AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!
Great book for anyone who needs a little motivation to lose those frustrating pounds. I purchased this book along with the 30-Day Shred DVD and they are terrific together. Clear and easy to follow. I'm on day 14 and have already lost two inches around my waist. I highly recommend this book.

Wouldn't recommend for athletes...But still a great read
Jillian has a great dedication to her work and it shows in this book. You must be willing to commit to it 100%, which she makes very clear. I thought I would fall into this category as fitness and nutrition are high priority in my life. However, after reading the first section on Diet, I realized this wouldn't work for me.

CONS: I am training for my third Half-Marathon, thus running very frequently and relatively long distances. The calorie limits were extremely low for my daily activity needs. And in my non-expert opinion, extremely low for anyone, in general. I have tried calorie-restrictive diets before (lingering on 1200-1400 cals a day) only to see them really mess up my metabolism. On the other hand, this book is stated to be a 30-day regime and not intended for life-long use, so perhaps I should have considered this. Also, be prepared to give up alcohol in this regime! I require a beer as soon as the weekend hits, so this didn't work for me.

PROS: And there are lots of them...As I stated, with my Marathon training, I won't be following the regime exactly, as is REQUIRED by Jillian. But I still like this book because I find it truly inspirational and encouraging to read Jillian's words of advice and expert knowledge on fitness. I am definitely going to use her circuit training in my fitness routine - they are great exercises and there are lots of them in this book!! Another Pro - there are pages, upon pages of recipes! I love to cook so I really like this a lot. And lastly, Jillian has lots of knowledge on fitness and how things affect your body, and she explains everything very thoroughly.

Overall, I don't regret buying the book and I enjoy opening it up for a motivational pick-me-up or as a great resource for healthy recipes and strength training.

"Making the Cut" have "One Serving" Consistency
Grade-wise, I would give "Making the Cut" a B+. It definitely qualified as an "easy read", was well organized and maintained my interest. I found Jillian's personal insights both uplifting and supportive: Don't beat yourself up- keep positive thinking & good choices ongoing- plus a sprinkling of little tips for staying on track. Her dietary approach utilizes a metabolic typing test that determines if you are a Slow, Balanced or Fast oxidizer. My personal Dilemma #1- I scored equally- as both a balanced & fast oxidizer. So I thought- let me examine the menus and have my taste buds be my guide. Quite frankly- both diets looked just as great(I'm very food friendly). My next strategy: O.K. I'll go with the menu that contains the easiest recipes. It was then I discovered my main (& minor) beef with the book. The serving size for each recipe varied between 1 and 6 servings. Example, There was no way I would ever want to make 6 servings of "Scrambled eggs with Smoked Salmon, Spinach and Chives"- this and many of the other selections were just not good "Left-over" prospects- I could just envision the (refrigerated) overnight texture changes: wilting, leaking fluids, and soppiness- not pretty. Why not simplify life-and just provide all recipes in a "1 serving size" portion? I don't mind doubling it on my own... however, dividing everything by 6, is annoying. The remainder of the book is very well done- geared towards maximizing your work out benefits. Body types and strategies are touched upon - an intriguing array of routines are explored- and an easy reference exercise guide (with photographs)is included. If you have injuries- proceed with caution. The concluding chapter of the book touches upon the do's and don'ts of supplementation. All in all- a good book-just keep your calculator handy for those "super sized" recipes.

Good, but could be better organized
The first sections of this book describing the 30 day plan are good and they lay out the expectations for what you need to do quite clearly. But once you take the test and figure out what metabolic type you are the followup recipes and descriptions are confusing and hard to navigate. The recipes are organized by what meal they are for and within that category alphabetically, meaning that to get to the recipes that actually pertain to a particular metabolic type, you need to wade through ALL the recipes. Once I have established what type I am, I don't want to read about other types. It would be better if after they give the type description and the nutritional plan for that type, the recipes for that nutritional plan immediately follow.Additionally, most of the recipes seemed to be geared for families and not singles becasue they serve 4-6 people.The exercise descriptions could be more clearly illustrated, even ones that the author may consider "basic".

Excellent Book
This book is excellent. I enjoyed reading it before starting Jillian's 30 day shred video.