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Rodale and VH1 to Launch The Celebrity Fit Club Online Weight Loss Service Based on VH1's Hit Series
Fans Will Be Able To Access Advice on Celebrityfitclub.com From The
Top-Rated Show's Medical and Health Experts to Customize Their Exercise,
Diet and Wellness Plans
NEW YORK, Feb. 21 -- Rodale Inc., the authoritative source
for trusted content in health and wellness worldwide, VH1 and St. Martin's
Press today announced plans to launch celebrityfitclub.com, an online
fitness and weight loss program featuring the #1 New York Times bestselling
The Fat Smash Diet, written by the program's medical/diet expert Dr. Ian
Smith. The show's fitness guru Harvey Walden IV and in-house
psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser will also contribute to the site by providing
expert advice, workout tips and planning tools for subscribers' fitness and
wellness plans. Now, fans of VH1's hit TV show Celebrity Fit Club and The
Fat Smash Diet, can have access to the one-of-a-kind eating plan, fitness
routines and motivational advice that can lead to lifestyle changes and
permanent weight loss with the subscription- based interactive
celebrityfitclub.com.
The subscription-based weight loss site will launch in early April to
coincide with the debut of "Celebrity Fit Club 5" premiering April 15,
2007. The new site will compliment VH1's existing online efforts for the
show, including video clips on VSPOT at VH1.com and "Dr Ian's Diet Tips"
text alerts from VH1 Mobile.
"Our viewers have grown to expect creative and interactive extensions
of our on-air programming in a number of ways -- from exclusive video
content on VSPOT at VH1.com, to on-the-go versions of our shows on VH1
Podcasts and VH1 Mobile," said Tom Calderone, Executive Vice President and
General Manager, VH1. "Our new partnership will offer fans of Celebrity Fit
Club a way to interact with other fans of the show while getting helpful
tips from the show's medical and health professionals."
On Celebrity Fit Club, eight overweight stars are divided into two
teams and challenged to get fit and lose weight over a 100-day period. The
paid- subscription Web service features The Fat Smash Diet and gives
members the tools to create a personalized diet and exercise plan designed
to meet their individual goals.
"We are thrilled to be working with VH1 and St. Martin's Press to
support Celebrity Fit Club through our online efforts," said Bill Ostroff,
President of Rodale Interactive and Chief Marketing Officer, Rodale.
"Celebrityfitclub.com is an exciting and user friendly program that allows
its users to achieve their weight loss goals."
The celebrityfitclub.com interactive membership features all the tools
needed to succeed, including a meal planner and tracker (day/week); an
exercise planner and tracker (day/week); a weight tracker; a personal
dashboard; getting-started guide and program information, along with food
lists, shopping lists and more than 200 recipes. Members will be able to
gain access to experts via articles, video, message boards, and customized
meal plans & exercise plans. They will also be able to set and track their
personal goals like weight, body fat, dress size and energy level via
personalized progress charts. The site features content in nutritional,
motivational and fitness categories, along with tips, frequently asked
questions, video clips, articles, polls, panic button and success stories.
Online community activities such as discussion boards with expert
involvement, personal blogs and profiles, expert profiles and blogs will
round out the site. Other featured information will include a food
database, complete with nutritional information, an exercise database, and
an automated phase selector.
The Fat Smash Diet is a four-phase diet plan that starts out with a
natural detoxification phase to clean impurities out of the system. Once
the nine-day phase is completed, the next three phases encourage the
addition of everyday foods that promote significant weight loss. In just 90
days, most dieters will complete all four phases and be inspired towards a
thinner lifetime of good health. Best of all, there is no calorie counting,
and Dr. Smith guarantees there never will be. There are more than 50
easy-to-cook, tasty recipes in the book that make it easier to adhere to
his plan.
"Dr. Ian Smith and his Fat Smash Diet have clearly struck a chord with
weight conscious people everywhere. Now millions more will have the
opportunity to follow his program which will be vividly brought to life via
the online experience," said Matthew Shear, Senior Vice President and
Publisher, St. Martin's Press.
About VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club"
VH1's Celebrity Fit Club is a one-hour reality series in which eight
celebrities compete in two teams of four to lose weight and get in shape.
In each episode, the celebrities attend a "Fit Camp" where they take part
in a range of physical and motivational activities designed to shed pounds,
increase team spirit and win prizes. The next day, they face the scales
where they're individually weighed in by a panel of experts: a doctor, a
psychotherapist and fitness trainer.
The cast of the upcoming "Celebrity Fit Club 5" includes Maureen
McCormick (The Brady Bunch), Dustin Diamond (Saved By The Bell), Tiffany
(pop star), Cledus T. Judd (country music artist), Da Brat (hip hop
artist), Ross "The Intern" Mathews (The Tonight Show), Kimberley Locke
(American Idol) and Warren G (rapper). The cast for season five of
"Celebrity Fit Club" is our fittest yet so drill sergeant Harvey Walden IV
has plans to work them harder than ever. Also back are nutritional and diet
expert Dr. Ian Smith and host ANT. This season welcomes a new
psychotherapist, Stacy Kaiser.
About Rodale Inc.
Rodale Inc., which was recognized by Ad Age as Publishing Company of
the Year for 2006, is the authoritative source for trusted content in
health, fitness and wellness around the world, reaching nearly 40 million
people each month. The company publishes some of the best-known health and
wellness lifestyle magazines, including Men's Health, Prevention, Women's
Health, Runner's World, Best Life, Bicycling, Backpacker, Mountain Bike and
Organic Gardening, and is also the largest independent book publisher in
America with a collection of international titles, including The South
Beach Diet and The Abs Diet franchises, and most recently Al Gore's New
York Times bestseller An Inconvenient Truth. Rodale's broad range of media
platforms includes magazines, books, videos and extensive Web sites. The
company is also a leader in direct-response marketing and has more than 26
million active customers in its database. http://www.rodale.com.
About St. Martin's Press
Founded in 1952 by Macmillan Publishers Limited of England, St.
Martin's Press is now one of the largest publishers in America. Best known
for the strength and breadth of our list, the company publishes 700 titles
a year, and is equally committed to finding and nurturing the first-time
author as it is to bestseller publishing. St. Martin's operates eight
separate imprints and utilizes the resources of six unique sales divisions,
ensuring maximum exposure for its authors in the wide variety of markets
for books today. Imprints include: St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's
Griffin, St. Martin's Minotaur, Picador USA, Thomas Dunne Books, and Truman
Talley Books. St. Martin's is part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, a group
of publishing companies held by Verlagsgruppe George Von Holtzbrinck, a
family owned publishing operation based in Stuttgart, Germany.
SOURCE VH1
http://www.vh1.com
http://www.rodale.com
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