Herbalife is a global multilevel marketing company that sells dietary supplements, personal care products, and weight management programs. Founded in 1980, Herbalife operates in over 90 countries and is known for its direct-selling model through independent distributors. The company's nutrition philosophy emphasizes balanced and personalized nutrition, combining healthy foods and supplements. The Herbalife weight management program typically involves meal replacement shakes, weight loss supplements, physical activity, and behavior modification.
What is the Herbalife Diet?
The Herbalife diet program combines meal replacement shakes consumed twice a day with weight loss supplements, physical activity, and behavior modification. While physicians, scientists, and registered dietitians created the weight loss program and training materials, Herbalife distributors are not healthcare professionals and lack formal nutrition education.
Dr. Kent Bradley, Herbalife’s former chief health and nutrition officer, has stated that the program takes a holistic approach, involving diet and meal plans with a higher protein content, combined with exercise, stress management, and hydration.
The "Distributor Difference"
The success of the Herbalife program is often attributed to the “distributor difference.” Herbalife coaches create community and support for members, which involves challenges and celebrations for achieving personal goals. Many people have turned to Herbalife after not finding success with other programs.
Herbalife Product Lines
Herbalife offers a wide variety of products that offer different benefits. These products are categorized into several lines:
Read also: Is the Herbalife Diet Right for You?
- Herbalife Core Nutrition: This line offers nutritional supplements designed to support overall health and well-being.
- Herbalife Healthy Weight: This line offers nutritional supplements and meal replacements designed to support weight management goals.
- Specialized Nutrition: These products are designed to meet specific dietary needs due to various medical conditions or lifestyles.
- Herbalife Energy and Fitness: This line offers nutritional supplements designed to support energy production, stamina, and athletic performance while keeping you hydrated.
- Herbalife Skincare and Hair: This line offers cosmetic and personal care products designed to support healthy skin and hair, crafted with botanical ingredients, antioxidants, and vitamins.
Core Products for Weight Loss
If you’re looking to shift a few pounds, Herbalife products are a great way to help you achieve your weight loss goals in a convenient and easy-to-follow way.
Here are the 5 core Herbalife products which are perfect to start with on your weight loss journey:
- Herbalife Formula 1 Shake: The Herbalife Formula 1 Shake has been the company’s flagship weight loss product for over 40 years now. Formula 1 is a complete meal replacement and is designed to give your body all the micro and macronutrients it needs in a simple, tasty form. With just over 200 calories per serving and high protein content, it will help you create the caloric deficit you need to aid fat loss.
- Herbalife Protein Drink Mix: Consuming an optimal amount of protein daily* is a key element in a successful weight loss plan. Protein Drink Mix (PDM for short) is the product that will help you boost your protein intake with ease.
- Herbalife Thermojetics Instant Herbal Tea: The Herbalife Tea is another product we highly recommend adding to your Herbalife plan. It will not only give you a great energy boost, but it also promotes fat-burning by enhancing your metabolism.
- Aloe Concentrate Mango: Herbalife Aloe Mango goes hand in hand with the Herbalife Tea - we love combining these two together! The health benefits of the Aloe plant are vast (including better digestion) and with this product, you can give them to your body in a super simple way.
- Oat Apple Fibre: Most people struggle with getting enough fibre each and every day. That’s where the Herbalife Oat Apple Fibre comes in play, giving your body 5g of soluble and insoluble fibre per serving. Having the optimal amount of fibre in your diet promotes healthy digestion and gut health. Oat Apple Fibre will also make you feel fuller for longer, making it a perfect addition to your weight loss plan.
Is It Easy to Follow?
The Herbalife plan is easy to follow, making it appealing to many. Two meals are taken care of without any planning, and the meal replacement shakes are easy to prepare by adding water, dairy milk, or soy milk. Meal replacements are a great way of reducing calories, offering convenience and taking the guesswork out of calorie reduction. However, they can also be hard to sustain long-term.
Personalized Meal Plans
Members consult with an Herbalife distributor to determine their ideal meal plan based on gender, height, weight, protein needs, and nutrition goals. Each meal plan has three options:
- Weight maintenance
- Weight loss
- Weight gain
Weight loss plans offer four different calorie levels: 1,200, 1,400, 1,500, and 1,950 calories per day. Each plan consists of consuming two Herbalife meal replacement shakes for breakfast and lunch, along with two snacks and a self-prepared dinner (400- to 600-calorie meal), with suggestions and recipes provided.
Read also: A Detailed Look at Herbalife
Can the Herbalife Diet Help Me Lose Weight?
With two meal replacement shakes per day, calorie intake will be significantly reduced, so most people will experience short-term weight loss. Herbalife suggests an expected weight loss of half a pound to 1 pound per week.
One of the largest weight loss trials ever conducted, Look AHEAD, published in 2015, found that the use of meal replacement shakes over the last two decades has been an effective way of helping people lose weight.
Herbalife has also conducted several studies demonstrating the success of its program, including a 2020 meta-analysis of nine randomized controlled trials that found participants who consumed Herbalife high-protein products experienced significantly larger decreases in body weight, body mass index, and fat mass compared to individuals consuming control diets.
A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis of studies found that programs incorporating meal replacements with enhanced levels of support led to greater weight loss at one year compared to those following alternative diets and regular support. The Oxford researchers conclude that meal replacements should be considered a valid option for management of overweight and obesity in community and health care settings.
Potential Health Benefits
The Herbalife diet may potentially help reduce blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose levels and may be beneficial for those with diabetes.
Read also: Benefits of Herbalife
Potential Health Risks
Some supplements recommended are linked to liver damage. Herbalife shakes contain ultraprocessed ingredients that may lead to increased risk of diseases like heart disease and cancer. The meal plans at the lower calorie levels may make it more challenging to meet nutrient needs.
Herbalife shakes are ultraprocessed, containing added sugars, artificial ingredients and flavors, powdered protein and other highly processed ingredients.
Liver Damage Concerns
There have been some reports of liver damage associated with using Herbalife products. For example, in 2007, the Israeli Ministry of Health issued a warning about Herbalife products after multiple cases of liver damage were reported in individuals who had used the products. In 2011, a case study was published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology in which a woman developed a liver injury after using Herbalife products for four months. Some Herbalife products are also suspected of containing heavy metals. It is important to note that while these cases are concerning, they are also few and far between.
Dietary Considerations
- Vegan: It’s still possible to follow the diet if you’re vegan. Meal replacement shakes are offered in soy, pea, quinoa, and rice protein.
- Vegetarian: You can adjust the diet to work for you if you’re vegetarian. The program provides a vegetarian meal planner with Greek yogurt, eggs, cheese, legumes, tofu, tempeh, or seitan substituted for meat as the protein source. A certified vegetarian seal identifies the vegetarian products.
- Gluten-Free: It’s possible to be gluten-free on this diet. The Formula 1 Select shakes are certified gluten-free.
- Halal: Some Herbalife products are halal certified.
- Kosher: It’s possible to be kosher and follow the diet. The Formula 1 Select meal replacement shakes are certified kosher.
How to Use Herbalife for Weight Loss
Now let’s quickly talk about how to actually use the above products within your diet to get the weight loss results you’re after.
First of all, a lot of people think that Herbalife is a “shake diet” and that all you do is drinking shakes all day long. This is very far from the truth…
This is the general structure of your Herbalife weight loss day:
HERBALIFE WEIGHT LOSS PLAN STRUCTURE
- Breakfast: Shake (F1+PDM) & Herbalife Tea with Aloe Mango
- Mid-morning: High protein snack
- Lunch: Shake (F1+PDM)
- Mid-afternoon: High protein snack + Herbalife Tea & Aloe Mango
- Dinner: Well-balanced meal + Oat Apple Fibre
Make sure to drink plenty of water throughout your day to keep hydrated. We also highly recommend committing to regular exercise at least 3-5 times per week.
As you can see, you will be eating 5 times a day so you will have plenty of food to keep you going! Plus 3 out of the 5 meals are regular foods so you definitely won’t be just drinking shakes.
The real key to success is CONSISTENCY. Follow the plan to a T every day and you will see amazing results.
Controversies and Criticisms
Herbalife has faced several controversies throughout its history.
Legal Issues
Herbalife has been in the news for its share of legal troubles. In 2020, Herbalife was hit with a $123 million lawsuit by the Department of Justice to resolve criminal charges of foreign corrupt practices in China, including bribing Chinese government officials and falsifying its books and records to promote its business operations for nearly a decade from 2007 to 2016. In addition, it has faced numerous class-action lawsuits from disgruntled distributors. The embattled company was the subject of a 2016 documentary, Betting On Zero, which challenged Herbalife’s controversial business practices and investigated allegations of it being a pyramid scheme.
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Concerns
Herbalife is a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, which has drawn criticism. In 2016, the USA Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled with Herbalife, requiring the company to prove that 80% of its sales were made to customers outside its distributor network, addressing allegations of operating as a pyramid scheme without giving distributors satisfactory results. Because of Herbalife’s poor reputation with the FTC and research that shows MLM companies are financial liabilities for 75% of the people who participate in them, Herbalife failed Healthline’s rigorous vetting process.
Product Safety and Quality
Herbalife products are not FDA-approved because the FDA doesn’t approve non-drug cosmetics, food, or dietary supplements for safety or effectiveness. While Herbalife products are generally perceived to be safe for adults, consulting a healthcare provider is recommended to ensure the products are right for you.
Ingredients and Potential Risks
Herbalife shakes are fast and easy to prepare. You don’t need any meal prep or even a trip to the supermarket. Herbalife meal replacement shakes are soy-based. A protein from soybeans that supports low cholesterol. The suggested meal plan for weight loss using Herbalife meal replacement shakes is to replace two meals daily with the shakes and eat one low-calorie meal. Herbalife replacement shakes and supplements contain ingredients that aid faster digestion and metabolism.
Even though Herbalife products have all these great benefits and reviews, there are a few things that could be improved with the products. These shakes contain more than the recommended amount of sugar and pose a concern for diabetics and others that are conscious of sugar intake. In addition, artificial flavours, colours, and preservatives can cause reactions in some people. Overall, Herbalife products may be considered pricey compared to similar products. The cost of Herbalife products can vary depending on the product and the location where it is purchased.
Precautions
If you are underweight or have any pre-existing eating disorders, like anorexia, starting a Herbalife diet program is inappropriate.
Herbalife explicitly states that its products have not been tested for safety of use during pregnancy or when breastfeeding. Herbalife products are formulated to meet the needs of adults.
Some dieters have reported mild to serious health complications after using Herbalife products.
Cost of Herbalife Products
The pricing of Herbalife products varies depending on the specific product, the region where it is purchased, and the individual distributor. The products are sold through independent distributors who increase the price. You can also buy products directly from the company if you are a Herbalife Preferred Customer.
Here are the costs of some of the company’s top-selling products (3):
- Formula 1 Select meal replacement shake: $43.30 for 30 servings
- Formula 2 capsules: $26.40 for a 30-day supply
- Formula 3 capsules: $28.95 for a 30-day supply
- Protein Drink mix: $53.10 for 30 servings
- Herbalife24 Enhanced Protein Powder: $81.60 for 20 servings
- Herbal Aloe Concentrate: $121.95 for 1/2 gallon (1.89 liters)
- Active Fiber Complex: $30.30 for 30 servings
- Protein Bar Deluxe: $27.70 for 14 bars