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!

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!

Actually check that. His 6-month weight gain period has ended and he’s packed on more than 70 lbs!

You can check out his progress (or regress I suppose) here: fit2fat2fit.com.

Now when I first heard about this, I couldn’t really believe that anyone would voluntary subject themselves to a diet replete with simple sugars and processed foods with the express purpose of packing on an excess 70 lbs of pure lard (193 –> 265 lbs)!

Of course, after flipping through his website for a bit, it becomes clear that he’s using this transformation to strengthen his coaching business, but more power to him if he pulls it off.

I can quite confidently say that I don’t have the balls to deliberately gain that much weight, even though I’m certain I can design programs to take the weight back off again.

It will be an interesting experiment for sure, even though there’s one major limitation of his transformation: he’s immediately launching his weight loss phase now that his 6-month weight gain is done.

Without spending several months being weight stable (allowing his metabolism and hormones to ‘re-set’ his norm at 260+ lbs), he’ll face a much easier time taking the weight off than would someone who’s been the same weight for years. That being said, losing 70 lbs is tough no matter what.

If you flip through Drew’s blog , it’s apparent he’s struggling with a number of aspects of steadily growing fatter. Not only has his health deteriorated significantly, but his home-life and his self-image have both suffered.

Although many fitness professionals were formerly overweight, terminally skinny or may have overcome an eating disorder, it’s rare that once we’ve turned our lives around that we’d be willing to give it all up and chronicle our descent publicly.

I for one will be following his journey as he works towards rebuilding his body. Not so much to see whether he can do it (I firmly believe he’ll drop the weight with little difficulty given his former love of healthy eating and working out), but rather because I’m interested in seeing how effectively he is able to inspire others to lose along with him.

Good luck to you Drew, may your project have greater positive repurcussions than you could have imagined!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

The most exciting aspect of LIVE360° for me is how everything we are doing is with one goal in mind: providing a better experience for every member. And much of this improved client experience has to do with some of the systems we’ve implemented from a results and coaching perspective.

I suppose you could say our unofficial motto is: “your success is our business“.

In fact, one of my inaugural projects at LIVE360° has been to help the station manager of a local radio station, Brad Gibb from FM96, get himself into shape.

Brad works a very stressful job and as such, his health (and body) have gone into the tank over the past 3 years. But with the support (aka daily harassment) of the hosts of FM96′s morning show, Brad has decided to take action and spend 10-weeks overhauling his life.

As part of Brad’s 10-week transformation, he’s been training down at LIVE360° three times a week and I’ve been helping him out with making some diet changes. Documenting his progress from week to week is a film crew, and you can watch Brad and I from the video from last week:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although we are only 4 weeks into his transformation, Brad is totally rocking it! He’s down almost 15 lbs and has dropped nearly 3″ off his mid-section!

But more importantly that the weight-loss, Brad is finding himself starting to love exercise and healthy eating once again, factors which encourage me about his long-term prospects more than anything else.

As someone who has spent the better part of the past 5 years coaching clients through a variety of weight loss efforts, I know the struggles many clients face trying to get themselves back into shape. Making a lifestyle change isn’t easy and people often feel as though they are “going it” alone.

Making matters worse, there are so many weight-loss programs and gadgets on the market touting all kinds of ridiculous claims, that it’s no wonder most people are frustrated and confused about how to take back control over their lives.

Although many weight-loss programs exist, the one thing common to all successful programs is that they provide people with both the tools and the support necessary to succeed.. and that is why I’m so excited about LIVE360°. 

I’m finally working at a place where the training (programming + support staff) is on par with the nutrition coaching that I deliver. Although I’ve been doing group weight-loss coaching for the past few years, I’ve never been able to pair my nutrition coaching with an in-person workout experience… until now!

In fact, we are launch a brand-spanking new 8-week transformation challenge this week (Info session: Thursday, October 13th @ 7:30 PM, challenge begins Monday, October 17th) called:

 360º of Transformation

It’s really a one-of-its-kind type of program in that you get:

• 2 personal training sessions a week
• unlimited conditioning classes
• small group nutrition seminars
• daily coaching feedback and progress monitoring
• pre- and post- body composition assessments
• the chance to win 3-months of free personal training

And here’s the kicker, the program comes with a guarantee that you’ll succeed!

Now we realize that many people throw out the term “guarantee” pretty loosely but we mean it. In fact, we mean it so much that if you do our program and still do see the kind of meaningful results you’d expect, we’ll refund you your entire purchase price!

Think about it, it truly is a no-lose situation: either you crush your goals or you get 8 weeks of training and nutrition coaching on our dime!

Seriously though: you’ll crush your goals. We don’t do failure

Oh, I haven’t even mentioned the best part of this program (well, obviously the best part of the program is that you get coached by yours truly): you get all the training and coaching for only $299/month.

So if you are someone who has been looking to kick-start your weight loss efforts and are looking for an entire team dedicated to helping you along the way, your journey begins this Thursday, October 13th.

Click Now to Join: 360º of Transformation

It’s a decision that’ll impact the rest of your life!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!