Today, I’ll go through that claim in greater detail.

I figured that instead of putting words into ViSalus’ mouth, I’d actually use this lovely promotional video I found extolling the many healthy benefits of a ViSalus shake.

According to the ViSalus spokeswoman, ViSalus manages to cram more “nutrition” into their shake mix than is possible to achieve using real food. Best of all, ViSalus is able to provide all this “nutrition” at a cost savings of hundreds of dollars for the consumer.

Geez ViSalus, you are such a swell bunch of guys.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now by the sounds of it, such an amazing product could quickly put me out of business, so what’s a nutritionist to do?

Well obviously run a full nutrient analysis on their claims to see how well they stack up!

Below is a copy of the label from a Vi-Shape Nutritional Shake mix (you’ll have to multiply the Vi-Shape label by 2 to come up with the levels of each nutrient discussed in the video) and the Nutrition Facts label I compiled after analyzing all the foods they talked about in their video.

• I’ve got the full nutrient analysis of the foods discussed in the ViSalus commercial for those who wish to see it.

Now even for the mathmatically challenged, it’s apparent that the real food provides hundreds of grams more protein, dietary fibre, healthy fats, and also boasts a micronutrient profile that’s roughly 10x as robust as the ViSalus shake mix.

Looks like someone in the ViSalus marketing department really dropped the ball on this one, but if any ViSalus rep cares to chime in with a correction with how my math or nutrient analysis was done, I’m all ears!

However, I think we can all agree that not every North American has a nutritionally complete diet. The real appeal of a shake mix comes from offering consumers a convenient and well-designed supplement to round out there nutrition.

To that end, let’s see how well a ViSalus shake stacks up with some other commonly available products on the market.

Vitamins and Minerals

The ViSalus video seemed to imply that getting all the vitamins and minerals in a Vi-Shake is too great a challenge to get from food (I think they meant to suggest it was impossible to get from any one whole food, although they never actually said that).

But how about if someone just took a multivitamin?

Below, I took the liberty of breaking down exactly how much of each micronutrient is provided by a ViSalus shake compared to two popular (and pretty basic) brands of Multivitamins commonly found in stores or online.

I also took the the liberty of highlighting the product that provides the most concentrated dose of each micronutrient, because I’m a nice guy like that

Well now there’s a surprise! (or not)

ViSalus finished dead last when it comes to the amount of vitamins and minerals contained in their product. In fact, it would appear that their shakes contains 5-10x less of most nutrients than was were provided by the NOW Foods multivitamin.

Even the crappy Centrum vitamins trounced ViSalus.

It is also worth noting that a serving of both the NOW Foods or Centrum multivitamins costs less than a quarter.

Guess that’s one strike against ViSalus.

The Protein

So it appears the cost of the Vi-Shape Shake can’t be justified by some amazing amount of vitamins or minerals.

But all is not lost, perhaps ViSalus can redeem themselves by providing a sweet amount of protein in their product.

According to the label, one serving of the Vi-Shape shake mix provides 12 grams of predominantly soy protein (if you can call 12 g of protein a serving).

Time for another quick cost comparison. This time I will source my protein from two other popular online supplement companies, Bodybuilding.com and True Nutrition:

Once again, we see the concentration of ingredients in a serving of the ViSalus product lags behind that of their competitors, yet their price is dramatically higher.

Question: if True Nutrition can turn a profit selling soy protein at $0.14 per 12 g, why can’t ViSalus do the same?

Mind you, I haven’t even brought up the question of why anyone would opt for soy protein in a fat loss product to begin with? Does ViSalus assume everyone using ViSalus is vegan?

Incidentally, I’m not a staunch anti-soy crusader who believes consuming a serving of soy protein will instantly cause men everywhere to grow a fine set of breasts.

However, there seems to be enough compelling published research suggesting that dairy sourced proteins are more effective in terms of suppressing appetite, assisting with lean mass gain and encouraging fat loss.

Science nerds, here you go:

• Whey protein but not soy protein supplementation alters body weight and composition in free-living overweight and obese adults
• Supplementation with soy-protein-rich foods does not enhance weight loss
• The role of milk- and soy-based protein in support of muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein accretion in young and elderly persons.
• Dose dependent satiating effect of whey relative to casein or soy

Considering that dairy protein are pretty cost effective and are arguably better for body recomposition, I wonder what was ViSalus’ rationale for including soy protein in their product?

P.S. That was a rhetorical question.
P.P.S. It was actually a sarcastic rhetorical question.

So let’s call the inclusion of soy protein in a weight loss product strike 2 against ViSalus.

But there’s still a chance for a comeback… let’s see what ingredient is behind door #3!

The Fibre

As we make our way through the ingredient list, the last potential ingredient that might be the magic behind the ViSalus secret sauce is the 5 g of fibre!

And as everyone knows, fibre helps people lose weight…

Except that ViSalus seems to have included a type of fibre (Fibersol: a low-viscosity, digestion resistant maltodextrin) that hasn’t been shown assist with weight loss.

According to the Foods for Specified Health Uses report issued by the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare’s board linked to on the  Fibersol website (thankfully, this company actually knows what a white paper is): Fibersol IS NOT considered a food/compound approved for use in conjunction with a reduced body fat claim.

Making matters worse, low viscosity fibres don’t appear to be very effective in suppressing appetite either:

• Effect of dietary fibre on subjective appetite, energy intake and body weight: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
• Viscosity of fiber preloads affects food intake in adolescents

ViSalus-Sciences… your product formulation decisions deserve a slow clap!

Regardless of it’s apparent ineffectiveness as a weight-loss agent, I still took the liberty of running a price comparison on Fibersol:

* not a pure Fibersol formula

So by the looks of it, a 5g serving of pure Fibersol should set you back a dime.

Well that about settles it, the inclusion of a useless fibre (for weight control purposes) is strike three!

After tallying up the costs of all the key nutrients in a Vi-Shape shake (based on True Nutrition prices), we discover the market rate of the ingredients used to be:

Multivitamin blend: $0.15
12 g soy protein: $0.14
5 g Fibersol: $0.10

For a grand total of…. $0.39!

Yet ViSalus believes their magical wonder shake is worth $1.63/serving.

Now my math isn’t as good as it used to be, but that’s an over 400% mark-up over the already inflated costs of the materials.

Remember, I sourced the materials from retailers, not from distributors themselves. All these items cost pennies to produce.

I could go on longer, but I think that’s more than enough justification for why no fitness professional should ever be caught dead peddling ViSalus shakes.

No matter how you slice it, ViSalus products are a giant piece of over-priced crap.

The saddest part of this analysis is that I limited myself to the “cheapest” offering in the ViSalus product line. On their website, they heavily push the Transformation kit ($249/month) for best results.

Look, any fitness professionals interested in recommending a quick “grab and go” meal replacement for their clients should look into any one of the countless low-cost and high quality products offered through distributors like True Nutrition, Bodybuilding.com or your local sports supplement store.

Any trainer pushing ViSalus cannot in any way, shape or form argue that they are doing so in their client’s best interest… neither the science nor the cost of the product compute.

P.S. I don’t think ViSalus products are dangerous (like some weight loss products)… just poorly designed and embarrassingly over-priced.

P.P.S. Do the trainers recommending ViSalus actually use ViSalus themselves? Kinda makes you wonder…

Of course, I’d be more than happy to hear the opposite side of the story presented by a ViSalus distributor or two… but I don’t hold out much hope.

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

In fact, over the past six months I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve been approached by Visalus reps suggesting I promote their products.

And my answer each time is the same: a polite “thanks but no thanks”, while silently rolling my eyes and cursing the sorry state of the weight loss industry.

“To all my little Hulkamaniacs, say your prayers, take your vitamins ViSalus and you will never go wrong.”

For those of you who haven’t heard of ViSalus yet (and I’m guessing that is possibly only 4 people in North America), ViSalus is a multi-level marketing (MLM) company promoting a line of supplements as part of a 90-day weight loss challenge.

The essence of the program is as follows: users purchase one of five ViSalus weight loss supplement kits available (ranging from $49-$299/month) as part of a “transformation challenge” and at the end of the 90 days, those with the most impressive transformations are eligible to win huge prizes.

Now before I address ViSalus products, to be fair I should applaud ViSalus for attempting to inject some excitement among the lay public into the very real problem of how to motivate North Americans to address our growing obesity epidemic.  If dangling the chance to win a trip, photoshoot or gift card motivates someone to drop body fat, then by all means continue doing so!

But culture of excitement aside, that’s about where it ends in terms of valid reasons why fitness professional should consider recommending ViSalus products.

One of the biggest red flags that should immediately jump out at fitness professionals deciding whether or not to promote ViSalus comes from the ViSalus website itself. When you visit the ViSalus website, you’ll discover that roughly 80% of their site deals more with trying to recruit you to become a ViSalus sales rep, instead of actually discussing their product.

Now call me old-fashioned, but when the #1 objective of any company’s promotional material is aimed at recruiting new salespeople and not actually highlighting the benefits of their product or outlining why their product is superior to that of their competitors, this is pretty much a dead giveaway you are dealing with an inferior quality product.

Incidentally, I have no problem with MLM companies provided they actually confer a real service or product, which ViSalus does. So in that sense, ViSalus definitely can’t be considered a scam.

I believe every company is entitled to recruit salespeople or ambassadors for their brand. I’m also more than happy to recommend products or services to my clients (whether or not I receive an affiliate commission for doing so), as long as the product I’m recommending is in my client’s best interest.

However, judging from the number of “BMW reward photos” featuring ViSalus salespeople populating my Facebook feed (many) compared to the number of awesome Body-by-Vi transformation photos (zero), it seems to me that the major benefits of this product DO NOT come from actually using it yourself.

But suspect sales tactics aside, the most egregious offenses to fitness professionals everywhere have to be that:

1. Visalus, the company, shows a pretty suspect understanding of nutritional science.
2. The quality of the ingredients used in their products is sub par and embarrassingly over-priced.

I’ll address this 2nd point in greater detail Thursday, so remember to check back.

So without further ado let’s examine the evidence.

ViSalus-Sciences: Where Is the Science?

For a company calling itself ViSalus-Sciences, I was amazed at how difficult it was to locate any information on their website concerning the scientific benefits of their products. However, after an exhaustive search I eventually stumbled across the “white paper” section on their website, which contains some information.

Normally, the term “white paper” is used to denote an authoritative paper issued by an organization. So, one might expect this section to contain a number of great summary papers about the impressive weight loss benefits of their products or at least the weight loss benefits of the ingredients contained within their products.

Of course, expecting a supplement company to actually provide concrete science in support of their products is probably as wise as expecting great success from your efforts at teaching your pet pot-bellied pig to fly.

However, under the white paper section of Visalus’ website you’ll find such illustrious titles as:

• Resveratrol-induced apoptotic death in human U251 glioma cells
• Otholaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
• Biologic Activity of Mitochondrial Metabolites on Aging and Age-Related Hearing Loss
• Anti-Intercellular Adhesion Molecule – 1 Antibodys Effect on Noise Damage
• Aging of the Cochlea
• Age-related Hearing Loss and its Association with Reactive Oxygen Species and Mitochondrial DNA damage
• Effects of Dietary Restriction and Antioxidants on Presbyacusis
• Auditory research involving antioxidants
• The Rationale for Consuming Protein Blends in Sports Nutrition
• Biologic Activity of Mitochondrial Metabolites on Aging and Age-Related Hearing Loss
• Effects of resveratrol on acoustic trama
• Influence on lecithin on michondrial DNA and age-related hearing loss

Come again ViSalus, you’ve got to be kidding right?!?

Oh where or where to begin…

Problem #1: None of these links are “white papers”.

All of these titles are actually just original research papers, not authoritative summary papers issued by ViSalus or another organization specializing in weight loss.

I suppose that assuming a company calling itself Visalus-Sciences would understand that an original research paper IS NOT AT ALL the same thing as a white paper.

But as the old saying goes, “when you assume you make an ass out of you and me”

Well fool me once, shame on you.

Problem #2: None of these research articles actually apply to weight loss.

I find this stupendously amazing: ViSalus links to 12 articles, 7 of which relate to possible auditory benefits but NONE actually deal with weight loss.

Maybe I was mistaken with the point of the Body-by-Vi challenge; I thought it was supposed to be about weight loss. I didn’t realize the real purpose of spending hundreds of dollars a month on supplements was to markedly improve your hearing <insert eye roll>.

Considering that even a lazy Pubmed search for the term “weight loss” yields 84,133 published articles, how is it even possible that Visalus’ research team couldn’t locate even one article that links any of the ingredients used in their products to weight loss.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

Frankly, how can any self-respecting fitness professional not be appalled by the effort ViSalus puts into validating the quality of their product.

Remember, your reputation and professional integrity are on the line every time you recommend your client take something.

So this leads me to question: do those fitness professionals recommending ViSalus not know that ViSalus is marketing an inferior quality product for premium prices? Or do these fitness professionals not care about the quality of the ViSalus products and are simply interested in padding their own wallets at the expense of their clients’ well-being ($299/month for supplements… are you freakin’ kidding me?!?!)

Needless to say, if I were a client of any trainer or nutritionist peddling ViSalus I wouldn’t be impressed.

But I’ll take it on good faith that any trainer or nutritionist recommending ViSalus really just doesn’t understand why ViSalus is an inferior quality product.

So, Thursday, I will be back with a critical look at the ingredients of ViSalus shakes (something the ViSalus research team apparently couldn’t be bothered with) and see if we can’t build a much more effective product for our clients at a fraction of the cost.

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Part II –  ViSalus Shakes: The “Science” Behind The Shakes

The last couple of years at this event, I’ve concentrated primarily on the inadequacy of using strict calorie counting approaches for weight loss, as well as the specific challenges females face in trying to lose body fat.

This year, I thought I would take different approach and discuss a few powerful concepts about why we (as the fitness industry) have generally failed with making a significant impact in stemming the increase in obesity rates.

Only I didn’t take the usual approach of throwing out a bunch of boring data and theoretical arguments, instead I focused on drawing a parallel between Facebook and the fitness industry. Specifically, I discussed how coaches should “borrow” liberally from strategies employed by Facebook to become more effective in our own practice.

 *the John referenced in the talk is Dr. John Berardi, head of Precision Nutrition, who gave a talk before me.

I hope you enjoy it!

Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing wrong with people choosing to become vegan if it aligns with their personal value system and life goals. However, I see veganism much the same way I see marathon running, competing in a figure competition or deciding to take up powerlifting: it’s asking your body to do something outside of what it is genetically and biologically designed to do.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pursue any of the aforementioned activities, but they aren’t exactly approaches that promotes optimal health for the population at large.

Possible? Yes. Universally recommended? No.

Now that my public service announcement is out of the way, I am actually going to talk about why I created this recipe in the first place.

Basically, I’m always on the lookout for ways to help my vegetarian athletes and clients get more protein in their diets. When it comes to maintaining leanness, the science quite clearly shows that maintaining a calorie-controlled, high protein diet is one of the best strategies for long-term success.

And although it’s possible to get enough protein to meet sedentary protein-needs on a strict vegetarian or vegan diet, trying to get an athlete 120-200 g of protein a day from strictly vegan sources is damn near impossible without loading up on so many legumes that anyone living within 50 miles of these individuals would require a Hazmat suit.

On top of that, I also aim to make foods taste good enough so that people aren’t feeling as though they have to choke something down… a nuance missed by most vegan protein supplements on the market today (ahem, VEGA I am looking squarely in your direction).

So after much experimenting, I’ve finally created a vegan protein bar recipe that fits the following criteria:

• tastes good
• provides a large amount of protein per serving
• is 100% vegan
• doesn’t contain a boatload of Agave nectar for consistency

I’m not sure why vegans have decided that adding such a concentrated source of fructose is a “health promoting” habit. Although I’m not an anti-fructose zealot like some people, I fail to see why people need more fructose in their diets than what is already provided by typical North American foods.

And as an added touch, I made this recipe so that it doesn’t require any baking! Maybe it’s just me, but I always find baking protein bars leads to an increased rate of “unusable brick” outcomes… so this version is quite simple.

Alright, enough rambling – here is this recipe, I hope you enjoy it!

Black Bean Brownie Bars
Black Bean Protein Bars (printable version) 

• 1 can (540 ml) black beans
• 3 scoops pea protein isolate
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup stevia (or splenda)
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries or chopped nuts or chocolate chips

Directions

In a food processor (or use a potato masher. Consider it my new and improved biceps workout technique), mix beans, pea protein, cocoa, pumpkin, vanilla extract and stevia until a soft batter forms. If the mixture appears too solid, add 1/4 cup of water to assist wth the mixing.

Remove mixture from food processor and add to a bowl. Stir in almond flour and continue mixing until a dough forms. You may need to tweak the amount of water you add… pea protein absorbs quite a bit.

Stir in chocolate chips (optional), dried fruit (cranberries work well) or chopped nuts.

Press in wax-paper lined 8 x 8 baking pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove and cut into 8-10 bars. Wrap each individually with plastic wrap and store.

** If you don’t care about keeping the recipe vegan, you can obviously swap in whey protein into the recipe. Another benefit of not having to bake this recipe… whey protein is terrible for baking! **

Nutrition facts (per bar): 18 g protein, 23 g carbohydrate (8 g fibre) and 9 g fat.

Although you can use any vegan protein powder with this recipe, I would recommend using a high quality pea protein for best results. Pea protein is pretty easy to digest wise, is very affordable, tastes good and doesn’t come with some of the controversy surrounding refined soy products.

Lately, I’ve been using and highly recommend True Nutrition’s (formerly True Protein) gemma pea protein isolate.  You’ll need to order this one online (and the shipping to Canada is kinda slow), but at that price – it’s worth the wait!

And I can’t stress this enough but pea protein does absorb liquid to a much greater extent than would a whey protein for example, so you might need to play with your liquid ratios a little to get the recipe “just right”. But give it a try and you won’t be disappointed.

I don’t have a ton of strictly vegetarian or vegan recipes on my site, but one book that comes highly recommended by a vegetarian friend of mine is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day. The real beauty of this book is the Hugh is not himself a vegetarian, so he’s crafted a bunch of recipes that will appeal to meat eaters and vegetarians alike!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Incidentally, for anyone interested in scientific literature but not willing to delve into the original research just yet, Science Daily is an excellent way to start reading material with for more credibility than the junk you find on websites like Shine, Prevention or the homepage of MSN.com.

In this particular study, researchers took 115 women and assigned them to one of three groups:

1. a calorie-restricted, low-carbohydrate group (2 days a week)
2. an ad-lib low carbohydrate diet (subjects could eat as much protein/healthy fat as they pleased 2x/week)
3. a standard, calorie-restricted, Mediterranean diet (7 days a week)

I always enjoy studies that include a group that involves some sort of “ad-lib” group, because I find it better represents eating conditions for free-living humans than do diet conditions with all kinds of artificial calorie restraints.

At the conclusion of the four month trial, researchers found that the two carbohydrate restricted conditions led to greater weight loss and fat loss (both groups lost an average of ~9 lbs vs. 5 lbs in the Mediterranean condition), as well as yielding superior benefits in decreasing the prevalence of insulin resistance (22% reduction in the low carb calorie-restricted, 14% reduction for the ad lib group and 4% reduction in the Mediterranean group).

Now to be fair, this is just the summary report from a conference presentation so I can’t exactly go through the methodology to see what kind of diets the two low-carb groups were following the other 5 days of the week. I also don’t know what their definition of “low carbohydrate” was (20 g/day, 50 g/day, <100 g/day, etc).

Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the participants in those two intermittent low carbohydrate groups actually ate fairly low carb for more than just those two days a week. If this were the case, then it would be impossible to say whether the positive outcomes were solely from the 2 days a week of deliberate low carbohydrate dieting, or the fact they reduced their carbohydrate consumption closer to 7 days a week…

But in any case, the important thing to note here is once again, we see evidence of superior body composition results as well as health outcomes when you consciously reduce (*note I did not say eliminate) the amount of carbohydrate you consume in your diet.

The Food Period of Champions

Obviously there are exceptions to this (I’ve written extensively on the subject previously), but the general theme emerges: adopting a lower-carbohydrate lifestyle, at least several days a week, can pay huge dividends in your weight loss and health improvement efforts.

Incorporating a few deliberate low-carbohydrate days into your regular routine can also be a fantastic way to avoid gaining a whack load of weight through the Holiday season, which is fast approaching. In fact, we can take the whole periodic, deliberate low intake philosophy one step further for really explosive results… but that’s a blog article for next week!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!