One of the primary advantages of Denise Austin Fit Forever is the fact that it's moderately priced. For $3 per week, you'll receive full, unlimited access to the Denise Austin Fit Forever weight loss program website. The program begins with a one week free trial period, allowing you to explore the materials and start your customized fitness routine before you commit to a subscription. You can cancel at any time by contacting Denise Austin Fit Forever via phone or email.

Intent of Fitness Program

The intent of Denise Austin Fit Forever is to help you lose weight and build muscle by teaching you how to perform the right exercises, track your progress, eat right and stay motivated. Your subscription to Denise Austin Fit Forever includes 14 online tools designed to facilitate the accomplishment of these goals. Various tools can be used for tracking weigh loss inches, overall weight changes, exercise activity and calorie counts. The tools are described below:

• Recipes (including a database of recipes for meals, sides, snacks and desserts that allows you to save your favorites and search according to ingredient)
• Custom Meal Planner (complete with snack suggestions, simple recipes and shopping lists)
• Custom Fitness Planner (which tells you the exercises you should perform as well as how often you should perform them, all based on your current fitness level and goals)
• Shopping List Tool (allowing you to automatically print a shopping list based on your customized meal plan)
• Food Log (an interactive spreadsheet allowing you to track what you eat)
• Nutrition Facts Finder (which indicates the caloric, fat, protein and carbohydrate content of the foods you choose)
• Calorie Calculator (which allows you to determine how many calories you should consume each day based on your fitness plan)
• Activity Calculator (which tells you how many calories you'll burn using the exercises prescribed by your fitness plan)
• Weight Tracker (so you can track and graphically chart your weight loss)
• Inch Tracker (essentially the Weight Tracker modified for lost inches)
• Journal (allowing you to record your experiences as the program continues)
• Ideal Weight Calculator (which determines your health risks based on your current height and weight)
• Message Boards (in which you can seek help from and provide advice to other users)
• Denise's Blog (with regular updates regarding Austin's media appearances and fitness projects)

Primary Areas Worked

The exercise component of Denise Austin Fitness Forever begins by allowing you to customize your own workout plan based on the areas of your body that you'd like to target for weight loss, such as your abs, legs, arms, chest, back, buttocks and shoulders. You'll be able to choose between an advanced, intermediate or basic workout routine when you start, and Denise Austin Fitness Forever will provide you with various criteria that you can use to determine which routine will work best initially.

The workouts themselves are essentially a combination of the most popular exercises featured in Denise Austin's fitness videos. The instructions describing the exercises are clear and detailed, and the program provides plenty of opportunities (such as the message boards) that allow you to seek help if you're confused about the proper form for a certain exercise.

Program Length/Frequency

The Denise Austin Fit Forever weight loss program does not have a definite length, as the specific fitness program you take on will entirely depend on your fitness goals and current fitness level. However, the average user of the program should see positive results within only a few weeks. After you complete your first fitness program, you can begin another one that's customized to your new fitness level and goals.

The workouts themselves offer a combination of aerobic cardio and strength training, with an emphasis on tone and sculpting as opposed to sheer muscle mass and density. Although many of the cardio exercises are based on various forms of walking and running, the program is quite specific regarding the duration and suggested intensity of the exercises. Most of the workouts include both cardio and strength training in sequence. For example, a typical intermediate workout might include a 5 minute warmup, approximately 30 minutes of cardio, 15 minutes of toning with various resistance exercises and a cool-down routine to help your muscles relax and repair.

Effectiveness/Results of the Program

Denise Austin Fit Forever is highly effective at accomplishing its intended purpose, which is to help you lose weight and increase your strength in accordance with personalized exercise and meal plans. The fitness plans outlined by the program are very specific, and those who follow the plans most carefully will generally see the most significant results.

One of the best ways to increase the effectiveness of the Denise Austin Fit Forever weight loss program is to follow the included dietary meal plans. The meal plans don't adhere to any trendy diet fads, and instead rely on an ideal mixture of 25% fat, 25% protein and 50% carbohydrates. The dietary plans, which were created by nutritionist Rachel Rodney, come in three different versions: 1400, 1600 and 1800 calories per day. The Denise Austin Fit Forever program recommends one of these plans based on your body type, activity levels, weight loss goals and more. The program stresses that all meal plans are simply suggestions, and that individuals can mix and match the foods at will as long as they're sticking to the core, low-fat values of the program.

Regardless of which caloric meal plan you choose, Denise Austin Fit Forever will supply you initially with four weeks of meal suggestions for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a midday snack and a post-dinner treat. Although Denise Austin Fit Forever does not supply you with prepared food, it does automatically compile shopping lists that will allow you to buy all of the necessary groceries for a week of meals in a single shopping trip. A sample 1600 calorie meal plan is provided below:

• Breakfast: Skim milk with oatmeal
• Lunch: Crackers and black bean soup
• Snack: Low-fat chocolate milk, two graham crackers and an orange
• Dinner: Veggie pizza and mixed greens with low-calorie dressing
• After-Dinner Treat: Pretzels

An average 1400 calorie daily meal plan is only slightly lighter:

• Breakfast: Dry English muffin with scrambled eggs and cantaloupe
• Lunch: Skim milk, celery sticks, baby carrots and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• Snack: Two tablespoons of low-fat granola
• Dinner: Whole wheat spaghetti with mixed greens and low-calorie dressing
• After-Dinner Treat: Three ginger snap cookies

The Denise Austin Fit Forever meal plans are filled with low calorie foods that are still filling and highly nutritious. In addition, most of the foods are relatively inexpensive, allowing fitness seekers to purchase all of the groceries necessary for each week on a limited budget.

Equipment/Space Requirements

One of the biggest disadvantages of the Denise Austin Fit Forever weight loss program is that, being a 100% online program, no physical materials are included. As such, you'll need to supply all of the gear necessary to complete the exercises suggested by the fitness plans. Fortunately, many of the exercises are based on aerobic activity and don't call for expensive gym equipment, mitigating the necessity of a home gym or gym membership.

Still, you'll need to purchase a few basic pieces of equipment in order to make the most out of Denise Austin Fit Forever. Depending on your exact fitness plan, this may include the following:

• Exercise ball
• Light free weights
• Lightweight exercise clothing
• Gym mat
• Water bottles

Since much of the program is centered around cardio, a heart rate monitor (which will help you maintain the optimal heart rate for weight loss) can be a worthwhile investment as well.

Physical Requirements

The Denise Austin Fit Forever program places a strong emphasis on customization, allowing you to create a weight loss plan that meets your current physical requirements and target goals. You can get started with Denise Austin Fit Forever by filling out a free series of questions on the Denise Austin website. The questions are designed to gather information about your current eating and exercise habits. Some of the questions, such as "How do you spend your weekends?" and "What health topics interest you?" deal more with your general lifestyle.

After you complete the survey, which also asks you to enter your current weight, target weight and age, Denise Austin Fit Forever will supply you with a customized weight loss program, including a dietary meal plan and exercise guide. As you work your way through the program, you'll be able to choose different workouts and meal plans that are matched to your current level of progress.

When you submit the survey, you'll also have the opportunity to sign for several health and fitness email newsletters. These newsletters are intended to supplement the Denise Austin Fit Forever program, and provide information related to exercise, healthy eating and motivational techniques commonly used for weight loss. Visit to web page

Support

If you ever have a question regarding the Denise Austin Fit Forever weight loss program or its content, you can contact the site via email or toll-free phone. Support hours range from 9:00am until 8:00pm EST, Monday through Friday.

If your question is technical in nature, you should be prepared with information regarding your computer, such as its operating system and the web browser you use to access the site.

Before contacting customer support directly, it's advisable to view the FAQ section found under the "Need Help?" link found on the program's website. This area addresses the questions most commonly posed by users.

Cost

The Denise Austin Fit Forever exercise program begins with a one-week free trial. After the expiration of this period, the program costs $3 per week. You'll be billed quarterly, meaning that you'll receive a charge of $39 for each 13-week installment of the program. Each payment covers the next 13 weeks as opposed to the previous 13. You can pay for Denise Austin Fit Forever via popular credit cards including Visa, American Express and MasterCard.