Celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels recently appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to criticize gender-affirming care for children and the ‘healthy at any size’ movement.

In their lengthy discussion, the 51-year-old fitness expert expressed strong opposition to transgender treatments for kids, referring to them as ‘the sterilization of kids’ and ‘a medical disaster.’ She also condemned the promotion of all body types as ‘a harmful psychological operation.’

Both, she said, undermine genuine health and wellness efforts being implemented by US officials.

‘I’m a libertarian,’ Michaels explained. ‘I’m for personal freedoms… if you want to change your gender as an adult, that’s absolutely up to you.

‘While I support your right to make choices and live with respect,’ Michaels stated, ‘it becomes a more complex issue when your decisions impact the rights and liberties of others.’

The conversation occurred a day before President Donald Trump released a lengthy review of transgender health care that advocated for a greater reliance on behavioral therapy.

Rogan remarked on the dangers of hormone therapy or surgery to remove external sex organs, ‘especially when you’re dealing with kids.’

‘Oh, that’s a whole different story,’ Michaels responded, growing more full-throated from there. 

‘Puberty blockers are the exact same thing they give to sex criminals when when you have a sexual molester that is forced to be on sterilization drugs,’ she said.

‘That’s exactly what they give to young boys.’

‘You’ve got sterilization, you’ve got an inability to ever have an orgasm,’ she continued, rattling off some well-known side-effects.

‘It affects bone development, it affects brain development, strokes.

‘It’s terrible for them – they’re freaking children. Their body is not developed properly.’

Michaels added that when opponents like her make that argument, they’re told that kids would ‘kill themselves’ if forced to go through childhood without taking such actions.

‘It turns out that the data doesn’t bear out to prove that,’ she claimed, producing statistics from the National Institute of Health to prove her point.

‘The data goes the other way – 25 percent more likely to commit suicide, suicidal ideation, depression anxiety,’ she said.

‘All those things ramp up once they’ve transitioned, because they realize like they’re they’ve made a horrible mistake.’

Michaels concluded that different types of treatments available in 35 states are akin to a ‘modern-day lobotomy,’ and that it should be considered a ‘travesty’ they are still taking place.

When it came to ‘Health at Every Size’ movement – which has been touted by plus-sized stars like the musician Lizzo and model Ashley Graham – Michaels did not hold back either.

She emphasized the importance of addressing obesity and not normalizing unhealthy lifestyles under the guise of body positivity, while claiming RJ Reynolds and other ‘tobacco companies’ bought certain food companies to employ tactics ‘to push terrible foods on people.’

‘They literally have a team of multidisciplinary scientists that work around the clock to figure out how to get people to not eat just one – and then put it in a commercial,’ she said.

‘It’s like literally in broad daylight. What they’re doing is they are exploiting  somebody’s psychology and… hijacking their biology with this food.

‘This is why you have seen rates of obesity skyrocket from [the] 70s.

‘There is nowhere you can go right now where food is not omnipresent… in particular this crappy food. 

‘And they generally do it through government contracts and subsidies,’ she said of conglomerates that own these companies.    

‘So it’s at your schools, your hospitals – like, anywhere you go you will find this garbage food. 

‘So, even if you have that moment of willpower… if you’re constantly surrounded by it, you will give in.’

The rest of the conversation touched on topics ranging from the pandemic to politics, and was Michael’s first with the podcast host. 

The health coach was a trainer on the reality series The Biggest Loser when the show debuted in October 2004.