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If you pay attention to celebrity news, you’ve probably read about Anne Hathaway’s drastic 25 pound weight loss for her role as Fantine in the Les Miserables movie.  While we’ve noticed photos of a very skinny Hathaway surfacing over the past several months, we haven’t heard much from Hathaway herself on how she achieved this weight loss…until now.

Celebrities are notorious for employing drastic methods for quick weight loss for film roles.  Beyonce famously lost 20 lbs for her role in Dream Girls by using a Master Cleanse comprising of a liquid-only diet for at least 10 days.  Anne Hathaway herself followed a vegan diet and went all out in the gym 5 days per week in order to don a catsuit for her role in Dark Knight Rises.

The 29-year-old access recently confessed to the Hollywood Report that fasting was the method she used to drop the pounds for Les Mis.  She dropped 10 pounds in three weeks before filming and an additional 15 pounds in just two weeks’ time during production.  She admitted to eating almost nothing for the 13 days she was shooting, consuming only two thin pieces of oatmeal paste per day.  The idea was for Hathaway to look the part of Fantine, the poor, ill tuberculosis stricken prostitute in Les Miserables.  Anne referred to the intense effects this starvation diet had on her body stating, “I couldn’t sleep. I was so starving, my body was keeping me awake at night, like was telling me, ‘Go look for food!’ I was kind of in this otherworldly, slightly ecstatic manic state all the time.”

However, after fielding many questions about how she dropped the weight, Hathaway has decided not to divulge any more about the quick weight loss because she doesn’t want other women to emulate her.  As she told the Today Show, “Honestly, it’s upsetting to talk about. I get nervous talking about it because I find that I don’t want to be seen as trying to glamorize it. There’s a lot of talk, a lot of pressure, especially on young girls, to lose weight and what I did, I didn’t do it to get hot; I did it to look like I was dying.  So I don’t want to be seen as, in talking about it, giving it more weight…Do not do this at home.”

Anne is right to not want to do anything to encourage fans to follow in her extreme diet footsteps.  These types of crash diets are really not safe, and they can thwart your weight loss goals in the long term.  Research shows rapid weight loss slows metabolism which can lead to future weight gain.  It also deprives the body of essential nutrients, causes harm to your immune system and can cause heart palpitations and cardiac stress.

For most women the goal is to achieve and maintain healthy lifelong weight loss and avoid the dreaded yo-yo effect with the same 10, 15, 20 or more pounds cycling on and off of your body repeatedly.  Celebrity-style crash diets will only cause yet another yo-yo, because as soon as you return to your normal eating habits the lost weight will come piling back on.  What is really needed is a LIFELONG solution to both diet and fitness that fits seamlessly into your life.

anne hathaway weight lossHere’s the good news.  Anyone willing to work for it can become their leanest and fittest selves, just like the celebrities. If you’re looking for a nutrition and fitness plan that will help you make that lifestyle change, we invite you to try out Athlean-XX for Women.  We designed Athlean-XX for Women to be a REALISTIC plan for REAL women.  Our workouts are just 30 minutes per day, but they’ll get your heart pumping and get you in shape FAST!  Our diet plan is actually not a diet at all.  We want you to eat more!  Eat healthy foods 5 – 6 times per day, and you’ll get your metabolism revved like a well-oiled machine.  We also keep you inspired with our daily blog posts and our active Facebook community.  Join us on Team Athlean – we’ll keep help keep you motivated and reach your goals!

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