Do You Have To Be Slender To Be A Weight Loss Coach?

You don’t have to be thin, but most of the 6,000 health coaches at Take Shape for Life (TSFL) , a division of Medifast, a 25-year-old weight loss company, have benefited from the integrated food and lifestyle program.

“I like to say we are a walking, talking billboard,” says (coach) Donna L. Goldstein, EdD, who dropped 65 pounds on the regimen, which involves frequent, controlled-portion soy- or whey-based shakes, bars, soups, and puddings, followed by one “Lean and Green” meal a day. Goldstein has kept her Size 6 shape for two years. She also has become a top-level health coach and has counseled more than 200 clients.

 The coaching is key to success, says Nancy Paull, a grant writing consultant in Fort Lauderdale, who shed 83 pounds and six dress sizes in her year on the program and eventually became a coach herself.

Goldstein says the company has found that people who are coached have three times more chance of lasting success than those who order the Medifast foods and go it solo.

As it happened, Goldstein got into the program at the suggestion of her podiatrist after breaking her foot three times. He was not a coach, although many doctors and chiropractors are. “Most people need motivation, guidance, and accountability,” Goldstein says.

Paull had tried Medifast 20 years before and regained the 67 pounds she lost at that point. When she saw the progress Goldstein made, though, she said she was amazed, although still wary. “Let’s see what you look like in a year,” she told Goldstein.

Fast forward one year and there was Goldstein again, still slim. Paull had come to the meeting where they met primed not to drink, not to eat, not to have any fun, as she put it. So she asked Goldstein for details and looked into the program. She says she liked the emphasis not just on controlled-portion foods, but changing life patterns and on maintaining the weight loss.

Goldstein was Paull’s coach, insisting on talking to her daily to supplement the thick notebooks of information participants receive when they start the program. ‘I do this for my clients, too,” Paull says, “talk at least once a day for the first week while they are going into ketosis, or fat-burning mode.”

After that, coach and client try to touch base once a week or as needed. The coaches also suggest clients consult their physician before starting—there can be some medical constraints on who should do the program and most coaches are not doctors. “I have a thyroid problem and my endocrinologist,” Paull says by way of example, ”said be sure to eat all the food even if you are not hungry and drink the eight glasses of water they recommend.” Participants are also urged to move more and exercise.

“I make sure my clients do it the right way—eat on time and drink the water,” Paull says. She sometimes also holds tastings of the food in her apartment for people who express an interest.

Coaches urge clients to clear their pantries of tempting foods. “They have questions. I  know I did,” Paull says There can be some symptoms such as headaches or stomach noises as the client moves into the state of ketosis. Old habits of TV snacking and nibbling can also die hard, though clients save some of their allowed snacks for the evening. “You get mildly endorphinated on it,” Paull says, “and after a few days, experience no hunger.”

As the months go by, some clients call, some sort of slide off the radar, and Paull and Goldstein email or call. Some also drop out. “I would like it if they gave the program more of a chance,” Paull says, philosophically, but says she just moves on when that happens.

After losing 30 pounds or so, Paull looked so different people started asking how she did it, sometimes stopping her on the street because they had seen her in the neighborhood. She referred clients to Goldstein at first, then decided to take a piece of the action.

The company pays coaches a percentage of the amount their clients spend on the apportioned meal products, the more clients, the larger the percentage. About five clients, Paull found, covered her $275 a month meal charges, so she was doing the program for free.

Another advantage of coaching, according to Goldstein and now Paull, is that studying and taking the coaching test and then working with the program are good reasons to stick with it on life-long maintenance — the toughest phase of many weight loss programs.

“I like to help people and I want to keep my success,” says Paull.

“We get paid to stay thin,” Goldstein adds.