Celebrity Secrets to Losing Baby Weight
How do Hollywood moms get so thin -- so quickly -- after pregnancy? With a lot of help from
the experts. It may not be realistic or healthy for real women to lose weight that fast, but you
can steal some of their moves once you have your doctor's okay to get started. We talked to
top celebrity trainers and nutritionists for dozens of doable tips to help you get your body back.
the experts. It may not be realistic or healthy for real women to lose weight that fast, but you
can steal some of their moves once you have your doctor's okay to get started. We talked to
top celebrity trainers and nutritionists for dozens of doable tips to help you get your body back.
Halle Berry
Age: 42
Gained: 35 pounds with baby girl Nahla
Celeb Strategy: Berry worked out up until she was 7 1/2 months pregnant. A few weeks after
the baby, "she was ready to show up, ready to lose the weight," says her trainer Ramona
Braganza, who helped the star reclaim her red-carpet figure within three and a half months.
"We started out conservatively, with just some cardio and stretching, five days a week," says
Braganza. "After a week, we changed it up." This helped keep Berry motivated and energized.
"No one wants to do the same routine all the time," she says. "We'd go for hikes, a jog on the
beach, or do kickboxing or yoga." Braganza mixed the calorie-burning cardio with free
weights, planks, and other core exercises and combinations of squats, lunges, and jumps that
tone trouble spots and get the heart pumping. The workouts ultimately evolved into a plan
Braganza calls 321 Baby Bulge Be Gone, a DVD system she's since used to train Jessica Alba
and countless other new moms.
As for her diet, Berry's always followed helpful habits for slimming down -- eating small meals
every few hours and avoiding sodium-rich and fried food -- because they keep her blood-sugar
levels steady, which is crucial for managing her diabetes. Some of her favorite go-to meals:
homemade soups or fish with leafy greens like kale or spinach and brown rice. "Her soup isn't
just soup -- there's probably lots of vegetables and beans, so it's filling," says Braganza.
Real-Mom Workaround: Treat exercise like a standing appointment. If you really want to see
progress, "you have to schedule exercise in your day, or it probably won't happen," says
Braganza. When you're back at work, set up regular dates in your e-mail calendar to hit the
gym or take a walk during lunch, or make a point to stroll with your baby for 20 minutes
every night. For most moms, it may not be realistic to follow a strict, regimented program --
what's more important is to do any kind of exercise regularly, says Braganza. "Many new
moms just need to get in the habit of exercising again."
Jennifer Lopez
Age: 39
Gained: 50 pounds with twins Max and Emme
Celeb Strategy: Nothing mega-star J. Lo ever does is ordinary, and losing the baby weight
proved to be no exception. Though she took it easy for the first four to five months --
dropping some weight with light walking workouts -- the star eventually decided to start
training for a triathlon, completing the 4-mile run, half-mile swim, and 18-mile bike race just
about seven months after giving birth. Lopez's workouts, anywhere from 45 minutes to two
hours a day, four to six days a week, with longtime trainer Gunnar Peterson, were intense.
"But it's not like she dropped everything," says Peterson, author of The Workout. "She was
very hands-on with the babies and needed to fit this in around them." He had J. Lo train for
the specific events of the triathlon with some basic strength sessions in between, including
moves like squats and lunges to tone her famous derriere. "The important thing is to keep
mixing it up, so your body has to adapt -- and that's when the results happen." Running was
Lopez's strong suit and swimming her weakest, according to Peterson.
Lopez was eating healthfully but not following a specific diet plan. Peterson advocates five to
seven small meals a day, eating a big breakfast, medium lunch, and smaller dinner. He's not a
fan of cutting carbs -- especially when training for endurance events -- but does recommend
eating foods that are as natural and close to their original source as possible. (Choose a baked
potato over French fries, say, or an apple instead of apple juice.) Lopez stuck to healthy whole
grains, like brown rice and protein from egg whites and lean cuts of chicken, turkey, and beef.
Real-Mom Workaround: Set a firm goal like J. Lo -- and the small steps you'll take to
achieve it to help you stay focused on getting in shape. "Deadlines have a way of making
people get stuff done," says Peterson. Say you vow to zip up your favorite pre-baby jeans by
your birthday. Brainstorm a few specific strategies to get there: Squeeze in an extra workout
a week, for example, or swap your daily soda habit for water with lime. Want to steal from J.
Lo's workout? Peterson recommends The Complete Idiot's Guide book series, whether it's
triathlons, weights, yoga, etc. "They're great references for baseline moves, and they have
sample programs you can do."
Tori Spelling
Age: 35
Gained: About 40 pounds with baby Liam
Celeb Strategy: After the always-skinny Spelling delivered her first child Liam, she found
herself in unfamiliar territory: She needed to go on a diet. Spelling turned to NutriSystem,
which delivers prepackaged meals -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert -- to your home;
you add your own fruits, veggies, and dairy. "Meals are nutritionally balanced to keep your
blood sugar levels steady, and you're eating five times a day, so you're not feeling hungry,"
says spokeswoman Delphine Carroll.
Spelling also got active through daily walking workouts (at least a half-hour a day, five to
seven days a week), which helped her zap extra calories. "You can do a DVD in your home,"
says Carroll. Or you can take it outside. "Tori loved to go for walks with her baby in the
stroller."
Real-Mom Workaround: Get help with food prep and portion control. A pre-packaged food
program like NutriSystem (or Jenny Craig) takes the guesswork out of planning meals and
can help you avoid bingeing on whatever's around. Though it costs around $10 a day, you can
lose up to two pounds a week and won't need to stay on the plan forever. Or consider buying
pre-packaged meals on sale from the grocery store to help keep an eye on your portions -- we
love those from Healthy Choice and Amy's Kitchen.
Jessica Alba
Age: 27
Gained: 35 pounds with daughter Honor
Celeb Strategy: Alba was willing to work hard to shed her pregnancy pounds, says her trainer
Ramona Braganza, who, like Halle, had the star follow her 321 Baby Bulge Be Gone plan, a
three-phase, three-month system that's designed to ease new moms back into exercise after
pregnancy. "After nine months of being less active, your abs and back are weak and your
cardio's not so good," Braganza says. During the first phase, Alba did 20-minute workouts
that strengthened those core muscles, working her way up over the next few months to
40-minute sessions that included longer bouts of fat-burning cardio (like kickboxing and
dance aerobics) and strength training with light dumbbells (chest presses, triceps extensions,
and squats, lunges, and jumps).
When it came to healthy eating, Braganza had Alba follow her 321 nutrition tips: three meals,
two snacks, and at least one liter of water a day. "Jessica always had water around, she drank
about two liters a day," says Braganza. Guzzling enough H20 helped the breastfeeding actress
keep up her milk supply and stay full between meals and snacks. Alba was eating roughly
1,700 calories a day, filling up on fiber-rich whole grains, salads, and lean meats, and snacking
on healthy protein, like low-fat string cheese.
Real-Mom Workaround: Utilize your living room -- you can get a surprisingly complete
workout there. (Even better, you can have your baby nearby in a swing or squeeze it in while
she's napping in her crib.) "These moves require hardly any equipment," says Braganza. Buy
some dumbbells, and use your furniture for the rest: Stack pillows to make an incline bench
or use the couch or a chair for triceps dips, for example. "For cardio, you can walk up and
down the stairs, or go walking or strolling 20 to 25 minutes a day to burn calories," she says.
Heidi Klum
Age: 35
Gained: 35 pounds with son Henry
Celeb Strategy: Klum famously strutted the Victoria's Secret catwalk just two months after
delivering her son Henry in 2005 -- with nary a sign of any pregnancy bumps or bulges.
Trainer David Kirsch whipped her into runway-ready shape, but it wasn't without a ton of hard
work, time, and discipline on Klum's part. "Heidi knew what she wanted to accomplish," says
Kirsch. "She was going to be in a bra and panties in front of millions of people!" Klum
followed an extended version of the two-week program in Kirsch's The Ultimate New York
Body Plan, working out for 90 minutes to two hours a day. They focused on sculpting her belly,
thighs, and butt. "Heidi is pear-shaped, so we really zoned in on those areas using low weights
and lots of repetitions, doing moves like lunges, squats, and exercises with stability balls." For
zapping calories, Klum used a rowing machine, which Kirsch says is more challenging and
provides better results than the treadmill. "It uses the arms, shoulders, back, core, butt,
thighs, calves, heart -- nothing's left untouched."
Klum also followed the strict diet spelled out in Kirsch's The Ultimate New York Diet, which
calls for cutting out alcohol, white bread and other starchy carbs, coffee, dairy (though it's
important for new moms to take calcium supplements), certain fruits, and unhealthy
saturated and trans fats. What she did eat: five small meals a day filled with Kirsch's
"staples" -- low-starch veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, salmon, chicken, nuts,
mushrooms, egg whites, beans and lentils, berries, and more.
Real-Mom Workaround: Exercise is cumulative -- you don't have to manage a complete
45-minute workout at once to burn calories and see results. "It's not all or nothing -- work
out for two hours and if you can't, forget it, you're wasting your time," Kirsch says. Sure, the
payoff will take longer, but even doing a 10-minute circuit of moves (wear your baby in a
carrier for extra resistance and bonding) once or twice a day will shift the numbers on the
scale over time.
Julia Roberts
Age: 41
Gained: About 35 pounds with Henry
Celeb Strategy: Roberts wasn't too anxious about losing the weight after her second
pregnancy. "She was so active already after having the two kids [twins Phinnaeus and Hazel,
now 4]," says trainer Kathy Kaehler. "It was more about getting back into her old routine."
Roberts stayed in shape during pregnancy with regular yoga sessions, and then hit the pool
with Kaehler for hourlong workouts to slim down postpartum. Roberts did a lot of deep-water
running (wearing a buoyancy belt) and leg kicks at the side of the pool. "Swimming is a way
to do vigorous, large-motion exercise in the water without any impact, so it's much better for
your joints," says Kaehler. On dry land, Roberts also did step workouts to burn calories while
toning. A favorite move: the Squat with Cards, which has Roberts hold a few playing cards and
squat as she deals them down to the ground and picks them up.
Kaehler, who insists that moms shouldn't "diet" right after giving birth, suggested that Julia
eat "real foods" -- things that are not sold in a box or bucket or passed through the drive-
thru. Though she did not supervise Roberts' diet, the trainer recommended that Roberts eat
small meals throughout the day.
Real-Mom Workaround: Use DVDs at home, when your child's sleeping or playing with
someone else. "Having something where you can be guided, but still be at home, is very
helpful for new moms," says Kaehler, especially those like Roberts who have to juggle a new
baby and older siblings. One to try: A New Dimension, a three-workout DVD Kaehler made
with Cindy Crawford when she had her first son. Another tip: "If you're going to a park with
older children, utilize the equipment there," says Kaehler. The slides, the swings, the monkey
bars -- they can all be a great way to work out different parts of your body while you're having
a blast with your kids.
Milla Jovovich
Age: 32
Gained: 62 pounds with baby Ever
Celeb Strategy: Jovovich saw her weight balloon from caving into pregnancy cravings like
peanut butter-and-jelly-slathered bagels and steak. To get her body back, she worked with
trainer Harley Pasternak, following his 5-Factor Diet and 5-Factor Fitness plans, which call for
eating five balanced meals a day and working out five times a week for as little as 25 minutes
at a time. Jovovich's workouts included five phases, including a cardio warm-up on the
treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike, upper-body moves, lower-body moves, abs, and some
more cardio to cool down. "Exercises that use multiple muscles and joints are most efficient,
like walking lunges, which work your quads, glutes, and hamstrings all at once."
Changing her eating habits also packed a big punch for Jovovich. Each meal includes healthy
carbs for energy; fiber to feel full and keep your heart healthy; low-fat protein to boost
metabolism and regenerate muscle tissue; healthy, unsaturated fat for everything from
healthy skin to balancing hormones; and a calorie-free drink. "Your beverage can be a Trojan
horse for smuggling all kinds of excess, unwanted calories into your body," Pasternak says.
Typical meals included an oatmeal frittata (a pancake made of egg whites, oats, and
cinnamon) for breakfast, a berry smoothie snack, chef's salad for lunch, and grilled salmon
with brown rice or quinoa and a side salad for dinner.
Real-Mom Workaround: Even if your ob-gyn hasn't green-lighted you for exercise yet, every
new mom can start eating healthy from the beginning, says Pasternak. "You just have to
follow guidelines of things you can and can't eat if you're breastfeeding," he says. "Then once
your doctor gives you the go-ahead to proceed with exercise, you only really need a pair of
dumbbells and an exercise ball to begin a program. You don't necessarily have to go to the
gym all the time." Pasternak also urged Jovovich to be more active throughout the day,
advice all new moms could follow. "Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car in
the furthest sport of the parking lot," he says. "Find ways to make your day a little less
efficient so that you can burn extra calories without spending extra time in the gym."
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