Is Beachbody a Scam? Lose Weight & Your Money at the Same Time!
Welcome to my Beachbody review!
If you ever got invited to become a fitness coach, you probably got invited to an MLM business opportunity, and not a job opportunity.
There are MLM companies out there that highlight their weight loss products. But this one’s different.
The company turns you into a fitness coach, giving you the opportunity to earn money and lose weight at the same time.
I am talking about Beachbody.
First of all, I must Congratulate you for taking your time to do your own research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.
That’s the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online!
Let me be completely transparent with you, I’m not associated with Beachbody in any form.
So, rest assured that I’m not here to pitch or sell anything to you.
Instead, I’m here to reveal what makes Beachbody probably one of the most questionable MLM programs out there today.
Keep reading…
Beachbody Review Summary
Product Name: Beachbody
Founder: Not Disclosed
Product Type: Health and Wellness, Fitness Program MLM
Price: $39.95 (one-time sign up fee) + $15.95 recurring monthly fee.
Best For: No one.
Summary: Beachbody is completely legitimate. It’s a company that provides an MLM business opportunity to its coaches. However, I cannot recommend this program to anyone. First, I have proof that they use questionable ingredients on their products. Second, there’s lots of recruitment involved in order to succeed. There’s just no way for you to make it worth your while without recruiting. Lastly, no one’s earning any money at all, and I can prove it. It also proves that they reward you more if you recruit a lot of people. To me, that’s unfair and works almost like a pyramid scheme.
Rating: 10/100
What is Beachbody?
Beachbody, the company, started out in 1998 and is currently based in Santa Monica, California.
They are responsible for some of the exercise programs you’ve seen on the late night infomercials. Products like Insanity, Hip Hop Abs, P90X and Brazil Butt Lift are just some of the Beachbody programs in the market today.
On top of their fitness programs, they also have a collection of nutritional supplements, with the most popular one called Shakeology.
In 2007, they created an offshoot company called Team Beachbody, which utilizes MLM or multi-level marketing, to sell products and services.
There are currently over 400,000 Team Beachbody coaches in their MLM program as of this writing.
In 2016, Team Beachbody earned a revenue of $863 million, earning them the 28th spot on the 2017 DSN (Direct Selling News) Global 100 List.
With results like that, it’s clear that their MLM program is successful for the company, but can it be said for their coaches?
Beachbody Product Line
Team Beachbody provides different products for their coaches to offer to their clientele.
From fitness programs to nutritional supplements to fitness gear, Team Beachbody is a fitness trainer’s one-stop shop.
Here are three of their best-selling protein shakes and meal replacement products to date:
1. Shakeology (30 Servings) – $129.95
Shakeology is Beachbody’s flagship product that boasts of an ingredient list containing vitamins, minerals, and superfood. This shake is low-calorie but packed with nutrients.
2. Daily Sunshine (30 Servings) – $99.95
Daily Sunshine is their whole-food-based 3-in-1 smoothie for kids, The shake is a mix of a fruit and veggie blend combined with plant-based protein and healthy fats. This makes it easy for kids to get their daily fix of fruits and vegetables, even for those picky eaters.
3. Beachbody Performance Line – $109.95 to $199.95
Beachbody Performance is their stack or combination of pre-workout energy drink, intra-workout drink, and post-workout supplementation to help with muscle recovery and muscle repair.
I can go on and list all of the products, but that will probably bore you.
You can find the full list of their products here.
Do The Products Work?
It’s hard to pinpoint if an exercise program will work or not because there are several factors that can make or break any program.
For Beachbody exercise programs, these are HIIT-based or High Intensity Interval Training programs that you can do in the comforts of your home.
The goal of programs like these is to move as much as you can with minimal rest in between.
It gets the heart rate going and it keeps you sweating.
This is why the positive comments about their fitness programs should be taken with a grain of salt.
A review about Beachbody from Better Business Review
Another review about Beachbody from Better Business Review
Did the customer really lose weight because of their program, or were there other factors involved?
Like I don’t know… diet?
Meanwhile, for their shakes and supplements, I’ve browsed through their Consumer Affairs and Better Business Bureau profiles to check for product complaints.
But I didn’t find anyone complaining about their product.
More of the complaints were focused on their customer service and their refund system.
How Do You Make Money from Beachbody?
Beachbody is just like any other MLM company, and provides two ways to earn income via their business opportunity:
- Flat commission rate for direct sales
- Bonuses achieved by recruiting other people (Uh-oh, pyramid scheme alert!)
How To Get Started With Beachbody?
To become a Team Beachbody Coach, you’ll need to pay the following costs:
- One-time sign-up fee of $39.95
- Monthly fee of $15.95 – covers personalized website and back-end operations
The fee also covers the following:
- Welcome Booklet
- 30-day Access to the Coach online Office
- A Personalized Coach Website
- Other support tools to run the business.
Beachbody Compensation Plan
Reading through their Policies and Procedure Manual, you’ll find their compensation plan on page 32.
Beachbody uses a binary compensation model for their program.
A Diagram of Beachbody’s Binary Plan
I won’t go into complete details, but here are the highlights of their compensation plan:
- Retail commission – this is a flat rate of 25% made by customers on a coach’s Beachbody website. This commission is based on the full retail price.
- Fast Start Bonus – The Shakeology Fast Start Bonus gives out $20 to coaches every time their sponsor buys a Shakeology Home Direct Starter Pack.
- Challenge Pack Fast Start Bonus – This bonus is paid the first time to coaches of sponsored coaches who purchase a Beachbody Challenge Pack.
- Team Cycle Bonus – This is a weekly bonus that applies only to those above “Emerald” level or when you recruit two coaches and place them on your left and right leg of your team. A monthly personal purchase is also required to be consistently qualified for the program.
- Matching Bonus – Once you reach a rank of “Ruby” or above, you qualify for the weekly matching bonus on any team cycle bonuses earned by your personally sponsored coaches.
- Star Diamond Leadership Bonus – This bonus pays out 2% of the entire TV (Team Volume) of the top performing Diamond coaches. This is paid out every 3 months and is based on the performance of the entire network.
In order to move up the ranks in BeachBody, you have to grow your downline.
For example, to become a Diamond Coach, you need to have personally sponsored 2 Emerald Coaches and another 6 Active Coaches (at any level).
This video should explain more about their compensation plan in greater detail:
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Beachbody Ugly Truths Revealed!
#1 – Questionable Ingredients, Expensive Products
I am intrigued by their Shakeology product for two reasons.
First, it’s their price, which is a whopping $129.95 for 30 servings.
That puts it at about at $4.33 per serving.
For that price alone, you’re expecting for the product to work.
Ingredient list for Shakeology
However, I found that one nutritionist posted a complete review about Shakeology. I am not going to go into full detail, but I’ll just point out the important ones.
A statement from a study about Folic Acid Supplementation
Their products contain folic acid. Studies have shown that folic acid supplementation can lead to cancer.
Ingredients for their Vegan Shake
Their vegan shakes contain Holy Phytic Acid, which binds to nutrients like calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium. This prevents them from being absorbed by the body.
#2 – Lots of Recruitment is Required to Succeed
From the way their compensation plan is set up, it seems that you need to grow your downline in order to move up in ranks.
To become a “Diamond” coach, you need to sponsor 2 Emerald Coaches and another 6 active Coaches at any level.
This compensation scheme actually raises a couple of flags from Dr Taylor’s MLM Evaluation model,
The model shows the 5 Red Flags that tell you when an MLM opportunity is a pyramid scheme.
Allow me to point out some examples.
Based on the compensation plan, the Team Cycle Bonus allows for earnings from unlimited levels in a downline.
It sounds appealing if you have an impressive downline, but it begs the question: how does Beachbody afford to pay off so many levels?
That’s why it raises Red Flag #5 on Dr Taylor’s Model.
Two other bonuses, namely the Matching Bonus and the Star Diamond Leadership Bonus raise Red Flag #4 on Dr. Taylor’s Model.
Simply put, the two bonuses means that the people on the upper levels are earning more from the people on their downline, and that’s not fair.
On the topic of pyramid schemes, you’ll find that another shake-based MLM company called Visalus has been flagged by the FTC as a pyramid scheme.
In the FTC document, you’ll also find Dr. Taylor’s MLM Evaluation Model as their basis for flagging 200+ companies as pyramid schemes.
Thanks to the Internet, I’m constantly getting at least 20 leads per day for my business without doing any cold-calling, hard-selling or recruiting.
And I’ve already achieved financial independence at just 21 years old earning 4-figure monthly passive income.
Here’s How I Did It >>
#3 – No One’s Earning a Decent Income
With a compensation plan laid out like that, you’d think that the coaches from Beachbody would be earning a lot of money.
I mean, who wouldn’t, right?
But I found a copy of their 2017 Beachbody Income Disclosure Statement, and it has everything I need to know if a coach is earning money or not.
Beachbody 2017 Income Disclosure Statement
Let me say that their presentation is vague and difficult to understand. They presented legally required information, but it’s not well presented.
A good example of that is the fine print that states 47.54% of coaches received a bonus or commission.
The fine print of their Income Disclosure Statement
This means that in 2017, 52.46% of their coaches earned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
On the other side of the coin, it also shows that people who’re at the “Star Diamond” level earned $124,466 on average for that year.
In contrast to that, people at the “Emerald” level earned $3,062. That’s a huge difference between 4 ranks!
From what I am seeing, this is a business opportunity where less than 2% are earning enough for it to consider a full-time income, and more than half are earning nothing at all.
What I Like About Beachbody?
I try to provide an honest and unbiased review on every product, program, or business opportunity review.
But with the evidence that I’ve gathered about the company, I can’t seem to find one good thing about them. The products are expensive and questionable, and the business opportunity itself is questionable.
They may be different from other from companies like Herbalife, Isagenix, or Purium, but that’s not exactly a good thing either.
Is Beachbody a Scam?
No, it’s not a scam at all. Beachbody is a legitimate company that provides you with fitness programs and nutritional supplements through their MLM program, Team Beachbody.
But this is not a business opportunity that anyone should ever invest on.
Like I mentioned earlier on…
First, their ingredients are questionable.
Two of their shakes have ingredients that are linked to serious diseases. I can’t imagine why you’d have that on a product designed for daily use.
Second, there’s clearly a lot of recruitment involved in order to succeed. Based on their compensation plan, more reward is given out to recruiting than making sales.
Lastly, the income potential is really low. There’s a huge difference in terms of income between the lowest and highest ranks, like I’ve proven to you.
And less than 2% of their total coaches are earning more than enough to turn it into a full-time income.
To me, that’s an unbalanced scale and it’s really unfair for people at the lower levels.
How I Make A Living Online?
I’m not a fan of MLM, not because it’s illegal or not profitable, but because of all the restrictions and the expensive costs involved.
Instead, Affiliate Marketing is my top recommended business model for anyone to make money online.
The reason is simple…
- You don’t have to recruit anyone to make money
- You have the freedom to promote any products you want and not being restricted to only promote the products from one MLM company
- It’s Free to get started
In fact, with affiliate marketing…
I’ve personally created a 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income Stream and become financially independent at just 21 years old without any College degree or working experience!
Through my own hard work, I went from a broke restaurant waiter to living my dream laptop lifestyle in less than a year’s time…
