Her two books – Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time and Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger for Life without Opening the Fridge – are honest tales about her life and the weight loss struggles that accompanied it. Her stories of life as an actress, her marriage to Eddie Van Halen, and stories of motherhood are not only entertaining but also very inspiring.

The self-described weight-loss activist has lost 50 pounds through the years and is now a spokeperson for Jenny Craig. She attributes the weight loss to a regular exercise program. She started by walking 10,000 steps a day and began running five times a week shortly thereafter.

A few weeks before her photoshoot for People, Valerie cut down on her caloric intake by over 500 units and avoided her customary champagne splurge. The results speak for themselves, and Valerie is all the happier for it!

While Fat Actress was primarily a fictional satire about being overweight, the new show will focus on more personal aspects of her weight struggles. The former Jenny Craig spokesperson slimmed down to 145 pounds using the system, but regained over 80 pounds sometime after.

Alley is a frequent target of fat jokes by the Late Night show’s host Conan O’Brien. O’Brien has jokingly referred to Alley’s motto of, “Leave No Ham Behind” in his comedy segments. Alley and friend Star Jones railed against these personal attacks via their Twitter accounts.

The show is projected to air sometime in 2010. A&E Vice President Robert Sharenow says that Alley’s willingness to share her story with the public is what attracted them to work with her.

Weight Watchers has been incredibly successful for many celebrities from The Nanny’s Fran Drescher to Playboy Playmate, Jenny McCarthy. This programme provides a balanced meal plan based on a point system. Each food is given a numeric value based on its calories, fat and fibre content. Most people are to stick to approximately 20 points a day. It doesn’t sound like much, yet there is a great deal of “point free foods” which you can fill up on throughout the day.

You also learn what a correct size portion is and through the meetings, can create a support network to help you through the tough days. I have attended Weight Watchers weigh-ins and meetings in the past, and they can be fabulous. Through weekly weigh-ins, you are accountable and have more motivation to stay the course. I also enjoyed listening to speakers who had suggestions for recipes, new foods and products available to assist us all in fat loss and health maintenance.

Jenny Craig also provides healthy weight loss through a low fat meal plan. A recent Jenny Craig campaign focuses on “size healthy” featuring the gorgeous Queen Latifah. This promotes not only looking fabulous in a skimpy swimsuit, like Valerie Bertinelli, but that bigger ladies can become healthier and perhaps not be so overwhelmed with their “ideal numbers”. As we get older, everything slows down, including our metabolism. If we placed all our hopes in the ideal numbers we had at age 20, it may be unrealistic to reach them once again. Smaller goals with a healthy mindset can be more positive and keep you motivated to ultimately look the best you ever have in your life.

Jenny Craig meals are made up of 60% carbohydrates and fats and proteins constituting 20% each. I do enjoy protein and as someone who is very active, would find that I would need more than the allocated 20% of my diet. For those, though, who are self-confessed carbo-holics, this plan is for you! Another benefit is that your meals are already prepared and all you have to do is heat and eat!

Both of these programmes are examples of healthy celebrity diets low in fat. In most cases, individuals who have followed these plans have lost and maintained healthy celebrity bodies long term. Unfortunately, there are a few celebrities who were unable to fight their food demons and were unable to maintain their weight loss. I wish these stars luck in finding the answers to their inner questions and emotional health, so that they can then focus on allowing themselves the success of long term health and wellness.