Julian Micheals Diet

Unlike most diet plans, this one emphasizes muscular fitness. A very toned and buff Ms. Michaels appears on the cover of the book, which she dedicates to “The Inner Badass Living Inside All of Us.” Her ideal feminine body is not soft and curvy but ripped. Her section on exercise is as long as the one on dieting, and many of her tips have to do with getting the most out of your work-outs. For example, she writes, “Caffeine is the most effective weight loss supplement on the market.” It is a “performance enhancer” that “accelerates the rate at which fat is broken down within the body,” and “will help you burn a higher percentage of calories form fat during exercise.”

She has paragraphs on various vitamins and supplements – the ones athletes and gym aficionados typically buy from health food stores. The Michaels exercise plan involves weights and heavy gym equipment. You start with a fitness test and set goals based on your age. You gradually increase the intensity of your workouts until you reach peak physical fitness. Michaels provides a daily work-out regime for each of the thirty days on her plan.

The Michaels diet plan differs according to whether you are a slow, fast or balanced oxidizer. You determine which one you are by taking a written test with questions such as “At dinner you prefer to eat (A) Chicken or fish, salad and rice; (B) No preference; (C) Heavier, fatty foods, pastas, steak, potatoes. Slow oxidizers answer most questions with As, balanced oxidizers with Bs, and fast oxidizers with Cs. The diet for a slow oxidizer is 60% carbohydrates, 25% protein, and 15% fat. Fast oxidizers get 30% carbohydrate, 40% protein and 30% fat. Balanced oxidizers have a ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat. Michaels describes which proteins, carbohydrates and fats are best for each type. For example, fast oxidizers should eat “high purine proteins” found in fattier meats, whereas slow oxidizers should avoid all animal fats and nuts.

Michaels would have you customize your diet based on your weight and age. You perform a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculation and come up with the number of calories you burn if you were to do nothing all day long. For a 65-year-old woman, five feet one inches and weighing 110 pounds, this number is 1114 calories per day. A 20-year-old male, six feet one inches and weighing 200 pounds burns 2100 calories per day. Once you know your BMR, “you know where to set your daily calorie allowance. Do your best to stick to this allowance exactly for the entire 30 days.” Michaels provides daily diets for each kind of oxidizer, and eighty pages of recipes. Here is the menu and workout plan on “Day 20” of a balanced oxidizer.

Michaels, Jillian. Making the Cut: The 30-Day Diet and Fitness Plan for the Strongest, Sexiest You. New York: Crown Publishers, 2007.

Created: 2007

Categories: Activity Emphasis

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