Celebrity weight loss diets are seen everywhere. Billboards, magazine ads, commercials, and product plugs all like to blast their sponsored celebrity diet in front of your face, in hopes that you will give an arm and a leg to get your hands on their "miracle" solution to weight loss.
You’ve heard the constant celebrity weight loss guarantees: “Get red carpet ready like your favorite star.” “Zap away cellulite in a flash.” “Lose weight rapidly without going on any diet.”
Many celebrity weight loss diets endorse gimmicks like these, but are there any celebrity diets out on the market today that are actually worth following?
“The problem with many celebrity weight loss diets is that the stars endorsing their diet make things look so easy,” says Tessa Prior-Pullins, one of the lead dietitians for BistroMD. “Many of these diets lack essential nutrition, and can actually do more harm to your body than good.”
With help from our expert dietitian, Tessa, we are taking a look at some of the most popular celebrity weight loss diets on the market today and telling you if you should hop on the celebrity bandwagon, or hoist these "successful" diets out the window completely.
Celebrity Weight Loss Diets - Gwyneth Paltrow
The Gluten-Free Diet Craze
With cases of celiac disease on the rise, celebrities and regular Joes alike are flocking to the nearby grocery store to get their hands on gluten-free food.
Many high-profile celebrities either follow, or endorse a gluten-free lifestyle, including Oprah, Gwyneth Paltrow, and The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck.
“A gluten-free diet is one celebrity weight loss diet that can actually be very healthy for you,” says Tessa. “The diet encourages you to eat foods that give your body more energy. This includes a diet containing more 'green' foods like a variety of vegetables. A gluten-free diet also requires that you essentially eliminate all fried foods and processed grains.”
A gluten-free lifestyle has even been shown to eliminate your risk of certain diseases. In fact, a study done by the New England Journal of Medicine links over 55 different diseases to gluten intolerance.
All in all, gluten-free is healthy, you just need to make sure that the diet is best suited for your individual lifestyle.
Popular Celebrity Weight Diets
Is the Raw Way, the Right Way?
One of the more popular celebrity weight loss diets out there today is eating uncooked food and uncooked veggies. This is undoubtedly the recently trendy raw food diet craze.
The raw food diet is based on the nutritional principle that the most healthful foods for the body are uncooked.
“A raw food diet isn’t necessarily unhealthy, you just have to be willing to give and take,” says Tessa. “Essentially, you can still get all the nutrients your body needs from a raw food diet, you are just increasing your risk of food borne illness by not cooking certain animal proteins, like beef.”
Celebrities who have found success with the raw rood diet include Uma Thurman, Demi Moore, and Woody Harrelson.
“If you decide that a raw food diet will work for you, it is important that you don’t ‘overeat’ certain foods,” says Tessa. “If you eat too many high-acid fruits on this diet, you could greatly decrease the strength of the enamel on your teeth, and you could experience digestive problems. Make sure you balance fruits properly within this diet, otherwise, you could chip a tooth.”
Losing Weight Fast - The Master Cleanse
The world of celebrity weight loss diets wouldn’t be complete without discussing the outrageous popularity of the Master Cleanse Diet.
“The Master Cleanse is one of the worst celebrity diets out there today,” says Tessa. “You will lose weight, but you will also be starving and harming your body.”
This diet has been around for over 50 years, but only recently became more popular after singer and actress Beyonce announced she used the diet to lose over 20 pounds for her role in the film Dream Girls.
“The problem with this diet is that it is deficient in all of the essential nutrients that your body needs: calories, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fiber, and fat,” says Tessa. “What people don’t understand is that because of the calorie deficiency, your body will lose muscle and water weight, instead of the fat you are trying to get rid of. This diet is extremely unhealthy, and is not something I would recommend to any of my clients, or patients.”
When it comes to the “detoxifying angle” this diet promises, your body already does that naturally.
“This fear of built up toxins causes people to turn desperately to diets like this,” says Tessa. “What you should know is that one of the main functions of your liver is to rid the body of unwanted toxins, so there’s no need to turn to extreme diets that 'cleanse' your body.”
Even though powerhouse celebrities like Beyonce, and Ashton Kutcher have used this diet to drop pounds, it’s certainly one of the celebrity weight loss diets that you will want to stay away from.
