that should be a pretty red flag there. Like, they literally say, don't do anything too intense because it's dangerous. You're like, probably not eating enough. Yes. What? Oh, my gosh. I'll note there are times I recommend patients not to do intense exercise, but it's never her weight loss. She has like a bad knee or something like that. Yeah. You're not eating enough. So we want to make sure we're not liable when you faint. It's like, what do you eat today? I have three Octavia feelings, 300 calories of protein cereal. Yeah, sorry I fainted during my root class red flag. I do get the low intensity, I think I don't know a lot about kind of as much as the specifics of weight loss and exercise, but I know low intensity is really good for it, so I get that side of it. But it's not like they're saying don't participate in intense exercise because low intensity is really good for weight loss. They're telling you because we don't want you to faint if you're not eating because of extreme caloric restriction. Yeah, well, don't worry, Emily. You get a coach. When you're on opt to Via, you get a real certified coach. So any questions you have, if you're going to faint, you just tell your coach I'm going to faint. And your coach, who has no medical background at all, will just tell you to push through it and go eat a fueling and move on. Every time we ever get to the coaching portion of any of these programs, I always get so nervous. And every time I am literally everyone thinks they get to just talk about nutrition and exercise. Everyone thinks that because they all eat and because they all move their bodies, that suddenly makes them an expert. Yeah, sorry. Go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say, since they lost weight, they can tell all those how to lose weight. Exactly. Most of the Optavia coaches were Optavia clients at first, which gives real pyramid scheme vibes. Kind of like Herbalife those MLMs. Oh, my gosh. I don't even want to sit in a go visit. I feel like I'd be so afraid of what I would hear. Right. Especially if I would want to hear. I want to hear what they tell someone who passes out or something like that don't work out. Like, I know how it is working with the public because it's what I do for a job. And I am a very realistic dietitian. Like, I'm not ever going to say, cut out this and this only eat 1000 calories a day. And even I hear complaints all day, every day from patients saying how much they hate just like generally trying to eat healthier or whatever. So imagine, like, if you have a client who is trying or being told and paying money to do this ridiculously restrictive, low calorie, low carb diet and you have to coach them through, but you're not even a dietician. You have no idea what you're doing in terms of counseling and coaching. I can just imagine the absolute mess that that is. Like, those coaches cannot be going. Yeah. What stresses me out thinking about it is we are both educated and certified registered dietitians. So we have the background to educate on weight management. But, like, what happens when these don't work? Like, these programs don't work and the coaches have to deal with the clients. Exactly. I don't even know what they would say because keep trying. I literally don't even know. It stresses me out when I don't feel like I'm helping someone, especially with weight management. Like, a lot
Participant #1:
we've talked about the square. Weight management is not something we both want to do long term. But I couldn't even imagine the stress. Or maybe they just don't get stressed. Maybe they're just like, oh, well, they don't care because they don't have the code of ethics that we feel or like the morality that we're taught in school that we have to feel about patient care. Like, they don't care. That's true. Yeah. They're just those coaches. It's like those 18 year old trainers who are just like, oh, everyone's got the same 24 hours in a day. We can all just go to the gym. Who cares if you have kids or you're hungry or you're stressed or whatever other bear you're going to have when you're following this diet? That'll be fine. You'll lose weight. That's all that matters. I don't know if this is maybe I'm making a huge assumption. And, like, if I am cut this out, I do not want a scandal on our hands. Not a touch scandal. I feel like there has to be so much gas lighting where, like, if something doesn't work for someone, because there's no way. No weight loss program has 100% success rate. Oh, that's just not because intentional weight loss fails 90 something percent of the time. Yeah. What happens when the clients come back and they're like, it didn't work for me. I feel like then the coaches would be like, oh, you didn't try. Yes. Maybe you should do the program over again. Or like, you ate too many onions. It's like, I think gasoline is the right term, but just essentially, like, putting it on the client's fault. And when it's like, the program's fault that the clients are not being successful because it was not built for them to succeed. This type of eating you will never maintain just because it is not realistic sustainable in any way. Very expensive. I can't go over that. I am a very money conscious person. I've always been probably a bit too much. Me too. But, like, that's a lot of money you're spending on a monthly basis to not see long term, sustainable results. Yeah, but weight loss cells. That's why it's so popular. That's why weight loss programs everywhere, like weight watchers. Noomia. Herbalize. They're all so successful could ever create because they saw weight loss. Yeah. And then when it doesn't work somewhere else, we'll hop somewhere else to hope it works there. This is the next one. And it's infuriating because people believe in this stuff Because they promise weight loss, and they see the success stories. Their neighbor did it. Person on the website did it, and they look great. And so they just think it's going to be a good fit for them. But making realistic lifestyle changes, that's never a good option. We end up recording these after I get off a day of work, Because I already, like, a little frustrated. Yeah. It just carries over. There's so much to say about all of that. But it's also so many things we've already said Where, like, issues of focusing on weight loss, like the marketing behind, they have really good marketing. I will give them that. All these programs have very good marketing tactics, except for herbal life, because that's just, like, sketchy to me. Herbal life. I don't know how herbal life is doing, but whatever. Yeah, but I feel like it is a success stories, and oftentimes those success stories aren't even accurate. It's either photoshopped or it wasn't just the program or during very specific moments in time. I would like to see those people's stories, like, two years later. Yeah. Still there. Exactly. We didn't even mention how optivia apparently, is created by physicians and dietitians. But the coaches are not dieticians. The coaches are just people who have done Optavia. That's all they are. But what dietitian? I mean, I know there's some out there, and everyone has the same views as us. Everyone has different views or some who really do get into weight loss. But come on, what dietitian gets the same education as us and still thinks it's okay to make a program like this. I guess. I know they're out there. You see some wild things on social media. I feel like we haven't even been on social media. Like, actually for that long is pretty new. But there are some who said this, not all dietitians are created equal in the sense of a lot. We all got essentially the same education. But after your internship, I feel like that's when a lot of your personal views shift and what you kind of decide to Hone in on changes for the better. And that's also when I've seen, as you've seen recently with a lot of social media drama, it's where the support from evidence based resources sometimes gets neglected for individual's personal gain. So I'm just not even like, surprised, because that's true. There's a lot more money as a dietitian to work with than there is to work at an inpatient hospital and do like two feed rates all day. So it not only sells for people who are buying into this as a client, but also for people who are creating these things too. It's an easy money maker supplement industry supplement. So much money, so much money there. I get DMSA every day. Every day asking like, what I think of a certain stuff in the company. And my answer is always the same. It's just another run on top of my company. Just eat fruits and veggies. You'll probably be fine. We got to figure out the basics first before we can start throwing in like $30 multivitamins and fat burners and BCAAs. This episode is kind of a hot mess, but cause you guys really know at this point what we think about diagnosis or mostly tired. I feel tired for episode 46. I know so many of these are just like the same, but they are slightly different in a little way. That's how it works. Once you realize that that diet culture is everywhere, it's exhausting noticing just like, oh, look, another weight loss program literally every day. Not only do I get those DMs about supplement companies, I also get like, patients who tell me or I'll get a DM about a different weight loss program. Yes, there's so many and they're all the same. Literally all the same. Honestly, my advice for that would be like, go to a weight loss dietitian. There are a bunch of them on social media that we really like. Yeah. And I actually really like them. Go to them. Yes. They're going to provide you with better changes. Exactly. They're going to focus on the same things that maybe Emily and I would. But just the focus of weight loss. Yeah. That's like their deal. Yeah. Well, that's really all I wanted to say. Bottom line, are you going to lose weight during this diet? Yes. Obviously you're eating 800 calories a day like you're two years old. But once you decide you don't want to pay $430 a month for powders and bars and protein cereals and you decide to start eating real food again, you are going to gain all that weight back and then some. Just like every other freaking diet.
Participant #1:
Essentially, it's an expensive way to be given food that isn't even fun. It doesn't teach you any life skills at all. Like, I don't like giving out meal plans for partially that reason. Like, it's not fun. You don't get to actually learn anything. You don't actually maybe like what I like, I would never know if you're eating while making you eat. Like with this, you don't even get to get a decision. You just eat what you're buying. And it's so expensive. I'm trying to think of something comparable to $400 a month. And I can't like rent a College town apartment is rent for the month. Well, I mean, that's like a realistic grocery bill, but with a lot more groceries, not just like five fueling a day. I'm talking like full fledged meals. And you can likely feed more than one person with that. That's true. I always forget it's. For one person, for one person, 400 a month. For one person. It's not even all of their meals. They still have to buy the lean in green, which is the expensive part of grocery shopping, is the lean meat. You're probably paying like $600 a month for food just for one person. Stresses me out. Don't do it. Don't do it. Save your money. If you want to do weight loss, work with a weight loss specialized dietitian, maybe you're a therapist. You probably have some deeper issues Besides just your food. That's something I've discovered working in weight management is it's never about the food? Ever. Go see a therapist. Yeah. Therapy is great. Yeah. Okay. I say when you see the bonus question because we're just upset. I feel drained. I don't know. Ok. This will be a good, I think, light hearted question. So today's bonus question isn't really like this or that. It's simple. Yes or no, really? And kind of why we think that. But the question is, is Mint chocolate chip ice cream actually good or is it just like toothpaste that you eat? Emily, what are your thoughts? Do you enjoy Mint chocolate chip thing? I love Mint chocolate chip. It is my favorite ice cream. It has been my favorite ice cream. Anyone who says it tastes like toothpaste, I will fight and it's so refreshing. I feel like it has a different taste or different types of Mint. It's different than toothpaste because I also use Mint toothpaste every day. I'm Mint connoisseur toothpaste tastes good. Yeah.
Participant #1:
But I love Mint chocolate chip ice cream. I could eat it any day and every day. Same. I love anything Mint chocolate. I just got the Mint chocolate premiere proteins clearing season. It sounds so good. I've been making little protein coffees with them. They're really good. Yeah. That's so smart. I might have to steal that. Is it made with? I thought so. Because the Fairlife ones are lactose free, so I recommend those, like, everybody, even though it's like lactose. Almost like vegan, obviously. But the Fairlife ones, they actually taste better than the Premier. But they don't have a Mint one. That's why I brought the premiere up. Right? Like York patties. Those are so good. I love those. Or junior mints. Those are so good. It's not toothpaste, it's Mint. It's like an herb. It's not the same thing. Yeah. And I feel like this is something that is a very controversial question. Only in the sense that people who hate it make it their whole when it comes up, you swear I told them, why can I not think of anything? Like, butter is a car. That's something I'm meaning girls, something like that. But someone who actually understands macros. Yeah, but they're just so passionate about it. I'm like, oh, my God, yes. You don't have to like it, but it makes no sense that you don't. Pineapple and pizza. It's like that. People who hate pineapple and pizza, same type of energy, bad vibes. Yeah. Wait, people that do like that don't like that. Okay. I like that. I love that. Yeah, me too. Well, it's kind of like the other end, though. Like the pumpkin spice crazies. Like us. We're burying your face about liking pumpkin spice. So those are like the people who don't like the ice cream. Kind of like that. Yeah. Ours is just seasonal. It's only one time out of the year. Just worry about us rubbing it in your face. I know. It's probably like August through October, honestly, for me, because by the time November December comes around, they already have winter drinks. And I'm like, then come out and I'm going, but it's funny. I thought we'd agree. Yeah, me too. I didn't know it was your favorite, but I can see why it's so good. Oh, yeah. It just hurts me. I know. I'm sure that's kind of like lactose free one out there. Any lactose free companies want to send me Mint chocolate chip ice cream? You'll be my favorite person in the entire world, and I will give you a shout out to our billions of listeners. Yeah, billions. No, I can't show your analytics. No, the website is down. No. Okay, this is side note. This is not even relevant, but people could Photoshop that. Oh, yeah, I thought about that. You could Photoshop your analytics. My gosh. Yeah, I want to do that. I don't have that time. I wouldn't really care. They probably gather, like, if you had a engagement rate on every post. Yeah. They're like, okay, and then they look at your account. You're telling me every single follower comment on every single post that you have. Okay, that would be wild. That would be exhausting. Anyway, this episode is maybe not our best work, but that's okay. We hope you got the bottom line. Optavia is just not it. It's expensive to not have a fun time and just be told what to eat. I personally don't think no, I personally don't. I know I would hate if anyone told me what to eat. I would feel like rage.
Participant #1:
I'd be like teach me what to eat so I can make my own choices and decide I would be so mad if they told me I had to drink like, some powder how many times and I wasn't even enjoying it. We have to eat for the rest of our lives. That's something you have to do forever. You might as well make it enjoyable and not terrible. Yeah. Anyway, hope you guys want something. You probably already knew everything that we just said today but if you haven't, you now at least know what optedia is and you know that you should not be reeled in or sucked in by their marketing stay very far away. Yeah, it might seem nice and there might be a lot of success but check out the weight loss dietitians. Very easy to find them. Yes, there's plenty. All right, thank you guys for listening and we will see you in the next one. All right, everyone. Bye. Okay, bye.
