Escape Your Weight: Diets and Exercise Alone Won't Work, This Proven Plan Will! [Hardcover]

Now 20 pounds lighter, I now know why I was never able to lose my weight. First off, i was doing all the wrong types of exercises, lifting heavy weights, doing spin classes and trying to build more muscle by lifting weights. What I didn't know was that I was actually increasing my size and weight because of my misexercise coupled with the fact that I actually wasn't eating enough and thus, was slowing down my metabolism.

In short, it has been nearly 3 months now and I am finally at a comfortable weight, I feel confident that I can maintain without starving myself or over exercising. I reccommend this book for anyone who has been unsuccessful in previous attempts at weight loss. I also learned so much about exercise; why certain exercises are more effective for weight loss and which ones are not. I am now more educated on how to eat properly by not skipping meals and realize the perils of "starving" yourself with no long-lasting results!

Without this book I would still be facing each day with no plan or hope, this book has guided me to a healthier and happier me!

The author first asks you to select the type of weight loss plan you can live with. Do you want to exercise as little as possible? Or would you rather alter your eating habits only slightly and exercise more? Once you have made your selection, you zero in on the amount of weight you want to lose.
If you want to lose 11-30 pounds and don't want to exercise much then you would be on the limited approach plan. This plan means you can eat 1400 calories to meet your goals.

Jackowski stresses a healthy, natural diet. Slow, steady weight loss. He does tell you how to kick your weight loss into high gear and lose more weight quicker BUT he also tells you that you may burn out that way and you are better off losing it slowly and permanently.

Jackowski also gives an exercise prescription for weight loss. These plans vary, but a typical day may include a warm-up, stretch, fat burner (like jumpe rope), upper body exercise, jumping jacks, hip work, abs and legs, etc.

I really appreciate Jackowski's honestly. He doesn't sugar coat the truth. If you want to get slim, you are going to have to work at it FOREVER. Not for a few weeks out of the year, FOREVER.

Jackowski gives eating plans for each calorie level and you are not to deviate from the plan. I like the fact that you can choose your meal choice and are given about 7 meal selections for breakfast, lunch and dinner to choose from BUT its a diet and with only 7 selections that could get limiting long term.
The other thing I disliked about the plan is the distribution of calories. Many folks are not hungry when they wake up and have trouble eating a lot of food. Jackowski's breakfast calories are substantial equal to those at lunch. I personally feel full in the am on just a few hundred calories, and would rather eat a small snack after dinner. But on the 1600 limited approach Jackowksi would have me stuff down 2 and 1/4 cup cereal, 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup berries, 12 almonds and 1 hard boiled egg for breakfast. Thats 500 calories! A lot more food than I want. My thought would be to perhaps eat some of what he suggests for breakfast and save some of it for an after dinner snack. In addition there are no vegetarian substitutions given.
Jackowski's plans allow for 3 meals and 1 mid-afternoon snack.

One thing that always inspires me with a diet book is the testimonials and Jackowski's got a bunch of them with pictures at the back of the book. But there was one MAJOR problem with the testimonials, they all followed the authors EXERCISE plan but few of them followed his EATING plan which is what "Escape Your Weight" is supposed to be about.
In the first testimonial the happy loser describes how she doesn't combine carbs with proteins. Then she talks about funky foods. What is Suzanne Sommers diet doing in Ed Jackowki's book?
I thought I would be reading testimonials for Ed's diet.
Well at least he is honest. Essentially Ed is telling us that to lose weight you have to EAT LESS, EXERCISE MORE. There is no magic pill or bullet. And you can do it with his method that is laid out for you or you can use another method so long as you are burning more than what you take in.

Ed also gives lots of tips throughout the 328 page book. Its well written and it includes a number of black and white photographs to illustrate the exercises and testimonials. There is also a section with advise on how to lose that last 10 pounds.

Bottomline I would recommend this book for anyone who needs some commonsense weight loss advise. Just don't expect a miracle cus there isn't one out there!