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By Chatty Bella
With the heat of summer in full swing, more and
more do we feel the societal pressure of being thin and
bodacious—able to squeeze into that itsy bitsy teensy weensy
string bikini. In order to achieve that sexily scorching physique
for the beach, many of us have our own secrets of achieving and
maintaining that ideal summer body. From hitting the gym, binging,
plastic surgery to fad diets, many of these regimens are inspired by
those employed by celebrities.
High profile and undoubtedly beauteous, what are
the bikini-body secrets of our favorite celebrities? Do they really
work? Or are they just pulling the legs of their fans that
desperately seek the same curves as seen on the big screen and the
glossies?
Nowadays, it’s hard to find much body fat in
Hollywood but as agencies reveal—sometimes the big secret that the
stars don’t let on to their adoring public is that looking good
has its price. Some are literally even dying to be thin! Puh-leez!
Today’s stars are slim and toned, whittled to
within an inch of their lives. When pressed about their slimming
secrets, celebrities often rave about their “good genes”, their
affection for junk food, or declare that their secret to staying
thin is simply running around after their children.
But here’s what you should know: a lot of them
are lying.
Celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson, who has
trained Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, and Penelope Cruz, says:
“I had one actress training with me four times a week in addition
to daily exercise bike classes. When the Press asked how she’d
‘transformed’ her body, she said: ‘Oh, I do yoga and hike with
my dog.’ It makes me laugh.”
So the next time you see a pin-thin celebrity
bragging about her relaxed approach to eating, remember this.
They take drugs
Stars like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton have
been accused to take certain drugs like Adderall and cocaine. Women
looking to lose weight often use these drugs. Just about every
female celebrity arrested —from Paris to Nicole, from Lindsay to
Britney—has had prescription Adderall in her handbag. It keeps you
awake while killing the appetite. For the jet set, hard-partying
girl it has become the miracle pill - one, however, with potentially
dangerous consequences.
Manhattan-based trainer Justin Gelband, who
works with catwalk and catalogue models, says: “Diet pills and
steroids are huge right now. After Kate Moss was caught supposedly
doing coke, the modeling agencies started to crack down on girls
using hardcore drugs like cocaine and heroin to stay slim.
“So now it’s more diet pills and steroids;
they are easier to hide and, if pressed, the girls can say that they
have a prescription.”
They eat nothing but boiled eggs
During the filming of Cold Mountain, there were
rumors that one famous actress on set ate only boiled eggs.
She would rise in the morning and eat one and
then have one or two at the end of the day. That was her entire
diet.
Celebrity trainer David Kirsch says: “I had a
client who was getting ready for the Oscars and all she ate was one
meal a day - of two boiled eggs! I was able to persuade her to add
some almonds and a protein shake and some vitamin supplements.
“It’s a self-defeating strategy, you need to
eat enough, and particularly protein, to build lean and toned muscle
in the first place.”
They fast
Paris Hilton caused a stir when she walked into
New York restaurant Nobu recently.
When a waiter asked the heiress for her order,
he was quietly told: “Mineral water.”
In fact, over the course of her two-hour
“meal”, Paris took sips of water and Red Bull - she didn’t eat
a single bite.
And she’s not alone. Super-slim Desperate
Housewives star Marcia Cross was spotted dining at a restaurant a
few years back with her now husband Tom Mahoney. According to one
eyewitness: “He ordered sea bass and prawns, but she just sipped
fruit juice.” Marcia recently admitted to the pressure to be thin:
“Not eating is a constant struggle. It’s like they pay me not to
eat. It’s a living hell.”
Then there’s the master cleanse, otherwise
known as the lemonade diet: water mixed with maple syrup, lemon
juice and cayenne pepper.
One of Hollywood’s dirty little secrets is the
“IV diet”, in which celebrities check themselves into hospital
to get put on an IV so they can avoid eating altogether.
Peterson says of the IV diet: “This is beyond
ridiculous. If you’re doing this you’re not fat, you’re
crazy!”
Suzanne Peck is the director of programs at
Homefield Grange Retreat, a cleansing spa in the UK that relies on
juice fasting.
She says: “Fasting is designed to rest the
digestion, hence allowing clarity of thought, cleansing of toxins
and healing of the body in general; not to fit into a size-zero
dress.”
They abuse laxative teas
Britney Spears has never been shy about her love
for junk food and engages in all kinds of behavior to counteract her
taste for Taco Bell.
She smokes, drinks coffee and Red Bull, has diet
pills in her bag and takes Adderall. She has also been seen hitting
all-night drugstores, shopping for laxatives.
And she is certainly not alone.
Today, many actresses are taking laxatives in
the form of “dieter’s tea”, which has a mild laxative effect.
Some starlets are drinking up to ten cups a day.
Trainer Gelband says: “The latest trend among
models is mixing laxative tea with the master cleanse diet. All they
drink is master cleanse and laxative tea.”
They chain-smoke
Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl looks to
have lost a stone in the last year.
She may be following a healthy eating plan, but
she appears to have a secret weapon —she smokes constantly.
Nowadays she is rarely photographed without a
cigarette in her mouth, and when she isn’t smoking, she is
clutching a pack.
Marc David, nutritional psychologist and author
of The Slow Down Diet says: “It’s a choice, really. You are
choosing possible lung cancer and death over treating your body with
respect, all in an effort to be slim.”
They eat peanuts
Supermodel trainer Gelband admits: “I had one
girl who was living on Diet Coke and peanuts. She drank three to
five Diet Cokes a day and ate a big bag of nuts. If she got hungry,
she smoked.
Her eyes had huge bags under them and she looked
wasted. When we tried to work out, we had to stop every five
minutes. It was awful.”
They guzzle caffeine
Paparazzi shots regularly show Hollywood’s
skinniest actresses, such as Renee Zellweger and Mary-Kate Olsen,
sporting giant sunglasses and regularly coming out of Starbucks
clutching gigantic cups of coffee.
This is a trend in Hollywood, where many believe
coffee not only speeds up their metabolism but also keeps them from
eating.
Marc David says: “Coffee and caffeine can
actually make you fat. If you’re drinking too much, the caffeine
mimics the stress response in our bodies and your cortisol and
insulin levels rise. These elevated levels of stress hormone signal
the body to store fat.”
They wear a patch
Peterson says: “I had one guy using a
Nicorette patch, not to quit smoking but to stop food cravings! This
is a ridiculous approach and definitely won’t work.”
They live at the gym
Who can forget those photographs of a
skeletal-looking Teri Hatcher jogging through Hollywood with weights
in both hands and bones protruding-through her skin?
Actress Kate Hudson, in a quest to shed the five
stone she gained while pregnant with son Ryder, admitted to working
out up to three hours daily for three months.
To prepare for her role as the sexy Daisy Duke,
Jessica Simpson worked out for two hours a day, six days a week.
Justin Gelband says: “You can get addicted.
Unless you’re a professional athlete, you don’t need to do more
than one-and-a-half hours a day to get a great result.”
He adds: “Forget trying to look like a
celebrity—look at you.”
The reality is, the girl that’s ten pounds
overweight but loves her body is winning against the girl who is
underweight but hates herself.
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