Stronger U: Nutrition Coaching Review
I started talking about the Quarantine 15 (#Q15) last summer and worked diligently throughout the year to try to shuck off. There is plenty of evidence of this throughout the year on this site (here). Nutrition, fitness and wellness are my passion and heck, tangentially my job at this point and I just struggled (and struggled, and white-knuckled it, and struggled some more). And we don’t have to like belabor the point, but certainly, it got to the point where I was tired of taking photos (which is, they tell me, necessary for a lifestyle site*) and therefore, caused a break in even talking about nutrition because it was just a grind.
You may have never heard of Stronger U. You may have seen it pop-up in your feed. If you’re one of the crossfit or peloton-cultists, you’ve probably seen it in your Peloton Mom Facebook group. Maybe you’re like me and had a friend join this cult because of her Peloton cult, looked up the program and thought, “Holy Sh$!. I’d never pay that much money for an online nutrition program!”**
“So, is Stronger U worth your money?”
How it Works
Stronger U is an online nutritional coach company. There is no meal plan, no exercise program, no attractive models in their 20s or whatever. Just coaches - some former personal trainers, some registered nutritions, some fitness coaches and a website. And that’s it. And while that doesn’t sound magic, man, it really is.
Like most nutrition anything, there is a community built around Stronger U but I have to say, it feels a lot more positive and healthy than other online communities. Maybe it’s the age of the people involved but it’s just a lot more mediated about “okay. we’re not here to try and lose 20lbs by starving ourselves for 14 days” or self-flagellation for not sticking to “the program” exactly. (Like the corners of the internet where women, in particular, beat themselves up for eating something beyond lettuce, mostly for attention, it’s just exhausting at this point.) It’s been a relief, honestly. Plus, people are nice and helpful and the actual founder and coaches are deeply involved in the group (and course-correct the group answer when needed).
Review
Program Review
I, obviously, have largely positive things to say and you came here for the tea? I mean, you can see in this graph where I start Stronger U and where I’m at today.
Pros
Physical
I’ve been up about 12 lbs or so and I’m down those 12 lbs.** I also have to point this out: I lost weight, ON VACATION by being mildly conscientious about my calorie (and namely alcohol) intake. Normally a vacation derails me but here, dude, I was pumped up to be able to have my spicy margs and french fries and not only not “undo” my progress (because when you’ve only lost a hard-won 6lbs, 5 lbs of borrowed water weight can be crushing) but in fact, made the most progress I had in the entire program. Craziness! And that might very well be equated to the reduction in stress,
Mental
Which brings me to the mental benefits. It’s been freaking amazing to finally be in a place where I can focus on fat loss without getting hung up on the number on the scale because I’m comfortable where I am but encouraged knowing that I can get closer to my idea of success.
Accountability
As far as coaching, I know that other people have coaches who are an emotional support or who get back to them in five seconds or are very bff, I don’t personally have that relationship with my coach. I’m actually pretty okay with that. The coach I have is a registred dietician. She hears me out when I want to try something else, she gives me guardrails where I need them *cough seriously. I LOVE SPICY MARGARITAS* and just knowing that she’s there, really helps me but it’s not like, let’s go to the mall together, ya know? Although, if you get matched with someone whose style isn’t quite what you’re looking for, you can always switch.
Most importantly, the coaches do push their clients. They are thoughtful when life happens or even when you’re just burnt out on the fat loss phase. My coach has strongly encouraged me to be realistic about when I’ve needed to have maintenance calories versus setting unrealistic fat loss macros. (A common Stronger U phrase, “It’s doesn’t matter where your macros are set, it matters where they are met”). That can be really frustrating when you’re trying to hit a certain goal but a specific date but a trained professional knows when you’re about to sick of all of it and help you get back on a sustainable path.
Cons
There are, of course, cons. You eat whatever you eat - there’s no meal plan and it’s not strongly encouraged to get meal prepped food unless you intend to do it long-term. You do utilize multiple tracking apps - at least two. One to input your food and one the Stronger U Web-based App. MFP used to auto integrate into the SU app but MFP has been wonky af recently so now you manually enter it. This doesn’t bother me personally but all beta apps have their bugs.
Tracking/Measuring
There are, of course, cons. You eat whatever you eat - there’s no meal plan and it’s not strongly encouraged to get meal prepped food unless you intend to do it long-term. It is generally recommended to eat the simply “boring” food that helps you hit your macros, especially in the beginning. It can be frustrating for your partner who really loves to cook and make recipes to have you sit there and creep to make sure no olive oil is just being splashed in a pain that will f**k your macros for the day. Oh, and the actual con here - the weighing. I weigh all my food except for: 1) greens; 2) mustard; 3) hot sauce; 4) spices and fresh herbs. Otherwise, I weigh everything - vegetables, proteins and you know removing grains of rice from my plate. It definitely adds some time in between the “Food’s ready!” and time to eat which can be frustrating at times.
The idea for both these “cons” though is with enough practice you can eyeball portion sizes. For the recipes part of it, the idea is also when you graduate to maintenance, you don’t have to be quite as perfectly precise and can, therefore, guesstimate. For the cut/fat-loss stage that I’ve been in, the margin for success is pretty thin as there is fat to lose but not a lot of excess body weight. So, it’s really been: Weighing every ingredient as it goes into the pan and then, weighing the whole recipe, inputting the whole recipe into MFP, weighing a portion of it and then, tracking that 1/4 of the recipe you ate. It’s, honestly, my least favorite effing thing. And if you don’t write all that mess down, you have no idea how to track leftovers.
Low and Slow
The interesting thing about reducing body fat this way is that that the number of the scale says something I’ve seen before but my body composition is pretty different than when I strictly stick to a nutrition and workout plan (you know, the undereating over-exercising thing). But again, that by itself has helped me not care as much about the number on the scale but it’s not equating to the look I correspond to that number. I mean, I guess that could feel like a negative but it’s really allowed me to get this comfortable place and then, turn around and focus on a strength training program. That’s not to say that any long-term nutrition program is not frustrating - it is at points - when the scale isn’t going down when the perceived exertion is not matching the results when you’re out to dinner and you’re trading-off higher fat-content food for wine and vice versa. At the moment, the progress is going so slowly because there’s just not that much room to move. But that’s when it’s super helpful to discuss your ragesauraus-rex with another human you pay money to keep you on track and figure out how to move in a positive direction.
Cost
Oh, and I do have to be upfront here. I have twice gotten a promo code for 90% off of Noom for a year so I think it literally cost like $70 for a full year. As far as trackers, there are tons of free versions of those, the most popular of which is MyFitnessPal. This costs $450 for 3 months. And if you pay per month, it’s $159/mos with a three-month minimum commitment. It is an investment, to be sure. And on top of all the other things, you might want or need in your fitness/wellness life, in addition to the fact it is definitely meant to be a longer than 12-week program. You show up for the fat loss but people really get the “win” in using their coach to maintain their weight (versus yo-yo-ing back up to their former weight).