FAQ – Own Online Studio

Getting started & how it works

Own Online Studio is a New Zealand online coaching studio that builds personalised nutrition and training plans for everyday people. We're not an app with a template library, every meal plan and training program is written from scratch by a qualified coach, based on your goals, your schedule, your budget and the food you actually like eating. We offer three coaching services plus one-off programs and meal plan bundles for people who don't need ongoing support.

You work with a real coach through our app, and everything happens remotely. You'll get personalised plans, a weekly check-in video from your coach, unlimited messaging, and an optional weekly call. There's no set appointment time you have to be free for, you check in when it suits you, and your coach responds the same or next business day.

You'll be invited to join our app by email immediately after signing up. Once you've set up your account and logged in, our onboarding coach will message you inside the app the same day to assign you a new client questionnaire and book an optional onboarding call. On that call we work out which coach is the right fit for you based on your goals and your personality. After the call you'll receive an intro video from your assigned coach, your first meal plans and/or training program, and a guide on how to use the app.

You'll officially start on the Monday after you sign up — and your coach starts working on you straight away. Your first payment is effectively a sign-up fee, because the week between signing up and starting Monday is the week your coach is doing the work: you'll have your onboarding call, meet your coach, and they'll write your meal plan and/or training program from scratch. That week also gives you time to do your grocery shop, take your program for a test run, and send back any feedback or requests for changes — so that when Monday morning comes around, you're starting fresh with your plans already dialled in. That Monday is week one of your eight weeks.

The best days to sign up are Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, which for most people lines up with pay day. That gives everyone enough time to get you properly set up without rushing it.

Up to two working days from your questionnaire. Every plan is built from scratch, so it isn't instant. We'll always aim to have you set up and ready to start the following Monday.

No, the onboarding call is optional but we strongly recommend it. It's how we match you to the right coach, and it's the fastest way for us to understand what's worked, what hasn't for you in the past and how to set you up for success.

All coaching runs through the Everfit app, which you'll be invited to join by email as soon as you sign up. Your meal plans, training program, exercise demo videos, habit and metric tracking, check-in forms and messages with your coach all live in one place.

Not necessarily. We write programs for full gyms, home setups, and everything in between, tell us what you've got access to in your questionnaire and your coach will build around it. If you're training at home with minimal equipment, say so upfront rather than trying to make a gym program work.

No. A large portion of our clients start as complete beginners, and our programs run from genuinely beginner-friendly through to advanced. Your coach builds to your current level, not to where you think you should be.

Yes. After your onboarding call your coach will send you our client handbook, a PDF over 40 pages long, full of tips, cheat sheets and how-tos. Our one-off meal plan bundles and training programs come with a more compact version of the same handbook.

We're based in New Zealand. Most of our clients are NZ-based, but we can build meal plans using food databases from the UK, US, Australia and Canada, and we have clients using our training programs all over the world.

Yes. Our training programs work anywhere, and we build meal plans using UK, US, Australian and Canadian food databases as well as New Zealand. The one thing to know is that we currently only take payment in NZD.

Yes, and we'd encourage it if you're unsure which service is right for you. Get in touch through our contact page and we'll ask about your goals and point you to the most suitable option, including telling you if a one-off program would serve you better than ongoing coaching.

Choosing the right option

It depends on which part you actually need help with. If your main goal is changing your body composition — losing fat or building a more defined physique — nutrition is the bigger lever, so Training & Nutrition Coaching ($84.90/week) or Nutrition Only Coaching ($69.90/week) will serve you best. If you already eat well and just want a properly structured program and someone to hold you accountable in the gym, Training Only Coaching ($39.90/week) is the right fit. If you're not sure, get in touch before you sign up and we'll tell you honestly.

Feature	Training Only	Nutrition Only	Training & Nutrition
Price	$39.90/week	$69.90/week	$84.90/week
Sign up fee	$39.90 (1 week)	$69.90 (1 week)	$84.90 (1 week)
Minimum term	8 weeks	8 weeks	8 weeks
Personalised training program	✓ (new every 8 weeks)	—	✓ (new every 8 weeks)
2x personalised meal plans/fortnight	—	✓	✓
Onboarding call	✓	✓	✓
Weekly accountability check-in	✓	✓	✓
Optional weekly coaching call	✓	✓	✓
In-app habit & metric tracking	✓	✓	✓
Client handbook	✓	✓	✓
Direct messaging with your coach	✓	✓	✓
Form check video feedback	✓	—	✓
Community access	✓	✓	✓

Buy a one-off if you already have a track record of sticking to a plan on your own; choose coaching if you've struggled to stay consistent without support. One-off programs and meal plan bundles give you the plan and nothing else, no check-ins, no adjustments, no one to message. Coaching gives you ongoing accountability, plans that change as you change, and a coach who problem-solves with you. If you've bought programs before and not finished them, that's your answer.

Our coaching starts at $39.90 per week for training only, $69.90 per week for nutrition only, and $84.90 per week for combined training and nutrition coaching. All prices are NZD and include a sign up fee and an 8-week minimum term. For comparison, one-off training programs are $89.90 and meal plan bundles start at $129.90 as a one-time purchase.

Online coaching typically costs less per week than in-person personal training and covers more ground, but it asks more of you day to day. With a PT you get hands-on coaching for the hour you're in the gym; with online coaching you get a personalised program, nutrition support, weekly feedback on everything you did between sessions, and unlimited access to your coach by message — but nobody is standing next to you making you show up. If accountability for actually turning up is your main issue, in-person may suit you better. If your issue is knowing what to do, eating well, and staying consistent across the whole week, online coaching covers more of the problem.

Apps give you a template; we write your plan from scratch and change it as you change. A generic meal plan doesn't know you hate mushrooms, cook for a family of four, work night shifts, or want your Saturday wine. A qualified coach reads your check-in each week and adjusts your plan based on what your body and your life are actually doing. That's the difference you're paying for and it's why people who've cycled through free apps without results tend to stick with coaching.

One is enough for plenty of people, and which one depends on your goal. What you eat is the biggest driver of body fat, so if fat loss is the primary goal, nutrition coaching does the heavier lifting. Training builds strength, muscle definition, fitness and is excellent for how you feel day to day. Many clients start with one and add the other later. Note: we can't guarantee weight loss results from training alone.

Possibly, and the honest answer is that it depends on why it didn't work last time. If previous attempts failed because the plan was too restrictive, too generic, or didn't fit your real life, that's exactly what personalised coaching is built to fix. We work around your routine rather than expecting you to rearrange your life. If the plan was fine and life simply got in the way, weekly accountability is what changes the outcome. Tell us what happened before on your questionnaire; it genuinely shapes how your coach works with you.

General coaching

You can message your coach any time through the Own Online Studio app, and you're assured a reply the same or following business day. There's also an optional weekly coaching call you can book at a time that suits you

If you select you want it: A 3–5 minute screen-recorded video from your coach, reviewing the check-in form you submit each week. Your coach goes through what went well and what you want to improve, your metrics, progress photos and adherence, and adds education, guidance and motivation. If it's relevant, they'll also walk you through your next round of meal plans with tips on preparing the meals.

Yes. Your check-in form is what unlocks your fortnightly plans and weekly feedback, it would be unsafe for us to keep prescribing meal plans without knowing how your body is responding and how you're feeling. It takes no longer than three minutes, and it's also where you make your meal requests, so it's how your plans stay enjoyable

Our coaching starts at $39.90 per week for training only, $69.90 per week for nutrition only, and $84.90 per week for combined training and nutrition coaching. All prices are NZD and include a sign up fee and an 8-week minimum term. For comparison, one-off training programs are $89.90 and meal plan bundles start at $129.90 as a one-time purchase.

No, coaching calls are completely optional, every week

Whatever you want to get out of it, when you book, you leave a note about what you'd like to discuss. That might be something you're struggling to implement, wins you want to share, or questions you've been sitting on. Our aim is that you finish every call feeling clearer and more motivated than when you started.

Your coach is assigned to you based on your goals and our availability at the time, which is what the onboarding call is for. If you are a returning client or referred through a friend, we will always try connect you with who you want to work with.

Tell your coach — they'll change the plan. Routines shift, and your health and fitness plan should shift with you. Need easier meals? More or fewer training sessions? Different training days? It isn't your job to fit your life around the plan we gave you; it's our job to build a plan that fits your life. From there, it's on you to make it happen

Highly. We build around your current health status, dietary preferences, fitness level, schedule, budget and goals, not a template with your name at the top. Practically, that means your meal plan contains food you asked for, your training program fits the equipment and days you actually have, and both change as your circumstances change.

No. We build plans around the life you want to keep living, including your Saturday night wine and your Friday takeaway. Where those things sit is a conversation with your coach — being more consistent will get you results faster, and your coach will be honest with you about that trade-off — but nothing is banned, and we don't do guilt x

Yes. Everything you share with your coach, your questionnaire, your metrics, your progress photos and your messages, stays between you and your coaching team.

Only if you tell us we can. We ask permission every time, and plenty of clients say no — it makes no difference to the coaching you receive.

Yes, we coach couples who eat and cook together. It isn't a copy-and-paste job, though — your coach monitors both of you separately and personalises each recipe to each person's macro requirements, which is more work, not less. You'll each have your own check-ins and accounts, but you'll be eating the same meals, so the grocery bill only gets shopped once.

No, we don't offer trials. There's a significant amount of work in an initial plan and onboarding, which makes a free trial unworkable for us. What we can do instead is put you in touch with an existing client who'll tell you honestly what it's like, just ask!

Nutrition coaching

Nutrition Only Coaching is $69.90 per week and includes an onboarding call, two new single-day meal plans every fortnight built from scratch for you, meals customised to your macro targets, support navigating events and off-plan meals, a weekly accountability check-in, an optional weekly coaching call, in-app habit and metric tracking, the client handbook, community access, and direct messaging with your coach

It's highly recommended but not compulsory. Think of it like baking a cake — without measuring the ingredients, you can't be confident it'll rise. Tracking gets you to the outcome faster and keeps both you and your coach informed at every step. If tracking isn't right for you, tell us and we'll talk through how to approach it differently

Yes. We can build meal plans with no numbers or weights visible at all. Please get in touch so we can talk through your specific situation before you sign up, we'd genuinely like to help, and we want to set it up properly from day one

Yes. We regularly write plans for gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan and other dietary requirements. Tell us in your questionnaire and your plans will be built around it from the start.

Yes — list every allergy and intolerance on your questionnaire and your coach will build around them. Please note we're coaches, not medical practitioners: we work with a diagnosis you already have rather than diagnosing or treating one. If you suspect an intolerance but haven't had it investigated, see your GP or a registered dietitian first.

It's highly recommended. Training is excellent for your mental and physical wellbeing, fitness, muscle and strength, and it contributes to weight loss but what you eat is the biggest dictator of body fat. Through tracking food we can be confident about producing results; with training alone, we can't guarantee weight loss.

Tell us on your questionnaire and clear it with your doctor first. We coach general nutrition and exercise for healthy adults, we don't provide medical nutrition therapy or treat conditions. Where a condition needs clinical management, we'll work alongside your healthcare provider's advice rather than replacing it. If we don't think coaching is appropriate for you, we'll say so.

We're happy to talk through supplements and answer questions, but supplements are never the foundation of what we do and we don't require you to buy anything. Food, consistency and sleep do the heavy lifting.

Yes — Nutrition Only Coaching is $69.90 per week. Plenty of our clients do nutrition only, either because they already have training sorted or because they're not training at all right now.

Meal plans

Every fortnight you receive two full single-day meal plans, built by your coach from your personal request form. Once you have them, you decide how to use them — seven days on each, or swapping every three or four days. The two plans need to be followed separately rather than mixed (you can't take lunch from plan 1 and dinner from plan 2), and we recommend cooking fresh twice a week.

Yes, and that's why you get two different plans each fortnight to rotate between. We build variety in where we can — "one piece of any fruit" as a snack option, for example — and if you're craving something specific, tell us and it'll be in your next plan. Most clients find the routine is the part that makes it work: less time in the kitchen, a smaller grocery bill, and no daily decision-making. If you'd like more variety, you can add an extra meal plan for the fortnight through your check-in for an additional fee.

Because it gets expensive, time-consuming, and it's the reason most people quit. A new meal every day means a bigger shop, more waste, more cooking and more decisions — which is usually what pushes people back towards takeaways. Eating the same lunch three days running isn't a compromise; for most people it's what makes the whole thing sustainable.

Yes. There's an option in your check-in to add an extra meal plan for that fortnight for an additional fee, so you can keep your menu fresh whenever you want to.

Food you asked for. Each fortnight you fill in a meal request form where you can choose from our meal library or request anything you like. Real examples from real clients: Magnums for dessert every night, cheesy bacon pasta, burgers. You won't see plain chicken and rice here unless you specifically ask for it.

Most of our clients spend less, not more. Plans are built around ingredients available at ordinary supermarkets, and you can keep costs down by requesting cheaper cuts of meat, frozen vegetables, and meals that use up what's already in your pantry. Because you only buy what you need and are eating the meals you have already paid for, the savings on food waste, takeaways and alcohol usually more than cover the difference.

Most clients cook fresh twice a week, which typically takes around an hour each time. If you have less time than that, tell your coach and they'll build plans around quick meals, slow cooker meals or minimal-prep options.

Give your coach notice and they'll help you navigate it. That might mean picking from the restaurant menu ahead of time and swapping something out of your plan, or giving you the best takeaway options for your goal when you've left your meal prep at home. How strict you want to be is always your call — consistency gets faster results, but life is for living, and sometimes you just want to enjoy the event.

Tell us and we'll build the plan around them too. If you're feeding a family or flatmates, your meal request form is where to say so, and your coach will work their preferences into your meals rather than making you cook twice.

That's a conversation to have with your coach rather than a straight yes or no. Your meals are matched to your macro targets, so a swap can change the numbers more than you'd expect — and how much that matters usually comes down to how fast you want to see progress. Your coach can give you like-for-like swaps that keep things on track. Anything you didn't enjoy should go straight onto your next meal request form so it doesn't come back.

Yes. Tell us your actual pattern on your questionnaire — night shifts, split shifts, long-haul driving, on-call weeks — and your coach will build meal timing and portability around it rather than assuming a nine-to-five.

Yes. Our one-off meal plan bundles are $129.90 for two plans or $199.90 for four, both developed by our nutritionists. They come with a condensed version of the client handbook, but no check-ins, adjustments or coach access.

We can build travel-friendly and kitchenless meal plans for anywhere in New Zealand, the UK, US, Australia and Canada, and we have hotel room workouts in the app. Your coach can also work with you on accountability and eating out while you're away. Alternatively, you're welcome to go on hold — see the payment section below.

Training coaching

Training Only Coaching is $39.90 per week and includes an onboarding call, a personalised training program rewritten every 8 weeks for your gym or home setup, a weekly accountability check-in, an optional weekly coaching call, in-app habit and metric tracking, the client handbook, and direct messaging with your coach for form checks and education.

We specialise in gym-based training, and we also write home programs. Our programs run from genuinely beginner-friendly through to advanced, including physique, general fitness and sport-specific goals.

You'll get a new personalised training program every 8 weeks. Within that block your coach can adjust individual exercises any time — you don't have to wait for the next program to change something that isn't working.

If you're a beginner your coach will work it out with you, usually by asking how hard the exercise felt out of 10 with the lightest option. As a rule, the weight should make you work for the last few reps without your form falling apart. Each week you can ask your coach for recommendations based on what you lifted the week before, that's optional, not compulsory.

Every exercise in the app comes with a video of one of our coaches demonstrating it, with cues and form tips. We also encourage clients to film their sets and send them to their coach for feedback.

Yes, and we highly encourage it. It's the closest thing to having a coach standing next to you in the gym.

Don't film until you're ready, it's encouraged, never compulsory, and nobody will pressure you. If you'd like to get there eventually, your coach will work on it with you in small steps: one set, phone propped behind a drink bottle, quiet time of day. Gym confidence in general is something we work on with a lot of clients.

Yes. If you don't have the equipment, don't enjoy an exercise, or find it too advanced right now, ask your coach and they'll swap it for something that suits you better. We take real pride in how personalised every program is.

This doesn't mean if you find an exercise hard or if it's in use when you go to use it that you can just not do it. Your exercises are there for a reason.

Whatever you can realistically commit to, every week, for the long run, for most clients that's three to five sessions. Tell your coach how many days you genuinely have rather than how many you'd like to have; a three-day program you complete beats a five-day program you abandon.

Most sessions are designed to take 45–60 minutes. If you have less time, say so and your coach will build shorter sessions.

Yes. Tell us what equipment you have and your coach will build around it. We also have hotel room workouts in the app for when you're travelling.

Yes, and we'd much rather you did. Netball, running, F45, social football, surfing — we want you doing the exercise you actually enjoy. We do need to know about all of it, because it affects your recovery and how we program your week. Tell your coach what's in your week and they'll build your training around it rather than asking you to give anything up.

No, you don't need to exercise to lose weight, and we've had many successful clients on nutrition-only coaching. That said, training helps with weight loss and does a great deal for your overall wellbeing, strength and how you feel day to day.

Yes. Our one-off training programs are $89.90 (Run Club from $49.90) and are yours to keep, see the next section.

Online programs & one-off options