I have to admit--I've watched both seasons of The Biggest Loser and Bob has always been my favorite of the two trainers. So, when I saw Jillian's book, I was hesitant at first about whether I wanted to buy it. However, I just finished reading it today and I have to say that I am impressed. She provides a lot of helpful information both on the eating side and on the exercise side. She has tests or formulas to help you--such as the test that tells you whether you are a slow, fast or balanced oxidizer...she explains how to determine your maximum heart rate so you can work out at the correct intensity, etc. I must say I was quite surprised to see that there is only an hour of cardio (really only 50 minutes once you factor in warm up and cool down) a week in her plan. This surprised me because, watching the show for two seasons, you always see the contestants struggling and sweating on the bike, elliptical or treadmill doing cardio. Granted, Jillian's way of doing weight/resistance training will get you sweating as well! I thought the book was strong and impressive overall. My only disappointment was in the first third or so of the book. I thought that some subjects such as emotional eating were ridiculously over-simplified and given short shrift. The message I took away from some of these chapters was "OKay, now I've explained in a page and a half why you shouldn't do that, so just get over it now, mmmkay?" I understand that no book is going to be able to cure emotional eating in a chapter, but I would have rather she admitted that she didn't have time or experience to cover it fully and perhaps suggest some additional reading rather than go with the "POOF! You're cured!" approach. One of her real strengths is to be able to explain some rather complicated concepts about how the body metabolizes food or how the muscles work and make it readily understandable. Her book could have easily veered into the too-scientific, but it didn't. It was like sitting and having someone give you the heart-to-heart talk you know you need but have been scared to hear. Yea, she's tough, but she obviously cares as well.
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