Jillian Michaels Reviews

Editor's Star Ratings:

Diet Features:
Fitness Features:
Community Support:
Expert Advice:
Extras:
Customer Support:
Ease of Use / Navigation:
Value for Money:
Overall Star Rating:

Joining Fee:

• Currently just $4 per week ($16 per month).
• Basic Terms & Conditions: (For full details please consult JillianMichaels.com)
  Jillian Michaels' online program is just $4 a week, billed quarterly (every 13 weeks), with a 5-week minimum commitment. Your credit card will be charged $52 when you subscribe and at the beginning of each following quarter. You may cancel at any time and receive a refund for the unused portion of your subscription, other than the 5-week minimum commitment of $20, which is non-refundable.
  

Features:

• Diet Features:
  • Discover the right foods for your body type and metabolism. Find out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight successfully. Learn how to put together delicious meals with recipes customized to your body type.
  • Get diet friendly strategies for fine-dining and fast-food restaurants.
  • Meal Plan & Menus:100+ delicious & easy recipes and meal suggestions for breakfast, lunch and dinner, customized for your metabolism and body type.
  • Interactive Weight Tracker: just submit your weight on any given date and track your progress.
  • Calorie Calculator: Weight loss is all about "calories in" and "calories out." Jillian will tell you how to calculate your calories, how to choose foods that will help you lose weight, and what to look for when shopping in your local grocery store.

• Fitness Features:
  • 120 printable exercises you can do from home
  • Cardio workouts that you enjoy
  • Complete Muscle Manual
  • Personal Fitness Diary where you can record how you're feeling - physically and emotionally - and get inspired to work through your issues and toward your goals.
  • Weekly fitness planner based on your fitness level.
  • Anatomical Guide - lets you work through which muscles to work out and when.
• Community Support:
  • Weight Loss Buddies: Find support and advice from members just like you! Search for buddies who are your age, live in your area, or are at the same fitness level as you!
  • Message Boards: Looking for weight-loss advice or new recipes? Connect with Jillian's online community and jump into inspirational conversations.

• Expert Advice:
  • Inspiration and advice from Jillian to cheer you on.
  • Team of hand-picked experts on physical and behavioral health, nutritional, beauty and wellbeing.
  • As a member of Jillian's online program, you'll be able to ask her your personal questions!
  • Learn about Jillian's 7 Steps to Behavioral Modification
  • You'll get all the information and advice from Jillian's book, all the kick-ass exercises from her TV show, plus the customization and step-by-step guidance unique to her online program.

• Help Files / Technical Support:
  • If you have questions or comments about Jillian Michaels.com you can e-mail or telephone toll-free from 09:00 to 20:00 ET, Monday through Friday.

Editor's Verdict:

Best known as the fitness trainer and life coach on NBC's hit series The Biggest Loser, Jillian Michaels continues to go from strength to strength and has recently developed a health and fitness video game for the Nintendo Wii - "Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009". Jillian Michaels' methods are based on a blend of strength training techniques. There are three facets to Jillian Michaels' unique weight loss program: (1) Self: Learn how to change your behaviors to finally reach your goals; (2) Science: Eat right for your metabolism; (3) Sweat: Train your body for serious weight loss. Based on your body type, fitness level, and goals Jillian Michaels will give you a customized weight loss program designed for maximum results.

Understandably, though unusually, Jillian Michaels' system is founded on exercise supplemented by a healthy eating plan (as opposed to the other way around, as is common on the other programs we review). As such, we found the diet and healthy eating plan section of the program felt a little 'bolted on', and not as integrated as with other sites we have reviewed. That said, there are still more than a hundred recipe suggestions available for users to try, though this number is substantially smaller than those available on alternative sites. We were impressed however, with the calorie calculator, which allows members to determine how many calories they actually need to eat and burn in order to lose weight successfully. Users calculate these figures by using the calorie calculator, which takes into consideration a range of factors, including gender, weight, height, BMI and more. While there are a number of diet-friendly strategies for coping with eating out, and what to order at a fast-food restaurant, we did think that JillianMichaels.com lacked the depth (in terms of articles and supplementary information) that is provided on some of the higher rated sites, such as eDiets.com and Diet.com. JillianMichaels.com also recently started providing a meal delivery service to its members (at an additional cost, of course), though it must be noted that this service is actually provided by eDiets, and not JillianMichaels.com directly.

In terms of fitness support, users have come to the right place with JillianMichaels.com. As expected, the site concentrates far more on fitness than diet in its weight loss regime, and as such the features on the site reflect this position. A weekly fitness planner is provided so that users can follow a strict regime of exercise, suited to a particular fitness level. While this develops over time, to appreciate improvements in your physical capabilities, these are not exactly flexible, and don't allow users to select the activities they most wish to engage in (such as that provided on DietWatch.com). You can also keep an online fitness diary, to keep track of the activities you enjoy and how you feel whilst you're doing them. This emotional element is an important part of the regime, and is reflected in the weight loss buddies scheme (similar to that which operates on other sites), message boards and strong online community. A team of hand picked experts are also on hand to answer any questions you may have, as well as develop new materials (albeit in a somewhat irregular fashion).

While many will be cynical of JillianMichaels.com as being part of a wider commercial cash-cow, we were impressed with what the site had to offer its users. Whilst the features on JillianMichaels.com are not the most extensive we have covered, they are still of a high quality and certainly produce results. We would suggest that users may be well advised to buy Jillian Michaels' book (which can be purchased from the website or most good retailers) and see whether her system appeals to you. If it does, JillianMichaels.com is likely the perfect accompaniment to that weight loss scheme, as it provides a back-up to ensure that you keep going to achieve your goal.

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