Back in August of 2021 I wrote a somewhat lengthy post about my weight loss journey and how I finally found success. In it I detailed my experience on a very restrictive — yet effective — diet plan called Optavia. At the time, I couldn’t find many people talking about the diet or the company behind it, but these days it does seem to be a bit more well known.

TL;DR Contents

This article is going to be kind of long and cover a lot, so here’s a handy little list of the topics covered (in case you’re wanting to skip to a particular section).

• Recap of the Initial Journey
• What Happened Afterwards?
• [On the Diet] One Last Time…
  • Fixing the Optavia Price Problem
  • 6 Week Check-In
• Pivoting Away from Optavia
  • How I Feel While on Optavia
  • How I Feel While on my Substitutions
  • Weight Loss Concerns
• Working Toward More Sustainable Weight Loss
• Final Thoughts on Optavia and Recommendations

Recap of the Initial Journey

I started the diet on February 16, 2021 at a whopping 348.8 pounds (158.21 kg) and 6 months later I was down a little over 100 pounds (245.2 pounds/111.22 kg). I went from wearing 3XL shirts and 44″ waist pants to L/XL shirts (depending on the brand) and 36″ pants.

What Happened Afterwards?

So what happened after that post? Well, a lot of things. I put on a few pounds as I transitioned back to a regular diet, which was to be expected, but overall I was able to maintain a weight around 250-255 pounds. This didn’t last super long though, and by May of 2022 I had gotten back up to around 280 and I was not happy about that. I started the diet again, to get the weight back under control especially with our family vacation to the beach coming up in August. I succeeded in getting back below 260 before our trip, but once again the weight came back a few months later.

This cycle continued off and on over the next year or so — gaining some weight then dropping it on the diet — and in 2024 I found myself struggling with my weight once again. At this point I was finally allowing God to work through some past hurts and issues in my life, and unfortunately I struggled with “eating my feelings” as my wife calls it.

6 weeks ago I weighed in and I found myself back up to a whopping 315 pounds. Now, obviously, this didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t a surprise, and it didn’t happen all at once. But the facts were still the facts. I had an unhealthy relationship with food. I use food as a coping mechanism to avoid dealing with my own issues and past traumas. However, dealing with my issues and past traumas was exactly what God had spent the last year working on in me.

One Last Time…

Once I weighed in, I knew I was in sin. My slothful and gluttonous living (understandable or not) was harming me and could lead to situations that harmed my family. I prayed to Jesus, asked forgiveness, confessed my weight gain to my wife (I mean, it’s not like she couldn’t see the change), and committed to processing things further as I reengaged the Optavia plan one last time.

Fixing the Optavia Price Problem

I just want to be clear that I haven’t used the actual Optavia “fuelings” since that first go around back in 2021. Those things are ridiculously overpriced; not to mentioned they are full of unhealthy and ultra processed crap. For example, their single serving bags of popcorn (just plain old popcorn) is something like $4.75 per bag. For comparison, a comparable 100 calorie bag of Skinny Pop (which tastes better and is just popcorn, oil, and salt) is about $1.00 per bag.

Instead, I would replace the price gouged Optavia fuelings with my own alternatives that I found worked well. I have these linked in the points below — also, please note: the links below are affiliate links. If you want to get any of this stuff and you click through to buy it from Amazon, it will throw a little bit of the sale my way 🙂

• Nature Valley Protein Bars replace Optavia protein bars
  • Costco sold these big boxes of the Peanut Butter Chocolate bars that were pretty good (and a good value for how many you get). However, I eventually got kind of tired of these. Fortunately I found the Nature Valley Sweet & Salty bars worked just as well as the Protein Bars and they tasted a lot better. Mixing both kinds (Protein and Sweet & Salty) gave me about 6 or 7 different flavors to choose from. Also, on a personal note, the Blueberry Protein bars were really good for a breakfast fueling.
• Orgain Organic Plant-Based Protein Powders replace Optavia protein powder packets
  • This stuff tastes pretty good for a protein powder and you can get the big container of it from Costco for less than $30 which lasted me a long time. The link above is for the chocolate powder, though it does come in other flavors. I just didn’t really like the others.
• Pop Corners replace the various Optavia “salty” snacks
  • These are quite good and make a good chip replacement. They are lower in calories per serving than regular chips are too, and come in several standard flavors which is nice.
  • The White Cheddar were my favorites that came in the variety box. The Sea Salt ones were my least favorite, but I found them tolerable if I dipped those in some fresh pico or hummus.
  • Also, the Cinnamon Crunch ones taste like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which is awesome!
  • Also, also, the limited edition Jalapeño Popper flavored ones are really good!
• Skinny Pop was also a good go to, but it usually left me feeling more hungry than the others so I eventually phased it out.

And that’s it really. There are other things you can choose from, but I found that for me, sticking to a handful of things just made it easier to not have to think too hard about it; and that is a good thing, because the brain fog is real when eating like this for so long.

6 Week Check-In

I’ve been back on this diet for 6 weeks now and have dropped 32 pounds, meaning I’m down to 284.2 pounds. It’s not where I want to be, but it feels manageable again.

Pivot Away from Optavia

At this point, I have decided it’s time to stop the diet. When I started it back up 6 weeks ago, I had it all charted out. I was planning to stay on the 5 & 1 plan (5 “fuelings” and 1 lean & green meal per day) until October, then transition to the 4 & 2 plan before wrapping it up with a week of their 3 & 3 plan. However, I’m starting to recognize the impact of eating like this on my body.

How I Feel While on Optavia

Generally, I feel okay. I don’t feel miserable or anything like that. I know some people feel like it’s the worst thing ever, but that is a mental thing that you have to overcome in order to succeed on this diet. For me, there are just some subtle things that are bothering me. As mentioned earlier, there is a level of brain fog that I’ve started to recognize only really happens when I’m on this diet. This happens on both the Optavia fuelings and my substitutions, but I feel like it was worse on the Optavia stuff.

The other thing is an issue of skin problems. I don’t usually break out, but when I am on this diet I’ve noticed I do. To me, that is a clear sign that my body isn’t happy with what it is getting. On top of that, I tend to get canker sours in my mouth quite often on this diet when I don’t usually get them otherwise. Take that for what you will, but these are things I have actively observed across the several times I’ve done this diet.

How I Feel While on my Substitutions

Generally, the substitutions I mentioned above leave me feeling better than I did on the Optavia branded fuelings, but I still experience the same symptoms to some extent. I don’t think these problems are related to Optavia’s fuelings in particular, but rather the constant levels of ultra processed foods you have to eat in order to do the diet.

Weight Loss Concerns

Overall, I’m thrilled by the weight loss. Optavia is great if you’re really overweight and need or want to drop weight very quickly. Like I said, I dropped 100 pounds in 6 months my first go around, and dropped 32 pounds in the last 6 weeks. It clearly works well, but that has also raised a couple of concerns for me.

1. I don’t want to have a ton of loose skin when I finally lose all the weight I want to lose. You counteract this by working out in tandem with healthy eating, but because of the way this diet works you can’t work out. I even have to be careful with my homestead responsibilities when I work out in the fields. Too much physical exertion can lead to days of stagnation and it throws off your weight loss routine. This has been a consistent source of frustration for me each time I’ve been on the diet.
2. The weight rebound is a real thing. I’m so sick of having to get back on this diet to re-lose the weight that came back. That is something that happens on all of these diet plans, and we all know it. I mean, sure, there are probably exceptions out there, but I’m not one of them.

When I was in college I managed to drop 80 pounds over the course of 4 years through an improved diet, portion control, discipline, and regular exercise. I didn’t have a personal trainer, or a special dietitian. I just tried not to eat like a giant fatty and I made a point to work out. Sure it took a LONG time to do so, and I eventually gained it all back because I lacked self-control and responsible eating habits, but it took me nearly a decade for that to happen! This tells me that things like Optavia work, but are not really sustainable.

Working Toward a More Sustainable Weight Loss

At this point, being back in the lower-half of the 280s, I am working on sustaining and, even losing the weight. My whole family and I are currently adjusting out entire diet for the next 30 days in which we are foregoing all processed foods. After that, I will continue maintaining portion control and eating more “clean”.

In addition to the eating habits, we are signing up our entire family for a membership to our local YMCA where I can finally go start working out again, and coach my sons in how to do it as well! I know this will take longer, but the point is to be healthy and I suspect this will help assuage my concerns mentioned earlier.

Final Thoughts on Optavia and My Recommendations

Overall, I see my time with Optavia as a net positive. It served it’s purpose in it’s time. It helped me drop a ton of weight, and even though a lot of it came back, I was able to stop it which really was still a net-loss of 66 pounds! I also learned, through this repeated process, just how easy it is for me to gain weight. I learned that I have a very unhealthy relationship with food, and that I can apply the lessons and strategies that I have picked up while processing other issues to my relationship with food. A further benefit, is that because you are eating so little on the Optavia 5 & 1 plan (usually 1000 calories or less per day), your stomach adjusts and it makes it easier. That means if I have self-control and listen to my body as it’s getting full, I can easily avoid overeating.

So should you try Optavia (or my variation of it)? Maybe. If you are really overweight/obese and you need or want to drop a lot of food fast, then go for it. If you need surgery and are too big to do it safely, go for it. If you are kind of overweight and want to drop a few pounds, don’t waste your time or money. This diet can be difficult, especially if you get jealous of what other people can have or connect in social environments over food and drinks (that’s right, alcohol is no-good on this diet).

While the weight loss is pretty incredible, it won’t stay off if you’re not mentally prepared to keep it off. If you want to return to a standard American diet or are coping with sugary drinks and treats, you’re going to just make yourself angry. I’m not going to give you a recommendation of diets to choose instead. I think you’re better off just trying to eat better/healthier foods, watching your portion sizes, listening to your body, and working out in some way a few times a week.

Anyway, I hope this clarifies a few things. I don’t want anyone to go back and read my old article investigating whether Optavia is for them and to only have a glowing review of success and celebration. It does work, but you’ve also got to put in the work to keep it off. Take it from someone who kept trying not to put in the work.

I’ll continue to check in every now and then on how the weight and fitness are going. Thanks for reading.