Brad Pitt
We live in a world where celebrities are practically worshipped. It seems that while more and more people become overweight we are becoming more and more obsessed with how celebrities lose weight and get fit. Why is this so? What do celebrities offer us that fitness instructors, school physical education teachers and biologists cannot? Why do so many people look to famous people for guidance on losing weight? And why do people think that following a celebrity diet will help them lose weight?
Celebrities are the new Role Models and Teachers
This may seem a surprising idea, if not a totally ridiculous one. But it is a fact. For many people today there is a vacuum in their understanding and knowledge of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, a well balanced diet and how to exercise. The school curriculum has failed many people so that they leave school not knowing how to prepare healthy meals or how to exercise by themselves. Schools focus more on kitchen hygiene than healthy eating, and sports focus more on competitive team sports than on empowering children to exercise by themselves.
Team sports may produce more competitive people with better social skills, but what about when people leave school? How many people actually carry on pursuing a team sport after school? The answer is very, very few. So as people put on weight they head to their local gym, and rather than being greeted with the best quality advice, they get “taught” by people that are selling products or ideas instead of empowering individuals to take control of their lives. The schools fail us, and then commercial enterprises try to exploit us.
So, why celebrities? Well, for most people knowledge about losing weight and getting fit is vague at best.
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From anectodotal stories on how Aunt Marie lost 20 pounds after taking some weight loss pills, to Paul in the Marketing Department that got a 6 pack after doing 100 crunches a day, the World is full of stories that are mostly plain stupid. People just really do not know how to look after themselves.
I have spoken to people who firmly believe the following is true:
- Drinking water bloats your stomach and makes you fat
- Bread is the healthiest carbohydrate because it is the cleanest food
- Putting butter on French bread makes you fat
- If you drink green tea or take weight loss pills you can eat what you want and still lose weight
- If you exercise you must drink protein shakes or you will get weaker
- You can eat as much fruit and vegetables as you like as they are healthy foods
- Skipping breakfast will help you lose weight
- Eat lots of celery as it has “negative calories”
These are just some of the more shocking weight loss myths and crazy ideas that people have. Some are
taught to them by poorly qualified fitness instructors, some are just thought up as “common sense” based on a very poor education on such matters.
So, what do celebrities offer?
Ironically celebs offer people “real life” solutions. We know when a celebrity loses weight because we see them before and after photos in the tabloids. We have the proof that their system works for them. Critics to this idea remind us that everyone is different and that what works for Brad Pitt or Madonna will not work for everyone. But the fact is, if you follow a celebrity diet and workout plan, assuming that you can find adequate information on what they are really doing, then you should be able to lose weight.
Lets go back to Aunt Marie and Paul in the Marketing department – how well can you trust that they will tell you the truth about how they lost weight? Will Paul tell you everything about his diet, his workouts, his sleeping habits? Does Aunt Marie really know how she lost weight? Was it really the pills or something else? Weight does fluctuate in some people quite a lot without really trying and the real reason may remain unknown or be due to a medical condition.
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Learning what the celebrities are doing to stay in shape is no longer something that only professional journalists can uncover. Simply look them up on Twitter, Facebook or find their own personal blog and read what they are saying. This is a form of journalism in itself, and certainly one of the methods employed by MotleyHealth.com in finding out the latest on what celebrities are doing to stay in shape.But celebs, we can read about them, listen to what they say in interviews, and now even read their own Twitter pages or blogs to find out what they are up to. We know that Matthew McConaughey stays in shape with running and light weight training because he tells his Twitter readers all about it. We know that Kimberly Wyatt drinks smoothies and eats raw foods because she goes into detail on her Twitter page. Likewise Mitch Hewer tells his readers about his Runyon Canyon runs and weight loss diet tips on his Twitter page.
The other reason to follow celebrities, especially ones that get in shape for specific roles, is that they have a team of highly experienced professionals to guide them. Unlike the part-qualified gym instructor they have the best fitness coaches at hand. And these coaches often talk about how they train their clients, and their clients often talk about how they are trained. Mike Alexander shared the workout that he gave to Jessica Simpson. By sharing it he promotes his own services and hopefully wins new celebrity clients.
Some celebrity trainers even share their celebrity fitness systems, such as Jeff Cavalier who has developed the AthleanX system that you can now purchase online. This is the very system that he uses to get his celebrity clients in shape for sports and athletics, including Terrell Owens, Rafael Nadal, David Wright, Jose Reyes, and David Beckham. To put it simply, who should you trust more? The guy in marketing who is a bit cagey about his methods or the guy who has trained professional athletes – that is athletes who will be tested for illegal substances, performance enhancement drugs and the like. The answer is pretty simple really.
Celebrities are our role models and now our source of health and fitness information!
If you want to lose weight and get fit and need some inspiration, then look to our celebrities. We have details of workouts and diet plans from the top male and female celebs, so you cannot use the excuse “I don’t know how to exercise” anymore! Whether you want to follow in the footsteps of Bruce Lee, Daniel Craig, Brat Pitt, Madonna, Shakira or Mariah Carey, we can help you!
It is important to note that celebrities really do not have any greater ability to get in shape than anyone else. Brad Pitt, Bruce Lee, Daniel Craig, Matt Damon – they could all be fat guys with huge beer bellies had they chosen to take a different path in their lives.
What celebrities generally have that us mere mortals lack (oh, sorry, they are not immortal are they!) is more time, more money and greater incentive to get in amazing shape.
If your boss dragged you into a room tomorrow and told you that he will triple your pay, provide you with a personal assistant, the best company car and give you an extra 30 days holiday entitlement if you lost 30 pounds and sculpted your muscles to look like a professional MMA fighter, I bet you will suddenly find the motivate to go running every day at 6 am and lift weights every evening. This is essentially why them celebrities manage it – they have a huge incentive to do it, their jobs rely on them getting in shape.
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Can you imagine what the film 300 would have been like if all the cast just spent a year drinking beer and eating pizza? Or how daft Batman would look with a beer gut?
Unfortunately we cannot give you money or cars, all we can do is provide you with some advice and hopefully a little motivation to help you get fit and lose weight. Take a look through the celeb workouts and see what you like and hop to it. We are here to answer your questions.
A Selection of Celebrity Workouts and Diets
The Men
- James Bond 007 Workout
- Christian Bale’s Batman Workout
- Brad Pitt Workout
- Daniel Craig and Brad Pitt Compared
- Jason Bourne / Matt Damon Workout
- James McAvoy’s Wanted Workout
- LL Cool J – How to Get Ripped like the Rapper
- Barack Obama’s Fitness Regime
Published on August 2nd, 2010 and edited on January 21st, 2012.