I think everyone knows at least one person who is a Beachbody "coach". (Yes, "coach" not coach. It takes no training or expertise to be a "coach". You literally just a sign a paper. No shade, just truth. More on that later.) Over the years, I've known a few people who posted photos of their shakes and post-workout selfies on Facebook from time to time. A couple months ago a friend of mine started posting every day about how she was working out; she was taking the time stuck in quarantine to start tackling some fitness goal. I finally decided to send her a message and ask what program she was using.
I have heard the Beachbody pitch before. As a woman of a certain age (and above a certain size,) people have definitely seen me as a potential client and tried to sell me on it. And, honestly, I'm kind of a pushover. A few years ago a friend of mine was selling jewelry from one of those jewelry party MLMs, and I am now the proud owner of several necklaces. My sister used to sell Tupperware, and guess who now has a cabinet full of Tupperware? A few years later, my sister started selling handbags and organizational home items. I signed up as a consultant.
Here's the thing: while I'm not a huge fan of MLMs, I like to support my friends. And I really like the items that I've bought. I still wear my home party necklaces, I use my Tupperware every day, and my handbags and home organizational items are practical and adorable. So, I'll always give people a shot when they have something to sell. As long as it's not stupid expensive (I'm looking at you, decorative wicker baskets), I'll at least listen to the pitch. For a while, that's what I did for Beachbody as well; I listened but was never interested enough to sign up.
My friend seemed to really enjoy what she was doing in her posts, and she walked me through the different options for signing up without trying to guilt or shame me into acquiescence. I really like that she didn't push all of the supplement or the extras; she basically found the cheapest possible way for me to sign up (and for her to get whatever credit coaches get for getting people to sign up.) My previous experience with Beachbody was buying the P90X DVD's off of Amazon several years ago. They were fairly pricey, but I did use them quite a bit- at least for a little while.
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| How the app looks on my phone |
Beachbody on Demand lets you stream pretty much every Beachbody release for one yearly fee of $99. The fee is actually less than P90X by itself used to sell for (it was over $100, which I why I bought it on sale on Amazon.) The streaming service is a pretty good deal, as long as you use it. (That's the hard part.) I got a "Challenge Pack" that included Beachbody on Demand, a month of Shakeology, and a set of resistance bands for the workouts. It also had early access to one of their new programs online, although that wasn't really the selling feature for me. All in all, it was $160 plus shipping and handling. I signed up to be a "coach" because it was free to sign up, and I figured I could keep it if I liked the supplements and wanted a discount on them. (This is the later from "more on that later."
I'm literally a coach.) I've had the streaming service for a few weeks now, although I just got the Shakeology and resistance bands a few days ago.
Here's what I thought of my first few weeks:
BeachBody on Demand:
21 Day Fix- The first, and so far only, program I tried was 21 Day Fix Real Time. I really enjoyed this program. That's not to say I could actually do all of it. I definitely followed the modifier for most of the moves. What I really liked about this program with that it was done
in real time. Everyone in the video was actually completing the work out as one class. They didn't cut away or splice together several different takes, making sure that everyone look perfect in all of the footage. People were laughing at stuff, losing their balance and falling over; at one point somebody just walked across the room, totally not caring that there was a class going on. (I think it was the CEO.)
The real time videos are a completely different vibe than traditional workout DVD's. They give you a sense of camaraderie, even though these are paid fitness professionals. The instructor for this program is Autumn Calabrese. She has a rah-rah, "you can do it!" kind of spirit throughout the workouts. She's constantly giving motivation and advice. And it actually comes off as very sincere, which is tough to do in a workout video. At least from I've seen in the many workout DVD's I've tried over the years.
It's also nice to have a difference video for each day of the 21 days. A lot of times, you get programs in a DVD set where you just keep repeating DVDs every few days, switching between several workouts. Even when cycling workouts, the jokes get old and the routines get boring.
There is also a nutrition aspect to the program. My friend gave me a set of the little portion containers, but I honestly couldn't add it in. I should say that I am also on Weight Watchers (which is a whole different review) so I'm already tracking my eating pretty well. The containers are very handy for portioning out food, and I think I would have used them a lot more if I was taking lunches to work.
What were my results? After 21 days, I lost 4 pounds. That may not seem like a lot for 21 days of workouts (Technically, I took 22 days. I skipped one day altogether due to a migraine, and postponed one day after I wasted too much time on TikTok.)
More impressive than the weight loss, was that I lost a few inches off my waist and hips. Usually a four pound loss doesn't register with actual body measurement changes, but this workout also focused on building muscle and increasing flexibility. I took my measurements on day 6 of workouts because I didn't think to do it at the start of the program.
By day 21, I had lost an inch around my waist and and inch and half around my hips. I think that's pretty impressive!
Supplements:
Shakeology- Beachbody is famous for Shakeology, an expensive meal replacement/dietary supplement shake.
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| I'm an artist! |
I got the Vegan multi-flavor pack to start. It tastes like a standard protein powder shake. As a long-term vegetarian, I am very familiar with protein powders. Most of them taste a little bit chalky and need to be blended with water or milk, ice, and frozen fruit to taste their best. I blended the chocolate flavor with water ice and frozen blueberries and it tasted like a basic protein shake; kind of chocolaty and helped immensely by adding frozen fruit to make it creamier. It was pretty much on par with any other protein shake that I have tried. The strawberry mixed in with fruit was much better- it had much less of an artificial taste and it was less gritty. The point where this differs from other protein supplements is in the additional wellness ingredients. Beachbody is very proud of their formulation, and this is their flagship nutritional supplement. Clocking in at over $4 per serving, it's also a very pricey supplement so they do their best to market it as a groundbreaking advancement in nutrition.
Reviews I've seen from dietitians basically say that this isn't a bad products and has some great ingredients that actually do make it a better choice than some standard protein powders. But the claim that this can replace a grocery cart of whole fruits and vegetables is overblown. If you're someone who habitually picks up a smoothie or a blended coffee every morning, you may already have the $4 to $5 a serving budgeted for this, and it would probably be a more nutritionally sound swap.
The regular, whey-based ingredients are
here.
Vegan
Ingredients:
Proprietary Superfood Blend: Vegan Protein Blend (Pea protein, Flax (seed), Rice protein, Quinoa
(seed)), Cocoa powder (processed with alkali), Pea fiber (seed), Rose
hips (fruit), Chlorella, Pomegranate juice powder (fruit), Yacon (root),
Acerola juice powder (fruit), Astragalus (root), Bilberry juice powder
(fruit), Blueberry (fruit), Chicory fiber (root), Camu-Camu (fruit), Bacillus
coagulans, Organic cordyceps (fungi), Lycium juice powder (fruit),
Ashwagandha (root), Organic chaga (fungi), Organic maitake (fungi),
Organic reishi (fungi), Spinach (leaf), Enzyme Blend (Amylase,
Cellulase, Lactase, Glucoamylase, Alpha-Galactosidase, Invertase),
Kale (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala) (leaf), Schisandra (fruit),
Matcha green tea (leaf), Maca (root), Cinnamon (bark), Luo Han Guo
extract (fruit).
OTHER INGREDIENTS: Organic cane sugar, Natural flavors, Xanthan gum, Himalayan
pink salt, Stevia leaf extract, Mixed tocopherols (to maintain freshness)
So, that's a lot of ingredients, but the superfood blend has some really good ingredients. On the flip side, sugar is the first ingredient in the "other ingredients" and, since they're listed separately, there's way to tell from the label where exactly each part of the formula falls in the percentage of ingredients. (Ingredients are listed from most to least on the label.) Is the "superfood blend" less than the sugar? Is there more protein than sugar, but less pomegranate juice powder than xanthan gum? Who knows! They list "organic cane sugar" but make few other notations of organic ingredients.
Final thoughts:
This has some impressive ingredients, but the cost is fairly inflated. Since the company has switched from charging per workout program on DVD to a (really affordable) yearly membership, they are probably betting on keeping loyal supplement users to keep making a profit. It's currently $130 for 30 packets (or $98 with a coach discount. Coaches are charged a $15/month fee.) That makes it $4.33 a serving ($3.77 with the coach discount, including the $15/month fee.)
Recover & Recharge- I'm putting these together because they're almost identical in the ingredient lists. Recharge has a vanilla flavor option and no vegan formula, at least as of today on the website. Recover has chocolate and orange flavor options, and a vegan chocolate option. The "muscle recovery blend"
ingredients in Recharge are: micellar casein, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs): L-leucine, valine, isoleucine (2:1:1), L-glutamine
For the chocolate dairy Recover, the "muscle recovery blend"
ingredients add a couple more forms of protein to the micellar casein of the Recharge formula, whey protein isolate and pea protein isolate, and then includes the micellar casein and amino acids from the Recharge. Vegan Recover just has pea protein, no whey or casein. Recharge also includes sour cherry in the ingredients, and Recover includes pomegranate extract.
Again, it's very similar in taste to any other protein powder. It's a little chalky, a little gritty, and is helped immeasurably by blending not only with milk, but also with a little ice and some frozen fruit. Similar to Shakeology, the ingredient list looks really beneficial. BCAA's -branched chain amino acids- help repair muscle and have to be obtained from food, and this has L-glutamine (which helps the body repair itself and may help gut function and nutrition) thrown in for good measure. I'm not a dietitian, but
here's a study showing BCAAs causing a reduction in soreness following exercise. The label says it's a 2:1:1 ratio, which is supposed to be good, according to Dr. Google. Since Shakeology has been around longer, there are many more reviews online for it. I didn't see any for Recover or Recharge that weren't on beach body coach's blogs. (I guess this is also a "coach's blog" technically, but I just joined this month I'm not sure I'm going to keep the coaching part of the subscription. It only makes sense if you want the discount on the nutritional supplements.)
Energize- Why does this taste so bad? It's supposed to be lemon flavor, and it kind of is, but lemon with a hint of . . . I don't know, vinegar? The ingredients are straightforward enough: Organic cane sugar, citric acid, stevia leaf extract, green tea leaf extract, natural lemon flavor (with other natural flavors), and silica. This formulation has changed in the past few years, at least since
this 2015 review.
When I first read this I thought
silica, like sand? or like those little packets that say "not food" when you open up a bottle of vitamins? A quick Google search shows that Silicon dioxide is a naturally occurring compound and is found in pretty much every living thing on the planet, and even in the Earth's crust. Silica
dust is very dangerous, and that's what I had heard about. Since it's a mineral, people take it as a dietary supplements and they claim to have good results from it. But, we don't really know exactly how it effects the human body, according to Google. In any case, it's the very last ingredient so it's probably not worth worrying about.
The very first ingredient is sugar! Which only adds to my confusion as to why this tastes so very bad. Maybe it's the citric acid? Two of the top three ingredients are sweeteners. The supplement has 15 calories, which I'm guessing come mostly from the sugar. The other main ingredient, and probably where the caffeine comes from, is green tea leaf extract. I actually really enjoy green tea, and I wish this supplement stuck to a more natural flavor. With sugar and stevia, this should have a pretty enjoyable taste. And yet . . .
You're supposed to take this within 30 minutes of starting your workout. I noticed after downing my 8 ounces of water with one packet mixed in, I definitely had a boost in energy. I think this actually has a more muted effect than some other energy drinks I've tried, but more of a jolt that you get from nursing a hot coffee for a half an hour. I used to have an opening shift at work and had to be there to open the place at 5:45 AM, so I got to be well-acquainted with energy drinks. I can be sensitive to caffeine, so I would generally get the canned option and drink over the course of the morning or afternoon. Although, I once felt like I needed a little pick-me-up in the afternoon and drank a
5 Hour Energy. I stayed up all night.
I painted my bathroom.
Final thoughts:
Do you get a boost of energy from this?
Yes.
Would you probably get a similar boosting energy from any other energy drink?
Yes.
Is it less jarring to the nervous system that other energy shots?
Yes. But who will repaint my bathroom?
Will I reorder?
Surprisingly enough, I think I may reorder the Energize. While I'm not a huge fan of the taste, it does give a quick boost of caffeine, and there's a fruit flavor available. I guess I could just brew myself some green tea, but, that's just not likely. Other packets like the sugar-free Arizona Green Tea are much cheaper, but hard to find and made with sucrolose, which some studies show may be harmful to a wide range of human function. For now, it seems that Stevia is the better option.
I haven't tried any of the other supplements. I have a box of Shakeology that I finally received in the mail, so I have a few week's worth in my cabinet. Since it took almost three weeks to get here, I don't have enough experience with it to see if it's really that much better than my other (completely organic and much cheaper) usual protein supplement. I hadn't really heard of BCAAs and their role in exercise recovery before now, so thank you BeachBody. I'm going to have to look into other options to see if this is really the most cost-effective supplement. Where BeachBody shines is convenience. I can get vegan formulations of protein powder and BCAA's delivered directly to my door on a monthly subscription through this website. The question is, how much is that convenience worth?
Don't believe me? That's cool, read it yourself:
BCAAs:
Glutamine:
Old Energize review:
Shakeology reviews:
