5280 Crossfit is running a scam to scare customers into signing up for an overpriced membership through a 6 week challenge Golden Colorado

I saw a facebook advertisement: Free 6 week challenge at a crossfit gym in Golden. I just had a baby so it seemed like a great opportunity to get back in shape and for free! I asked what the catch was and was told of course theres a catch but come to the orientation and find out.

The orientation was one on one with the owner, Jason. He seemed genuine and passionate about helping people achieve their goals. He explainwd he was a therapist previously and showed a picture of how much weight he had lost. He explained it was a 25 lb weight loss or a 6% body fat reduction. He went on and on about how good the support system will be and a coach will be checking in with you all the time, offering help via text or even meeting in person if need be. The more he talked the more I realized this wasn't a challenge for me, I only had about 10lbs to lose. This would be great for my fiancee that was at least 40 lbs overweight.

I went home and told my fiancee Seth all about it. Him and his brother agreed to go meet for the orientation and find out more. We asked lots of questions and it all sounded so great. It involved a nutrition plan (which Jason said following the diet alone would be enough to lose the weight), but you also come to the gym 3 times a week to work out but if you can't make it you can do home work outs and just let them know. The catch was that you had to pay $599, that is fully refundable once the challenge is over and you have met the goal. He described it as having some skin in the game. He said he didn't want to keep peoples money, its just with the hope you'll love it and join the gym or at least tell your friends about it.

I asked to see the food shopping list and I questioned that it mentioned low fat yogurt. I know a lot about nutrition and mentioned low fat is unhealthy and fat doesn't actually make you fat. He agreed with me but said the extra fat will come later. I let it go despite wondering if he truly understood nutrition. I just really wanted my fiancee to get fit so I wasn't overly worried since I do the cooking.

Seth signed up and said he wanted to do the 6% fat reduction. Jason insisted he do the 25lbs that he was certain he could do it. Despite it being well known losing more than 2lbs a week is unhealthy - he said it was fine. Seth left the box blank where the contract asked for 25lbs or 6%.

Seth was sent the shopping list. I cringed at a few inconsistencies I was finding. Low fat yogurt on the shopping list but in the recipe book, Full Fat was listed. The guide to follow had high protein, high carb in every meal with moderate fat and veggies. The recipe book had recipes missing a carb, or veggie or would have an ingredient in the instructions that wasn't on the ingredient list. Theeir make ahead instructions only made sense if you were planning to eat the same chicken everyday. No canola oil was on the list but then the recipes said to spray the pan with Pam (1st ingredient Canola oil)

Seth texted Jason with the concerns and got no response. He followed the diet as close as he could despite the issues. He did some home work outs due to his work schedule, but always texted to let the coach know. He was supposed to contact the coach Deidre for a lot of the communcation. He asked her about the diet plan and she told him he needed to come to class and thats why he wasn't seeing a lot of results. (At this point he had lost 5lbs in 2 weeks) He ended up going a couple days feeling stuck and actually gaining a pound back. He was working out harder than they were at the gym because the first 2 weeks was beginner classes to learn how to do proper form. We both have done crossfit before, so this was not necessary for him.

The measurements were a ridiculous amount of food to eat at once. A sample breakfast included 2.5 cups of yogurt plus a carb and veggie! That's 20 ounces of yogurt! We couldn't find any meal plan that made such recommendations. I used to eat paleo so we started doing that and then transitioned to a ketogenic diet and Seth's weight finally started moving again. He still didn't get any helpful responses to his concerns.

A little over week 3 and he went to get weighed and have a "midterm chat" with Jason. Jason had excuses for the diet plan issues and blamed it on Seth doing home work outs despite his telling us you could lose the weight with the diet alone. Seth asked could he please change to the 6% reduction as that is better suited for him and more attainable and also what he had asked for in the beginning. Jason refused and basically told him he would be lucky to reach 20lbs weight loss. He also said he will give $10 a pound back. He then said "I don't normally offer this, but I would be willing to roll the $599 into a year gym membership." Seth looked at the table and saw a stack of new year membership sign up forms - Jason saw him look at it and then changed his tone and said "well yeah I am offering it to people worried about not making the weight."

Jason told Seth he had 24 hours to decide. This was when we realized this challenge was designed to fail all along. A few other things we realized was that he had told us he only does these challenges a couple times a year with limited availabilty. Since Seth started he opened a bunch more now adding up to over 100 people participating. That's over $60,000 he's holding onto. We then did the math and the yearly membership hes offering is higher than what he normally charges for a membership when paid monthly. Most places offer a discount for signing up for a year, hes increased the charge.

Seth tried posting in the closed facebook group to ask how other people were doing and how much weight they have lost and the admins wouldn't approve his posts. I decided to contact the members of the group and while the people that were able to choose 6% are happy so far, the ones that chose 25lbs (or some said they were forced to choose 25lbs) were only at 6 to 10lbs down at the same midway point. Meaning it's nearly impossible to meet the goal without risking serious health consequences. I have at least 5 other people that see the potential scam happening. They have lots of good reviews on google and facebook but the contract for the challenge states you must leave a review before the challenge is over. Most people are leaving reviews when they are only a couple weeks in. One recent review says they are doing bait and switch and explains similar to what we have experienced. I also talked with one woman that joined with her friend and they went to the mid term meet at separate times, and were told two different things and he tried to talk both of them into the membership despite one of them being at 3.5% fat loss, so she will most likely meet her goal.

I am still in the process of exposing Jason for what he is, a professional con artist.