Optavia
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What is the Optavia Diet?

Losing weight and eating right isn’t easy. If it was, 30% of the world’s population wouldn’t be overweight. But we lead busy lives, and some evenings, you don’t even want to think about planning dinner.

That’s where the Optavia Diet can help you get back on track.

What is Optavia?

If you’ve never heard of the Optavia Diet, you’re not alone. That’s because it’s the new name of an older and more familiar diet: Take Shape for Life. The company rebranded its program in 2017 to Optavia Diet.

Take Shape for Life started out as a subsidiary of Medifast, which is a weight loss program that was founded in 1980 by Dr. William Vitale.

In 2002, Take Shape for Life was introduced with the intention of offering Medifast’s program on a digital format. Take Shape for Life food plans aimed to help people lose weight, while a health coach educated you and helped you stay on track.

Is Optavia the Same as Medifast?

If Take Shape for Life, the former name of the Optavia Diet, is a subsidiary of Medifast, does that mean that the two diets are one in the same?

No.

As you’ll find out, Optavia, is very similar to Medifast, but they are two separate programs with two different approaches.

The primary difference between Optavia and Medifast is that Optavia aims to teach you how to eat balanced, healthy meals while also providing meal plans.

Eventually, you won’t need Optavia and will have the knowledge to create your own meal plans.

How it Works

Optavia offers meal plans and what they call Fuelings to help you achieve healthy weight loss. The company works with a “cross-disciplinary Scientific Advisory Board,” which consists of doctors and scientists who assist with the company’s offerings.

Their plans and products are created by dietitians, doctors and scientists. To date, Optavia Diet has had more than 1 million clients, and their plan is recommended by thousands of health care providers.

What is a Fueling?

Optavia Fuelings

Optavia’s meal plans rely heavily on Fuelings, which are branded products that you’ll eat throughout the day.

The aim is to show you what real nutrition looks like so that eating healthy becomes second nature. Eventually, you’ll be able to create your own meal plans without having to eat Optavia’s foods.

With Optavia’s Fuelings, you can choose between 60 delicious foods that are:

  • Nutritionally interchangeable
  • Convenient
  • Delicious
  • Scientifically-designed

Fuelings include a wide range of foods, from soups to shakes, hot beverages, bars, biscuits, pretzels, brownies and more.

Each Fueling product includes a high-quality protein to build and preserve lean muscle mass as well as:

  • Probiotic (GanedenBC30) for digestive health
  • 24 vitamins and minerals

These foods are free of artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners.

Optavia is a meal replacement diet, so you’ll be consuming a variety of branded meals and products throughout the day. There are several meal plans to choose from, so you can find one that meets your lifestyle and needs.

5&1 – Optimal Weight

With the 5&1 program, one of the most popular programs offered by Optavia, you eat six meals per day. That’s one small meal every 2-3 hours. This plan aims for rapid weight loss. The goal is to put your body into a gentle-but-efficient fat-burning state.

You’ll eat five Fuelings and one Optavia Lean and Green homemade meal each day.

The Lean and Green meal includes:

  • 5-7 ounces of protein
  • 3 servings of vegetables
  • Up to 2 servings of healthy fats

This meal can be eaten any time of day. Optavia offers a wide range of recipes to guide you and make cooking a breeze.

With this plan, you can also add a daily snack.

4&2&1 – Optimal Weight

The 4&2&1 plan is designed for people who want to continue eating all of the food groups, or those who want a more flexible meal plan to achieve their goal weight.

With this plan, four of your meals will consist of Fuelings. Two of the meals will consist of homemade Lean and Green meals, and you’ll also get to eat a healthy snack.

3&3 – Optimal Health

For those who want more control over their meals and enjoy cooking at home, the 3&3 plan is a good choice.

A nutritionally-balanced plan that’s easy to follow, 3&3 consists of three Fuelings and three Lean and Green meals each day.

Optavia Meal Plan Kits

With each plan, you can choose from and customize kits which include your snacks and Fuelings. Each kit has enough servings for 30 days.

Some plans have multiple kits to choose from, while others – like the 3&3 plan – has just one.

The standard 3&3 kit includes the following:

9 Boxes of Optimal Health Products

  • Strawberry yogurt bar
  • 2 x dark chocolate dream bars
  • Cookies & cream shake
  • Chocolate peanut butter shake
  • 2 x strawberry banana smoothies
  • 2 x pina colada smoothies

1 Serving of Each Variety of Flavors of Home

  • Beef stew
  • Chicken cacciatore
  • Turkey meatball marinara
  • Chicken with rice and vegetables

Six Boxes of Optiva Snacks (7 servings with each box)

  • Puffed ranch snacks
  • 2 x sharp cheddar and sour cream popcorn
  • 2 x puffed sweet and salty snacks
  • Olive oil and sea salt popcorn

1 Box of Antioxidant Flavor Infuser (21 servings in the box)

  • Raspberry Acai

Keep in mind that you can customize these options, so you can choose the foods you want. If you don’t like cookies & cream, for example, you can choose a different shake flavor.

One of the biggest Optavia complaints is that you have to eat so many branded products, but the 3&1 plan – and the flexibility of the other plans – means that you can choose how many of these products you eat each day.

And once you’ve learned how to eat balanced, healthy meals, you can start creating your own meal plans and preparing your own foods.

How Much Does Optavia Cost?

When you read through Optavia reviews, you’ll find that a lot of people find success. They lose weight, and many reach their goal weights before they stop using the program.

But because this program requires you to eat branded products and foods, many people are concerned about the cost.

Other similar diet programs are expensive. But in reality, Optavia is really affordable. Just take a look at the costs of their kits. Now, keep in mind that this is for a month’s worth of food.

  • 5&1 Essential Optimal Kit: $414.6
  • 5&1 Essential On-The-Go Kit: $414.60
  • 5&1 Select Favorites: $448.60
  • 4&2&1 Essential Optimal Kit: $408.09
  • 3&3 Optimal Health Kit: $333.00

With the most expensive plan, you’re spending about $15 per day on your food.

Remember – you can customize any of these kits to include the foods that you want to eat.

Optavia is a convenient, simple way to lose weight while learning how to eat a healthy, balanced diet. It’s not an overnight weight loss solution, but it’s a sustainable one that can give you long-term results if you follow it properly.