Trendy diets come and go, but the Optavia diet plan has maintained a presence for several years. Though officially launched in 2017, Optavia is a new version of Medifast, a weight-loss plan created in 1980. Despite the advent of popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Optavia, which involves prepackaged foods, a few lean and green meals a day, and personal coaching, still has its followers. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the Optavia diet, covering its components, effectiveness, potential side effects, costs, and expert opinions.
What is the Optavia Diet?
Optavia is marketed as a weight-loss or maintenance plan that involves eating a mix of purchased, processed food created by the company-mainly shakes, bars, soups, and crunchy snacks called "fuelings"-and homemade "lean and green" meals. You don't have to count carbs, calories, or points. Instead, you just add water to powdered food products or unwrap a bar as part of your plan, which can include up to six portion-controlled meals daily.
This is a bonus for people who don't want to put any effort into planning their meals, but the options are limited. Though there are 60 fuelings to choose from, there is just a handful of what would be considered entrees, such as red bean chili and buttermilk cheddar mac. All fuelings contain added protein and a probiotic and are around 100-110 calories. The newest offering from the company is the Optavia Active plan, launched in September 2023. The new line of products, which they say were created to support muscle health, includes whey powder and an Essential Amino Acid (EAA) Blend.
Optavia also offers guidance from its own staff of diet coaches to help you learn their trademarked "Habits of Health"-these individuals are not required to obtain any medical accreditation to perform these services. The plan additionally recommends doing about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day. Eventually, once your weight loss goals are met, the brand offers a secondary plan for weight loss maintenance that users can subscribe to.
How Does Optavia Work?
Optavia heavily relies on intensely restricting calories to promote weight loss. Most "fuelings" hover around 100-110 calories each, meaning you could take in approximately 1,000 calories per day on this diet. The Optavia diet provides packaged foods that you can cook or eat prepared. They offer low calorie and reduced-carb meals, as well as help you lose weight with personalized coaching. The exact food you get will depend on your choice of plan.
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The diet company relies on meal replacements called "fuelings," which are branded products designed to keep you full until your next fueling. No matter which meal plan you choose, you'll be eating every 2 to 3 hours, resulting in six meals a day. However, one to three (depending on your plan) meals will be a dish you make at home using fresh ingredients. The program also recommends avoiding alcohol, sugary drinks and desserts, high-calorie condiments, starchy vegetables and whole grains.
Each fueling product contains around 100 to 150 calories. According to the USDA's dietary guidelines for adults, women should consume 1,600 to 2,200 calories per day, and men 2,200 to 3,000 calories. This calorie deficit causes rapid weight loss at the start of the diet. Health professionals recommend a 500-calorie deficit for healthy weight loss. Always consult with your doctor before making changes to your diet to ensure you're consuming enough calories.
Available Plans
Optavia offers three meal plans:
- Optimal Weight 5-and-1 Plan: Five fuelings and one lean and green meal a day.
- Optimal Weight 4-and-2-and-1 Plan: Four fuelings, two lean and green meals, and two essential amino acids a day.
- Optimal Health 3-and-3 Plan: Three fuelings, three balanced meals, one whey protein, and one essential amino acid a day.
Fuelings
Optavia's fuelings are the bulk of every meal plan -- they include bars, shakes, brownie and pancake mix, snack sticks, cereals, pasta, potatoes, soups and pudding. Each product is said to be high in vitamins and minerals, probiotics and protein, and doesn't contain any artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners. The meal plan you choose will determine how many fuelings you'll receive. While not all fueling products are available in every meal plan, you do have the option to customize your fuelings kit.
Lean-and-Green Meals
The meal plan you choose will determine how many lean-and-green meals you eat a day. Unlike fuelings, these meals are not included in your meal kit. That means extra grocery shopping and cooking is required, but each meal is completely up to you. Optavia does provide recipes.
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Each lean-and-green meal you prepare on your own must include:
- 5 to 7 ounces of lean protein (for example, chicken, salmon, or tofu)
- Three servings of nonstarchy vegetables (for example, cauliflower, collard greens, or broccoli)
- Up to two servings of healthy fat (for example, avocado, eggs, or nuts)
Here’s what a Lean and Green meal should include:
- 5-7 ounces (145-200 grams) of cooked lean protein
- 3 servings of non-starchy vegetables
- up to 2 servings of healthy fats
The program also includes a dining out guide that explains how to order a Lean and Green meal at your favorite restaurant.
Foods allowed in your daily Lean and Green meal:
- Meat: chicken, turkey, lean beef, game meats, lamb, pork chop or tenderloin, ground meat (at least 85% lean)
- Fish and shellfish: halibut, trout, salmon, tuna, lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops
- Eggs: whole eggs, egg whites, Egg Beaters
- Soy products: only tofu
- Vegetable oils: canola, flaxseed, walnut, olive
- Additional healthy fats: low carb salad dressings, olives, reduced fat margarine, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, avocado
- Low carb vegetables: collard greens, spinach, celery, cucumbers, mushrooms, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, peppers, spaghetti squash, jicama
- Sugar-free snacks: ice pops, gelatin, gum, mints
- Sugar-free beverages: water, unsweetened almond milk, tea, coffee
- Condiments and seasonings: dried herbs, spices, salt, lemon juice, lime juice, yellow mustard, soy sauce, salsa, sugar-free syrup, zero-calorie sweeteners, 1/2 teaspoon only of ketchup, cocktail sauce, or barbecue sauce
Foods to avoid - unless included in Fuelings:
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- Fried foods: meats, fish, shellfish, vegetables, sweets like certain pastries
- Refined grains: white bread, pasta, biscuits, pancakes, flour tortillas, crackers, white rice, cookies, cakes, pastries
- Certain fats: butter, coconut oil, solid shortening
- Full fat dairy: milk, cheese, yogurt
- Alcohol: all varieties
- Sugar-sweetened beverages: soda, fruit juice, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweet tea
Personal Coaching
A personal coach can help motivate you and ease the stress of beginning a weight loss journey. A majority of Optavia's coaches were clients themselves. After training provided by the company, you can become a paid coach for newcomers. While the training Optavia provides seems extensive, coaches don't go through professional training. This is where aspects of Optavia's parent company, Medifast, come in, through multilevel marketing to bring in new clients and coaches.
Transition and Maintenance
Once you reach your desired weight, you enter a 6-week transition phase, which involves slowly increasing your calories to no more than 1,550 calories per day. You’ll also be allowed to incorporate a wider variety of foods, including:
- Fruit: all fresh fruit, particularly berries because they’re lower in carbs
- Low fat or nonfat dairy: yogurt, milk, cheese
- Whole grains: whole grain bread, high fiber breakfast cereal, brown rice, whole wheat pasta
- Legumes: peas, lentils, beans, soybeans
- Starchy vegetables: sweet potatoes, white potatoes, corn, peas
After 6 weeks, Optavia recommends transitioning to the Optimal Health 3&3 Plan, which includes 3 Lean and Green meals and 3 Fuelings daily, plus ongoing Optavia coaching.
Is the Optavia Diet Healthy?
In the Optavia diet, protein makes up 10-35% of your daily calories. It's also clear that the program relies on creating a calorie deficit in your dietary routine for initial weight loss results, which requires long-term maintenance. However, the processed, powdered variety of protein that's featured in programs like Optavia can lead to some less-than-pleasant side effects.
Potential Side Effects
Inadequate Calories: One Optavia diet side effect is that the program may not provide your body with enough calories. Fuelings snacks are low-calorie, typically clocking in around 90 to 120 calories per serving at an average of just over 105 kcal. And meals in the Optavia “Lean & Green” cookbook usually contain anything from 260 to 400 kcal per serving, averaging at 347 kcal. Altogether, that can amount to eating as few as 710 to 950 calories per day, putting your body in starvation mode.
And while this drastic calorie cutting may lead to speedy weight loss, shedding pounds that quickly isn’t safe or sustainable. Losing one to two pounds per week is the safe, expert-recommended pace of weight loss to aim for, as it allows your body to receive the necessary fuel to function optimally.
Though it doesn’t specify if these symptoms are due to calorie restriction, Optavia side effects may include:
- Gallstones or gallbladder disease
- Temporary hair thinning
- Muscle loss
- Dizziness
- Lightheadedness
- Headache
- Fatigue
Seek immediate medical attention if you notice the following symptoms:
- Muscle cramps
- Tingling
- Numbness
- Confusion
- Rapid or irregular heartbeat
Calorie intake should not fall below 1,200 per day for people assigned female at birth or 1,500 per day for people assigned male at birth, except under the supervision of a doctor.
Inadequate Nutrients: Similarly, another potential Optavia side effect is that not eating enough calories can deprive you of essential nutrients. The diet also requires you to replace many - if not the vast majority - of your meals with replacement products (Fuelings). It’s almost always better to eat plant-based foods rather than these supplemental snacks or ultra-processed foods, as meal replacements often can’t provide the same nutritional benefits as natural foods.
And if you don’t get the necessary nutrients, you can experience health consequences. You might develop vitamin and mineral deficiencies, including vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K and minerals like potassium and magnesium, which may cause the following symptoms:
- Hair loss
- Burning sensation in your feet or tongue
- Slow-healing wounds
- Bone pain
- Vision problems
- Irregular heartbeat
Visit your doctor if you show any of these symptoms, as they can help diagnose and treat your nutrient deficiency.
Muscle Burn: Severely cutting calories can not only deprive you of nutrients - it can also lead to muscle loss. That’s because your body tends to break down muscle in response to eating an extremely low-calorie diet. Increasing the proportion of calories derived from protein, combined with regular physical exercise (such as resistance training), can help preserve muscle mass and strength while following a low-calorie diet.
Weight Regain: Approximately 80 to 85 percent of people who lose a significant amount of weight eventually regain most, if not all, of it. While Optavia can lead to short-term weight loss, it may not be the best program for keeping those pounds off in the long haul.
That’s why weight regain is one of the potential long-term side effects of the Optavia program. There are a few reasons for this: First, severely cutting calories signals your body to decrease your levels of hormones responsible for appetite control. Your body may be telling you to eat more due to the low intake of calories.
Dieting may also negatively impact your metabolism, causing your body to burn calories more slowly. This can make it harder to lose weight upon resuming a full-calorie diet.
The best way to lose weight safely and sustainably is to eat a diet full of nutritious whole foods, exercise regularly, set attainable goals, and work on maintaining a good mindset.
Digestive Problems: Some dieters have reported digestive symptoms like gas, constipation, and diarrhea on Medifast or Optavia. These issues may be caused by two key ingredients in Optavia shakes - xanthan gum and carrageenan gum. Both are safe food additives but have links to gas and bloating in people with irritable bowel syndrome. Some people with certain intolerances or allergies also experience digestive upset from whey or soy protein isolate. Both of these are ingredients in Optavia’s Fuelings.
Gallstones: The Optavia diet can cause hard clumps of digestive fluid in the gallbladder, known as gallstones, in individuals who are already at risk, such as people assigned female at birth or those with obesity or those who are overweight. Crash diets lead to a higher risk of getting gallstones. They can disturb the normal balance of cholesterol and bile in your liver.
Risk for Eating Disorders: Dieting can also put you at risk for developing an eating disorder, according to a review. It can also be triggering for those who’ve experienced an eating disorder in the past. The limitations of certain foods/food groups, as well as significant calorie restriction, on any extremely low-calorie diet, including an Optavia program, can cause people to continue potentially harmful behaviors well past their chosen diet plan.
Concerns about Processed Foods: Many of the expert panelists expressed concerns about the processed prepackaged nature of the OPTAVIA meal plans, but they appreciated the addition of the Lean & Green meal. Another major concern of many of the experts is that the diet doesn’t help teach people about lifelong nutritional habits and instead creates a dependence on the OPTAVIA products.
What is the Cost of Optavia?
The essential 5&1 plan, which is Optavia's flagship offering, cost more than $375 per month, and that's not including what you'll spend on your "lean and green" meals (or what you cook at home).
Here's what you can expect to pay for each program in 2024 (there is a discount for the first month's kit, these prices reflect the regular price):
- Optimal Weight 5 & 1 Plan: $511.50 for 154 servings
- Optimal Weight 5 & 1 ACTIVE Plan: $571.45 for 184 servings, including whey protein and the essential amino acids powder).
- Optimal Weight 4 & 2 ACTIVE Plan: $515.15 for 179 servings
In contrast, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates published in September 2022 suggest that a woman between the ages of 19-70 may spend upwards of $243 per month on groceries while still following a nutritious diet. It's true that you'll need to prepare most of your food, unlike Optavia - though, there are many other programs for you to consider that don't involve portion control.
Research and Studies
A 16‐week study, participants were randomized to the low‐calorie OPTAVIA® 5&1 Plan® with telephone coaching (OPT), the reduced‐calorie Medifast® 4&2&1 self‐guided plan (MED), or a self‐directed, reduced‐calorie control diet. Of 198 participants randomized (80.8% female, BMI 34.2 kg/m2, 45.7 years), 92.3% completed the study. The OPT and MED groups had significantly greater reductions in body weight (−5.7% and − 5.0%, respectively, p < 0.0001), fat and abdominal fat mass (p < 0.0001) and waist and hip circumferences (p ≤ 0.003) than control at 16 weeks. Both structured commercial programs were more efficacious than a self‐directed, reduced‐calorie diet for weight loss and other anthropometric measures.
The randomized, controlled study described herein was designed to test the efficacy of two commercial weight loss programs (Medifast and OPTAVIA), each compared to a self‐directed, reduced‐calorie control diet. This was a randomized, controlled, 16‐week, 3‐arm parallel study conducted at a single clinical research center in the greater Chicago area between July 2016 and Feb 2017. After a screening visit, eligible participants were randomly assigned at baseline, in a 1:1:1 ratio stratified by sex, to one of three intervention groups: Medifast (MED), OPTAVIA (OPT), or Control.
Both the MED and OPT groups lost significantly more absolute weight and a higher percentage of baseline body weight compared to Control at every time point (p < 0.0001). Similar results were obtained regardless of whether missing data were imputed (by MI or LOCF) or not imputed.
Expert Opinions
- Jaclyn London, M.S., R.D., CDN: "In my experience, the calorie restriction on Optavia is far too extreme for most people - especially those who are choosing it as the first step in establishing a healthier eating pattern and lifestyle on the whole. While accountability and community are key components to any behavior change program, behavior modification with restrictive eating patterns sets some of us up for disordered eating habits and restrict-binge-restrict tendencies."
- Marissa Meshulam, RD: "A diet like this can feel extremely restrictive, which can create the desire to binge once off of it… These fuelings are extremely low calorie, which is not adequate… It's not rocket science that the most nourishing diet for all of us includes more produce, healthy proteins and fats and slow, nutrient-dense carbohydrate sources. By replacing the majority of our food with low-calorie processed foods, you may lose weight in the short term due to calorie deficit, but it is definitely not helping out your health in the long run… Since Optavia is so low calorie, it can lead us to a lot of muscle loss, versus fat loss, which can slow your metabolism down after the diet… A lot of people will look at a diet like this and see that it elicits quick weight loss and see that as a pro, whereas I like to look at long-term success on these things. Even if you lose 20 pounds in a few months, if you gain it back within the next year or two, the diet failed you and never really worked."
- Stefani Sassos, MS, RDN, CDN: "Eating real, nutrient-dense, delicious and health-promoting food that nourishes you is the only way to lose weight and keep it off long-term."
- Dr. Melina B. Jampolis: "As a weight loss doctor, I completely understand why people turn to diets like this, as we have to make several hundred food and beverage decisions each day… So, trying to 'diet' can quickly lead to decision fatigue and leave people making the wrong choices… Most people state that lack of time preparing the right foods is a factor in their diet failure, and eating out is very challenging as portion sizes are generally much larger than needed, and you honestly have no idea what goes into recipes when eating out… Diet programs attempt to simplify this process by providing easy-to-make meals with built-in portion control, so you don't need to guess how much fat, protein or fiber you need each day… However, Jampolis said she is concerned with diet programs that are made up of highly processed foods… They may not be as naturally satiating as whole foods closer to their natural form, and they certainly are not as healthy… In addition, most diet programs "don't teach people how to navigate their diets on their own, so once they stop ordering the food, they could simply go back to their old ways… On the other hand, Jampolis said studies show that "meal replacements do help with both weight loss and weight maintenance, so if people want to use this to kick-start their weight loss, they just need to make sure to apply the principles for continued weight loss-weight maintenance. So, perhaps, they could find a healthier meal (with whole grains and vegetables) to replace lunch or dinner on occasion, or have a smoothie or protein bar for breakfast or a snack to build in portion control."
Pros and Cons of the Optavia Diet
Pros
- Potential for Short-Term Weight Loss: The Optavia diet, particularly the 5&1 plan, can lead to rapid weight loss due to its very low calorie intake.
- Easy to Follow: The reliance on prepackaged fuelings simplifies meal planning and preparation.
- May Improve Blood Pressure: The diet's emphasis on reduced sodium intake may help improve blood pressure levels.
- Offers Ongoing Support: Optavia Coaches provide support and guidance throughout the weight loss and maintenance programs.
Cons
- Very Low in Calories: The 5&1 plan's calorie restriction can lead to muscle loss, a slower metabolism, and nutrient deficiencies.
- May Be Difficult to Stick With: The restrictive nature of the diet and reliance on packaged foods can lead to cravings and make long-term adherence challenging.
- Can Be Costly: The cost of Optavia fuelings and additional groceries for lean and green meals can be expensive.
- May Be Incompatible with Other Eating Patterns: Limited options for vegans, people with dairy allergies, and those with other dietary restrictions.
- Coaches Lack Credentials: Optavia Coaches are not required to have any kind of certification or nutrition training, so it’s unlikely that most of them are experts.
- Reliance on Processed Foods: Concerns about the processed and prepackaged nature of the Optavia meal plans, with a lack of emphasis on lifelong nutritional habits.