It’s not uncommon for celebrities in the public eye to make headlines with drastic weight loss transformations. Take Liverpool actress Tina Malone for instance, who lost nearly 80kg from 2016 to 2018, and singer-songwriter Adele who’s lost a reported 98lbs over the past few years.
There’s always plenty of speculation from fans when it comes to celebrity secrets to weight loss. Adele’s transformative weight loss results were defended by her former personal trainer Pete Geracimo, who claimed that the artist was simply following a well-balanced food plan, regular exercise, and proper sleep.
Despite the results, this slow and steady approach isn’t very popular — especially with many other celebrities coming out with all sorts of weight loss tricks such as the use of gastric bands, crash diets, and more. This begs the question: how effective is taking weight loss inspiration from celebrities? And should we be following their leads?
Famous celebrity weight loss plans
Amongst the array of weight loss programs made famous by celebrities, there are a few that stand out: the Mayr method, paleo, and intermittent fasting.
The Mayr method
This was developed in the 1920s, and recently popularised by Australian actress Rebel Wilson who shed 60 pounds while claiming to follow the practice. Meant to last for 14 days, the method banks on mindful eating, using tricks like chewing each bite of food at least 40–60 times, while focusing on alkaline rich meals.
Palaeolithic diet
As the most googled diet of 2013, paleo is the diet behind some of Hollywood’s most enviable bodies today, including Jessica Biel, Blake Lively, and Channing Tatum. Paleo focuses on the foods that most closely resemble that of our ancestors’: grass-fed and wild-caught meats, fresh fruits and veg, and healthy oils.
Intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting (IF) is a type of time-restricted diet where dieters compress their meals into a shorter period during the day, with celebrity proponents including Jennifer Metcalfe and Cameron Diaz. BBC claims that when done right, weight loss plans reliant on IF can promote autophagy. When done incorrectly, however, dieticians warn of the tendency to overeat, dehydrate, and develop complications such as gallstones.
What should you do?
Not every weight loss plan that gets sensationalised is reliable, effective, or healthy. The BDA astutely warns the public of fad diets, or slimming and diet programmes with unrealistic claims that are not supported by evidence-based science. These can be dangerous, with yo-yo fad dieting even linked with increased mortality and morbidity.
That is not to say that all celebrity-popularised weight loss plans do not work. However, the reason that they are so plentiful is simply because there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to weight loss. Every individual body is unique, and that’s why diet plans must be unique as well.
This is why it’s important to opt for individualised weight loss programmes instead of following the latest celebrity diet. This allows your journey to be specifically tailored to the foods you love and can’t live without, while considering your distinctive conditions and weight loss goals. Individual programmes maximise the weight loss, while minimising time, effort spent, and most importantly, risks to your health.
This is the key behind why some celebrity diets actually work — and are consequently publicised in the media as successful. The Atkins diet worked for Kim Kardashian’s body type, while the 80/20 worked for Miranda Kerr and Kelly Rowland. Additionally, celebs also collaborate with expert personal trainers, nutritionists, and chefs to determine the best programmes for their specific bodies and lifestyles.
Looking at celebrities for weight loss inspiration is fine. However, the most important part of a weight loss journey is recognising your body’s needs. This will ensure that any weight loss programme that you ultimately select is appropriate for your nutritional needs and fitness goals.