Is Optavia A Pyramid Scheme?

Is Optavia MLM a scam? Are you looking for an Optavia MLM review? 

There is no harm in researching the scope of Optavia MLM before joining.

Hey Buddy, I’m Somraj Mondal, Founder, and CEO of Noni4all.com. I’ve reviewed hundreds of MLM companies, Like Smart Value, Forever Living Products, LegalShield, and many more.

Last week, I did thorough research on Optavia MLM, so I can tell you what you need to know about it.

So, Let’s get started.

What Is Optavia MLM?

Optavia is a Multi-level Marketing company that sells pure, clean, affordable Health and Wellness Products at a lower price than other health and wellness companies. 

Dr. Wayne Anderson and Bradley Macdonald founded the Optavia Company in 2016. The company promotes and sells its easy-to-use food replacement products through Network Marketing Plan.

It is one of many online programs that either sell a company’s products or allow others to join the company as a distributor so they can sell products or buy at a discount. Many people have become distributors or consultants of this company. As a result of so much competition in selling the same product, it is very difficult to be a “6 figure network marketer”.

Optavia MLM Company History: How Did It Start?

Basically, Optavia company is a subsidiary of Medifast with a few separate owners. A physician, William Vitaly founded Medifast in 1980 and she decided to start a weight loss company. Then, to stay relevant with the vision of the company, it was renamed “Take Shape For Life” in 2016.

Dr. Wayne Anderson and Bradley MacDonald founded this refreshed Optavia program in 2016.

Here is the history or timeline of the Optavia Company:

• 1980: William Vitale founded Medifast (the parent company)
• 1995: HealthRite changed its name from Vitamin Specialties Corp
• 2002: Optavia’s current owners and found “Take Shape For Life” under its parent company, Medifast.
• 2010: Medifast is voted #1 on the Forbes list of best small companies.
• 2017: Optavia becomes the new name of the Take Shape For Life subsidiary.
• 2017: Optavia relocates to Baltimore Maryland.
• 2018: The company goes public with a market capitalization of 1.8 Billion dollars.

Optavia MLM Company Profile

Optavia Products And Services 

Optavia MLM company provides health wellness and nutritional Weight loss products for those people who are highly interested in losing weight. The company has a highly skilled and Experienced Health Trainer who guides you to lose weight. The main goal of Optavia Products is to build a healthy habit for a consumer and gain healthy weight.

The company also gives you the ability to be a Health coach of the company. When you become an instructor you will buy their “Health Instructor Business Kit” which will help you to start selling Optavia products like food replacement and/or smoothies.

These are the types of products that the Company offers;

1. Fueling – 60+ likes: These fuels are pre-made, pre-packaged foods. There are many different opinions on whether they taste good, like cardboard, or terrible – obviously, it depends on the person. One thing that most agree on, is the parts are small! This is not surprising since the daily calorie levels are so low.
2. 1: 1 coaching: Not so much coaching as passive motivation to purchase products and continue the program.
3. Access to the Optavia community: Company gives access to their company and encourages their Distributer and Customer to get involved, as well as talk to other coaches about the plan. Being active with others in the same program can encourage further sales and potential stress to become trainers and recruit new clients.
4. The practice of health transformation: Encourages lifestyle changes that are beneficial – weight control, exercise, sleep, etc.

How to join Optavia MLM Company?

Yeah. You can join the Optavia MLM Company. To become a Distributor and do MLM business in the company, you have to buy a Joining Kit “Health Trainer Business Kit” that contains products. The price of this joining kit is $199. There are the one-time onboarding joining fees that you have to pay.

For some people, this can be very expensive, as opposed to affiliate marketing and other online businesses.

By the way, it is not the fact that this  Subscription will get your money back.

Optavia’s Business Kit provides information on its products, the Optavia Success System, and one-year access to your own company’s website.

Optavia Compensation Plan

Yes. You can make money from the Optavia MLM Compensation plan. Basically, you need to sell the company’s products and hire new members under you to be successful and make more money. Selling and hiring are more challenging than it seems on the surface. Expensive health and wellness products will be more difficult to sell than other MLM products. One reason is that some people can find healthier products elsewhere for less money.

Once you become a distributor of the Optavia MLM Company, You need to pay your customers for the products. You will be responsible for getting people to sign up for products in Retainer from one of Optavia’s product lines. The fact that you pay for sales and not every hour means that qualified leads must be interested in learning about their product.

Optavia, therefore, does not exclude all the legwork that goes with traditional network marketing.

Here are the mainly 2 ways you can make money from the company:

1. Make money from Product selling 

Product selling is not the case with Optavia. Instead, the company seems to be breaking the mold by focusing on health and wellness. While there is nothing wrong with that idea, it can limit your chances of earning.

Optavia’s revenue structure seems excellent at first glance. A distributor receives 15% of the sales commission. Moreover, you will only get a cut in the profit of Optavia. Optavia gets the lion’s share of profits.

Optavia coaches are paid only when they sell products to others. Basically, if they don’t have enough clients to qualify for the bonus, they won’t get credit for buying the product themselves.

Over the past year, Optavia Distributer has earned an average commission of 15%, but only 8.16% of them have earned more than $100. 

2. Team Building

If you want to really make a good amount of money and become successful, you have to recruit another member under you and build a Team. Optavia offers you a percentage of the revenue for each sales representative hired from the sales they make.

If you want to really make a good amount of money and become money. Not as close as you get if you sell the product yourself.

You can earn a small percentage of direct employers’ earnings, but keep in mind that this percentage is still based on their earnings.

Sales will vary greatly from one sale to the next, so it’s hard to predict what it will be like.

The second step referred to as “leveraged revenue sharing”, is the next step. With this, you can earn money across your entire marketing team. Although they do not use conventional terminology, the brand follows a simple one-tier team structure.

Hiring 5 new consultants will probably be difficult because it is quite difficult to sell expensive health and wellness products. Recruiting in this MLM needs to be fanatical. You need to hire others and then motivate them to hire, which looks like one type of pyramid scheme, sometimes.

Is Optavia an MLM?

Yes. Optavia is Network Marketing or MLM company. The company sells its product through a common MLM Business Model. The company called their Distributor a Fancy name, “Health Coach” who sells the company’s products to others and makes a commission from sales.

Is Optavia A Pyramid Scheme?

It is unlikely that they are a scam. Everything about Optavia MLM Company looks and sounds like a pyramid scheme. The fact that they have partnered with many prominent companies. There is something positive about the relationship between those companies. The best description of a pyramid scheme is a company that relies on people to create a chain of people to sell their products to cut profits and get a share of the profits.

Basically, In Pyramid Scheme, the organization focus on recruiting new member in the downline, so, those who are on the top can make more money. This is exactly what Optavia does.

They start their diet first and then include them in their circles by encouraging them to become trainers and sell products. Not many of them want to be coaches, but to get discounts on expensive products that they can no longer afford. They are encouraged to join because they get a cut of the products they sell. It is noteworthy that you have to pay to become a coach.

Optavia MLM Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Optavia MLM company has a team of Health coaches. So,, you can learn anything from the coach, if you have anything to know. 
2. Optavia provides a 30-day return policy. In the first month after buying the business kit, you can refund it if you decide the business is not for you.
3. Medifast is known for its dieting products. And, the parent company of Optavia is a well-established Medifast company.

Cons:

1. There is no barrier to joining the company, anyone can join without having knowledge and experience which is very bad.
2. Huge earnings from the MLM company are too tough. Because you need to recruit people which is very difficult.
3. Health Coaches Are Not Health Experts. No one besides them is qualified to offer health advice. They are mainly interested in making sales and sharing their business.
4. Optavia weight loss Products are very expensive.

Optavia Lawsuits

Basically, there is no evidence of a lawsuit against Optavia and also its parent company, Medifast. The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Medifast for false advertising. The parent company had filed a $3.7 million fine amount. Medifast has also filed defamation suits against Barry Minko and William Lobdell. Barry Minko is a former con that publishes pyramid schemes and William Lobdell is a former author of Los Angeles Times and Time Magazine.

They were working together to investigate Medifast being an MLM and Panji scheme. In the end, Medifast lost both cases to Barry Minko and William Lobdale. In the last 3 years, 346 complaints have been lodged with the company, while 148 complaints have been closed in the last 12 months.  In addition, Some people have complained about fraud, and Other people have complained about allergic reactions or dietary problems while eating.

Medical Concerns with Optavia

The result of this weight loss program or course of Optavia is excessive restrictions for people with dietary restrictions, Such as vegetarian or gluten-free users. There are several products that meet these standards. Indirectly, it is mean, you are eating the same food week after week. 

Optavia Nursing claims special programs available for mothers, older adults, adolescents, diabetic patients, and adults suffering from gout. But there is no evidence to support these claims and it is not clear whether the products are safe for these groups.

Are Optavia And Medifast The Same?

Yes, Optavia And Medifast are the Same. Optavia offers the same plan as Medifast on its website. The fact that Medifast is the Parent company of Optavia.  Looking at the pictures and nutrition information labels it looks like they are selling the same food.

However, with Optavia, there is little change in the formula. On their website, they tell you that trainers are usually people who have been on a diet before. People who have no nutritional background, and are now advising people on how to eat “right”.

BBB official standing

Optavia currently has 80 customer reviews on its Better Business Bureau website. The average is 1.53 out of 5 stars. Among the reviews, 517 complaints have been closed in the last 3 years, and 270 complaints have been closed in the last 12 months.

Conclusion

So, in my conclusion from this Optavia MLM review. Overall, I do not recommend joining Optavia MLM for making because you are less likely to succeed due to the MLM nature. We already know that the success rate of MLM is only 0.4% and it takes more than thousands of days to build a strong network.

Also, Optavia falls short in terms of scalability. There are only so many hours a day and you can only sell yourself to so many people.

However, I hope you got complete information about Optavia company from this Optavia MLM review.

Now, I’d like to know from you:

Do you Use Optavia For Weight Loss?

Or do, Want to join the company from making money?

Let me know in the comment section now.

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I am Somraj Mondal. I am a College Student, Blogger, Networker, and Finding Ways To Make Money as a Student. I love to Explore new things and giving solutions to Problem which Problems People can faces. also, a Passionate Runner.