How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post!

I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer, was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets!

Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing.

First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end.

Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having stepped in to a gym", while they want men to look fit and strong. 

Not that this is surprising, but it frankly pisses me off.  This attitude almost seems misogynistic to me, to want women weak, thin and helpless and men big and strong...so what? So we can be dominated? Controlled? Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most celebrities are already pretty lean, but Eric said often the women want to improve a particular area, and the men have to get bigger/more muscular in a particular area for a role they are doing.  Results have to be achieved very quickly because they have hard time lines to begin shooting films. 

Anyways, this means that the following is the general protocol for women:

• High repetition body weight exercises that get the heart rate up (no weights, resistance bands or endurance cardio)
• Strict diet of veggies, berries, egg whites, chicken, turkey and fish, absolutely no grains, dairy, corn, potatoes or bananas.
• A lot of sleep to keep metabolism going and get adequate recovery.

For men:

• Strength training using the JET strategy (keeping muscles under tension throughout exercise to maximize results in minimum amount of time).
• Diet similar to women only some grains like rice are permitted and red meat and pork is permitted (he doesn't want women consuming red meat because of the creatine which can make muscles look 'pumped').
• A lot of sleep to keep metabolism going and get adequate recovery.

While most of us in the fitness/weight-loss industry say that managing your weight is probably close to 80% diet-related and the rest fitness and sleep, Eric the Trainer believes its 33% for each.  Well, what he's overlooking is that this depends on the individual.  His clients are genetically gifted celebs who may be trying to 'tone up' an area of their body or lose 10 lbs at most.  They are most likely already eating a high quality diet and exercising to some extent.  So yes, in this case, he's probably right. Its about making small changes to each of these key areas.  But for some of my clients, for example, its a very different situation.  Someone who is obese and eating fast food and processed foods daily, improving their diet will have a much bigger impact on their weight than will a few low intensity workouts a week (which is usually the most they can handle if they are currently sedentary).  The sleep is definitely important, but again, if they are consuming too many calories every day, getting more sleep won't have a huge impact on their weight.

Eric also said a few things which I think are total bullshit.  He said ice cream and peanut butter are the absolute worst foods in terms of their impact on your appearance.    Okay, no one would claim ice cream is health food, but this seems kind of arbitrary.  And peanut butter? When probed by all the stunned fitness professionals in the audience, he said he thinks all nut butters, and even the all natural ones are just as bad, but admitted that they may be healthy (just not conducive to looking good).  Okay, that's garbage! I am going to guess that the issue is really that nut butters are a food that people tend to over eat.  How many people do you know who eat it straight out of the jar?  A 'serving' is 2 tbsp. and although I probably consume some sort of nut or seed butter almost every day, I am always careful to stick to a serving.  I don't see how eating it in moderation is going to negatively affect your appearance when its full of nutrition and healthy fats. 

The other thing he said which is total bull is he claims that drinking carbonated beverages of any kind, even calorie free ones, cause cellulite.  I looked into this and THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE THAT THIS IS TRUE.

Oh, and his take on protein powder and protein shakes, etc.? NO WAY!  He doesn't feel that the body processes them as well as protein from real food, so he forbids his clients from consuming them.  This may be true, and certainly is consistent with what Nancy Clark believes (although she thinks nuts and nut butters are excellent foods for health, performance and weight maintenance!).

So there you have it, that's what the A-list does to keep themselves in Hollywood shape.  What does that mean for you and I?  Nothing.  Sure, diet, exercise and sleep are just important for us, in terms of both health and appearance, but few of us are going to live such a restrictive lifestyle.  Why? Well, first of all, our jobs don't usually depend on it.  Keep in mind, as Eric the Trainer pointed out, that they are under a lot of pressure to look a certain way.  He said a female actress basically can't be in front of the camera if she doesn't have a flat stomach. WTF? There are a lot of women who will never achieve a flat stomach simply because of genetics!!  This is such a narrow and unrealistic standard of beauty.

Olympic gold medalist Rosie MacLennan, whom I met the other day, doesn't look like a supermodel or celebrity, but she's got a gorgeous, strong, muscular toned body that is capable of performing amazing feats!  Dietician, Nancy Clark said one of the biggest mistakes many of her female athletes make, is that they should look like models.  None of us 'should' look like them, unless we are born that way.

Now you might wonder at how these folks maintain the motivation to keep themselves looking so 'perfect'?  I might just be game to try it if there was $10 million on the line!  Remember, these people could lose a role in a blockbuster movie if they don't.  These celebs also have teams of people to help them out, prepare their meals, etc.  This isn't real life folks!

So what's the bottom line? Don't use Hollywood as your yardstick for your lifestyle or appearance.  We 'regular' folk should not be comparing ourselves to them. 

Beauty is not the same as health or fitness.  Health is how you feel and function, fitness is about what you do.  Beauty, in my opinion, is who you are on the inside!