Chew The Fat Off Review: Pay to play weight loss

Chew The Fat Off launched in late 2015 and are based out of California in the US.

Heading up the company is Stuart Finger, who is credited as Chew The Fat Off’s Founder and President. Finger’s brother, Steve Finger serves as CEO.

As per Stuart Finger’s Chew The Fat Off corporate bio;

Stuart Finger, Founder of CTFO, has been a successful network marketer and company owner since 1989.

He achieved a high ranking position in his first company and the top position in his second company, building teams of many thousands of people.

He then owned and operated his own successful company for 18 years with tens of thousands of distributors and hundreds of thousands of customers.

Finger (right) first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the CEO of GBG, otherwise known as “Guided By God”.

The company has origins dating back to 1996, with Alexa statistics for the GBG website domain suggesting the business has been in decline for some time.

Curiously, it looks like GBG might have been sold off. As per the company’s Facebook page, in late 2015 they were advising affiliates of a “transition” to something called “Novus Era”.

You all now have a position and back office in Novus Era.

You will also receive a new ID number with Novus Era, but don’t worry, your downline and your current auto ship will remain untouched.

Starting 10/22/15 you will start to see Novus Era on your bank transactions instead of Novus DBA GBG.

The Novus Era website domain is owned by “Globus Holdings, LLC”, a Nevada corporation.

At the time of publication, Stuart Finger does not appear on the “corporate team” page of the GBG website.

Read on for a full review of the Chew The Fat Off MLM business opportunity.

The Chew The Fat Off Product Line

Chew The Fat Off primarily market weight loss products, with their flagship product being ShakeOff.

Shake0ff meal replacement shakes are different.

Yes, they are delicious, which is important because when you like something you will naturally keep taking it – even if it is good for you.

More importantly though, these shakes are completely nutritious and are perfectly balanced with everything your body needs to perform optimally and release excess fat.

They contain whey protein isolate, pea protein, Sunfiber, a unique blend of vitamins and minerals, natural flavors and no artificial sweeteners.

They are also 100% Gluten-Free!

26 meal servings of ShakeOff costs $79.97.

Other products Chew The Fat Off market include:

• ChewOff ($49.97 for a bottle of 52 tablets) – “chocolate flavored, power packed, healthy bite-sized snacks”
• Super7 ($49.97 for a bottle of 60 chewable tablets) – “a delicious blend of the world’s 7 major Super Fruits; Amalaki, Acai, Goji, Mangosteen, Pomegranate, Blueberry and Cranberry”
• DrinkOff ($29.97 for 600 refill bottle) – “ideal personal water consumption device featuring the ionic absorption micro filtration system”
• ShakeOff Shaker Cup ($1.97) – plastic cup

Chew The Fat Off products are also bundled in a series of monthly packages:

• Get Fit Starter Package ($199.97) –  “includes everything you need for your first month, including 1 Chew0ff, 2 Shake0ffs, 1 Drink0ff and 1 shaker cup”
• Complete Get Fit Starter Package ($239.97) – as above with a bottle of Super7
• Complete Get Fit Package ($219.97) – “includes 1 Chew0ff, 1 Super7 and 2 Shake0ffs”
• Get Fit Package ($174.97) – “the package that you’ll need after your first month while you’re still trying to reach your goal weight”
• Complete Stay Fit Package ($144.97) – “specifically designed to help maintain your goal weight by replacing just 1 meal each day”
• Stay Fit Package – as above, minus bottle of Super7

The Chew The Fat Off Compensation Plan

Chew The Fat Off pay upfront commissions via a 3×3 matrix, with residuals paid out through a unilevel.

Note that for the purpose of commission calculation, both retail and downline affiliate purchases pay out the same.

MLM Commission Qualification

In order to qualify for residual MLM commissions, Chew The Fat Off affiliates are required to purchase Chew The Fat Off products each month.

The company does not disclose the minimum purchase required.

Chew The Fat Off Affiliate Ranks

There are seven affiliate ranks within the Chew The Fat Off compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

• 1st Level Manager – make a sale to one retail customer or recruited affiliate
• 2nd Level Manager – maintain at least two retail customers or recruited affiliates
• Senior Manager – maintain at least three retail customers or recruited affiliates
• Executive Manager – maintain at least seven retail customers or recruited affiliates
• Vice President – have a total downline volume of $25,000 a month
• Senior Vice President – have a total downline volume of $50,000 a month
• Executive Vice President – have a total downline volume of $100,000 a month

Matrix Commissions

Chew The Fat off pay commissions on affiliate and retail first orders through a 3×3 matrix.

A 3×3 matrix places an affiliate at the top of the matrix, with three positions directly under them:

These initial three positions form the first level of the matrix, with the second level generated by splitting each of the three first-level positions into another three positions each (9 positions).

The third level of the matrix is generated by splitting the nine second-level positions into three again (27 positions).

Commissions are paid out at a rate of about 50% of the price paid for products, with residual commissions paid on non-personally recruited affiliates or retail customers.

The Chew The Fat Off compensation plan material does not disclose the percentage payouts on levels 2 and 3 of the matrix.

Of note is that after an affiliate’s third sale (to either a recruited affiliate or retail customer), the fourth and onwards sales generate a new pay position within the affiliate’s existing 3×3 matrix.

This pay position takes up a position in the matrix, with commissions generated below it paid out in double (and sometimes triple) via existing pay positions above it.

Additional pay positions are inserted into an affiliate’s existing 3×3 matrix left to right, in the first available position in the matrix.

Residual Commissions

If a recruited affiliate or retail customers continues to order Chew The Fat Off products, a 20% commission on 50% of the purchase price is paid out each month.

This residual commission does not require an affiliate to purchase Chew The Fat Off products.

Residual Unilevel Commissions

After a recruited affiliate or retail customer’s first order, commissions on ongoing orders are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates go on to recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Chew The Fat Off cap payable unilevel levels at twenty-one, with commissions paid out as a percentage of the 50% commission generated on residual orders as follows:

• 1st Level Manager – 1% on level 1
• 2nd Level Manager – 1% on level 1 and 2% on level 2
• Senior Manager – 1% on level 1, 2% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 5% on level 4, 10% on level 5, 15% on level 6 and 20% on level 7
• Executive Manager – 1% on level 1, 2% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 5% on level 4, 10% on level 5, 15% on level 6, 20% on level 7 and 1% on levels 8 to 14
• Vice President or higher – 1% on level 1, 2% on level 2, 3% on level 3, 5% on level 4, 10% on level 5, 15% on level 6, 20% on level 7, 1% on levels 8 to 14 and 1% on levels 15 to 21

Infinity Bonus

Chew The Fat Off’s Infinity Bonus pays affiliates a commission percentage beyond the initial twenty-one unilevel levels offered.

The bonus pays out 2% at the Vice President rank, 5% at the Senior Vice President rank and 10% at the Executive Vice President rank.

Joining Chew The Fat Off

Affiliate membership with Chew The Fat Off is free, however affiliates must make a minimum product purchase each month to qualify for MLM commissions.

Unfortunately Chew The Fat Off do not disclose what the minimum product purchase to qualify for commissions is.

If I had to guess, I’d say you’re looking at a minimum $49.97 fee each month to stay commission qualified (I can’t see the $29.97 water bottle or $1.97 shaker cup doing it).

Conclusion

At its core, Chew The Fat off is essentially a reworking of GBG with a new product line.

GBG had the same “phantom positions” matrix concept going on, which Chew The Fat Off maintain is “copyrighted”.

The problem as I see it is, although Chew The Fat Off has a retail element, the focus of the business is affiliate recruitment.

This is first and foremost evidenced by the fact that affiliates have to purchase Chew The Fat Off products in order to earn MLM commissions.

Single-level commissions are possible with free affiliate membership, but are neither here nor there when evaluating Chew The Fat Off as an MLM business opportunity.

By forcing affiliates to purchase products each month to qualify to earn commissions, Chew The Fat Off foster a “pay to play” culture that inevitably lends itself to a focus on recruitment.

Retail customers can’t expand a matrix, so naturally Chew The Fat Off affiliates are going to be looking to recruit affiliates to grow their downlines.

Those affiliates have to purchase product to qualify for MLM commissions, with this focus on recruitment likely generating the vast majority of commissionable volume paid out.

Am I saying there’s no retail in Chew The Fat Off? No. But I am saying it’s likely that was retail does exist will be pretty insignificant.

As a potential Chew The Fat Off affiliate, the good news is this is easy to ascertain. Just ask your potential upline how many monthly retail customers they have, and compare that to the number of affiliates they’ve personally recruited.

A ratio in favor of retail customers is what you’re looking for, with the opposite indicative of a product-based pyramid scheme.