Sunday, January 27, 2008

Is Medifast a Diet Plan of the Stars?

Although Medifast is a way to assist your weight loss and diet efforts, you won't find Hollywood promoting it so much. But there are several other crazy diet plans that are used by Hollywood 'stars'.

Nicole Byers from NW magazine gives us the skinny on some of the crazier fad diets of the stars.

“I think Jennifer Love Hewitt really kick started this a couple of weeks ago with pictures of her rounded body at the beach appearing in magazines,” says Ms Byers. “Since then, a lot of celebs have actually gotten up and supported her, like Anne Hathaway and Rosaria Dawson, they are saying , she is right, they don't have to be a size zero to be beautiful.”

But some celebrities just can’t kick their prohibitive eating habits.

Posh as we know, she has put her hand up and said, no she doesn't eat much, hasn't had a chocolate biscuit in ten years, would never eat choc cake, and apparently at the moment is only living on strawberries, soy beans and lettuce which sounds very dull to me!”

Ms Byers adds that just cutting out food is out of vogue in Hollywood, while bizarre foods are in.

“The baby food diet, which is having a resurgence I find incredible. Even sensible people — even Jennifer Aniston — when they are trying to get skinny for an event, you are swapping two meals a day for baby food, which clearly is not made for adult nutrition.”

Liz Hurley has also said eating with children's cutlery helps her to stay thin, because obviously she can't get enough on her spoon,” Ms Byers says. “That is a bit embarrassing when you are out at a restaurant to have to get out your children's cutlery, but this is the kind of extremes they go to.”

Ms Byers says some diets are just downright dangerous.

“I mean, Geri Halliwell just had a baby and looked absolutely amazing, and apparently her diet is so restrictive she needs vitamin injections just to have enough energy for the show, so I think that is telling you perhaps you are not eating enough.”

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FASHIONABLE FAD DIETS

  • The Five Factor diet: This is dieting by numbers, as created by Harley Pasternak. Under this plan, you have five meals a day made from five basic ingredients and you are allowed one cheat day per week. Meals should not take more than, you guessed it, five minutes to prepare. The diet book also features five weekly workouts which consist of five different exercises that last for five minutes each.

    Celeb convert: Jessica Simpson

  • The liquid diets: These are the ten-day programs that help stars slim down fast as they only consume shakes or supplement-style beverages. Typically, these diets also include drinking lots of water and eating organic fruit and vegetables to give the body a holiday from trying to break down the food most people eat. These dieters usually lose weight quickly, but often they struggle to keep their weight off when they return to eating normal food.

    Celeb convert: Beyonce.

  • The Zone: This is diet based around the idea the each meal should have 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. While you can follow the diet using normal food, there are supplements, diet bars and shakes you can buy that are approved under this plan. Just keep in mind that they can be costly. According to the diet's creator, this allows the body's hormones to balance out and also to release a insulin that contributes to weight loss. You can drink one alcoholic beverage a day under this plan, but you need to exercise three to five times a week for at least 30 minutes.

    Celeb convert: Jennifer Aniston.

  • The South Beach diet: Developed by an American cardiologist, this diet is all about getting back to basics with whole grain breads, lean meats and cutting out saturated fats generally found in take away food. A key part of the diet is to avoid foods that have a high glycemic index, that is carbs with higher glucose levels. These are foods the body struggles to break down.

    Celeb convert: Bill Clinton.

  • The Whole food diet: This diet requires that you eat low fat unprocessed, that is organic foods. This macrobiotic diet focuses on lean protein and cutting out rich carbs. This is also a diet high in fibre.

    Celeb convert: Madonna.

  • Three-hour diet: This diet is aimed at increasing your metabolism by eating every three hours. Each day slimmers on this program eat three main meals, two snacks plus a treat. Exercise is highly recommended with this plan and should include 10,000 steps each day plus eight minutes of strength exercises a week. The plan's creators say you can lose around four and a half kilograms.

    Celeb convert: Jessica Biel.

  • However, experts agree that fad diets are ultimately drastic diets, and drastic diets just don't work, they have disastrous effects both from a physiological and an emotional point of view. Read more...