It is obvious that as common people, we are influenced by the celebrities we idolize. We want to be like them, dress like them, and look like them. Miss Malini recently wrote an article discussing the different methods of weight loss used by actresses. And just because it worked on these actresses, we fall under the impression that it is meant to work for us too. But are these techniques safe to follow? Let’s ask Aditi Mehrotra, a dietician from Delhi.

“If you can have supermodels eating cotton balls instead of food to watch their slender waistlines or if you know of a few who are following the sniff-the-food-only theory of weight loss, then these celebrities too are not far from the weirdness when it comes to losing their weight and shaping up,” she said.

Here are some of those views on these weight loss methods.

Alia Bhatt

“I just eat three meals per day. I think you don’t need more meals to survive. This myth of eating two hours doesn’t work for me. If I am hungry, I eat. I listen to my body. But mostly I eat three meals. I don’t eat because one is telling me to eat. It’s a pattern that I’ve broken, and that has worked in my favor.”

Aditi’s Verdict: Strict three meals in a day sounds very limiting! Just like how chipmunks stash away their food for the entire hibernation period and then eat guarded against the limited supply at fixed intervals. What Alia calls eating every two hourly a myth is actually the smart way to keep up the body metabolism. This way you keep burning the food intake and are fuelled enough for your action packed work schedule. The idea is to eat small frequent meals which are the smart way to go! This explains it! Smart way of eating doesn’t go down really well with this cute kickass actor we love to love.

Bhumi Pednekar

“I believe in detoxifying, and that’s what I did for the first two months. I drank litres and litres of Aloe Vera. I also had a lot of green tea and kale juice.”

Aditi’s Verdict: Good heavens! The lady believes in going the green goblin way! I think with so much green in her diet she’d herself look like a plant capable of self-induced photosynthesis – with so much chlorophyll in her blood cells. Green tea, green aloe, green kale juice! Perfect! She ate her healthy meals as well. Then how on earth is she on a detox? It is good that she believes in detoxifying, or systems cleanse but how does one detoxify along with regular meals? Detoxification is not done on days on end. It is based on an exclusion plan – omitting the grains and legumes, no alcohol, no unlimited cups of coffee/tea and being alive only on foods such as fruits, veggies, little dairy nuts and seeds.

Jessica Alba

“I wore a double corset day and night for three months. It was brutal; it’s not for everyone.”

Aditi’s Verdict: Re-sculpting your body with waist trainers is like trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket. Jessica wore not just one but double corset night and day. The prolonged use of this increases the chances of heartburn and acid reflux. Corsets have come back into existence since the late Victorian era. They simply increase the body temperature causing you to sweat more and this might temporarily show up as weight loss. But once discontinued brings the sucked in body back in flabs. The trick is to combine it with a good diet and abdominal planks or crunches coupled with cardio workouts. Making the anti-cellulite gel application into the problem areas and then wearing a corset for a few hours can bring a sea change.

Liv Tyler

“When I’m showering, I’ll turn the water to cold for the last couple minutes. A hairstylist friend told me [it] closes the hair cuticle…and I always feel like it makes you a little bit skinnier.”

Aditi’s Verdict: Now this is outrightly weird! Tyler’s hairstylist’s strategy for hair cuticles seems applicable in weight loss as per Tyler herself? Strange! How can a cold shower make you skinnier? Sweat baths of yester years and the steam and sauna’s of today are essential to cleanse our bodies of unwanted toxins and feel rejuvenated. But a cold shower in the words of Miss Tyler would neither lead to weight loss nor detoxify her body. Making her appear skinnier after a cold shower is perhaps her way of reassuring herself of the stolen cookie she indulged in earlier in the day.

Anne Hathaway

“I just had to stop eating for a total of 13 days shooting. I was on a starvation diet to look like I was near death in a film… but I went at it with a plan, and I had a guide, a nutritionist kind of helped me with it.”

Aditi’s Verdict: If you are thinking Anne can do it so can you. No! Anne did it for her role in the film. Supervised starving for 13 days for that near death look shows how one would end up looking at the end of the starvation period! Starving is not the remedial approach. On the contrary, it will lead to muscle loss which will make you look old and haggard. Again a balanced weight loss diet needs to be followed which could be either range from an 800 to 1400 Kcal diet with all food groups essential for balancing the food plate.

Therefore, people, we need to realize that all our bodies are different! Following a celebrity diet will not help us lose weight. The right amount of exercise and a balanced diet is the key to healthy body and lifestyle.

If you have any queries regarding a diet, you can contact Aditi .