Arbonne Weight Loss Program Review: 3 Things You need to Know?

One of the most common challenges that people face is weight loss.

Even when we know what we should be doing, weight loss ends up being much harder to achieve than it sounds.

As a result, it’s easy to turn to diets and programs that offer solutions – and there is no shortage of these on the market.

This post takes a look at one such option, which comes from Arbonne.

Specifically, the post will provide an Arbonne Weight Loss Program review and give you all the evidence you need to make up your own mind.

What is the Arbonne Weight Loss Program?

Now, for the most part, Arbonne itself doesn’t promote a specific weight loss program. However, various consultants do seem to highlight Arbonne detox diets, challenges and weight loss approaches.

Regardless of the specific approach used, the general idea is that you consume a healthy diet, while also relying on the various supplements.

However, the products are certainly on the expensive side. For example, the protein shake mixes cost $74 each.

The bags here contain 30 servings, so you’re basically paying around $2.50 per day.

The price of the powder and the various supplements may be worth it if they were actually effective. But, are they?

Arbonne Weight Loss Program Reviews

There are various Arbonne Weight Loss Program reviews on the site itself, like the one below.

However, this isn’t really a good way to know whether the program works. After all, you’re not likely to see negative reviews on the site. For that matter, the company is going to present the most convincing stories possible.

As the site Twenty Two Words points out, before and after photos can be easily faked anyway.

Instead, a good place to look is on Amazon, where you can see what people think of the actual products. Now, you can’t buy all of the products together on Amazon but they are sold individually.

For the Arbonne weight loss shakes, the reviews are mixed. Some reviewers seem to think highly of them, while others are less impressed. The review distribution below is one example and comes from the site Weight Loss Top.

One key aspect was that reviewers seemed very pleased with the taste of the shakes, while people were also losing weight.

But, as is always the case, not everyone agrees. 

The shakes were also fairly common on Amazon, with many reviewers and multiple sellers.

However, this does seem to change over time, probably because distributors aren't meant to be selling this way. ​For example, I checked back a month or so after this review was initially posted and found no sellers for the protein powder. 

In contrast, there were almost no examples of the supplements. The main listing I found was Arbonne Essentials Digestion Plus. It received decent reviews but there weren't many of them. 

Realistically, these review patterns don't tell us much.

There are too many Arbonne distributors out there - and people are often biased when they write reviews. Instead, we’re going to take a look at the science and the logic behind the program.

The key focus on Arbonne is on weight loss. But, that's not what all of their products are about. Instead, many of the items are simply used to promote health in general. This includes skincare items and supplements, along with other product ranges. 

Reviews vary across products but many of the items are well-received. For example, it's not unusual to see comments like these:

In part, views of the products depend on what people are looking for. For example, the items may be fairly decent but they are still on the expensive side and won't be the absolute best on the market. 

One other area to mention is transparency and quality. Arbonne's marketing consistently focuses on the idea of amazing and high-quality products. Yet, for a long time, they didn't even offer their ingredients list and were difficult to contact.  

This topic was examined in detail by Meghan Telpner, who accused the company of healthwashing. Since then, Arbonne has made significant changes, including offering more details about their products. 

But, even then, most of the changes have been marketing spin. At best, the products are as healthy as other 'green' options on the market. Even then, they don't seem to be revolutionary.

For that matter, all of the product types Arbonne promotes are fairly common. There are also many other companies in the field that focus on high-quality items and on reducing chemicals. As such, you can easily find other products that are at least as good, if not better. 

Does the Arbonne Weight Loss Program Work?

The company provides some fairly impressive statistics for the success of its program and these do make it seem pretty exciting.

However, there is a disclaimer with that information:

Basically, the participants in the study had the Full Control and ThermoBooster supplements, along with Arbonne weight loss shakes.

But, they were also following a ‘calorie restricted diet with moderate exercise’.

Well… you could easily meet all of those above claims with that type of diet alone, even if the products weren’t a part of it.

Which begs the question, what role do the products even play?

Let’s start with the protein shake.

Like many companies, Arbonne produces a meal replacement shake. This product contains some sugar, along with many of the nutrients that you’d normally get in a meal.

This type of shake can truly be effective for weight loss.

In theory, you end up replacing some of your food intake with a shake. So, you may have a lighter lunch and a shake or even have the shake instead of lunch (or a different meal). When consumed like this, a shake can decrease the number of calories you consume in a given day – contributing to weight loss.

One of the most important aspects of the shake is protein, which helps people to feel full and can reduce cravings for other types of food. Additionally, protein is actually good for health, which is another reason to have the shakes.

In this case, the protein shakes contain 20 g of protein per serving, which is fairly impressive.

However, protein shakes are not at all unique.

There are many other similar companies that have the same type of idea, like Shakeology. Plus, you can buy inexpensive alternatives from grocery stores and online.

Personally, I recommend relying on whey protein shakes, rather than what Arbonne offers. That type of shake is a little different, as there isn’t an emphasis on lots of nutrients. Instead, the focus is just on protein, which also means that you often won’t be consuming as much sugar.

What about the rest of the weight loss program?

Well, the various supplements aren’t really that encouraging.

For example, ThermoBooster’s key ingredient is green coffee bean extract.

I’m not sure what specific study they’re referencing here (as the site doesn’t say). But, green coffee bean extract has mostly been debunked and the most powerful study supporting it was even retracted because it was so badly flawed (1).

Overall, the evidence for this supplement is almost nonexistent in humans and there are very few studies that show any support at all. The studies that have shown effects also tend to be poorly designed and the size of the impact isn’t substantial (2,3,4).

There are other ingredients in the supplement too but nothing has much more evidence.

For example, green tea has been linked to health benefits but there is minimal evidence that you can actually lose weight supplementing it. Realistically, you'd be better off drinking green tea.

There is also a host of other ingredients included, such as ginger, cocoa, black pepper and cayenne pepper. These components do tend to offer health benefits, which you can read about in the links.

However, you probably wouldn’t get much benefit consuming little bits of them within a supplement, especially as it isn’t even clear how much you get. You’d be much better just getting ginger and dark chocolate into your diet and black pepper in your cooking.

Plus, the connection between these ingredients and weight loss isn’t strong anyway.

Full Control works a little differently. Here, the focus is on stopping you from feeling hungry. For the most part, this seems to be done through the ingredient glucomannan.

This is a type of dietary fiber that is sometimes used as a weight loss supplement. Because this is fiber, it would contribute to a sense of fullness and it could help to reduce the absorption of fat and protein (5,6). Some evidence also suggests that it can help promote gut health as well (7,8).

But, does this translate into weight loss?

Some research suggests that it does (9,10,11), at least in the short-term.

However, you can also buy glucomannan on its own for a fraction of the price of what Arbonne’s Full Control costs and there is no evidence that Arbonne’s version is any more effective.

The idea of the supplement is to make you feel full, so it would only work for weight loss if you were careful about your diet as well. In conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise, the supplement could possibly help, as could the shakes from above.

Weight Loss is a Personal Challenge

Just about every diet out there comes with some people who have genuinely seen success. This is why you’ll see some positive Arbonne Weight Loss Program reviews out there, along with success stories for pretty much every diet type you can imagine.

In part, this happens because everybody has their own set of needs. Additionally, techniques that work great for one person are a horrible idea for somebody else.

Take ketosis for example.

A ketogenic diet can be a very powerful way to lose weight because you are actually forcing your body to burn fat. But, at the same time, the diet relies on you keeping your carb intake incredibly low.

That makes for a pretty strict diet where you have to avoid some types of food almost entirely. For some people, that approach isn’t an issue and many people find the diet extremely easy to follow. For others, the diet is almost impossible.

In contrast, some diet techniques rely on counting calories or something similar (like Weight Watchers).

I’ve seen this work for some people but I can’t personally imagine being able or willing to consistently count and monitor what I was eating for the rest of my life.

There are also other options, like intermittent fasting, where the focus isn’t on what you eat or even how much but instead on when you eat.

Like other autophagy diets, this can be tough early on, especially as you may often be hungry. But, the diet type can also be exceptionally easy for some because you pay much less attention to what you eat.

With all of this in mind, the Arbonne Weight Loss Program may actually work for you.

The approach may be especially relevant for people who cannot stand being hungry. But, even so, you’re better off buying protein powder and glucomannan separately, rather than going with Arbonne’s overpriced versions.

You may also want to consider whether you want to rely on supplements anyway.

There are plenty of healthy weight loss lifestyles, like the ones I mentioned above, that are effective and don’t focus on supplements. Following one of these is often more powerful and means you don’t have to invest money in pills month after month.

Plus, at the end of the day, it’s always going to be better to get healthy nutrients in through your diet rather than trying to shortcut the process.

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