Is Isagenix a Pyramid Scheme? (Save Your Health, Your Money)

Imagine having an Isagenix business opportunity that help thousands of people lose weight fast and at the same time make tons of money. No doubt you’re wondering if this is some kind of a pyramid scheme.

This could be your life-changing opportunity or maybe you should be keeping your wallet tucked away to keep your health safe

Losing weight is a popular activity these days especially if you’re going away on a vacation.  You want to look good fast but it takes time and dedication to work out at a gym.

Fear not! Isagenix has come to the rescue with their 30-Day System. It’s a simple process of cleansing, fasting and meal replacements.

Not only can you lose weight but you can help other people do the same and even offer them a business opportunity at the same time.

This review is about looking at the business opportunity and how well the weight loss products work. Can you really make money, its pros and cons? Is it a scam, a pyramid scheme?

Just so you know, I am not associated with Isagenix in any manner. I have done hundreds of product researches and have written reviews about them.

In the past, I was involved with 3 MLM companies, health (herbal), skincare, and candles and so I have experience here. 

Let’s begin…

What Is Isagenix?

Isagenix is an MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) privately-held company that sells their dietary supplements along with a line of personal care products.

Headquartered in Gilbert, Arizona, USA, the company (Isagenix Worldwide, Inc.) was founded in 2002 by Jim and Kathy Coover and John Anderson.

The company really focuses on weight loss. They do this by helping you with your food portion control, reducing your calories intake, and intermittent fasting.

Its mission is to give health, wealth and happiness for ordinary people like you and me to finally be able to take control of our lives.

Typical of MLM companies, Isagenix does 2 things:

1. They sell dietary supplements, personal care and beauty products.
2. They offer people a business opportunity using the MLM model for a part-time or full-time business.

Inside Isagenix – The Products

According to Isagenix, their products are designed to give you results and a long-term healthy lifestyle. As I mentioned, they primarily focus on weight loss.  They use their meal replacement products for their program. The prices are retail but as an associate, you can purchase them at wholesale prices. 

9-Day Deep Cleansing System ($207.94 USD Retail)

This program has products that clean and nourishes your body. It’s supposed to help you burn undesirable fat and lose weight, improve your muscle tone and satisfy unhealthy food cravings.

It comes with their popular peach and mango shake combination.

The next product is supposed to be more long-term…

30-Day System Weight Loss Basic Pak ($378.49 USD Retail)

This basic pak is similar to the 9-Day Deep Cleansing System except you get more quantity and other extra products enough to last you 30 days.

The extra products are meal replacements and a variety of shakes.

Weight Loss Value Pack ($844.86 USD Retail)

This Value Pak has pretty much the same items as the 30-Day System Weight Loss Basic Pak but with a larger amount of quantity like over 60 meals, more cleanse products, in addition to:

• $25 product coupons
• A $75 event coupon
• 2 free 1-year enrolments for your friends and family when they sign up as customers
• Vitamin packets

Isagenix has a variety of other products such as:

Essence – a variety of fragranced oils and diffusers

Gluten-Free – plant-based shakes, fibre snacks, accelerator

Performance System – nutrients, protein for muscle growth, protein bars, and plant-based energy shots

Vitality and Well-Being – products to help your digestive system, anti-ageing and Telomere products, nutrition, energy shakes, energy shots, join and pain relief, and more

Kosher – cakes, snake bars, Whey Thins

Personal Care and Beauty – skincare, hand and body cream hydration, skin cleansers, moisturizers, toners, youth serum, and exfoliator

Click here, if you want to see the full products…

While Isagenix is unique in their supplements with herbals, they have competitors like:

• Shaklee
• Yoli
• Purium
• Plexus

Do Isagenix Products Work – Can You Really Lose Weight?

By now you’re probably wondering if the weight loss products really work. Let’s face it, not everyone is going to have successful results…it depends on how committed you are on following the weight loss program.

The other matter is if you’re on medications, it would be wise to consult with your doctor first especially if you’re diabetic.

According to Medical News Today, people are losing weight from using Isagenix weight-loss products thru the reduction of their calorie intake but there are definitely side effects.

Another piece of information from the same article is “because Isagenix products are processed and high in sugar, the diet is not a healthful way to lose weight.”

Truthfully, I have not tried any Isagenix products because I work out 4 to 5 days a week at a local Bootcamp and eat natural healthy foods so I have no need to use their products. I also purchase my protein powder (no sucralose) from a local health food store.

But I did research and discovered some interesting articles which are worthwhile reading if you’re considering using the weight loss products or want to get into their business opportunity.

One of the first things I like to do is read consumer reviews on consumable products thru Consumer Affairs and other related sites so here we go…

1) According to Wikipedia, Harriet Hall, a physician, wrote an article in 2011 in the Skeptical Inquirer saying that “many of the claims about the products are false.

Apparently, associates are handing out medical advice that is not authorized. 

2) Choice, a consumer organization in Australia also said Isagenix’s “nutritional cleansing” claims are unsupported scientifically and that the contents are much like the products that can be purchased in stores at a cheaper price.

3) An article on Consumer Affairs, “Worst Diets of 2006”, makes reference to Isagenix’s claim on Isacleanse.

There are real professional health experts who say our body naturally does its own self-cleaning thru our liver, kidneys, and colon. This makes sense, doesn’t it?

In fact, the article goes on to say this about Isagenix Isacleanse “The detox idea is seemingly the perfect scam — it sets up a problem that doesn’t exist, then provides a solution.”

Let’s look at what Isagenix customers and members are saying…

Consumer Affairs Review

BBB Reviews

Consumers Compare.org

Here are a couple of positive reviews from BBB.

If you’re interested in the products, it seems you have to try it for yourself.

Making Money With Isagenix – The Business Opportunity

Isagenix is typical of the MLM business model. There are 2 ways of making money.

1. Sell Isagenix products at retail prices and earn retail commissions.
   
   
2. Recruit, recruit, and keep recruiting people. This is how you earn commissions and bonuses when your downline sell products.

Isagenix’s motto is to “Eat it, love it, share it” and this is exactly how you will be promoting Isagenix products and their business opportunity.

Because it’s all about networking, the way you’re going to earn your commissions is thru your family, your friends, and their friends by sharing your personal experiences with the products.

Again very typical of MLM, Isagenix’s 2 methods of marketing are:

1. Social Media
   
   
2. Face to face word of mouth

You might get invited to a home party, or receive an invitation on social media.

If you’re interested in Isagenix you need to know how to get started and how their compensation plan works so that’s coming up next…

How to Get Started With Isagenix Business Opportunity

CLICK HERE for the PDF…

1) You must connect with an Isagenix qualified associate.  This is usually the person (sponsor)who shared their experience to you otherwise there’s a form on their site you fill out.

The site doesn’t tell you how much the memberships cost but I did find this… there are 3 ways to join after you signup under your sponsor.

Clearly, if you want the bigger discount, the $29 yearly membership fee is better BUT the problem with this is you’re joining their Autoship order service.

Isagenix is like so many other MLMs with Autoship service. To me, it’s the most frustrating “service” you can ever get.

I was a member of an MLM skin care company with a monthly Autoship. I ended up with a lot of inventory because my products for my own use lasted for 4 months and I wasn’t recruiting fast enough to make a decent amount of money.

MLM companies will tell you Autoship is a great service because you don’t have to remember to order. That’s right! Your products are going to be automatically sent every month to your doorstep. Oh sure you can change the date and product order.

Sometimes you might forget to change the date, so the order is delivered, money is taken out of your bank account and inventory grows.

Isagenix will say their Autoship service is not required but if you want their Autoship Reward Pricing on your products, you might want to go ahead with the automatic shipping anyway.

2) Pay for your “Qualifying Product Order” which is one of the Starter Paks you can choose.

Click here to see the Isagenix prices. 

Isagenix Compensation Plan

In order to qualify for your commissions, you must remain as an active associate. This means spending at least $150 USD monthly to meet your minimum 100 Personal Volume (PV). Be cautious on this, it’s an easy way to get an accumulation of inventory. 

Isagenix doesn’t care how you do this, either sell their products or you purchase for your own personal consumption.

Isagenix’s Compensation Plan is based on the popular MLM binary structure.

The binary plan means you must recruit 2 people, one for the right side and one for the left side so you’re actually building 2 downline teams.

There are a total of 5 different ranks:

• Associate
• Consultant
• Manager
• Director
• Executive

As you can see, in order to progress in each rank, you need to recruit more people and encourage them to make more product sales.

Isagenix offers you 6 ways to earn your money:

1. Retail Profits

Purchase products at discounted prices and resell to your customers at retail prices. The difference is your retail profit.

2. Retail Direct Profits

Direct your retail customers to your personal website (provided by the company) and earn your retail profit less the company’s administration fee.

3) PRODUCT INTRODUCTION BONUS (PIB)

When your new recruit purchases their initial qualified pak or system, you earn a bonus.

4) Team Bonus (Cycles)

This is where you can earn residual income on your teams’ downline sales efforts (binary structure).

5) Executive Matching Team Bonuses

As an active Executive, you can get a 10% matching bonus on the volume from your direct recruits.

6) Special Incentives and Promotions

To give you motivation, Isagenix offers incentives and promotions like challenges, contests, bonuses and more.

For more information, please watch this video that explains the Isagenix Compensation Plan in more detail…

What I Like About Isagenix

1. 254 Isagenix Millionaires

According to Isagenix, there were 254 millionaire associates at the end of December 31, 2017. This gross earnings amount was accumulated from the time they joined.  Out of that number, 180 are from the states.

These associates have been with Isagenix an average of 6 years to over 15 years.

So you see? You can definitely become a millionaire too with hard work and lots of dedicated years.

Don’t mean to be negative here but you should be aware that approximately 80% of the company’s associates made less than $337 in 2017.

2. Not Being Forced to Recruit People

During my research, I haven’t come up with associates complaining about being pushed to recruit more people.

This is quite unusual because most of the MLM companies I researched have lots of complaints from associates/distributors of feeling pressured to recruit more people.

3. Buyback Policy

The company will buy back from associates any marketable products within the previous 12 months when they cancel their membership.

What I Don’t Like About Isagenix

1. Possible Fake Treatment in Regards to Weight Loss

There have been a lot of complaints about the company’s weight loss products.

Isagenix’s solution to losing weight is done by replacing your food intake with nutritional supplements, bars, shakes, their meal replacements, and their cleansing product.

Fast for 6 days with 1 meal each day and lots of shakes. Seriously, does this sound healthy to you?

The question is, do you really need to take any of this stuff? Why not change your diet plan and exercise more?

There are real health professionals who can come up with wonderful healthy meal plans that show calories and exercise plans that are extremely effective.

Isagenix products are quite expensive and I’ll bet it’s cheaper to go to a gym, recreational centre, Bootcamp, etc.

Trust me, just by exercising and eating the proper foods will give you a ton of energy and make your mind sharper AND lose a lot of weight.

2. Possible Side Effects

If you read some of the complaints about the products, people are experiencing problems with their immune system, have stomach bloating, and diarrhea.

If you’re concerned about your weight, the best advice is to consult with your doctor especially if you’re on medication. There’s a lot of sugar in Isagenix’s meal replacements. If you’re diabetic, please be careful!

3. Not Many People Are Making Money

In 2017, according to Isagenix’s income disclosure, approximately 78,000 US (20%) associates earned compensation. What about the remaining 80%?

4. Associates Who Believe They’re “Health Experts”

When I was doing MLM with a skincare company, there were many distributors who believed they were experts in skincare and their products. I was one of them.

The same applies here. There are associates of Isagenix who seem to give “health advice” to their friends and family members without fully understanding the side effects of consumable products.

In my opinion, there is inadequate training and associates are handing out misleading information about the effects and results of weight loss products.

Some may be qualified to give advice but I can tell you, it can be a scary experience for your customer who has a severe reaction and you didn’t know that person was diabetic.

I can also say thru experience after being involved with an MLM herbal company, you need to have proper product knowledge training.

I gave my Dad an herbal product apparently good for the heart, he ended up with heart palpitations. His doctor said the herbal product conflicted with his heart medication. Thankfully, he didn’t die from it but I’ve never forgotten this… almost 20 years ago!

It’s important to have product knowledge thru good training.

5. Inventory

Isagenix has an Autoship order service and even though it’s not required if you choose to use it just be cautious of excess inventory build-up. It’s important to sell your inventory and keep recruiting people.

Once you’re on Autoship, apparently, it’s not that easy to get out of it.

I fell victim to an Autoship with an MLM skin care company, and my sponsor did too. We both ended up with inventory that lasted us over a year. Neither one of us were able to recruit people fast enough.

We could have turned our Autoship off but we wanted the bonuses.

In my opinion, Autoship only benefits the owners.

6. FDA Not Verified

I think this is important to know especially if you join and your customers ask… the company claims have not been verified by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration in the USA).

7. Weight Loss Products Are Expensive

The most popular pak, the 30-Day System Weight Loss Basic Pak is $378.49 USD Retail. 

8. Weight Loss System is Not Sustainable

The problem with Isagenix is they don’t teach you how to keep the weight loss managed. This is why the company encourages you to get back on the same program or tell you to choose a different Isagenix plan.

It’s not a healthy way to lose weight on a long-term basis. It’s going to cost you a fortune to keep your weight down. 

Is Isagenix a Pyramid Scheme? Is it a Scam?

Isagenix is not a pyramid scheme and I’ll tell you why.

First, read what Wikipedia says about the definition of a pyramid scheme. 

The company has real products and the associates are not really pushed into recruiting people to make money. The way to make money is when you and your recruits sell products.

Having said that, yes, you still need to do a lot of recruiting.

The company encourages its customers to use the products first before joining the business opportunity.

Isagenix is also not a scam. Some people are making money.

BUT I still do not recommend them. There are too many people complaining about the side effects they’re experiencing. One individual found himself putting on weight because of the sugar content.

Also, even though there are 254 millionaires, the amount is based on accumulative gross earnings ( 6 years to 15 years). Here’s a thought… if you worked for 15 years with a steady income of around $65,000, would you not have been close to $1,000,000?

Just so you know, there were approximately 80% of the associates who earned less than $337 as of  December 31, 2017, in reference to their Income Disclosure.

There are better ways to lose weight don’t you think?

A Better Way to Make Money Online

If you’re really serious about having your own online business and want to make real money my #1 recommendation is the Affiliate Marketing business model. It’s the most popular way of making real passive income in the internet world.

But to do that, you need to learn how to do Affiliate Marketing and for that my #1 recommendation is Wealthy Affiliate’s training platform.

Why Affiliate Marketing and Wealthy Affiliate?

Here are some reasons:

• You can promote any product(s) you like
• There is no recruiting
• You don’t need inventory
• No experience is required

Want to see how some members of Wealthy Affiliate are making money?

First, let me warn you, like MLM, Affiliate Marketing and Wealthy Affiliate is not the shiny button that’s going to make you rich overnight. This requires hard work, perseverance, and the ability to never quit.

In fact, it could take you 6 months, a year, maybe 2 years or longer before you make any sustainable amount of money and this all depends on how hard you work on your online business. If you’re willing to stay committed and follow the Wealthy Affiliate training, you could do extremely well. It’s up to you!

Meet Vitaliy… CLICK HERE to read his story!

Meet Grace “little mama”… CLICK HERE to read her story!

Are you ready to take the plunge?

Hey Folks,

I really appreciate you reading my review of Isagenix. I hope I was able to give you helpful information. If you’re an associate of Isagenix it would be awesome to hear from you. What are your experiences with MLM?

If you have any questions or comments I would be thrilled to hear from you.

Thank you!

Monica