CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet

Their auto renewal process is predatory. Put a reminder in your calendar to cancel - they’re going to spam your inbox and hide behind “we told you when you signed up” and “we put it in every email” when you say you weren’t notified of the auto renewal date. The auto renewal email came in amongst marketing materials with the title “the more you… Read more

use, the more you lose”… who would know that’s an auto renewal? I have reported their practice to the ACCC so hopefully they will make it more clear closer to renewal and save others from being in the same predicament I am.

I have just started week 2 of the fast start program which means that breakfast and lunch are replaced by shakes. Although I have lost 1.6kgs in the first week, I have suffered from crippling fatigue, headaches, constipation, and dizziness in that time. I have reached out to the customer support line, however, haven’t had a response. My GP was… Read more

happy for me to start this program. I’m hoping these symptoms will ease. I don’t want to waste the shakes as I can’t get a refund and they were quite costly. Also the website is not user friendly. There is no generic search button that I can find and I have spent days trying to work it out.

I decided to give the diet a go as I’ve heard that it’s a “scientific” backed program. So I got online…paid for it and downloaded the app to get started. I spent around half of the day trying to battle my way thru setting up the app to suit me! Now… Read more

I’m not the most able when it comes to app stuff but I found it extremely confusing as it gets to a point…then stops…hit the next button….nothing. I finally got online via my laptop and got thru it that way…went back to the app and had to start all over again…frustrating. I then started looking thru the menu’s and couldn’t find a recipe that suited me (even though I gave a them my medical history) so I decided to try a recipe and delete what I can’t eat. So I selected a daily menu…went back to default menu!! I searched for the help button …found it…not helpful. I tried to find a number to call, found it and kept going to a message bank. Decided to email their “support” people, all I got was a generic response. After 2 days of trying to get started I was so frustrated I decided to to cancel so I went thru what I thought was the cancellation process and got a generic response saying they have cancelled the automatic renewal so I emailed back saying….NO I want a refund and got a response telling me again that I will not be getting a renewal and they acknowledge a cancellation and I can still continue to use the diet…..now I’m extremely confused as they don’t seem to (either) acknowledge the cancellation or I’m talking to a bot again. I responded to this email and got a notice that out of “Goodwill”….they will give me a 2 thirds refund and I could continue using the diet…I CANT USE THE DIET and I wanted a full refund. Now I get no response from them and I feel it has cost me $33 to find out I can’t use their diet program. I feel they didn’t take any notice of my medical conditions and don’t have a big selection of meals to choose from. I will be writing a review on the app as it’s not that easy to use either.

CSIRO TWD. Initially experience was dreadful! However its got better – Yes, their had been a few issue. The Member Success Team genuinely thanked me for the feedback provided. They were quick to respond, understood and acknowledged the issues and resolved my concerns within the time frames they stated. More crucially allowed me reset and restart the program so I could get on with what I has set out to achieve. My… Read more ·  1

revised review reflects a satisfactory outcome, the great work of the Member Success Team to explain the problem and resolve the issues. Finally the Total Wellbeing Diet is a trusted program that's helped many people and my experience, due to TDW IT and Technical issues should not deter people from this program.

Previous Review (edited); "Unfortunately the TWD hasn't started well, issues with the subscription and accessing the content has been problematic. After taking up the $99.00 for 3 month offer, I went to start the plan and when attempting to access "Learn the food groups" access was denied due to my membership expiry. My membership is still valid until March 25, as I have just signed up. Even after signing up I get daily emails from CSIRO TWD requesting I sign up to another discounted offering, its just non-stop continually being bombarded with advertising".

Passive aggressive daily email reminders – I signed up to the program due to it’s scientific credentials and no gimmicks type approach. I’m not sure if the program actually assists in weight loss or not but I found the website way too overwhelming to navigate and gave up. Took a lot of time just to work out how the program worked. I’d prefer a more limited range of meal choice options as… Read more

I’m not interested in cooking time consuming meals.

The worst aspect was the constant stream of passive aggressive email reminders I received daily. I provided feedback to the company explaining that they were actually very demotivating but only received a very bland response. Examples of emails I received included:

“Would it be out of the question for you to track your next meal, [name]?”

“Are you too busy to lose weight, [name]?”

“Tracking every mouthful may seem tedious, [name], but it works!”

From a motivational and ease of use perspective there are much better programs out there.

Awesome results. Great structure, Good flexibility, Frustrating system – The program offers a scientific based diet so if you follow it it's proven to work. This gave me faith to follow the plan and the results would come- and they did. I lost 10kgs without any drastic food reductions or drastic exercise requirements. There's a great variety of recipes & the food information is extensive. The options to change &… Read more ·  1

pre-select recipes to plan ahead are however very limited & frustrating- the system needs to be upgraded to keep up with the flexibility of the plan. The meal plan & shopping list are OK until you want to start changing the plan around, then there are bugs in the system and it's very frustrating. The system is not always easy to swap out meals in advance, it feels like pot luck sometimes if you can find the item you want to swap to even though you can see it in the recipe list. Would be great if you could pre-plan your weeks meal plan based on the recipe list & add the ingredients to the shopping list. The meal plan gave me "left-over" meals that had not previously been on the plan. I also couldn't find anywhere to record foods you don't eat or are allergic to, to stop them from coming up on the meal plan. The program overall was a success for me and I'm happy with the results. The refund reward at the end is also a fantastic motivator. There program offers valuable information that will help with maintaining healthy choices. I would highly recommend the program to people but would say the meal planner system needs to improved to match the rest of the program.

A diet that works ……… with a lot of commitment – This diet works 100% and I lost 18 kgs following the meal plan! Support is excellent and the plan is very easy to follow so highly recommend it but ……… like all diets the meals need all your fortitude and commitment to follow to the letter! Many are good but equally as many are truly horrible! Like leftover steak with eggplant and pumpkin mash for… Read more ·  1

dinner! Dear oh dear! I reckon leftover anything is a long way from my first choice but a significantly high number of all meals are from this source.

The cost of the plans are very reasonable considering the health benefits but read the fine print as I got caught changing over after my 12 months were up and then to be told I couldn’t cancel my new subscription for another 12 months and then the option to suspend it was revoked and instead a maximum time of 2 weeks imposed.

But overall if you grit your teeth and make the effort it does what it says on the tin so go for it!

Science-based & family-compatible – I've just completed the 12 Week program with Fast Start option, and found the program fantastic. Both website and app were great, the meals are simple with only a few ingredients and could be easily adapted/augmented to also offer them as family dinners. We are a busy household with two kids, so easy meal preparation and no complaints at the… Read more ·  1

dinner table were key. The indulgence allowance made it much easier for me to stick to the program. I have lost 10kg and am about to renew for another 12 weeks to reach my goal weight.

Not for me – I believe the diet is an easy one to follow but it is very time consuming. You spend your days constantly checking the app, having to weigh everything, ensuring you meet all the units etc. I felt like my days was constantly focused on food so it wasn't for me. I have taken what I have learned and simply do freestyle and I do not track everything as it seems food obsessive to me. I'm happier with this approach and still getting results. Show reply

Absolute rip off, no support - they take your money even if you have cancelled your membership and say it was renewed without notification and will not refund any money. DO NOT GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER! Show details

The diet is excellent and I lost 11KG. However, the support is severley lacking. Making contact is unsatisfactory due to the bot not responding to specific questions. Phone contact is not helpful, again they do not respond to specific questions. Perhaps the phone contact is also a bot. Not all questions are answered on the website. Show details

The food is DISGUSTING and so extremely bland! Not many vegetarian recipes either. Extremely restrictive and unrealistic. I also hate the fact they only do a 6 or 12-month plan. They should offer monthly plans so people can decide if the recipes and style are for them. It was very expensive and now is a complete waste of money as I just hated every single meal I tried. Show details

Was glad to sign up - had previous success. Signed up to a monthly deal. Now I have found something I prefer and I can't cancel!! It was the first monthly payment and now I have to keep paying for another 12 months!! Total and complete ripoff. Make sure you read the fine print. No exceptions unless you get a medical certificate. I will be… Read more

cancelling the credit card so I won't be paying for this. They need a better option rather than tying people to a program they no longer want. I am not the only one to complain about this system. I am now a walking bad ad for this program

Awful service – Saw them on sunrise and decided to sign up for a month trial - turns out you can’t cancel. Emailed them and didn’t ben get a response after 3 weeks. Ended up having to report my cc as stolen. Not good enough!

Poor customer interaction and misleading marketing – The initial information given is not clear about a monthly subscription. I wanted the product which was good although they continued charging me and would cancel when I asked, even though I was not using the app. This is against the Australian standards of a subscription, you should be able to opt out. Have found a new protein shake without the overheads which really only offered recipes that you look up for free.

Be warned – Having been a huge supporter of their programs for the last few years it saddens me to see that they are now owned and operated by a private company. It is now very expensive. Their terms and conditions have changed. When you sign up to a program you cannot cancel without a medical certificate. I have reported this to the ACCC today (which is when… Read more

I found out they are not actually the CSIRO. Hint- just look up the ABN) as I believe this is appalling. If they can actually legally do this, does it mean they should? They are meant to support people’s health and wellbeing. Not hinder it.

Doesn't suit busy time poor mums – Doesn't suit busy new mums. I tried to stick to this plan to loose my baby weight but it was so time consuming to prepare and cook the food. There is limited choices. And it takes so much time to swap meals over each week. I did not like alot of the meal options and there was not many vegetarian meals. It doesn't allow you to pick which foods you… Read more

don't like at the beginning when joining the plan.

I lost 3kgs. But I was not able to stick with this for more than 3 weeks. I tried the basic plan but quickly got bored of it being so repetitive. It just felt like hard work, I thought it would have been simple and tasty. I'm glad I didn't pay for it and got my membership free through private health insurance. It would also be hard to prepare the food when I go back to my busy job. It was too much work and losing weight doesn't need to be as complicated as this was. I also had to cook for my husband as well who did not like the food either.

I have twins so I have no time to be sitting around planning the menu or meal prepping. Some of the receipts as well made huge quantities that were not needed. And ended up being thrown out. Some of the ingredients were not cheap from the supermarket as they were in large quantities.

I also found some of the recipes like the bolognaise sauce for example were horrible. I've never mixed mince with beef stock and tomato paste. It was disgusting and inedible. I'm Italian and that's an abomination to a classic dish. Also found that the shopping lists had some sort of errors and ended up with double or missing ingredients. I always over bought food.

If you are retired with alot of time on your hands or single or have no kids this might be the plan for you. As you need to be dedicated to prep and cook the food. Which ends up being 6 meals a day.

Give it a go, it's worth every cent – I've enjoyed doing and getting results so much that I signed up for P2 the next 12 weeks. The science works and it makes sense once you understand. Under your program index week 10 is when it became clear. Very important that you track, read the supporting information for each week, check in, weigh in, measure etc. use the resources their… Read more ·  1

there to help you. Facebook support group is also very helpful. It's easy to follow, meal plans are more than enough food. App and website very user friendly.

Happy and still going – Love the program. this is my second time around. first time I didn't have my heart in it. This time in the 12 weeks I have lost double what I did last time and still going. My two criticisms would be that the app and the online system don't work together, and it is very difficult getting them to answer emails (very easy, my first time around). … Read more ·  1

Without the "Brains trust" on social media it would have been harder - lots of support, tips and advice - use them. never hungry and I had covid the last week as well. Plenty to eat.

This Diet Program is Different – I have done every diet program imaginable over my 60 years but the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet is different. It’s not a diet. I make the food choices and I decide when to eat. I have lost 11kg in 12 weeks and not once felt hungry. I have more energy and am embracing my choice in an exercise program. Still really motivated and confident to continue. Show details

My experience of the 12-week program – I reached my goal during the 12 week program. I thought it worked really well. It was quite strict but this was helpful because if you eat enough protein and salad/vegetables, you don't feel hungry before your next meal. Show details

The wake up call that I needed – For me, the most useful thing about CSIRO TWD is the weight and exercise tracker. It has given me a much clearer idea of what I have been putting into my mouth (thus on to my waist, hips etc). Also how much / little activity I was doing. Program is flexible enough to allow for real life. My clothes fit better; I look and feel much better. My… Read more

family has enjoyed the meals; they have all lost weight too. Did not quite reach my target weight, but no doubt I would have if I had followed the plan a bit closer (but that was entirely my choice). Have already signed up for Program 2.

Not for a foodie – Signed up to the “foodie” plan thinking the bank of recipes might give me some ideas that could help me make healthier choices while still eating a varied, tasty diet. Completed the first week following the meal plan exactly. The quantities are far too large such that I ended up with a huge surplus, of food almost all of which I found borderline… Read more

inedible. Tried to contact support to request a refund because the product did not meet my expectations, and despite sending 2 further follow up emails have never received a response, even to decline the request or ask for specific feedback.