By Leigh Peele

Update: Due to a high volume of complaints and death threats I have written a follow up post which you can see here after you finish the one below.

I am not going to lie, I went into this review  looking to rip apart every bit of this book piece by piece. It is no secret my general feelings toward most television and celebrity trainers. I have even spoken particular about Jillian Michaels before in a very…opinionated manner. If you know me at all, and know that I am reviewing this book, then you are going to assume that this isn’t going to be pretty.  Well, let’s see shall we?

My Trip to Books-a-Million

I live right by just about everything. With a 12 min walk I have video games, three different grocery stores, two Starbucks, shoes, clothes, bookstores, etc. You name it and I can walk to it in 12 mins. I don’t run, I hate running. If I did though it could be even quicker.

I set out to take a walk up to the bookstore, I got inside, grabbed the book, and headed to the counter.

No one was there.

This is a f**king bookstore. It was dead. It was literally me, a chick drinking coffee 15 feet away in the cafe, and a guy outside smoking a cig. Finally the cafe girl see’s me and calls someone upfront to the register.

She was defensive from the get go.

Question: Why is it when it is other people screw up they think they can deflect it by being a jackass and turning it around on you? That doesn’t work so well on me.

I am standing there, still smiling and being nice, and I give her the book. She asks me if I have a membership card, I say no and not interested, but thank you anyway. She says, “Okay, well just so you know you would have saved $2.34 today.” Really, really you snooty little bitch, really? It is funny that you think after I stood here for 10 mins, and that you gave me attitude about the fact that you are late, that I am going to feel as  if my world is crushed knowing that.

Needless to say I didn’t like her. Final point, that is a poor marketing strategy, Godin would not approve.

The First 20 mins of reading

I got home, I curled up next to my pup, and I dove in.

I read fast. I am not a super speed reader, but I can read pretty quickly and have excellent comprehension. Unless very technical I can get through a book pretty fast. The less technical the better my speed. The first sections of this book were basically a quick overview of Jillian’s early years and how she got started, and ultimately what led to her writing a book on Metabolism. It was there my tone changed while reading. My inner monologue got all soft on me. It is hard to hate almost 60% of who you have trained and come to love over the recent years.

That’s right, turns out Jillian was just another of my clan. I saw it before she said it and I knew the whole book, almost word from word before I even read it. I didn’t even need to read it. It has been in my email box forever now. I know how she got there, I know where she THINKS her road now is going to take her, and I know that she is going to end up just as screwed up as before because she still isn’t getting it. Worse, she is selling what she doesn’t get to others who don’t get it. It is the blind leading the blind.

To give a short overview:

Jillian was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism after years of driving herself and body into the ground. Not to mention those poor Biggest Loser contestants. She was living off of 1200 calories a day (she states and stated of tracking), never slept, had high cortisol, etc, etc.

Sound familiar?

What happened? She started eating healthier, stopped overtraining, and some other big things that were left out of the book (drugs more than likely if really hypo) that lets her eat 1800-2000 calories a day now. She still has a sluggish metabolism compared to others but hey, that is life, and she feels better now than before. That is all that matters right?

No Ms, Michaels, you have only got one piece of the puzzle and either you don’t realize how much you take in or you are, and more than likely, putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.

The whole book, “Master Your Metabolism,” was written by someone who is still being the slave to their own. Oh yes, it has a big purple hat and cane and it has you do its bidding.

The Flawed Research and Anecdotal Overload

Most of the book, and really I do mean that, is filled with wrong information on studies, how things work, and personal stories that have no relevance to science in anyway,  shape, or form. One of her “ah-ha” moments was when her friend Vanessa got her lab tests back and everything was glowing beautiful. They played the “I do/you do” game and since Vanessa never had a soda or ate junk food, that stuff became the target. OBVIOUSLY this is the answer we were missing all along.

That is the basis. What I want to know is what about the millions and million of people who are fine that eat fat-free potato chips?

From there she gives some studies (that are crap or she didn’t read) backed by book recommendations (that are sketchy, like Ageless by Suzanne Somers). I will highlight some of the majoring glaring flaws below.

The Toxins, oh no not the Toxins

Throw out your make up, your shampoo, your floor cleaners, your plastic containers, etc. Basically anything that you could possible use in a day because it is killing you and making you fat.

The Plastics, oh no not the plastic

I have already covered this recently but the very things she says to avoid have been proven to not have any role in sexual hormone increase in the body.

Organic, for the win!

If you don’t eat organic, you are a bad bad person with a bad bad thyroid.

White is the new death

Yep, no white again for the win!

In short, it is the book for the utter most paranoid people there can be about what is in their foods. If you are looking for a book that is going to (wrongly) feed into your fears about what you do everyday in your life and make you afraid of leaving your house or even to be in your house in the first place, this book is for you.

My closing points

I feel bad for Jillian. Not in a cocky or condescending manner, but because I have known women like her for a long time and they get so tunneled vision on the bad that everything is going to to around you that they can’t live and enjoy life.

News Flash: This world is not safe, the sweet potatoes can hurt you as much as the twinkie given the right cough or contact with the wrong bacteria, and most people are sick, fat, and sad because of what they do to themselves, not because of what is done to us.

Now wait, there is a shiny point…

So the f**k what?! Who cares? All you can do is be as happy as you can be and take care of the self the best you can. Do I have a problem with playing it safe on the off chance that things could be worse than we know now? Nope, but call a spade a spade, we don’t know and what we do know says so far, it doesn’t matter. You teaching people things as absolutes and not reading the research for what it is just causes more harm than good.

My biggest bone to pick though goes beyond this book. I want to close with a final statement/question for Jillian Michaels and who knows, she might just see it.

Final Question: If you found out now and understand that extremely intense overtraining mixed with poor nutrition is a recipe for disaster then what the hell are you doing on the Biggest Loser or taking apart in any of that kind of training? I know how long it takes for a book to come out, this wasn’t an overnight thing Jillian. You are on the show right now as I type this and contract or no contract, what you are doing to those people is wrong, you seem to know this now, but yet you don’t care.

In fact, in a recent interview you talk about how you may be quitting the show, but not because you realize that it may be unhealthy, not because you can’t stand the contestants.

Update: I have addressed some of the specific study issues that were raised in the forums in more detail about the plastics, organics, etc. If you want more information on that there.

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To learn how to REALLY help out your problems with overtraining and slow metabolic behavior you can check out the Metabolic Repair Manual as apart of The Fat Loss Troubleshoot package available now for immediate download here.

My brain was feeling a little lacking in intelligence this morning. I don’t know what it was.  Could it be a news story like this? Could it be a celebrity saying…anything about a diet? Could it be the conversation I heard last night at the store that went like this…

“I don’t know Karen, I read a news article that said a study came out that diets just lead to regaining your weight and then some. I am just going to eat healthy and exercise.”

We aren’t getting it. We aren’t getting it, and we are a long way from there. This is only the beginning. Our best defense against all of this dogma, all of these BS conversational claims, all of these dramatic Fox News style “health” reports is to understand either what they can’t, or what they don’t care to.

Enter in Alan Aragon’s Research Review.

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “I can’t read that stuff, I don’t want to read, I am fine with others telling me what that stuff says, and oh and its boring as f**k.”

Can’t read it? I don’t buy it, it isn’t that complicated.

Don’t want to read? Fine, I buy that, but if having problems with your body I suggest you start to care about that “reading” thing.

Want someone else to tell you? Alright, but you better have picked the right guru and I can assure you that the less they tell you to read, the more likely they are going to screw you over.

It’s boring as f**k? Oh trust me, when you know how stupid what everyone is saying is, it is not boring at all. It becomes pure entertainment 24/7.  In fact, I think diet and training are the most wrongly discussed issues anywhere world wide.  Lastly, everyday your life is affected by a study from your car, drugs, food, television, etc.

Now to the 3 reasons.

Reason #1-Translation

Sometimes reading a study can make you want to rip your brain out. However, Aragon takes this issue away because he literally cliff notes and explains to you step by step what went down in the study and what things mean.

Reason #2-The “X” Factor

Aragon doesn’t just dive into the study, explain what it found, and leave it at that. He reviews not only that study but other works that are influenced or have been found because of that study. He shows you the flaws, the misses, or the “X” factor as to why or why not what this study is saying is valid. Here is an example of why this is key.

Report: We found in our study that aspirin will kill you. Don’t take aspirin.

What happens if the headline above reads like this?

Report: Taking 203 aspirins in a row will kill you. We don’t recommend doing that.

Big difference right? Sadly to most in the health community, not so much. Don’t you think that adding that you would have to take 203 aspirins to kill you is important? I do.

Reason #3-Saves you time

The best part is it saves you so much time. Sorting through study after study and the years that it takes to play catch up on all of this is daunting to say the least. With the research review you get caught right up and shown what you have missed as well.

To add one more incentive, here are just some of the recent topics and studies covered in the Alan Aragon Research Review.

-How to gain muscle while gaining least fat possible
-A complete breakdown of the Crossfit program and its use
-Obsessive exercise disorders
-The importance of nutrient timing
-Interview with Ronnie Coleman (he may or may not be getting a cheesy fix)
-Low calorie liquid diets and their effect on your metabolism

The list goes on and on.

You getting it now? You on board? Good. You can subscribe to the research review by clicking below.  (Very Important: To subscribe you must click “terms and conditions.” Apparently the “sign up here” buttons were sold out.)

You can also start posting up questions and asking for more in depth help of studies and research in the new FLzine forum section here.

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I am fascinated by the simplicity of activity importance in fat loss. I am more fascinated by the amount of people who think it is not relevant. I am not talking about exercise, I can take it, or leave it for fat loss. What I am discussing is general daily activity and its importance to energy intake.

It seems like a simple concept right? Move more, eat more. Move less, eat less. It would be a simple concept if the world wasn’t full of people who thought they are owed something. In this case that “something” they are owed is food. As society slows down in movement, it speeds up in greed, on all fronts.

In Move a Little, Lose a Lot Dr. James Levine starts out his journey of movement discovery with a tale of his own life. Bound by a desk and frozen to stillness by way of occupation, James was having a hard time achieving the happiness he wanted in his life. He found on a life changing trip that movement was the hidden culprit. He found that “sitting disease” as he playfully calls it, is slowly robbing the world one chair at a time of their health.

I really liked this book and Dr. Levine’s work. The book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be either. I was expecting it to be more technical and dry. I expected the the solution of failed daily activity to be a treadmill desk and to call it a day. Dr. Levine impressed me and went much further into detail about the change of your actual lifestyle, beyond just movement.

I am often a fan of books that have a “between the lines” meaning. What I mean is books that are painting a clear picture, but underneath there lies an extra meaning. The main purpose of the book is how to lose fat by increasing daily activity. The underlying purpose of the book is how to have a better life by being the better version of you. That better version will likely to be less overweight by more happenstance than intent. If I had it my way, that is how all people would achieve the bodies they wanted. Sadly, suffering from paralysis by analysis, there is not enough demand and hand holding to do the job.

My only bone to pick with the book is the discussion of “free foods” in forms of veggies and fruits. This is a common dietary recommendation flaw in many weight loss books, and from what I have found in my work, you simply can’t put the word “free” to food. People will take it literally and eat enough veggies and fruit to erase the deficit they have created. I hate to think with all the brilliance and effort that Levine has put into the book, he will see failed results based on these guidelines.

Overall I highly recommend the book to anyone. It is filled with great research, a few fun facts I wasn’t aware of, and it is surprisingly uplifting and positive. It leaves you feeling really good after reading it. I would promote this book as a lifestyle book as much as a weight loss book.

Grab a copy of the book Move a Little, Lose a Lot.

Double your chances of accuracy in daily activity by grabbing the ultimate tracker of calorie expenditure with it.

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Featured Item for this post: Move a Little, Lose a Lot

“Foam Rollers are the poor man’s massage therapist”-Boyle

You don’t get a lot of things in life for free. There is usually a catch. The other day I got offered 6 free issues of a magazine only if I agreed to pay for the other 6 issues. This isn’t necessarily a bad deal, but it isn’t free. Even I have offered tons of things for free, but in return I ask that you let me email you randomly so that I can babble about some new project I am working on. In all honesty I hope that what I contributes to society helps, but you still have to give me the okay to email you.

What I am going to link you to by the end of this article is a 100% guarantee free ebook. Better yet, it is something free that can save you hundreds of hours of pain free living and lifting.

What is SMR?

Myofascial release is the art of manipulating fascia to decrease pain, increase range of motion, and provide better overall function and balance in the body. In other words, your muscles and the connections within them get all jumbled up and knotted. Scar tissue builds, shortening occurs, injury takes place, and basically what was once moving correctly and with ease is now stunted. Myofasical release is supposed to get in there and “break things up”, “stretch” them out, and leave you performing better, and in less pain than before.

The problem with Myofasical release in the past has been that you had to have anothers hands in order to do the actual releasing. Through the years a lot of equipment has come available to bring us the ability to perform Self Myofascial Release (SMR). While it isn’t better than actual hands on work, it is a fine substitute, and a very cost effective one.

To learn more about these methods and techniques and why to apply them to your training please go and download, for free, Mike Roberston’s Self Myofascial Release book. In the book you will find tons of detailed picture and instruction on how to perform Self Myofascial Release and when best to do so.

If you enjoy Mike’s book make sure to go that step further and look into buying Magnificent Mobility, a fantastic DVD that helps take these types of ideas further, and introduces more about drills and techniques.

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Feature item for this post:  Magnificent Mobility