Jillian Michaels

Another diet by a celebrity with an admirable body, you may recognize Jillian Michaels as the motivating and edgy trainer from the Biggest Loser. A diverse background, Jillian Michaels herself was an overweight teenager and lost her weight through fitness and martial arts. She has now been heavily involved in martial arts and personal training for over 17 years and sees herself as a life coach/motivator.

Jillian strongly emphasises that her diet is no fad and that she doesn't preach any bull and there are no breakthroughs or miracles. She is quite basic and traditional in her approach. Create a calorie deficit by burning more calories then you take in and you will lose weight. She's a realist and so is her traditional approach and she has achieved results with real life clients through her motivational techniques. How motivation translates via the web may depend on the person, when reading it does sound like her talking, but obviously it's not the same. It's not personalised and you don't have Jillian in your face telling you that "you can do it! Get up!"

Exercise
On the exercise side of things, this means a lot good old fashioned hard work, sweat and from what we've seen from the biggest loser, maybe some tears. Julian doesn't give any options to burn fat other then through physical activity and generally the more vigorous the better (within reason, the diet does ask detailed questions to establish your physical level and limitations).

Even though the diet is the very simple calories in/calories out approach, there is still a personalised aspect to the way it is structured. For example, different ways of being active will be placed in a schedule according to the dieter’s preferences and lifestyle. During the sign up process dieters are asked where they carry and put on weight to establish body shape, then a different approach is established accordingly.

Diet
The other part of the equation is diet and this involves calorie controlled portions, ultimately, smaller portions of healthier food. Again body shape is a factor towards the types of food one should aim for. Users are asked what types of foods they tend to crave and this is factored into the type of diet suggested, not because of food preference, but because it is an indication of what an individual dieter’s body requires the most for fuel. This just comes back to the emphasis placed on creating a calorie deficit to lose weight rather then on eating specific foods and portions of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

Behavioural Modification
As weight gain and obesity has very much to do with a person's emotional state and relationship with food, through a range of questions, Jillian attempts to concentrate on what causes a person to overeat or eat the wrong things to begin with.

She then goes on to say that she is not a believer in will power and that it comes down to learning techniques, tricks and changing habits. This gives more hope to those who have always believed they were a little short in the will power department. Jillian calls this "behavioural modification" and appears to have structured these practical techniques in ways that anyone can give them a go.

Number 1 at the top of the list is "avoid dangerous situations". In this way, a dieter is removing themselves from a situation where so called "will power" is often an issue.
The diet attempts to motivate and support members with education, tips and techniques throughout. The use of a fitness diary is provided and encouraged to help people understand how they are feeling and why, this is turn helps them to work through the lows and pin point problem areas. It also tracks progress and achievement!