Take Shape for Life

It would help us think you are less slanted in your view point.

And if you want to give advice, give advice but people will comment on the advice.

And Ben, first I have lost weight so don't make assumptions. Second, give advice. That's fine. People will respond to your advice but the part I've had a problem with is the forum violations. I believe that has been taken care of so we will move on.

Why am I obese? I've explained that in my journal. For you, it was emotional eating, poor food choices and an office job. If being obese means you can't give advice backed by science and medical studies, then none of us would be here.


Oh, and keep the personal attacks off the forum please.
 
tjmdo said:
Would it change your mind if we were not getting paid?

I had major success on Take Shape For Life and would like to share that with others. I lost 60 pounds in two months and I am still losing. I have gone from a 54 jacket and 44 pants to a 46 jacket and 38 pants. After I achieved such success and only after I had success did I decide to promote Take Shape for Life. I hope my posts will help make a difference in someone's life.

Tyrone Miller, D.O.
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I 100% agree, it would make no differance to me if I got paid or not. The FACT is that this is an excellent program that has truly helped millions of people. There are tons of people that are NOT health coaches and do NOT get paid that have used the program and promote it to many many people simply because of their success with it.

Personally I am fortunate enough to be able to make my passion of helping people a career. Are you saying that if a person loves cars and gets paid to be a mechanic, then they are bad because they get paid for it? NO!!!!! we simply enjoy helping people and making a differance in their lives and have been lucky enough to make a career out of it.

There was a quote I saw one time that said "do something you would gladly do for free and you'll never work another day in your life" I have been blesssed enough to make that quote a reality in my life.

I too truly hope my post can help somone.
 
Medifast and Take Shape For Life: Weight loss pyramid scheme?

Posted by Tracy Coenen on September 14, 2009

Earlier this year, Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute railed on Medifast, a company with a weight-loss plan being marketed with a multi-level marketing plan. The company was built primarily through marketing of the weight loss program through physicians. The Medifast executives realized that the MLM structure was their golden opportunity.

Why is multi-level marketing such a cash cow for the owners and executives of companies like these? Because product and service sales become largely irrelevant. The company instead markets the “opportunity” for making extra money and achieving financial freedom. (Almost no one is able to actually achieve either of these when they sign up to sell MLM junk, but that’s beside the point. Get people to believe it’s possible, and you’re golden.) Recruit people into the MLM, require “minimum purchases” from each to continue to “qualify” in the pyramid, and you are likely going to have exponential growth for the company.

Once Medifast realized there was a chance to make gobs of money via the multilevel marketing model, they focused on that and the company’s earnings have reflected this successful strategy.

With the help of MLM expert Robert FitzPatrick, Barry Minkow demonstrated how a pyramid scheme like Medifast’s Take Shape For Life program works. (And this company isn’t alone with this method of marketing. Plenty of other companies use it. One such company is YTB, which got nailed by regulators for being a pyramid scheme.)

Another financial expert is criticizing Medifast for promoting their alleged pyramid scheme. David Phillips at BNET has written two articles on Medifast and Take Shape For Life (TSFL). The second really focuses on the pyramid scheme aspect.

He raises some excellent points. The weight loss industry as a whole has suffered greatly thanks to the economy. Big declines in revenue are hitting companies like Weight Watchers International and Nutrisystem. How then, can Medifast be doing so well? For the six months ended June 30, 2009 Medifast reported revenue of $74.4 million, an increase of 41% over the prior year, according to the company’s earnings release.

The answer could be that the company’s program is much better than others. There’s no objective data that supports that contention however.

There are zillions of diet pills, programs, and meal plans out there. Why is Medifast so successful of late? The growth isn’t coming from the physicians who promote the program or the weight loss centers that offer products and service. The success is in the Take Shape For Life unit (the MLM arm of the company), which accounted for 58% of revenue in 2009. In contrast, this part of the company contributed only 33% of the revenue in 2009. TSFL alone had a 96% increase in revenue in 2009 over the prior year.

But maybe the MLM part of the company is so successful because it works so well for the “coaches” recruited into the program? We’ll never know for sure, as Medifast doesn’t disclose how much money the coaches are making, how much they spend on expenses of the business, what their attrition rates are, or how many recruits are actively selling or recruiting.

Take Shape For Life, however, makes it clear that to make real money, you have to recruit new people into the plan. This is where the allegations of being a pyramid scheme come in. Like all other MLMs that I’ve looked at, the product or service isn’t really the focus. It’s simply the bait to get someone in and make the company look legitimate. The real focus, however, is the recruiting of new marks into the scheme.

So the company’s products haven’t been proven to be stellar. The traditional outlets for the products are not doing well. And the MLM portion of the company is booming, even though there’s no evidence that the products themselves are actually selling well. Everything points to the real deal being endless chain recruitment into a pyramid scheme.
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About the Author
Tracy Coenen

Tracy Coenen is a forensic accountant and fraud examiner in Chicago and Milwaukee who investigates white collar crimes, including cases of financial statement fraud, embezzlement, tax fraud, and insurance fraud. She is the author of Expert Fraud Investigation and Essentials of Corporate Fraud and more than 100 articles on fraud featured in industry publications.
 
Jericho said:
It would help us think you are less slanted in your view point.

And if you want to give advice, give advice but people will comment on the advice.

And Ben, first I have lost weight so don't make assumptions. Second, give advice. That's fine. People will respond to your advice but the part I've had a problem with is the forum violations. I believe that has been taken care of so we will move on.

Why am I obese? I've explained that in my journal. For you, it was emotional eating, poor food choices and an office job. If being obese means you can't give advice backed by science and medical studies, then none of us would be here.


Oh, and keep the personal attacks off the forum please.
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I didn't start the personal attacks buddy, you attacked me saying what a terrible person I am for recommending something to people. And I am not saying an over weight person can't give advice, all I am saying is that I don't think you should be telling experts they are wrong when you are far from in good health.

I don't mean any harm, I was just very very offended by your attacks on me trying to help people.

Like I said, I have been a personal trainer and nutritionist for over 7 years, and I can help people with regular store bought food, not take shape for life, I simply think take shape for life is just better and easier, that is all.

Here is my proposal to you personally Jericho, you have over 1,400 posts and you're a moderator and are all over this whole forum talking to everybody. Like I said, I see that your BMI is 47. My proposal to is that I would like to help you myself personally to get to whatever weight you want to be at without using take shape for life or any "program" and to prove to you that I my view are not slanted and I am not just trying to advertise or make money or anything like that and to prove that I truly do just want to help people, I would like to give you all of my personal help for as long as you want it 100% for free. Then once I prove to you that I do know what I am talking about and that I truly can and do want to help people you can stop bashing me on all these different threads.

So what do you say Jericho? Can I help you?
 
Hmm no. Why? I don't trust you. I don't know you. You are a new member who has come on here telling people you are a professional. We have no way of knowing if that is the truth or not.

As far as you helping me, Seeing how I've lost 40 in 5 months, I'm moving along just fine.

Oh, and believe me, I haven't bashed you. How is that modeling career going for you? How was that last trip to the comedy club?
 
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Jericho said:
Hmm no. Why? I don't trust you. I don't know you. You are a new member who has come on here telling people you are a professional. We have no way of knowing if that is the truth or not.

As far as you helping me, Seeing how I've lost 40 in 5 months, I'm moving along just fine.

Oh, and believe me, I haven't bashed you. How is that modeling career going for you? How was that last trip to the comedy club?
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Ah I see you googles me lol I was going to sudgest that. So now you know what I look like and that I take care of myself. Look me up on myspace and facebook if you want to see me with my wife and daughter and family and see what type of person I am.

And just like I thought, you didn't accept my offer because people like you would rather sit in front of a key board and bash people then actually do something and work with someone. And as far as not knowing me and not trusting me, no one on here knows anyone so are you saying no one should listen to anyone they don't know? If that's the case then what's the point of this forum? And on another note, if I try to help you does that mean that you have to listen to me? No it doesn't, if you don't like my help and advice then you don't have to do it. But what seems more likely to me is that you know yourself well enough to know that you won't follow along with my recommendations and therefore won't succeed.

However though, I do want to truly and honestly congratulate you on your 40 pounds of weight loss. 40 pounds lost is 40 pounds lost, which is great no matter what. You say you lost it in 5 months which is great if you are happy with that, but the people I work with typically lose 40 pounds in about 6-8 weeks. In 5 months they closer to the 80-100 pounds of weight lost range.

I had one client a few years that started at 506 pounds and lost 180 pounds in 9 months. The kicker to that is that he gained 22 pounds of muscle!!! So he actually lost 202 pounds of FAT in 9 months. He also wanted to increase strength and his bench press went from 135 pounds for 8 reps to 275 pounds for 12 reps. And his leg press went from 400 pounds to 1,700 pounds!!! He is a local radio host where I live in Greeley Colorado. His name is Big Daddy Matt the Big Kahuna Matt Arguello if you want to look him up. He is the morning radio host for 104.7fm The Pirate. There was also a story done on the two of us in our local news paper, The Greeley Tribune, you can look that up online too.
 
I honestly don't see any point in this conversation. It's proven that this Take shape for life is a pyramid scam like so many others. And it doesn't even sell well. Maybe that's why peeps try to push it so badly.

As for our 'qualifications'....well, where are yours? You're what, a personal trainer? I think it takes about 2 weeks to get that certificate over here. Can even do it online. Means nothing.

Nutritionist? Please specify. It's a wide field.

The dude who's a physician...well, talk is cheap, and the computer screen is very patient.

I'm a millionaire. It's on the screen, so it must be true.

Or not.

Oh, and fyi - we actually have some professionals on here, with excellent records, who have been around for ages offering advice and help for ages, without being paid for it. Each and every one of them would laugh you off the board.

You want to know our qualifications? Experience. Common thinking. And millions of studies, done by reputable people and organisations.

Personally, I lost 120 lbs in around 8 months. No shakes, no 'meal replacements', none of that stuff. And certainly no 1000 calories. Guess what - my GP, a dietitian and a nutritionist I went to see all suggested in the region of 2000 calories minimum for me. And what happened? It worked!! Shock-horror.

FYI - posts like the one of the OP get put on here all the time. 90% of those are spam, and attracting more spammers.

You're pushing a program that's a proven scam, goes against everything that science and common sense tell you, you advertise crash diets (having a go at somebody for taking 5 months to lose 40 lbs, you must be out of your mind!) and you don't like the fact that people around here are clever enough not to fall for it.

Tough. Get over it and move on. This is just not the right playground for you.
 
Whatever pal, how is it a "scam" if people are successful with it, why don't you research it a little bit. I'm out of here because what I came here to do is help people who actually want to lose weight, not fight with a bunch of bitter angry people that feel sorry for themselves and aren't willing to do anything. I want to talk to people who actually do want to try and lose weight and there clearly seems to be very few of those people here so I guess you're right, this is the wrong playground for me. But have fun being dangerously obese and sitting on your ass in front of a computer, I'm gong to go take care of my own healthy body and work with people who want to do the same, goodbye.
 
hi my name is Frank and I have always been a big guy. I have tried every
thing under the sun to lose weight. My father was also a bigger guy is whole
life. So a while back he decide to try the take shape for life program
fueled by medifast and all I can say is wow. He has dropped so much weight I
could not believe it. I have dropped 40 pounds so far with the help of
medifast. I think it is working because you are not doing this alone. You
will have a certified health coach with you helping and answering what ever
questions you need. We believed in it so much we too became certified
health coach's so we can share this with as many people as possible.
 
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