Jillian Michaels, personal trainer and best known for her appearances on NBC’s The Biggest Loser and Losing It With Jillian,  will be tackling childhood obesity head on when season 18 of The Biggest Loser returns to NBC.

Jillian told Al Roker on the Today show that she was an overweight teenager and that is what inspires her to want to help other teenagers. In the new season, three teenagers will be featured, but they will not live on the ranch or even participate for the cash prize. It’s all about helping them to get healthy.

Last year nearly 20% of America’s children were obese and something definitely has to be done to help these children who will eventually struggle with many health issues such as; diabetes, heart disease and liver problems, to name a few. Jillian is determined to help children, the right way, “It’s obviously something that needs to be handled with kid gloves, but it’s something that needs to be handled, for example, we won’t be saying things to kids like, ‘How much weight did you lose?’ It’s about getting them healthy, using wordke ‘healthy.’ We won’t be getting them on a scale; it’s about getting them on a softball team — things like that.”

Basically it comes down to reducing calories and increasing physical activity. Sounds easy, but it’s not and children need the support of their families, medical professionals and devoted trainers.

 

Jillian took a break from the show to adopt her daughter and spend time with her new family. She will join regular trainers Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince to work with the teenagers along with medical staff and childhood obesity experts.

The Biggest Loser returns in January 2013 on NBC although there has not been an official air date released yet.