Rihanna Diet and Workouts

Rihanna is one of the fittest singers around at the moment. However, her figure does not come easy for her. She has to maintain a very strict fitness and weight management regime to keep her figure, and it is not always healthy. She has said that some days she will eat only once.

Rihanna’s Low Carb Approach

Rihanna recognizes that carbs are a problem for her, as the sugars in carbohydrates are quickly turned to fat. To control this she often has no-carb days, sometimes she does this for 3 or 4 days at a time to keep her fat levels down.

For breakfast she often just has hot water with lemon, pineapple and cooked egg whites. Lunch will be some potatoes for the essential muscle fuel (glycogen) with a variety of fish. She often eats fish twice a day.

However, some carbohydrate is vital. Rihanna exercises a lot, and being a singer she burns a lot of calories through her work – standing and dancing burns a lot more energy than sitting at a desk! So each meal she has will generally have a low GI carbohydrate, i.e. something that is slowly digested and nutritious. Leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, wholegrain breads and raw salad vegetables are all good options.

No Read Meat

Apparently Rihanna avoids red meat too. We are not sure if she eats none, or just limits it to once a week or so, but she does appear to have made a concious effort to keep red meat to a minimum.

Rihanna’s Fitness and Workout Regime

Rihanna does a lot of cardio to keep her weight down. She prefers running on a treadmill or using a cross trainer most of the time, although practising dance routines is also an excellent way to workout for fitness and weight loss.

She has shared some insights into her fitness routine online – in March 2012 she Tweeted a photo of herself working out on a cross trainer while on vacation in Hawaii. She also revealed that she likes to cycle, skip and perform various bodyweight exercises to help stay in shape. Cycling is a excellent exercise for women as it not only burns a lot of calories, but also tones the thighs.

Harley Pasternak

Like many other celebrities based in LA she has hired Harley Pasternak as a personal trainer. Pasternak has also trained stars such as Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Megan Fox. Pasternak developed the 5 Factor Training system which is designed for busy people who wish to complete their workouts in a relatively short time. You can learn more on our Lady Gaga article.

“I’ve put her on a special 25-minute workout that consists of five mini workouts. She does it five days a week, wherever she is in the world.” Harley Pasternak talking to Grazia.

She does do some weight training, but like many women she fears that her legs will bulk up too much. The best weight training exercises for maintaining slim and athletic thighs are squats and lunges. What is important for Rihanna is the enjoy her workouts.

Here is a typical workout done by Rihanna:

• 30 minutes warm-up / cardio – cycling, cross trainer, jogging as well as some jumping jacks and skipping
• Resistance Training: Push ups, air squats, bicycle crunches, chair dips and lunges

The routine is simple but can be effective, if done 4-5 times a week and combined with healthy eating.

One simple trick that Harley Pasternak gets his celebrities to do is carry a small pedometer so that they can monitor how active they have been every day. If too few steps are taken in a day then more exercise is needed in the evening to make up for it. Harley told Grazia magazine: “I tell her to make sure she takes 10,000 steps a day.”

So, the key is to exercise at least five times a week for 25 minutes each time, and watch those carbs!