America’s ultimate motivator Jillian Michaels joined Kim on the Kim Gravel Show to share her simple tips for beating a rigged system to achieve better health.
A world-renowned health and wellness expert, Emmy-nominated TV host and the author of eight New York Times bestsellers, Jillian has helped millions of people get in shape and get healthier.
“Fitness is transcendent,” Jillian said. “When we’re feeling strong physically, we’re feeling strong in other facets of our lives.”
So how do we get fit and access that strength?
Understand that the system is rigged.
Thanks to what Jillian calls a rigged system, greater numbers of Americans struggle with weight gain, obesity, and a host of related chronic health problems.
“Obesity, the default condition for human beings in the twenty-first century, is obese by design,” Jillian said. “Between big farming, big food, big pharma, and big insurance—we call it structural violence.”
In the 1950s, about five percent of adults were overweight or obese. By the 1970s that number had increased to 10 percent. Thanks to some “key changes in the way big food and big pharma were allowed to lobby our politicians,” Jillian explained, “the long and short of it is you saw a supersonic rise in obesity and chronic disease.”
Now, 74 percent of our adult population is overweight or obese. And, 50 percent of our kids are overweight or obese. Plus, we’ve seen an increase in a whole host of other issues like fatty liver disease, autism, infertility, low testosterone, and more (which is also related to ultra-processed foods—more on that below).
“Major corporations put profit over people,” she said. “Myself and people in my industry are sounding the alarm … and we’re working on facilitating systemic change.”
So what can you do to manage your own health, despite a rigged system? First and most importantly, exercise agency.
As Kim said, “You’re the captain of your own ship.”
“You’ve got to empower yourself,” Jillian said.
Here are some specific steps to take to get control of your weight, your health, and your future.
Learn the math of calories.
Obesity is associated with 170 comorbidities, Jillian said. It’s the top contributor to cancer, heart disease, and metabolic dysfunction (such as Type 2 diabetes).
One step to losing weight or avoiding obesity is to learn the simple math of calories.
Calories are energy. Fat is stored energy. People often underestimate their caloric intake by about 1,000 calories each day … which is two pounds a week, eight pounds a month, and up to 80 pounds over the course of a year.
“People turn around and they’re like, ‘I can’t lose weight.’ It’s because they’re being lied to about the simple science,” Jillian said.
Whether they try different diets, like the carnivore or keto or intermittent fasting, they won’t lose weight unless they reduce their caloric intake. “You must understand, if you’re trying to lose weight, you must reduce the amount of calories you’re taking in, period.”
Kim mentioned that her 60-pound weight loss resulted from just that: eating less. “I just cut what I ate in half. And then about two months in, I lost about 18 pounds in that third month … I made little micro movements.”
Micro movements pay off, Jillian said.
Learn what’s really in your food.
“The reality is that in large part, we are consuming over 70 percent of our calories from what’s called ultra-processed foods,” Jillian said. “There are about ten thousand chemicals in these ultra-processed foods, nine thousand five hundred of which, give or take one hundred or so, are illegal in pretty much every other country of the developing world.”
What are ultra-processed foods?
“Think of it like stuff that doesn’t have a mother,” Jillian said. “Stuff that didn’t come from the ground. A Cheeto, an Oreo, cheap spaghetti. That’s nothing but bleached, white, stripped, enriched GMO crops. Ketchup with 50 different chemicals in it that are, by the way, also illegal in Europe.”
In short, “All of this crap in the plastic boxes and bags, that does not look like it ever had a mother or could have possibly grown out of the ground, that’s an ultra-processed food.”
Ultra-processed foods often contain:
- Petrochemicals
- Formaldehyde
- Pesticides
- Fertilizers (chemical herbicides)
- Fungicides
- Artificial colors, flavors, sugars, and fats
- Preservatives
- Anti-caking agents
- Emulsifiers
- Plastics
- Heavy metals
It’s no surprise then, that we’ve seen an increase in issues like fatty liver disease, autism, infertility, low testosterone, and more.
“Chronic disease is exploding across the board,” Jillian said. “Obesity exacerbates the problem, but it is simply one of these conditions. It is an accelerant to things like cancer and metabolic disease, absolutely. And inflammation of the entire body, because it releases inflammatory proteins, so on and so forth.”
“But the reality is that this [ultra-processed] food is designed to undermine your satiety, because normal whole food communicates with our body,” she said. “It provides information. Protein, healthy fats, fiber releases satiety hormones. We eat, we’re done.”
Ultra-processed foods, on the other hand, don’t do that. Not only do they not release satiety hormones, but they spike our blood sugar, crash our blood sugar, and are designed to make us hungrier.
“They’re engineered to do so by food scientists,” Jillian said. “They’re triggering the bliss point in your brain.”
Get angry and take action.
“I want you angry about it,” Jillian said of the system rigged to keep Americans sick while generating growing profits for THESE PEOPLE.
Jillian suggests going to endchronicdisease.com and messaging your representatives, telling them to outlaw formulations that are outlawed in other countries.
Take these three (or 10,000 daily) steps for better health.
Step 1. Set a daily step goal. Jillian said she recommends resistance training and high intensity interval training, but if you get in 7,000 to 10,000 steps each day, “the impact on your health is seriously massive.”
Not only does it burn one-and-a-half times more calories than sitting, but it also improves cardiovascular function and improves insulin sensitivity.
Consider investing in a walking pad (like a mini treadmill) for under your desk to get in even more steps.
Step 2. Count calories.
“It’s the first law of thermodynamics,” Jillian said.
More than just counting calories, it’s important to consider what kinds of calories you’re taking in. For example, a 300-calorie Big Gulp will crash your blood sugar and make you hungry and tired. Then you’ll eat more, and if you eat crappy foods, you won’t feel full.
While a calorie is a calorie, a calorie of avocado and a calorie of a Cheeto are two completely different animals.
“One will ultimately lead to disease, and one is your best form of medicine,” Jillian said.
If you don’t have the bandwidth to keep track of your calories, start by cutting your portions in half and cutting out any caloric beverages.
Step 3. Make common sense food choices.
This is simple, Jillian said. Go for the grilled chicken nuggets instead of fried. Granola instead of sugar cereal. Get rid of artificial food coloring and bleached flour.
“I don’t need perfection,” Jillian said. “I simply need you to look at this spectrum of ‘This food will kill me, and this food will cure me.’”
Jillian Michaels is a leading figure in health and wellness, committed to helping others achieve their best lives. With a community of more than 100 million, she excels across various media, including her award-winning fitness app, bestselling books, and popular TV shows. An Emmy-nominated talent and certified fitness expert, Jillian founded Empowered Media, LLC, creating a holistic wellness empire. Passionate about activism, she supports causes like refugee aid, cancer awareness, and animal welfare, while continuing to inspire through her fitness equipment, clothing line, and upcoming projects. Tune into her podcast, Keeping it Real, to get access to some of the best MDs, PhDs, and health advocates from around the world. Learn more at jillianmichaels.com.
The Kim Gravel Show is a top women’s lifestyle podcast where Kim shares her message of confidence and encouragement with a side of laughter and fun. The show features inspiring, topical conversations with thought leaders, CEOs, and celebrities tailored to give listeners the insight they need to help them discover their purpose, find their confidence, and love who they are. On each episode Kim tackles the topics that women care about in a way that will make you laugh, make you think, and help you see your life in a new, more positive way.
The Kim Gravel Show is a celebration of the stories that shape us. It's about laughing together and not taking ourselves too seriously. It's about the wisdom we've gathered and the hardships we've overcome. It's about looking at the woman you see in the mirror and remembering that she is beautiful inside and out. This is a show about remembering that no matter what you’ve been through you can love who you are right now.
Y’all, life is hard, but we can do it together.
