Today I’m going to be diving into the Metaboost connection program by Meredith Shirk and giving you my complete and honest review using my years of experience as a qualified health coach.
Another one of those mass marketed fitness program where you see the adverts popping up everywhere and in all honesty talking absolute drivel.
Targeting women over the age of 40 who may be dealing with hormonal imbalances, slow metabolism and weight gain can leave you feeling frustrated. Believe me, I know!
We so want this to be the weight loss plan and meal plan that will be the answer to all of our problems.
I feel like she went to the same marketing school as VShred and the amount of eye rolling I have to do is quite honestly giving me a headache.
There are so many different ads out there with many ridiculous and unfounded claims such as
- You must eat these secret metaboosting superfoods
- You must be in a certain posture when you poop
- Eating at the wrong time will turn your food into ice cream
Like what the actual f*ck!!!!!
It’s hard enough as it is to try and convince women over the age of 40 that crash diets and overly restrictive eating is NOT the answer to better health, better living or a slimmer waistline.
You have been there before remember, it doesn’t work, you can’t stick to it for the long term and any weight you did lose, just came right on back.
I have had this review requested quite a lot. So off I went and bought the digital program so that you don’t have to.
I bought this quite some time ago and I was undecided as to whether I was going to follow it myself because to be quite honest I have had to do a lot of work on myself. Growing up in the 90’s and 00’s where crash diets were done on the regular, even as a health coach there is a lot of work on the mindset piece that I felt can easily become undone and it’s a slippery slope back to disastrous dieting practices that fucked up my metabolism in the first place.
BUT in the name of research and to be able to give a full experience of the plan, I decided to just head on in and see for myself just how horrible it was so I could give a more informed Metaboost review and feedback.
The video version is below if you like to watch instead.
Either way, grab a cuppa and lets go!
The Metaboost Sign Up process
Going straight on in with the sign up process we are back on bro marketing 101.
A seriously long sales funnel that has another and yet another upsell on every single page and you have to be very careful that you dont sneakily get signed up onto a rolling monthly payment without even realising.
I had been very careful to read everything properly so this didn’t happen, though I did somehow still manage to get tripped up and they tried to change an extra amount for the cookbook. Thankfully my bank flagged it as fraud and so that second payment didn’t actually go through. Phew!
This is the problem with programmes such as this. They lure you in with what is a seemingly good price. The purchase of metaboost connection is just $29 which I think is reasonable and affordable, in my opinion. But it’s the back end where they make the big bucks. The upsells and the sneaking you onto the monthly payment without you realising it.
The Metaboost Programme
The programme itself is a 14 day nutrition plan that goes along with the 7 minute workouts.
However, in one of her many ads, she claims you can look just like she does in just 7 minutes a day. First red flag right there. I could do all of the exercise and diets in the world and I would probably still never look like her. She is incredibly lean with a 6 pack and the truth is her genetics and the fact that she was an athlete in the past have a lot to do with that.
For many women getting a visible 6 pack is genetically extremely hard without developing a severe eating disorder.
I have always been thicker around my midsection, even at my youngest and fittest. And whilst I had an awesome 6 pack, it’s never been visible, my genetics don’t support that look without having tro be incredibly lean. So the fact that she makes these claims is just ridiculous and can be very damaging to many women.
The nutrition is split into 3 phases.
- Day 1 The 24 hour Metaboost metabolic flush – also known as just not eating very much
- Day 2-4 3 Day Meta Clean – Using so called metainfluencer foods. Promising to give you all the secret metabalance natural hormone balancing superfoods
- Day 5-12 7 Day Meta Slim
Day1 On Metaboost Connection
Day 1 was ok but I was soooo hungry by the end of the day, only having a smoothie for dinner is not ideal.
Day 2 surprisingly don’t feel that hungry this morning. I did just have my regular protein smoothie as I couldn’t get all of the ingredients.
I also decided to swap around lunch and dinner for day 3. I don’t like just having a smoothie for dinner in front of my kids. I don’t want to give off this kind of restrictive eating message.
I also basically had the same smoothie each time as it was just more cost-effective. There are LOTS of ingredients and food items on the shopping list to give you variety in your smoothies. It is nice to have a variety of flavours but not very easy on the wallet when you have to buy so many different ingredients. So I just repeated the same smoothie (the same smoothie I would normally have) and just repeated it.
I am so back and forth with how I feel about this programme as I have done cleanses and detoxes in the past. I always liked to do them as a nutritional reset. To pack in nutrients and take out common trigger and inflammatory foods. I do find that they would help to reset and rebalance true hunger signals.
Since midlife and PCOS I am constantly feeling hungry.
But, restrictive eating can also lead to a disrupted mindset about food, so I am always working on finding that balance between improving health.
Though I am not unhappy with my body, I have come to learn to accept it. I have always had a belly, but now I know if i don’t keep my nutrition in check my waistline is the first thing to increase. Holding too much fat around the belly area is just not good for health.
Day 3
Woke up at 5.15 and couldn’t get back to sleep. This can be common for me at times. After doing a morning meditation I decided to get up. I don’t feel tired but my body does. Just like it’s heavy and low on energy. Head wise I don’t feel tired at the moment.
I’m down 3lb and feel lighter, my tummy feels flatter or at least more squidgy and I haven’t had any digestive issues like I would normally though was a little gassy last night. Don’t feel overly hungry right now.
I am enjoying this as a bit of a reset and to get out the habit of snacking, especially on sweet things and not eating processed carbs. Like most people, these are the main dietary issues that I know I can improve on. That is really always my challenge that I eat too much of those, so it’s getting me out of the habit of that. I am going to a BBQ later today so I want to eat a proper lunch before going there and not just a shake and if I do eat it will be a lean meat with some salad.
I made it all the way to day 5 and then finally gave up. Energy levels were super low and I was just craving a little more living in my life and the energy I would get from having more carbohydrates.
I started adding complex carbohydrates back into my diet on workout days.
I did of course just gain back those same 3lb immediately. This is a good example of how rapid weight loss (usually from loss of water) is often regained very easily.
I actually enjoy the morning elixir and have kept up with that, and I also enjoy the ginger shots too and will continue to do those.
Also, a reminder that the elixir is not magic for melting belly fat like she promises you it is. Otherwise, it would keep melting the belly fat no matter what I ate.
The weight loss was mainly water loss, though my stomach actually did feel much happier. I actually really enjoyed a lot of the recipes and will keep some of them up. It was really good for me to take a break from sugars and simple carbs which are my absolute vice.
So whilst I do want to keep up with some of the foods and habits, it was just way too restrictive and not enough food for my levels of activity as a fitness coach. I felt so depleted, my body felt heavy and I could just about manage to struggle through my workouts.
I also found that once I relaxed my eating again I could feel the urge to want to gorge on all of the things. This is something that I have always have to work hard on as I am not someone who can easily practice restraint once sweet and junk foods are presented. I want to and often will eat it all after times of restriction.
This is why I always work on a more balanced approach. When I know I have the mindset of allowing myself to be flexible with my diet I am far more likely to allow myself to tune into how that specific food may make me feel.
Using that more intuitive rather than restrictive approach works much better for me.
The Metaboost Workouts
A common misconception is that many people believe that fitness has a bigger part to play in fat loss. When in reality it’s the nutritional side that will reap the biggest reward when it comes to fat loss.
I’m not saying physical activity isn’t important. It is, and should be a key part of any comprehensive health approach. It plays a much bigger role when it comes to maintaining body composition or maintaining fat loss. It can also prevent the down regulation of metabolism that can often occur when you diet down too hard. Not to mention the numerous health benefits exercise has and not solely for the purpose of a weight loss journey.
But in reality, you could do any workout. And this is another big problem I have with her work and the message that she is sending out. Is that it’s just BS.
You can clearly see this when scrolling through the Youtube workout titles. They are classic click bait nonsense.
- Lose Lovehandles & Bellyfat workout
- Best sitting exercises to burn fat
- Toning exercises for saggy arms
- The ultimate workout to burn lower belly fat
- Get rid of back fat with this daily workout routine
Not only do I hate the messaging behind these workout titles, but they are scientifically incorrect. They mislead people into believing that doing ab workout is going to give you a 6 pack when this is not how human physiology works.
You cannot spot reduce fat with exercise!!!!
A lot of the fitness industry is working hard to move away from these workout titles which are so 1990’s and damaging and yet she is continually running ads to this messaging and it’s terrible for womens mindset but it’s also factually incorrect.
I only did one of the Metabody Videos and that was so basic and also pretty boring. I was also in the middle of filming workouts for my own members so I continued to use that as my training.
Look, any movement is good and if you can get someone moving even for just 7 minutes to get them started then that can be great, especially for older adults I can see real value in this type of movement. But stop with all the bullshit and telling people that this is going to magically burn belly fat becuase it’s just not the truth.
She also says in many of the ads that I have seen that you need just 7 minutes a day. Yet the workout schedule actually tells you to to do 2 of the MetaBody workouts each day, so that’s actually 14 minutes. Still achievable but just another lie she spots on her adverts.
Conclusion & Final Thoughts
Does Metaboost Connection work for weight loss?
Well yes, of course. It’s highly restrictive I was drastically reducing my caloric intake. It also had a much lower carbohydrate intake. Hence the drop bodyweight, but please keep in mind that is water weight.
Over the 5 days that I followed the plan, I dropped 3lb.
The biggest problem with programmes like this is that it’s simply not sustainable.
For one my energy levels were just on the floor and for two I value my life and enjoyment way too much to force myself to stick with restrictive dieting for too long.
It’s not supportive to mental health and is actually pretty destructive to my mindset and relationship around food.
Crash and restrictive dieting may help you nudge down the number on the scale for a short amount of time. But you will never be able to maintain that. You will likely regain that weight in a number of days, if not adding more on top.
And yes as I relaxed my eating a little, my energy levels returned but so did that 3lb I just lost. Because it was just water weight.
It can feel motivating to see the number on the scale changing, but I just could not sustain the way I felt energetically. This then impacts my ability to work, parent and do everything else I have going on in my life.
I did enjoy some of the metaboost connection recipes that I will continue to use and I also felt much less bloating from certain foods which I will continue to minimise. It’s great to add in a variety of different foods and ensuring you get in the essential nutrients that your body needs, which the recipes will do as there is great variety and they were also tasty.
But I will be adding in more complex carbohydrates and more food in general on workout days. But it has also helped me to kick my sugar habit and remind myself that I don’t really need that afternoon snack I keep reaching for, and I know that if I do want a snack to just opt for fruit.
Always remember!!!!!
Anyone claiming to have the magic formula for fat burning is simply a sales tactic and it’s time we started calling it out and stop people falling for it.
The real formula for fat loss is fairly straight forward, though that is not always to say it’s easy.
But in my opinion, lasting fat loss should be done with a slow and steady approach to a healthier lifestyle and steering away from crash dieting and come from a more holistic approach.
Instead, I would advise the following steps as a good base to follow and how I start work with my own clients.
- Eat within a moderate calorie deficit. 10-15% less than your maintenance calories.
- Eat 30% of those calories from protein sources
- Aim to have most of your diet in the form of natural whole foods and reduce the amount of processed foods you eat and drink
- Move more to increase your NEAT that can make up up to 15% of your total daily calorie burn where formal exercise is only up to 5%. Aiming to work towards walking 10k steps a day is a great way to do this, especially if you are starting no where near this number.
- Train at least 2 x full body strength sessions to help sustain metabolism
- Making sure you get good quality sleep (7-9 hours) and reduce stress levels will help you to stick to all of the above.
I hope this Metaboost Review was helpful in guiding your decision for your health and fitness journey, let me know in the comments
If you want some guidance and support that isn’t littered with BS, then you can get access to my FREE 5 day kickstart challenge CLICK HERE to join today
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