Diets and Weight Loss 2011: Celebrities Like Us

The January 10 issue of People is a special Double Issue that squeezes in a lot of people who are half their size. The cover also promises to tell us how these folks accomplished such profound weight loss with the implication that if they can do it, so can we.

The cover story is 20 pages long (excluding ads) and features 26 people consisting of both common folks and celebrities and briefly describes their diets and exercise plans. We thought it might be interesting and useful to collect and summarize this information and so we’ve done that in the table below in the order in which individual dieters are featured starting on page 62.

As you can see, 7 people are on Weight Watchers®, 4 people are doing Jenny Craig® and the remaining 15 people are following a variety of other plans. The following commercial diets all have full-page ads in the issue except for Weight Watchers® which has a 2-page ad: Jenny Craig®, Atkins®, Nutrisystem® and Medifast®.

Not all of the information was provided for all of the categories and n/a in the table means that the data was not available. Those cases that have links are people we have more information about in other stories we’ve done. One of the importants take-home lessons from this table is that the dieters accomplished their weight loss over many months, or even years.

Some other interesting details were found in the stories.

Pre-diet eating habits: Denise Giesbers (french fries & chips), Josephine Reed (pizza “fanatic”), Dallas Carter (4 breakfasts, 2 dinners each day), Marty Moorehead (“pizzaholic” & late-night burger runs), Drew Carey (cheeseburgers & fries, “tons” of sugar).

Social support: A number of the dieters had friends or relatives dieting with them: Tori Fuchs, Denise Simicic and Nancy Edwards were office co-workers; Tiffany Elizalde and Tina Marie Monegni are twin sisters; Michael Reiner and Joanna Schrager are brother- and sister-in-law; Grace and Marty Moorehead are husband and wife.

Less familiar diet programs: Christina Cores used SparkPeople which offers a free, 4-stage diet program and user support for lifestyle changes. Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger reportedly uses the Sensa weight loss system which claims to make you eat less by triggering your body’s “I feel full” signal using a blend of minerals and organic chemicals that you sprinkle on your food.

Not to be outdone by People, many other magazines had New Years’ Diet cover stories.

Us Weekly‘s January 10 special issue has 23 pages on “Diets That Work” and “Secrets of Sexy Star Bodies” that we’ll cover in detail in part 2 of our story (see last year’s Diets of the Stars).

OK! has a story on the “Top 10” celebrity diets:

1. Kourtney Kardashian‘s Bikini Bod Diet
2. Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett’s Back-to-Basics Diet
3. Jennifer Hudson (see above)
4. Jennifer Lopez uses Freshology meal delivery service
5. Bachlorette Ali Fedotowsky‘s Grab-and-Go
6. Katy Perry‘s Un-Diet
7. Kelly Osbourne‘s diet was inspired by Dancing with the Stars (see above)
8. Adriana Lima‘s No-Carb Diet
9. Anne Hathaway‘s 5-Day juice cleanse
10. Gwyneth Paltrow‘s 7-day detox diet

Most of these “diets” are just made-up regimens developed by the individuals themselves or with the help of a personal trainer, medical consultant or coach. Regarding the detox and cleanses, we’ve written a lot about these in previous stories.

Finally, SHAPE magazine focuses mostly on exercise to produce flat bellies and abs but also has several articles about diet and weight loss, mixed with liberal servings of pop psychology and common sense tips. Here are the bottom lines of the “6 Amazing Weight-Loss Success Stories”:

1. Become a triathlete
2. Keep a diet journal
3. Know your weaknesses and become your own personal chef
4. Strength training with good teachers
5. Try to get on The Biggest Loser
6. Control your portion sizes and chew sugarless gum

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