Hollywood’s leading ladies know all about slimming… and now you can, too!

‘By eating every three hours, you’re never hungry and constantly reset your metabolism’. Tinseltown’s brightest lights are usually a fickle bunch when it comes to diets.

Over the last few years, the fad-diet bandwagon has been overloaded with A-list names, all vying with each other to be the first to endorse a particular diet — only to drop it a few months later when the next food guru rolls into town.

But now, it seems, things have changed.

Led by some of the most beautiful women in the world, those in the know have given up on the starvation-and-deprivation diets and waved goodbye to complicated, percentage-based eating plans.

Carbs are back in vogue — and, miraculously, so is eating.

In fact, now the most popular way to stay in shape in Hollywood is to eat all day long.

The high-profile A-listers who have opted out of dieting hell include Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Penélope Cruz, Lucy Liu, Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Garner, Uma Thurman, Cindy Crawford, Jessica Biel, Halle Berry… we could go on.

They have their personal trainers to thank — and some scientific research — for this happy change of heart towards eating. Judging by how fantastic they all look, it appears eating all day is one trend that’s here to stay.

It’s great news for anyone who has ever found diets difficult to stick to (is there anyone who hasn’t?) and for all those who actually enjoy eating. The new way to slim is never to go hungry, eat between meals, and enjoy the foods we have previously been denied and therefore craved.

Boost blood sugar

Does this sound too good to be true? Well, here’s the science behind it.

It is all about speeding up the metabolism, explains Dan Benardot, PhD, professor of nutrition, kinesiology and health at Georgia State University.

“Blood sugar fluxes every three hours, so if you don’t eat something to raise the blood sugar, metabolic rate can slow down,” he says.

During his research, Dan discovered this even applied to athletes. Female athletes who ate their total daily food intake in three big meals — as opposed to five or six smaller ones — tended to have higher body fat percentages and lower energy levels.

Dan puts this down to the extended time between meals. He is keen to stress how important it is to keep blood sugar levels steady in order to prevent the need to binge.

“One of the stimulants to hunger is low blood sugar,” he says. “If you let yourself get really hungry and find a bag of unpeeled carrots and a ready-to-eat cake in the refrigerator, which would you choose?”

We are programmed to eat for energy — but if we don’t listen to that programming, we can easily upset the natural balance of our bodies, which leads to a vicious cycle of binge/starve and weight gain.

On top of all that, our moods will suffer, making us even more prone to pigging out on the wrong foods.

Think of your metabolism as a furnace you need to keep stoked. If you let it go out, there will be nothing to burn the fuel that goes into the body, meaning it will store it as fat.

Graze away

A speedy metabolism is what it is all about in Hollywood right now. Bobby Strom, trainer to Britney Spears and Jessica Biel, says you can easily boost your metabolism and kick-start weight loss.

By “grazing” your way through the day, the weight will fall off naturally.

“Your metabolism gets so revved up it zaps the extra kilojoules,” Bobby says.

During his time spent training Jessica, he divided her normal three meals a day into six smaller ones.

“Because she increased her frequency of eating but decreased her portions, she actually lost about 4kg, as well as 10% body fat,” Bobby says.

Valerie Waters, trainer and food guru to such stars as Jennifer Garner, Uma Thurman, Cindy Crawford and Kate Beckinsale, claims the biggest pitfall she sees in her work is people who go several hours without eating as a means of losing weight.

“Then your body is no longer OK with a healthy salad and chicken breast,” she says. “Your food cravings will override anything at that point, and your body will want sugar and fat, so you’ve chemically set yourself up to eat badly.”

Valerie encourages all her clients to eat regular healthy meals… and never to even think of starving. Harley Pasternak, who honed Halle Berry into shape, preaches that five meals a day are needed to maintain blood-sugar levels.

He doesn’t worry about kilojoules or carbs. His message is to eat sensibly and include a good balance of lean protein and fibrous carbs (grains, fruit and vegies). “Eat five meals a day, including fibre, low-fat protein, healthy fat and non-sugar beverages,” he advises.

“By eating every three hours, you’re never hungry and constantly reset your metabolism,” confirms Jorge Cruise, fitness guru and author of The 3-Hour Diet. “My three-hour diet is about uncovering the buried concept of timing — the fact that when we eat is critical to weight loss.”

Jorge believes that a little of what you fancy also does you good.

“I never advocate deprivation,” he says. “If you want something sweet, you’ve got to indulge or you’ll just end up bingeing and regretting it.

“You can be smart about how you enjoy dessert. There are no bad foods, just bad portions.”

It’s about time

Grant Roberts, a fitness expert who works with Hilary Swank, among others, concedes that getting into shape is a science.

“But it’s not rocket science,” he quickly adds. “Forget the fad diets and pills. The most potent weight-management drug on the market is in your market — it’s food!”

One person who thinks it is about time Hollywood caught up with what she has been saying for years is Paulette Maisner, author of The Food Trap and founder of the very successful Maisner Centre For Eating Disorders.

Paulette has long preached the benefits of regular small meals. Having been a compulsive eater herself, she fought and eventually won the endless diet battle by constructing an eating plan that kept blood-sugar levels steady and therefore stopped the urge to binge.

“The best way to maintain a good blood-sugar level is to eat many small meals and snacks during the day,” she says.

“These should contain protein and carbohydrate. For example, a quick and easy snack would be a glass of skimmed milk with a piece of fruit.”

Paulette’s plan — the golden rules

• Eat six times a day — 3 meals and at least 3 snacks a day.

• Start every day with a protein breakfast.

• Include 90g of protein in your diet each day.

• Include 30g of fibre each day.

• Do not eat any concentrated sugars.

• Any bread, pasta or rice should be wholegrain.

• Avoid alcohol and caffeine.

Sample menu

Breakfast: A boiled egg with wholemeal toast and a piece of fruit.

Snack: Two slices of lean ham and a piece of fruit.

Lunch: Chicken breast and salad.

Snack: Low-fat yoghurt with handful of unsalted nuts such as almonds, or fruit.

Dinner: Lean roast lamb, with green vegies, carrots and ½ a jacket potato.

Snack: Wholewheat crispbreads with tuna and tomato. Or a glass of skimmed milk and a banana.

Tip

You can turn your normal three meals into six by dividing breakfast, lunch and dinner in half, and eating the second half three hours after the first. As long as you keep the portions smaller than you would have if you’d lumped it all together in three meals, you won’t overload your system and will keep your metabolism revved up. This will improve energy, help you lose weight and give you a much better mood.

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