Making the Cut by Jillian Michaels

Making the Cut
by Jillian Michaels
Pub. Date: April 2007
Genre: Fitness
273pp

Synopsis from BN.com:
Are you in good shape but struggling with those last ten to twenty pounds that stand between looking perfectly okay and looking knock-their-eyes-out great? Do you have an event on the calendar where you’d love to make jaws drop? Or do you just want to see for yourself what it would be like to have the best body you’ve ever had in your life? Then you need this book. Making the Cut is a unique, intense thirty-day program from TV’s toughest fitness guru, Jillian Michaels. It has one purpose: to maximize your diet and fitness potential so you’ll get dramatic results at an accelerated pace. The program trains you in three essential ways—mentally, nutritionally, and physically.

Why I Picked It:
I heart Jillian, and have been fighting with my last few pounds For.Ev.Er.

My Review:
I actually picked this book up right when it hit the Costco book tables back in 2007. I was determined to lose the baby weight from Kevin, and needed some inspiration. I know I took before pics, but I have no idea what happened after that. Oh yeah, I think I got pregnant again.

I met Jillian Michaels a few weeks ago at her latest book signing. I spent the approximately 45 seconds I had with her talking about my sister...

My friend Brenda was asking Jillian how we should lose the last of the weight, and Jillian said, "I wrote a whole book on that!" I had forgotten all about it. So I dug it back out.

As far as true text, the book is a quick read. The majority of the book is recipes and workout descriptions. She does a great job is getting right to the meat of why you need to get on a plan and how to do it.

Rule 1 - Sticking to the numbers. If you want to lose weight, you need to create "enough of a deficit to lose the weight you want to lose, but not so much of a deficit that your body goes into starvation-survival mode and your metabolism slows down." So, you need to figure out the number of calories that your body needs to function at the most basic level - what you'd burn if you sat on the couch all day and didn't move a muscle. This is called your BMR, basal metabolic rate.

For WOMEN: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in lbs) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Specifically for me, that number calcs to 1303.2.

Then she guides you through a questionnaire to determine how to balance the macronutrient ratio within that daily caloric intake. If you don't already know, macronutrients are carbs, proteins, and fats, and we need to have a proper balance of those each day. The trick is how to figure that out.

Everything I read tells me something different when it comes to this topic. Jillian's Making the Cut questionnaire puts me as a slow oxidizer, and says I need 60% carbohydrates, 25% protein, and 15% fat.

Again, for me that breaks down as follows:
1303 daily calories
782 cal of carbohydrates (4cal/g = 195.5g/day)
326 cal of protein (9cal/g = 36g/day)
195 cal of fats (9cal/g = 22g/day)

From there, she dives into a diet plan, but I already have a pretty good plan in place. I eat healthy, clean foods, so I may try her recipes from time to time, but I'm not going to dive into a barrage of new meals.

The exercise plans look good. What I really like is how she really explains each exercise, includes photos of proper form. This would be an excellent section for someone just starting out, or who is just getting into a gym but not sure how to use machines. An excellent resource. But again, I have a running plan in place, a strength training plan in place, so I may pull the book out to do one of her workouts from time to time or in helping someone else put together a workout.

I spent an evening on this book and gathered the info above (which I'm including for myself in case I misplace the Excel file I plugged it into already, lol). Next I'm reading Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. REALLY curious to see what he thinks my macronutrient ratio should look like.