Lean With Plants Membership, Course and Coaching: What Changed and What It Is Now
Lean With Plants started as a free challenge, a podcast and a self-paced membership. Here is how it became a 12-week coaching program, and why.
If you are searching for the Lean With Plants membership, or a monthly cost, you have probably found an old Instagram post or forum comment and are wondering what it means today. Here is the straight answer. Lean With Plants started in 2020 as a free challenge and a podcast, ran a self-paced course and membership from early 2021, and has since become a 12-week one-on-one plant-based weight loss coaching program for women, founded by Chelsea Mae Cullen. The 12-week coaching program is the flagship today. The coaching team has worked with over 3,000 women, and the average client loses around 18 pounds in 12 weeks.
So if you have seen a price attached to the old membership, it describes a different product from a different era. This page explains how the program changed, why, and what you actually get now.
A short history of Lean With Plants
2018. Chelsea Mae Cullen, a New Zealand vegan mum who had been plant-based for over a decade and still could not lose weight, discovers calorie density and starts losing the 40 pounds she has since kept off. The full story is in Chelsea Mae Cullen: the full story.
2020. The Lean With Plants podcast launches, aimed at plant-based women who could not shift the weight on a healthy vegan diet. Chelsea runs a free Kickstarter challenge that teaches her framework to anyone who signs up.
Early 2021. The Lean With Plants membership opens. It is a self-paced video course with a community around it, and it opens for enrollment in short windows.
After that. The program moves to a coached format. The announcement at the time was direct: "this is not a do-it-yourself program." Chelsea and the team start working closely with a small number of women, with far more accountability than a course could offer.
Today. Lean With Plants is a 12-week one-on-one coaching program. Every client has a real coach, the whole program lives in one app, and Chelsea runs it alongside Ami-James Deane, known to many as Broccoli Mum.
Why the membership turned into coaching
Because information was never the thing women were missing.
The membership taught the method well. Calorie density, bigger plates, simple habits. But most of the women who come to us already know a lot about nutrition. Many have read every book and watched every documentary. What they had not built was the skill of doing it consistently when life gets messy: the 9pm craving, the holiday, the week everything falls apart.
A course cannot notice that you have gone quiet for four days. A coach can.
That is what changed everything. Having a real person in your corner, every day, is what turns knowing into doing. So the program was rebuilt around a coach who checks in daily.
What Lean With Plants looks like now
Here is what a client actually gets today:
- A real coach who checks in daily. Not a bot, not AI, and not a group chat with 200 women. Your coach knows your name, looks at your plate, and messages you every day.
- Food photos, never calorie counting. You snap photos of what you eat, and your coach helps you build a filling, fat-loss-friendly plate until it becomes automatic.
- Three to four tiny habits. Each takes about two minutes a day, chosen because they have the biggest impact.
- Movement from Rep Zero. First the habit of showing up at all, then strength over time, to protect bone density and keep muscle as you age.
- A weekly group coaching call with the coaches, and a Q&A every two weeks with Chelsea or Ami. Everything is recorded.
- One app for everything. Meals, messages, community, recipes and workouts, in the Lean With Plants app instead of scattered across social media.
For the day-to-day detail, see how Lean With Plants coaching works.
What about the old prices I have seen online?
You may have seen a course price and a monthly fee in an old Instagram comment, or a figure quoted in a forum. Those numbers come from the self-paced era, from a different format, or from a different currency. None of them describe today's 12-week coaching program.
Today there is no single price on the website. Lean With Plants pricing varies based on your desired level of support, coach availability, and current client volume. For details specific to your goals and our current availability, we offer a free 1:1 call (a 45-minute Zoom call with someone from the LWP team) to choose the best plan for you.
Here's what you should know:
- Lean With Plants is a 12-week commitment, not a monthly membership.
- Payment plan options are available. We partner with Klarna and Affirm.
- The best plan for you is chosen on your free 1:1 call.
The full explanation is in how much does Lean With Plants cost.
What is still free
A lot of what Chelsea built is still free, and always has been:
- The Lean With Plants podcast, with 240+ episodes
- Chelsea's YouTube channel, with years of what-I-eat videos and recipes
- The free Kickstarter
- The free live training, where Chelsea walks through the method
If you want to try the method on your own first, start there. If you have already tried it on your own and keep falling off, that is exactly who the coaching is for.
Frequently asked questions
Does Lean With Plants still have a membership? The self-paced membership that opened in 2021 was an earlier version of Lean With Plants. Today the flagship is a 12-week one-on-one coaching program with a real coach who checks in daily.
How much is the Lean With Plants membership per month? Monthly prices you may see online come from the old self-paced membership. Today Lean With Plants is a 12-week commitment, not month to month. Pricing varies based on your desired level of support, coach availability, and current client volume, so there is no single price on the site. Payment plan options are available through Klarna and Affirm, and your free 1:1 call is where we choose the best plan for you.
Is Lean With Plants a course or coaching? Coaching. It started as a free challenge and a self-paced course, and became one-on-one coaching because women needed accountability more than information.
Is the Lean With Plants app the same as the membership? No. The Lean With Plants app is where coaching clients get their meals, coach messages, community, recipes and workouts in one place.
Who runs Lean With Plants? Chelsea Mae Cullen founded it and runs it alongside Ami-James Deane, known as Broccoli Mum. Day-to-day coaching is delivered by the Lean With Plants coaching team.
Where do I start? Watch the free live training if you want to learn the method, or apply here to book a call and find out whether coaching fits you.
The short version
The membership was the first chapter. The coaching program is what Chelsea built once it was clear that women did not need more information, they needed someone in their corner every day. If that is what has been missing for you, apply here and book a call with our team. If it is not a fit, we will tell you.