REVIEW: Jillian Michaels 14 Day Cleanse and Burn

06/14/2010

To be fair, I guess I need to start by saying, no, I've never seen The Biggest Loser.  All I know of Jillian Michaels is what I've read in her books and seen on her fitness DVD's (to be reviewed later).  I saw her on a couple talk shows and thought she had a decent outlook towards general health, fitness, and wellness.

So, despite my better judgment, I picked up this little system at my local GNC



Before we go further let me first say the following:
1. You don't need to use this if you're under 18, or better yet, 21.  I got carded when I bought this, as I guess is typical with diet pills these days.
2. You don't need to use this without doctor consent if you have health problems of any type.

To give a rough overview of the "system", it first contains 7 days worth of "Total Body Detox and Cleanse" pills which are two be taken twice a day.  The last 7 days swap to probiotic replenishment supplements in the morning and "Fat Burning" capsules twice a day.

So, in theory, the idea is to cleanse, rebuild, then burn fat.  Jillian recommends you eat a healthy diet and exercise, of course, but boasts that no starvation/juice diets/crazy insane cleanse rituals are necessary throughout the 14 days.

Now, onto my experience....

The "cleanse" pills did nothing to "cleanse" at all.  They gave me stomach aches and made me seem to retain water.  I already eat decent and workout, so I didn't change much in those aspects, which should give me a pretty fair assessment here, I think.  And, after two weeks, I actually gained 8 pounds. 

Yes, 8 pounds.  As it's virtually impossible to gain that much weight in fat, I'm almost positive this system did little more than made me feel bloated and made me retain water.  When I swapped to the probiotic replacements and the "Fat Burning" pills, the stomachaches ceased, but I just didn't get the feeling these were doing anything.  I could be swallowing sugar pills for all I know, right?

I'm a bit disappointed in the system, not just because it really did nothing positive for me but because it seems to counteract the no-nonsense eat-healthy-and-workout regime that Jillian describes in her other works.  There really are no long-term healthy shortcuts here.  If it were as simple as popping a series of pills for two weeks, we'd all be at our ideal weight, no?

So, overall, this system gets two big thumbs down for me.  If you want pills, get a good multivitamin instead.  I'll still continue to use the Jillian Michaels dvds, but would never venture into the "Cleanse and Burn" type product again in the future, for sure.