Chocolate Shakeology Review And Comparison
A morning nutrition shake has been a staple of my diet for many years. While I’m not into Slim Fast (don’t get me started) I am into balanced high quality shakes and have been known to try different shakes to add some variety. Last year I was introduced to Green Monsters at HLS and absolutely loved them.
A few weeks ago @rhondalayton from Motivation Mama Drama dropped a call out on Twitter for people interested in trying Shakeology so I jumped at the chance. I’ve heard a lot about Shakeology and figured it would be nice to find another shake to rotate through in addition to the Full Strength shake I already use.
Thanks go out to Rhonda for sending me this sample!
Note: For full disclosure, I received a single (as in 1 serving) packet of Chocolate Shakeology free of charge to try. I was otherwise not compensated in any way nor was I asked to write a review, I’m doing so because I wanted to share my opinion.
Packet Comparison
First things first, a glamor shot of the Shakeology Shake Packet:
Nice hand model 
I was actually surprised at the size of the shake packet, it was tiny. I think I’ve been trained for 11+ years to visually think of shake packets to be sized like the Myoplex and Full Strength ones:
As you can see the Shakeology packet is much smaller than the others when placed side by side. After looking at the nutrition information and serving size I can immediately see why:
This is roughly half the serving size of a Myoplex or Full Strength shake. Here’s a quick spreadsheet I threw together showing how Shakeology nutritionally compares to Full Strength and Myoplex.
At first glance Shakeology looks like significantly less calories but after you normalize the serving size you see how it really compares to the rest.
Overall it’s not too bad in terms of Calories and Fat which is nice but what gives with the Sugar? Shakeology has over 4x the Sugar of Full Strength and 9x that of Myoplex. I don’t understand why they’d throw that much sugar into a “healthy” shake but maybe I’m missing something.
I sometimes like to augment my shakes with fruit of peanut butter (yes I’m an addict) for added flavor but with that much added sugar, and the total carbohydrates already being high I’d think twice with the Shakeology.
The other disadvantage (for me) of Shakeology over the others is that it has significantly less Protein. Shakeology has 6g less Protein than Full Strength and 9g less than Myoplex. If you don’t care about protein being higher then this might might not be a biggie but to me I need all I can get and starting my day with a good shot of protein, especially after a hard workout, is always a plus.
On to the tasting!!!
Here’s a glamor shot of the Shakeology shake in the blender. One thing I noticed right away was how much clumpier it was than Full Strength. Then again when I first got Full Strength I noticed how much it didn’t clump compared to Myoplex so that’s probably not a biggie
Here’s a bad shot (sorry it’s so dark and a tad blurry) from my iPhone of the shake after blending. I have a pretty powerful Vitamix blender that I usually let do it’s thing for about a minute and for the Shakeology I did about 1.5 cups of water and a handful of ice.
So what was my first impression … in 2 words … Gritty & Filmy.
Check out the grainy leftover in my cup, the blender didn’t fair much better. I’ve had many a shake in my life and it’s been years since I tasted grit in my mouth drinking one.
I blended it for a whole minute like I do all my shakes and if you know the Vitamix you’ll know it’s a beast of a blender, especially when you have one like mine where Low is broke so it’s all High all the time.
Once I was past the gritty texture it tasted like chocolate, went down smooth, and it didn’t upset my stomach. It wasn’t the tastiest shake I’ve ever had (that’s reserved for Full Strength) but it wasn’t horrible either. All in all the Shakeology Chocolate shake left me unimpressed and wishing for something smoother and tastier.
So what about cost?
Ever the consumer and always worried about the bottom line I was curious what the cost of Shakeology was and how it stacked up with the competition. Well here’s a breakdown of roughly what it’d cost you.
First, you have to realize that this is the normalized cost per shake not the cost per packet. Since both Full Strength and Myoplex are roughly twice the serving size of the Shakeology I doubled their count in the Normalized Count column and used that to calculate the cost.
So what do these numbers tell you?
The Shakeology shake is very expensive per serving when compared to the competition. It’s almost 3x more expensive than Myoplex and almost 2x more expensive than Full Strength. I would have thought that it would be a cheaper option or more aligned with the pricing of the competition but it wasn’t.
Part of me thinks that Beach Body (the makers of Shakeology) are capitalizing on people not understanding serving sizes and also on the popularity of their DVD products. Ask anyone who’s been inducted into Beach Body or a similar program and they’ll tell you that Shakeology is where the Beach Body coaches make their money, it’s not on the DVD’s. Tying you into the monthly Shakeology shake sales is their bread and butter, not the one off sale of the Insanity, P90X, or other DVD’s.
And you know what, there’s nothing wrong with that so long as consumers are armed with the right information to make an informed decision. For me, having a shake with better protein and vitamin profile is what I’m looking for out of my nutrition shake. For others, a smaller serving size and lower calories is more important … to each their own.
One thing to also make note of that you might not have gleamed from the grid above is that the Shakeology option ties you in to a monthly payment and delivery which is both convenient and concerning. Make sure to ask if there are any cancelation fees and what the up front costs are. Also note that the cost is higher when you don’t sign up for the monthly version … I think it’s $120 but I’m not certain so be sure to ask about other purchasing options if you go this route.
Another thing to note is that there is a reoccurring payment / delivery option for Full Strength as well but it’s not required. Again, be sure to read the fine print with them if you go with that option. Personally, I just order mine 6 boxes at a time (which saves some $) and make sure to order when needed.
In Conclusion
The Shakeology texture was gritty and the chocolate taste wasn’t impressive. Combine that with the overall cost with the small serving size and I can’t recommend it. I really hope that the gritty problem I encountered was an anomaly but first impressions leave an indelible mark and for me it means I’m not a Shakeology fan.
Have you had a different experience or think maybe I made it wrong? That is assuming your not a Beach Body coach
I agree with your assessment here. I also tried the chocolate one and it was strange but the shake actually caused a burning like feeling on my gums while I was drinking it. The cost is just way too prohibitive in my thinking and quite honestly I just cannot be satisfied having a shake in place of a meal. I love how your review looked at all the sides.
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This is crazy, Shakeology offers you way more then what any shake offers you beyond protein carbs and sugar. What about all the antioxidents, phytonutrients, digestive enzymes and so much more to even list. You don’t find half the ingredients they have in others. As for the taste, I love it and use just a shaker and its one of the only shakes that actually tastes like chocolate.
Say what you want, you obviously haven’t looked at the ingredients of Full Stength if you’re just blanket making the statement that it offers more than something you haven’t looked at. 95% of the ingredients are the same including a number of the things you listed. It really comes down in the end to satisfaction, affordability, and baseline nutrition.
You like Shakeology which is fine, I don’t which is also fine. I’ve asked people who love it and almost all of them mix Shakeology with Almond milk and not water, I didn’t try that. I also don’t know how it ended up gritty but it did. I’m always open to try new things but I can’t ignore the expense of Shakeology either. Serving for serving it’s way more expensive than the competition, you can’t deny that.
I know a lot of people that love Shakeology and just as many that don’t. Use what works for you and you can afford and go from there. Thanks for sharing your viewpoint, I appreciate it.
Well, your comparison seems fair for the info you gave, but I have a question: do you know if the amount of the ingredients in Full Strength you are not showing in the table are a ‘full serving’ if you normalize such as the probiotics?
As an example, you have to cut all the RDAs to normalize by a big chunk as well, making Full Strength have less in that normalized serving than Shakeology.
Also as another poster said, you’ve left out the probiotics, enzyme, and ‘super fruit’ blend which includes such things as acai.
I’ll say that I don’t think Shakeology can be compared to any other shake as far as variety of ingredients–over 70!
It’s a different sort of concept if you ask me, i.e. a meal replacement and a good place to get extra fruit and veggies. A macro shake/diet.
Blending: I use a bullet type blender and get VERY smooth shakes. I agree that the regular blender type doesn’t make great shakes. I recommend a bullet type.
Taste: I make a chocolate peppermint mocha with a few cheap, low calorie additions to the shake that I would compare side by side taste-wise with an ice cream shake. No kidding.
As to cost, I get 33-35 scoops/servings and I’ve carefully leveled the scoop in the *bulk bag* for 2 months. I never get just 30 days. You don’t have to buy the individual packets. Bags are cheaper.
And you can try Shakeology FREE for *30* days. Send the EMPTY bag back if not satisfied and pay only S&H. With a subscription, which you can cancel ANY TIME, you get free S&H.
Aaaaaand you get a support system via the social aspects of beachbodyrob.com and PERSONAL support, that you don’t get from wherever you’re buying shakes most likely.
And yes, that costs more, but I personally happen to have the goal of creating successes. That will get me a lot more business than just putting product out the door.
Personal involvement has to be the most important factor with Shakeology and Beachbody as a whole.
rob
beachbodyrob.com
Interesting article, you have some good points. I drink the chocolate Shakeology, and as you mentioned in your comment, I do mix it with almond milk. I tried the Greenberry Shakeology mixed with water, and it was very gritty. Now that being said, I discovered, as have a lot of people, that you need to add more liquid than the directions indicate. This helps increase absorption into the solution, and makes it less gritty.
I have just purchased the turbofire dvds but find that the shakeolgy drinks are far to expensive. Even though it has good reviews i just cannot affor it.
I rec’d an intro packed. Initially, didn’t like the taste as I was using another that req’d skim milk and had a better taste. I thought I’d give Shakeology a chance because transporting the skim milk can be a hassle. Trying to order was a nightmare! My password didn’t work, the pw they sent me didn’t work…I finally found a phone # and talked to three people in India that I could not understand. Nice enough-still couldn’t understand. My stress level had enough momentum to actually launch into space. Now, I’m looking for another shake (less calories and less sugar). Supporting the U.S. economy is also appealing. BTW, I totally agree that Shakeology is very expensive. Don’t think the body absorbs all those nutrients anyway?