Is Optavia a Pyramid Scheme ? – What You Should Know

Is  Optavia a pyramid scheme? Well… Their business model is that of a MLM and is structured to place much of increased exposure of recruitment, but does this add up to it being a pyramid scheme?

I'm guessing that you will be probably reading my post here because you're contacted by an  Optavia coach and asked to participate in on the business enterprise opportunity, or perhaps a friend or relative was. But anyways… It doesn't really matter your reason for reading this. In this short review I will soon be addressing the claims that Optavia may very well be considered a pyramid scheme.

What Is Optavia?

Optavia is a weight reduction MLM company that sells meal plans scientifically designed for weight reduction, similar to Avisae, It Works, and Shaklee. They take a more holistic way of weight loss, not just emphasizing the short-term, but instead having an even more long-term focus. The target is to adopt new healthy habits one at a time in your lifetime so your changes you make stick.

This is an approach that I truly like. Lots of people shed weight and then gain it right back. They devote all of this work and effort losing the weight but then end up regressing back for their old unhealthy habits. Optavia's goal is to greatly help change those habits to healthier ones.

At the core of the  Optavia business model are coaches which can be there to greatly help guide and support people on the weight loss journeys. These coaches could be anyone. You're I both could join the business enterprise as an instructor and make money doing so. Coaches can make money by selling weight loss products as well as by recruiting and other coaches beneath them and earning from what they sell.

This recruitment section of all of it is the main reason people are calling a pyramid scheme. Yes… Coaches can make money by recruiting in other coaches and so on, but this does not mean it is just a pyramid scheme. In order to get a better knowledge of what's going on here we first need certainly to take a look at the compensation plan and observe how these coaches are receiving compensated.

Pyramid Scheme?

Okay… So a MLM type business like this is completely legitimate and count on recruitment of other distributors, in cases like this “coaches”, to an excellent deal. What separates the best MLM from in illegal pyramid scheme is how much they actually count on recruitment of distributors. When they count on recruitment like this a lot of and don't focus enough on selling products to the general public, that is where it begins to cross line and becoming an illegal pyramid scheme.

That said…there is definitely not enough here for me to express that this can be a pyramid scheme, BUT… I am a bit concerned when taking a look at their compensation plan. They don't really really seem to own any safeguards in position to help keep a pyramid scheme -like scenario from playing out.

So far as I understand, you could become an instructor and to accomplish nothing but recruit in other coaches to maneuver up the ranks and make tons of money. Some MLM's that I have reviewed need you to sell a specific amount of products monthly to the general public (non-distributors), while  Optavia does not.

But anyways… Know this does not seem like a pyramid scheme to me. Recruitment like that is completely legal and although it mightn't be the absolute most trustworthy business go now, because so many coaches are on the market merely to recruit a lot of people in and make money, it is still legal.