It is easy to look at celebrities in magazines and on the internet and start to feel envious of their bodies. There is definitely an obsession within celebrity culture the it is important to look slim and attractive all of the time and when people are trying to hold onto their fame, which is of course, famously fleeting, they’ll do almost anything to keep themselves in shape. The problem is that we as the public only get to see the beautiful celebrity bodies without ever having to know the fallout in regards to how they got them. So it ends with us being envious of something that is not really rooted in reality.
The fact is that the rich and famous are very different to us. If they find themselves putting on weight, they simply pay the massive fees of professional personal trainers or if they don’t have the money too, their production company or agent – who will have that kind of money to throw around, and will have much more money invested in their client – will do exactly that. Celebrities get cravings for fatty foods just like we do, but for as long as they are still in the public eye they have enormous amounts of money at their disposal to deal with any weight issues.
It’s also worth noting that celebrities also have a constant pressure looming over them too. After all, their celebrity status can only last as long as they stay in amazing shape. So that gives them a pretty constant motivation to avoid slipping into bad eating habits or slacking off when it comes to the concept of going to the gym. The rest of us have to fit these things around busy and hectic working schedules.
“Celebrities have motivation, determination and, most importantly, pressure,” says Los Angeles-based personal trainer Michelle Lovitt who has worked with Courtney Cox and Julianne Moore “if you were in a movie that was opening in two weeks and two million people were going to critique how you look, you’d feel the same pressure to get to the gym”.
But just because you don’t have to go out and impress on the red carpet every other night, it doesn’t mean that you can’t drop those pounds and get a body like a celebrity. And the best way to do it is by using the same methods that those celebrities employ (of course without having to pay out for the expensive personal training sessions).
While you might imagine that to stay in shape, your favourite star probably has to spend several hours a day in the gym, but it is just simply not the case. The vast majority of celebrities don’t spend a long time in the gym – after all, they are not looking to bulk up their physique, they just want to stay in shape, and you can do this through short but high intensity sessions. This can include the favourite of Halle Berry, which is interval training, where you do a period of high intensity workout, followed by a short break, and then back into the workout, repeating the process a number of times.
Another great tip is that you shouldn’t worry too much about the scales. Whether you’ve gained or lost a few pounds is actually relatively irrelevant – we all know that muscles weights more than fat, so if you’re going to the gym regularly and gaining weight that might be due to additional muscle bulk. Instead, let your clothes be the judge – if they fit you properly or you’re beginning to need a belt, it can be a clear indicator that the work is paying off.