Celebrity diets

Does anyone else think most celebrities lie through their teeth when being interviewed in magazines about how they went from size 14 to size 8 in 3 months.

I've just read an interview with one well known tv personality who says she lost a load of weight by eating slightly smaller portions and that using the stairs instead of the lift was absolutely the only exercise she took (accompanied by a photograph of a wonderfully toned figure).

To be honest, I'm equally sceptical of the ones who say they have steamed fish and brown rice for dinner every night, never touch a drop of alcohol and snack on carrot sticks and celery anytime they're hungry but do allow themselves one square of chocolate if they're really craving something sweet.

Maybe I'm just a cynical cow but I deeply suspect that anyone who drops a load of weight in no time, in all the right places and in perfect proportion, have had some kind of intervention.

Yes highly suspect a lot of the time - but they are 'celebrities'. Very difficult to believe anything they say or do at the best of times really.

On the other hand I myself have lost about 1.5 stone over the space of a few months with only minor adjustments in my eating/drinking habits - so you never know.

Caveat said:

Yes highly suspect a lot of the time - but they are 'celebrities'. Very difficult to believe anything they say or do at the best of times really.

On the other hand I myself have lost about 1.5 stone over the space of a few months with only minor adjustments in my eating/drinking habits - so you never know.

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Don't stop there. I'd love to hear tips like this from a 'real' person.

I don't believe celebs either. I was eating steamed fish and veg during the summer for dinners but it just doesn't appeal to me in this weather. If it was for my job maybe it would be a different matter

I once lost 26 pounds in 4 months (almost 2 stone). How - I ate less and walked 3 miles everyday. At the time I had stuff going on and I'm one of these people who doesn't eat (much) if I'm stressed/worried/upset.

liaconn said:

Don't stop there. I'd love to hear tips like this from a 'real' person.

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I'd say it depends very much on your existing habits/routines.

I love my food/snacks and am partial to more than the odd beer, but simply, I cut back on meal portion sizes (say 20% ish?), cut out crisps and mostly chocolate too and only drink low carb beer now.

That's all. Didn't even increase my already pathetic exercise 'routine'.

I really do think guys find it much easier to lose weight than women though - sorry

Who's the one in that dancing thing now? She was in EastEnders (annoying kid who gre up to be more annoying as an adult).

Anyway, I recall she lost a load of weight very quickly, sold her story to numerous magazines,said it was a "sensible" diet and exercise, released a DVD, which sold well by all accounts. Then put the weight back on and said she's happy with her weight and who she is and is saddened by the media's obsession with her weight. Ummm, couldn't you have said that before you made a mint selling DVDs telling everyone else how to better themselves?

There's no secret to weight loss. Get the calories in the negative through reduced eating and more exercise and you will. Not a golden rule, but to lose in the region of 1kg a week you need to cut out 500 calories a day. Thats less than two mars bars, so hardly needing the massive drop in calories and steamed everything these celebs follow. And with exercise it gets even better.

I'm down about 7 stone in 2 years by nothing more than increasing exercise slowly and being careful of the snacks. I still get takeaway, I still have supersized Sunday Roasts and recently thanks to the special offers on those huge bags of Giant Buttons, I still have the chocolate.

I was never looking for the 2 stone in three days loss, the target was 1-2Kg per week (sorry for mixing up measurement units).

I've started walking most of the way home from work to Rathfarnham (where I leave my car at my parents' house) at least 3 evenings a week, getting in at least one 45 min - 1hr walk at the weekends and doing a quick ten minute workout most evenings to this dance/exercise dvd I bought (probably getting the moves all wrong but I'm still puffing and panting after it so presume I'm burning calories).Foodwise I'm eating low calorie breakfast and lunch, snacking mainly on rice cakes, and eating whatever I like for dinner. I've also cut out wine during the week but will drink it at weekends. Fingers crossed I'll lose a stone or so.

(hope this isn't touching on medical issues) I found the best way with exercise was to build it into a routine rather a special case. So making it part of my commute rather than going out my to go to the gym. I couldn't get out of it then.

As to the food side. Again to me it came down to what is sustainable. Dropping by the 500 cals is pretty reasonable and from most reports denying yourself anything over this leads to cravings and eventually binges. That and I cannot cope with rice cakes.

Latrade said:

(hope this isn't touching on medical issues) I found the best way with exercise was to build it into a routine rather a special case. So making it part of my commute rather than going out my to go to the gym. I couldn't get out of it then.

As to the food side. Again to me it came down to what is sustainable. Dropping by the 500 cals is pretty reasonable and from most reports denying yourself anything over this leads to cravings and eventually binges. That and I cannot cope with rice cakes.

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I agree. If I didn't walk home from work I would spend the evening 'meaning' to go out for a walk or a swim but never actually doing it. Also, if I had a boring low cal dinner as well as lunch and breakfast I would just lose heart. Likewise, cutting out wine altogether would probably not last.

I've actually got to quite like rice cakes. They taste like popcorn without the melted butter.

But you might as well eat plain popcorn though for all the likely calorie difference I would say?

My advice would be to not punish yourself too much with the foodstuffs - if you are sensible you really can have perfectly normal, even luxurious meals, that are low in fat/calories etc. Watch out for the sauces and try to make your own stuff from scratch as much as possible.

Spritzers instead of the full wine? maybe sacrilegious to even suggest...

Believe it or not, spritzers have as many calories as wine (and don't taste as nice).

I agree, probably no difference between plain popcorn and rice cakes but rice cakes are easier to keep in my drawer at work and munch at discreetly during the day.

I love cooking so always have a really nice dinner in the evening and don't worry about the calories. I think what I really miss most of all is a sandwich at lunch. I have homemade soup and a banana now, but its not the same.

I remeber hearing somehwre that your body misses the chewing of food if you stick to lots of soup etc, that's what makes me long for a big blt roll after a week of soup! Just bought the wii fit which good fun so hopefully that'll do some good!

and on the celebrity note, chances are most of these people have personal trainers and train for 5 or 6 hours a day. We'd all be size 8's if we did that!

Could not manage on soup and bananas for lunch. Lunch most days for me is yesterdays dinner. This week it was roasted peppers,onions with turkey, spicey tomatoe, sausage with pasta, spud cabbage and rashers (fat trimmed off)and today lamb stew. As you're clearing up put dinner into lunchboxs and you're set! I use small enough portions and bring a cupful of homemade soup.

This is one thread where I get a rubber medal. I have been doing, not so much a low carb diet as such, but one where carbs is limited. 4 x 25g portions of carbs per day and minimum of 2 x 32g protein. I am eating more than I ever did, because I am eating every 3 hours, smaller portions. Have also taken up exercising.

I try not to have any alcohol more than once per week (last week did not work because it was my birthday) I am down a stone in a month. Everyone has noticed now and the comments have been great. I have another stone to go and this one will be slower, because I am getting nearer to what I should be. I am also going to start the C25K program, which will leave me running 5k after 9 weeks.

As someone mentioned, losing weight isn't rocket science.

I can't stand all these folk who seem to be on constant diets, yet you often see them eating junk food, be it crisps, chocolate bars or bottles of Coke.

They simply can't drink water and eat fruit & veg. They just can't tear themselves away from bad food, and the vast majority of the public now wouldn't walk the length of themselves. Only time they sweat is when they see the 24 bag of Tayto is empty.

Put the fork down folks !!

I have a mate whotells me that she's an expert in losing weight. I'm tempted to say that she's an expert in putting it back on too!

liaconn said:

I've started walking most of the way home from work to Rathfarnham (where I leave my car at my parents' house) at least 3 evenings a week, getting in at least one 45 min - 1hr walk at the weekends and doing a quick ten minute workout most evenings to this dance/exercise dvd I bought (probably getting the moves all wrong but I'm still puffing and panting after it so presume I'm burning calories).Foodwise I'm eating low calorie breakfast and lunch, snacking mainly on rice cakes, and eating whatever I like for dinner. I've also cut out wine during the week but will drink it at weekends. Fingers crossed I'll lose a stone or so.

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I started cycling to and from work 2 months ago. Its a half hour each way so Im doing 5 hours cardio a week that I wasnt doing before. Unfortunately all this extra activity turned me into an eating machine so if anything Ive gained weight from the extra exercise

One thing that really bugs me about the Weight Watcher points type programme is how diet soft drinks don't have any points so in theory you could have as many as you like which doesn't sound very healthy to me with the amount of additives and colourings and god knows what in those drinks.

MandaC said:

This is one thread where I get a rubber medal. I have been doing, not so much a low carb diet as such, but one where carbs is limited. 4 x 25g portions of carbs per day and minimum of 2 x 32g protein. I am eating more than I ever did, because I am eating every 3 hours, smaller portions. Have also taken up exercising.

I try not to have any alcohol more than once per week (last week did not work because it was my birthday) I am down a stone in a month. Everyone has noticed now and the comments have been great. I have another stone to go and this one will be slower, because I am getting nearer to what I should be. I am also going to start the C25K program, which will leave me running 5k after 9 weeks.

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Hi MandaC

Could you give a couple of examples of the kind of meals you have?