Product Description

Few things in life are simple and straightforward, and losing weight is no different—it's not easy, and anyone who says otherwise is trying to pull a fast one. Winning by Losing is a comprehensive, inspirational, and real solution to your weight problems. Taking a triple-threat approach, Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels identifies and illuminates the three keys to health and lasting weight loss so that you can become a winner in mind, body, spirit, and life. Focusing on both the psychological aspects of being overweight as well as nutrition and fitness, Jillian's program is designed to help you safely shed weight fast.

So, are you ready to chuck the excuses and the quick-fix fantasies and get real about what it takes to change your life for the better? If so, this is the book for you. Come on. Losing has never felt so good!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #560 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Released on: 2007-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fitness guru Michaels, a fitness and life coach who has appeared on NBC's The Biggest Loser, brings her tough-love style to the pages of her first offering. For those familiar with Loser, Michael's no-excuses approach here may seem less intimidating than it does to those meeting her on television. She writes with an edge, warning readers that they cannot make excuses, they will work hard and they will suffer setbacks, but they will also change their lives for the better. Her "3-S" (Self, Science and Sweat) plan covers the mental and physical, and Michaels dedicates equal sections of the book to each. In Self, she announces to readers that she was an "overweight and unhappy teenager" who took charge of her life, challenging readers to do the same. While no book has the power to change a person, the tips Michaels provides-create a support system, keep a journal, change your self-talk-do. In Science, Michaels dispels common diet myths (skipping meals is best, diet pills work), provides recipes for meals and snacks and introduces the concept of fast-, slow- and balanced-oxidizers, which determines a person's ideal diet. The final Sweat chapters include easy-to-follow exercises accompanied by photos, and a five-day-per-week, 12-week fitness program centered on burn-and-tone cardio training. The book and coaching come relatively cheap, but to follow the program without substitution exercises, readers will need access to a gym or a weight machine. And, unfortunately, Michaels does not make house calls.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"While no book has the power to change a person, the tips Michaels provides...do." -- Publisher's Weekly

About the Author

Jillian Michaels is best known as one of the trainers from the NBC hit series The Biggest Loser. Jillian has also written Making the Cut: The 30-Day Diet and Fitness Plan for the Strongest, Sexiest You. She has a line of workout DVDs, a successful online program at www.jillianmichaels.com, and is AOL's fitness coach for 2007. Jillian lives in Los Angeles with her beloved and faithful Chihuahua, Baxter.

Customer Reviews

Jillian is hilarious and informative
If you are a fan of the Biggest Loser then you will get Jillian's humor in the book and also that she is a hard core trainer who will drill knowledge into your head for your own sake. This book is informative and gives you a good approach to starting weight loss and will keep you smart about choices.

No more of this "exercise comfortably" nonsense...
Overview: the self (behavior, pysch) stuff is excellent, the workout stuff is beyond excellent, the diet stuff is meh.

Jillian's workouts are brutal and effective. They just are. And, really, the only effective workouts are brutal, so suck it up: you want to get lean, right? Rather than prescribing the usual "3 days cardio, 2 days strength" stuff, she has you doing four days of circuit, one day of cardio (keeping your heart rate at 85% of max for 50 minutes!) "to rest your muscles,"(ha) and two days of nuthin. The circuit, for those of you who aren't familiar, is what you see those poor Biggest Loser contestants doing on TV when they're redfaced and sweating heavily: it's a way of getting your heart rate WAY up there by doing, for example, 15 pushups then 15 squats then 15 pushups then 15 squats then 15 pushups then 15 squats NEXT CIRCUIT QUIT WHINING 15 tricep dips 15 crunches etc etc. A circuit is typically made up of an upper body exercise and a lower body one: J says doing this causes your heart rate to shoot up because you're pushing the blood to the upper body, then the lower, over and over again. You do each circuit 3 times without resting, then move to the next one.

So it's brutal, like I said. But it makes you strong and lean. And it makes you feel like you can do anything.

The "self" section is also effective. Figuring out why we do what we do (mindlessly snack, overeat) is an important tool in changing our behavior. So is the positive thinking stuff, something that doesn't come naturally to this reviewer.

Why the four stars? After all the explanation of how many calories you should be taking in daily and what your metabolic "type" is, there is very little guidance on how to put a meal together. Okay, I should be eating 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein. Now how do I do that? Do I eat a bunch of veggies and an egg or two? You can always refer to "the Zone" books for advice on this if you're a balanced oxidizer because that's the dietary model followed (40/30/30). But apart from a few recipes (many using fake stuff like Splenda, sweetened whey powder, etc.), you're on your own.

Exactly as described!
This item arrived promptly as promised - the book was new as described. I have never had a problem purchasing from Amazon or it's contibutors. Great book - my daughter loves it!