Why You Shouldn't Trust Celebrity Diets

Mira Burton

  Sometimes it seems as if we're trapped in a strange system. There's a huge pressure to get fit and lose weight, one exerted on us through a couple of factors. Firstly, there's the obvious health benefits, we all understand being fitter is... well, fitter. Secondly, there's the effect of celebrity and media. You're unlikely to see actors or general superstars who aren't in apparently amazing shape. If all our successful role models are thin, it sends a fairly clear message that we need to be as well.

  Unfortunately, one of the ways this message is transmitted is via celebrity dieting. Dieting is a huge industry, rife with fads and general silliness. Each year a few diets get promoted heavily in the media, and thousands of hopeful individuals get caught up in them. Sometimes they lose weight permanently, quite often they'll bounce back within a few months. Either way, it's worth noting why these diets can't be inherently trusted.


   We'll open with an important point, which is there's rarely a guarantee the celebrity is using the diet themselves. Commonly a writer will create a dieting system, and publishers will pay a celebrity to license it. The star gets a hefty pay out, and the publisher sees far greater sales over time. Chances are the relevant celebrity does make a sincere effort keeping themselves fit, but you can't be certain you'll be using the same system.

   Now, if the celebrity is doing book tours, commenting on their strategies and seeming genuinely informed, there's a good chance they're legitimate. But then we have a second problem, which is that celebrities aren't nutritionists. They don't even sound similar! Where individuals have vastly differing metabolisms and nutritional needs, what works for is unlikely to work for you. Add on this the fact that eating disorders are rife in Hollywood, and thin doesn't necessarily mean healthy. Just because a celebrity genuinely stays thin on a diet of nothing but cabbage doesn't mean doing so yourself isn't fairly suicidal.

   On the same track, remember that calorie controlled doesn't mean healthy. A fairly basic fact is that if you eat fewer calories you'll be able to lose weight. But your body still needs them to survive. If you're exercising regularly on a starving stomach your body will simply begin eating away at the muscle. A lot of celebrity diets focus on ways to cut calories intensely, but it'd be better if you spent one session with a personal trainer to discover the best way to convert that fat into muscle, and get a few nutritional guidelines into your system to boot.

  Of course, any system that works for you is valid, so long as you're not hurting or starving your body. Just remember that many celebrities are dieting, they're tracking their foods, exercising regularly in their spare time and enjoying a generally positive lifestyle. But a celebrity diet is a different beast altogether. Stay aware and stay healthy.

  Mira has been writing about fitness and strength training for years, whether it's advising her readers on new and exciting training techniques or the best weight loss supplements. Now an established partner of Muscle Finesse, she hopes to get more involved in the fitness industry than ever before.


 
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