We are all guilty of looking at the gorgeous, sexy, toned, beautiful, pumped up photos of our favorite celebrities splashed on glossy magazine covers and thinking, if only I looked like that and going on some crazy diet or perhaps sadly developing an eating disorder over it. Or conversely, we see an overweight celebrity who is singing the praises of being overweight and unhealthy via the tag line of body positivity, and we may think, hmm, I'm not so bad or perhaps I don't need to do anything about my own situation if they are that popular and look like that. There is an inherent danger in this form of celebrity worship because rarely does it ever lead anyone down a path to actually getting healthy for themselves and especially not in the long term. Here are five reasons you'll always lose when playing the celebrity weight loss game.
1. Magazine Covers Are Always Photoshopped
That person on the cover may somewhat resemble their celebrity selves, but magazine covers are notorious for taking off inches, pounds, adding muscles, changing eye color, hair color, disappearing wrinkles and cellulite...you name it. It's one thing to see an untouched photo and think, hmm, maybe I could do that too, and another to give it your all to look like an image that has been retouched 10x over and want to be something that is literally impossible to be especially in terms of getting a healthy natural body.
2. Celebs are paid very well to endorse weight loss products they know nothing about
Don't go out and rush to buy some celeb endorsed product with dreams of it working for you. That celeb gets paid very well whether it works for you or not. 99.9% of the time, that product is not going to make you look or feel or be anything like that celebrity. Are they a doctor? Are they a scientist? Have they studied and researched for years in some health/science/medical field to where they understand the mechanics of the body or how and why certain agents work the way they do? Did they actually create the product or diet on their own. No, of course not! Someone said to them, here is a boat load of money for this sugar pill or this workout gadget that will end up in someone's garage because it can literally only help a person uselessly do one specific exercise, and sign on the dotted line. They don't care if it works for you or not because they are still getting paid. In fact, if you look long and hard there at the product, you'll see that fine print next to the asterisk that says, results not guaranteed.
3. Celebs pay an army you don't have to look good all the time
Most celebrities have trainers and chefs and dieticians whom they pay, or a studio pays very well to essentially keep them eating right and working out 7 days a week so they can look good in movies/magazine covers. It's quite literally written down in contract form. This isn't realism. Most average people don't have the money for this type of lifestyle, nor can they afford to continuously buy some weight loss/diet product with limited results at best. You don't have 4 hours everyday to workout. You've got a life and a family and friends and no one paying you to look good all the time. You need a realistic long term weight loss/diet/workout plan that isn't based on the ability to have someone come to your house at 3am to give you a good workout or someone in the kitchen boxing up your breakfast/lunch/dinner 7 days a week.
4. Don't believe the body positivity BS
Every year in Hollywood, you get the overweight celebrities and pseudo celebs crooning to magazines how they are so happy with their size, and that they aren't going to let anyone tell them they need to lose weight or exercise, and that they want to preach to kids to love themselves....cut to a year later, and "all of a sudden," the celeb has dropped weight and is now preaching that they were so unhappy before, they got a wake-up call from their doctor, they knew they were unhealthy, and now they've actually started working out and are feeling good and healthy. Just to list a few...Melissa McCarthy, Monique, Jonah Hill, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Alec Baldwin, Lena Dunham, Queen Latifah, Kelly Osborn, John Goodman, Missy Elliot...hell even "Mama June!" I mean the list goes on. A celeb can cluck on about how happy everyone should be to be them and heavy, but end of the day, when the receipts come in, whether rich, poor, in or out of the public eye, your poor health habits will catch up with you unless you do something actively about them to change them for the better.
5. The majority of celebrities engage in dangerous fad diets
Celebrities are under a super human amount of pressure to look good literally all the time and to be camera ready which usually translates to either really ripped or really thin. Nothing is beneath them to get that look from colonics, to starving themselves, to all water/coffee diets, pills, plastic surgery, insanely tight undergarments, working out 6 hour days for weeks...nothing. Then you see them on some red carpet and again, you think, why don't I look like that. This should not be your train of thought. You should be focused on your own health and your own bodies needs and not what some celebrity is doing which is insane and dangerous especially in the long term.
The bottom line is that...
Regardless of whether or not the program you want to follow is endorsed and promoted by a celebrity or a certain magazine, you need to actually step back from that and look at your own personal health/diet/exercise needs. When you obsess over someone else and their looks, you lose sight of what you need to do for you to make your life and your situation work. Sit down and see how much time you realistically have or need to make changes in your life. What diet do you need that doesn't end in 30 days--doesn't eliminate 90% of food groups, and that isn't some powdery frozen boxed up expensive inconvenient situation, but real natural whole food? Ask yourself, are you doing it for you or because you want to be some celebrity, because if it's the latter, you are going to lose motivation quickly especially if you are chasing after an impossible photo shopped someone that doesn't exist in reality. Bring the focus on you and obtaining and achieving personal health goals for you that last a lifetime, not five minutes for a red carpet. Your health isn't a game, and it should not be treated as such. It should be a steady and controlled daily part of your life that you are able to maintain for the rest of it in a healthful productive way.
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Soo true! These "Stans" keep on acting like these celebs are gods. Have you heard of "the church of Beyism" (worshiping Beyonce)? Or the church of Yeezus (Worshiping Kanye)? The funny part is that if you look at a lot of celebrities' photos before they got famous and had those armies of specialists to doll them up 24/7, they looked like people we interact with in our day to day lives. They were simply chosen for celeb status because they had a lot of talent, the right bone structure, or the right body type.
ow, I have read this many times before, mainly for amusement and thought, "yeah, but maybe it could be different in some cases..." and it did not sink in. Somehow, after reading this, it has. I suffer from this kind of anxiety and it is really depressing. I am basically lined up to do stupid things. :D My thoughts are basically look perfect or feel like a failure the rest of your life. Haha. Thank you for sharing this. I needed to see it.
This is very true
Great Take