V Shred Reviews
If you are someone who browses the internet, is interested in losing weight, have fitness goals or are set on achieving your dream body. Chances you will have come across a V-Shred advert. To help you decide if it’s the right choice for you, I wanted to share my experience and add to the reviews on V Shred that are out there.
@emmacolseynicholls Ever wondered if the v-shred programme is worth all the hype? Are these ads forever showing up on your feed?? Well iv done the hard work and bought the program so you dont have to. In my latest blog i share my honest opinion and v shred review #dietreview #vshredprogram
♬ Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) (Extended Version) – Backstreet Boys
If you prefer you can watch in video format, or read it below.
They are everywhere and on every single social media platform that you may use. Showing their endless transformation pictures usually from people showing their shredded abs and how they achieved that in just 90 days.
The marketing hype from this company is immense!!
I believe that v shred as a fitness company is interested in one thing…. Getting their hands on your cash!
It’s companies like this that remind me of the sleazy car salesman, they give the whole fitness industry a bad name.
It actually takes a lot for me to say that, as I genuinely believe that most health and fitness coaches are generally good people. They are people who actually want to help. But then it’s can also be profitable industry that many people take advantage of.
V Shred is bro marketing at its finest and the images they use are over-exaggerated (there have even been claims of using stolen transformation pictures) as well as backed by very questionable methods and claims.
The face of the company is Vince Sant, who is a fitness model who can often be seen in promotional material, usually with his top off.
Being very easy on the eye Vince will speak to your insecurities and this one thing that no one else is talking about, throw in some interesting science claims, talk about his Mom’s body challenges to become more relatable to you, and then make you believe that he has all of the answers and ones that are specific to you and your individual body type.
Claims about things such as metabolic confusion or hormone misfiring, which sound fancy and like it’s exactly what you are experiencing, so you must need their unique solution, right?
The company has had a lot of negative reviews but still, they persist on pumping out diet plans, fitness program and meal plans in abundance, and more people seem to be lapping it up.
So in the name of research and to save you from spending your hard earned money, I took the hit and signed up so that you don’t have to.
Here I give my open and honest V Shred reviews. I am in no way affiliated with this company and I used my own money to purchase the shred program, and this is my own personal opinion as a health coach.
How Much Does V Shred Cost?
There are a couple of different options available, so I suppose it depends on who you are, to which advert you will get targeted with.
On the official website, the workout programmes and diet program with prices (at the time of writing in 2023) include:
- Fat Loss Extreme for him $47
- Fat loss Extreme for her $47
- Ripped in 90 $47
- Move At Home $47
- Custom Diet Plan
- Clean Bulk program $87
- 6 Pack Shred $19.99
- Big Arms $19.99
- Booty Builder $34.95
Their plans are in the affordable range which I like to see.
They claim to offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and have a tonne of positive customer reviews on the V Shred website. But having read some other v shred reviews on the internet and complaints made to the better business bureau, it seems that their customer service is questionable and actually getting your money back on that guarantee may not be as simple as is made out.
I signed up for the Fat Loss Extreme For Her bundle which cost $57 at the time of purchase.
In fact, going through the sign-up process, I actually had no idea what I was signing up for. I answered the questions in the shred body type quiz, and watched the lengthy video and this is what it spat back out at me.
What’s Included In Fat Loss Extreme For her
This bundle includes a 90-day programme, it is a generic one size fits all workout plan with 5 days of training and 2 rest days
- Day 1 is Upper Body
- Day 2 Lower body
- Day3 High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT Workouts)
- Day4 Rest Day
- Day 5 Full Body Circuits
- Day 6 Full Body Circuits
- Day 7 Rest Day
All of the exercise routines are repeated for weeks 1-7. Week 8 introduces the same workout split but different exercises and adds more volume, so there is some element of periodisation.
I actually don’t think that the workout programme for fat loss is bad per say. It’s getting women to lift weights as well as using some high-intensity interval training which is an effective method for female fat loss.
It uses basic compound movements and there is nothing too crazy in these workouts. I actually quite enjoyed them when I tested them out, though I did find them a little too shoulder dominant for me personally. I already have pretty tight shoulders and I had to modify it as this routine would be a surefire way to lead me to an overuse shoulder injury, I could already feel it niggling on week 2 and so changed the routine slightly to include more back work.
The warm-up is seriously lacking, there are no real instructions rather than just doing 5 mins of moderate cardio on the treadmill or a bike. I think that this is a problem with many programmes, that they fail to adequately prepare the body for exercise, and really for real life.
Mobility work is a key and I would say most important part of the work I do with clients and on my own body. Women don’t just need to be stronger and leaner, they also need to move better. Modern living no longer supports good mobility and movement. There is also no post-workout recovery either.
Aside from this, unless you are a complete gym bunny, from my own personal experience of coaching hundreds of women who have busy lives.
Training 5 times a week is often not only unsustainable for most ‘normal’ people, but it’s also unnecessary.
You can get fat loss results with just 3-4 workouts a week and put far less stress on the body and the woman.
You may achieve the results quicker with 5 sessions, but is it sustainable for you?
For many women who already lead high-stress lives, it could be a recipe for disaster. Although he talks the talk in promotional videos talking about helping women to achieve hormonal balance. The truth is there is no individuality when it comes to this programme.
I came into this funnel after watching one of his hormonal videos targeted at the midlife woman who may be experiencing some of this supposed ‘hormone misfiring’. For the peri or menopausal woman, more is not always better when it comes to exercise. Though he claims that you will get a plan that is prescribed for your specific problem, you won’t. From what I can see everyone gets the same thing.
The nutrition plan consists of you getting a calorie and macro guide which I was happy to see, wasn’t stupidly low like it would be if you put your details into an app like MyFitnessPal. You are then given a recipe guide which has 32 recipes to choose from and all recipes contain calories and macros. But that was as far as the nutrition guide went.
The image below is what I was given for my calorie and macro targets after putting in base details such as age, weight and activity levels. This is a fair base guide on a balanced diet.
I paid to upgrade and get a customized plan and additional support from one of the v shred coaches. I wanted to give this a full review and see if the additional support was really worth the money.
This upgrade to a custom diet plan costs an additional $49
For that, I got a done-for-you week-long meal plan. You can see a little more of my plan in the Youtube version of this.
Though in the questionnaire they ask you about any food preferences, I got the feeling that this is a pretty standard meal plan and again they spit out pretty much the same to most people.
I opted for the metabolic confusion, as why not, this sounds fancy and impressive.
It’s basically a carb cycling meal plan where you have some days that are lower carb mixed in with some higher ones.
I did feel a lot hungrier on the lower carb days, but it’s so easier to get pulled into enjoying the number on the scale dropping as a result of eating a lower carb diet. Keeping in mind that weight loss on a low carb diet is usually because of a loss of water weight.
Lower carb diets can also affect energy and recovery levels, you may not be able to perform as well in day tasks, or your next workout, especially if you are training 5 times a week. It’s also thought that training in a low-carb state may increase physiological stress on the bodywhich again for the midlife woman is something that we want to avoid exasperating.
Plus there is no clinical studies or scientific evidence to suggest that carb cycling is effective for long-term fat loss.
You will likely feel a little lighter as your body lets go of water weight, which is what I usually experience. I have to put my logical health coach brain back on to remind myself that it’s not fat loss.
The food selections were ok, apart from being boring AF even if there was a lot of beef in the meal plan, I felt like I was eating enough food as in I didn’t feel hungry most days, though there wasn’t much flexibility or joy in this meal plan either.
I would often veer off plan but still track calories and macros to remain within the guide but have a little more flexibility. But as I coach I had the knowledge of how to do this, this was not guidance given to me via v shred.
With the purchase of the meal plan you also get access to your own coach for 30 days too. For the price of $49 this is not bad at all.
Well, if said coach had actually been any good that is. Any interaction felt like it was an automatically generated response that was coming off a script, and he was mainly concerned with pushing the additional supplements as an add-on, as the coaches likely get commission on those.
This alongside the bombardment of multiple emails each week offering their range of shred supplements is just to get even more money out of you. They claim that you can get the best results by using their supplements such as fat burners, digestive enzymes, amino acids, human growth hormone boost or greens powders.
Don’t get me wrong I use supplements myself, but it’s not the first on my own agenda when working with clients. I always like to come from a food-first approach.
In addition to the food plans and workouts you also get access to the online community. This is a facebook group and the women’s group has over well over 700k members. Just to give you a little inkling of how much money this company is making!!
There are a LOT of people in this group, so as you can imagine it’s quite busy. But the vibe is generally good and lots of people supporting eachother, though I rarely see any interaction from the support team or admin. But I can understand that with that size of group, giving any feedback would be a full time job, though surely with the money they are making they can employ several full time people who should be in carge of the v shred community??
Conclusions
The bottom line is that I actually don’t think it’s a bad plan, it’s a solid base format and will likely be effective for someone wanting to lose weight.
I followed this for about 3 weeks and over that time I did lose about 5lb, but then it got to Christmas and life got in the way as it often does.
I have since then maintained this weight loss and I do still use some of the recipes that I started whilst on the programme.
So whilst it’s a solid plan it isn’t the magic bullet that they promise, or why a special training for your specific body type. Because there is no magic, there is no special plan for your specific body type or somatatype, it’s just not a thing. Because when it comes to weight/fat loss a lot of the base recommendations are all going to be the same.
But here lies the problem with most people, it’s not that they don’t know what to do, but it’s being able to stick with it. And in my own opinion where working more closely with a coach can be beneficial and getting the feedback and support from someone who cares about your progress and not just another number in the hundreds of thousands of people who are signing up to this plan.
What To Do Instead
Despite all of the fitness industry snake all BS that is out there, often the recommendations or the magic bullet will come down to the same few things when you are getting started.
So here is what you can do instead:
- Work out your maintenance calories using an online calculator, and reduce your daily calories by about 10-15%.
- Then select some meals that will help you stay within this calorie target. Be sure to factor in some of your favourite foods to help make it easier to stick with. Prioritise protein in your diet looking for about 30% of your calories to come from protein.
- Look at your own time availability and ask yourself how much time you can realistically spend working out.
- If you truly want to master your metabolism then add strength/resistance training at least 2-3 times a week.
For the women that I work with, I recommend working out 3 times a week. I’d recommend 2 x full body strength sessions and 1 x metabolic conditioning or circuit-type session. For fat loss that lasts you want to work towards building or at least maintaining muscle mass.
That training might look something like this:
Day 1: Full Body Strength Training
- Warm-up: 5-10 minutes of mobility work
- Squats: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Push-ups: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (modify with knee push-ups if needed)
- Bent-over Rows: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Lunges: 3 sets of 10-12 reps per leg
- Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
- Plank: 3 sets, hold for 30-45 seconds
Day 2: Full Body Strength Training
- Warm-up: 5-10 minutes of mobility work
- Deadlifts: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell Chest Press: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Step-ups: 3 sets of 10-12 reps per leg
- Lateral Raises: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Side Plank: 3 sets, hold for 30-45 seconds
Day 3 – Full Body Metabolic Conditioning – Example below
Aim to improve your daily Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis AKA NEAT, but just a fancy way of saying move more on a daily basis, and why working towards a 10k step count can be a good guide. But start with where you are at and build up towards that over time.
But the real magic is in the food that you eat. And it doesn’t have to be perfect, but you do need to be in a small calorie deficit.
Most people drop their calories way too low. Not only does this become unsustainable as you have low energy levels and miss out on all the foods that you love, but it also doesn’t give you the fuel to build lean muscle.
Having more lean muscle is what will have you more metabolically flexible, be able to burn fat more easily as well as give your body that sexy tone and definition that many women are looking for.
The other thing with V-shred is that it does do very little to advise on additional lifestyle factors that are not only going to support fat loss, but they are going to help you have more energy and generally feel better from the inside out.
Factors such as reducing stress, and making sure you get enough sleep. As these play a huge role in supporting your ability to stick to any diet or exercise routine.
To get started with, it really doesn’t need to be more complicated than this. Sure there can be a lot to get right, but it’s important to take small steps and progress over time.
And my mantra for making progress in a way that is sustainable and will last for the long term, is to ask yourself ‘Could I keep on doing this forever’ because that is when you will start to win.
I hope this v shred review helped you to determine if this plan is the right path forward for you.
Stop looking for quick fixes or the magic plan that will be the answer to all of your problems, and start applying long term solutions. The way you will win is when you take responsibility and carve your own path for your happy healthy body, and that is rarely found in a 30 or 90 day fix.
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