How to shrink, like Adele
The experts have changed their minds about how best to achieve a dramatic weight loss. Peta Bee reports.
Abody transformation little short of remarkable has resulted in Adele dropping so many dress sizes that she has probably lost count. In a picture she posted on Instagram last week, the 32-year-old singer revealed her new physique in a tight black mini-dress, immediately setting in motion the theories as to how she could have shed a reported 44 kilograms. She has remained silent about her weight loss and the stir it has created.
She is blooming and almost certainly her health has improved. And it has been no quick fix. Pete Geracimo, a personal trainer who says he worked with Adele in London, leapt to her defence last week, as some social media comments questioned her motivation for losing weight and made what he called ‘‘fat-phobic accusations’’.
Geracimo says he first helped Adele to make changes to her diet and exercise regimen in 2015 as she prepared for a 13-month tour to support her album 25, and that it was for health reasons, not because she wanted to get ‘‘super-skinny’’. But how has she done it and what are the safest routes to drastic weight loss?
The Sirtfood diet allows you to eat only 20 specific foods – among them red wine and chocolate.
Was it down to the Sirtfood diet?
Rumours have swirled about the diet Adele followed, fuelled by her one-time Pilates teacher Camila Goodis’ revelations in January. ‘‘She’s working out, but I think 90 per cent of it is diet,’’ Goodis said. ‘‘It’s a good diet to shed the weight. The first week is intense: green juices and only 1000 calories.’’
Created by Aidan Goggins and
Glen Matten, who describe themselves as ‘‘experts in nutritional medicine’’ on their website, the
Sirtfood diet allows you to eat only 20 specific foods – among them red wine, kale, strawberries, buckwheat and walnuts – selected because they are rich in certain polyphenols, antioxidant-rich compounds found in plant foods.
Some of these polyphenols supposedly help to activate a person’s sirtuin (or ‘‘skinny’’) genes, prompting a boosted metabolism and weight loss. Dark chocolate and red wine are allowed because they contain them.
It has two phases. During the first, seven-day phase, you consume only 1000 calories for the first three days, after which you increase to 1500 calories and then a 14-day regimen of three daily ‘‘Sirtfood-rich meals, plus one green juice’’. After that, the two phases can be repeated ‘‘whenever you like for a fat-loss boost’’.
It is likely Adele’s calorie intake has taken a serious hit. ‘‘The basis of many popular diets is that they simply exclude a lot of foods, making it very difficult to consume too many calories,’’ says Dr Duane Mellor, a dietician and senior lecturer at Aston University medical school in Birmingham. ‘‘A risk is that some are so restrictive you miss out on valuable nutrients, so they are a short-term fix rather than a long-term health switch.’’
Drastic calorie-cutting has medical approval
Once considered risky because they were too nutritionally restrictive, extreme calorie-cutting diets – comprising fewer than 1000 calories a day – are now considered by many in the medical profession to be the best approach for some people needing to lose several kilos in weight.
‘‘The thinking has completely changed from a decade or two ago,’’ Mellor says. ‘‘Emerging evidence suggests that the effects of very lowcalorie diets [VLCDs] on weight loss and conditions related to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, are similar to those achieved with bariatric surgery.’’
In one trial, researchers from Newcastle University found that, of 11 people with type 2 diabetes who slashed their food intake to include only a 600-calorie shake and 200 calories of nonstarchy vegetables each day for eight weeks, seven of them were free of diabetes three months later.
‘‘Metabolically, there is a case for these sorts of diets for obese people,’’ Mellor says. ‘‘You can lose significant amounts of weight – 3-4kg a week – very quickly, and that rapidity seems to be more beneficial in reversing some of the health issues of obesity.’’
Be mindful of the pitfalls
Cut calories drastically and any initial weight loss is mostly water and glycogen. ‘‘After a few days, your metabolism slows down and your body is preferentially storing fat, which has more energy,’’ says Dr Filip Koidis, nutrition consultant and founder of W1 Nutritionist Clinics in London. ‘‘There’s also a buildup of appetite-stimulating hormones, such as ghrelin and neuropeptide Y in your system, which might make you more prone to binge-eating episodes.’’
However, with careful planning they are highly effective and Mellor says that weight loss can be as much as 4kg a week. ‘‘By exercising to maintain muscle mass you can reduce the slowing of metabolism,’’ he says.
On some low-calorie diets, you risk starting to miss out on important nutrients, including protein, vitamin B12 and iron, so you need to make sure these are provided. ‘‘If you drop the carbs and don’t maintain your protein intake, there is a risk of side-effects, including acidosis, raised levels of acid in the body, that can cause serious health problems,’’ says Mellor.
Keeping the weight off
The billion-dollar question once you have lost several kilos is how to keep it off. ‘‘Where you go next after you have lost a lot of weight is where the big challenge lies,’’ Mellor says. ‘‘This is where more research is needed as we know some people struggle to maintain the losses while others end up putting on more weight afterwards.’’
‘‘Research has shown that after following a VLCD, it can take more than a year for our appetite hormones to function at a normal level,’’ Koidis says. ‘‘If your weight loss was achieved on a realfood diet with incremental learning of healthy eating habits and over a healthy amount of time, there’s a real possibility you will not regain all or some of the weight.’’
There are psychological issues, too. ‘‘I’ve seen patients who are fed up of thinking about food and weight when they have been on a VLCD,’’ Mellor says. ‘‘When normal food is reintroduced, they need support with holistic lifestyle approaches to improve their long-term chances of weight maintenance.’’
Work on muscle strength
Clearly, fitness has been a big part of Adele’s newfound physique. As well as training with Geracimo in the past, she has credited reformer Pilates as a contributing factor to her weight loss. She has also been linked with the celebrity trainer Dalton Wong, renowned for his strength and resistancebased approach.
‘‘One of the main reasons people who lose lots of weight regain it is down to the role muscles play in our metabolism. It’s important to maintain muscle mass as without it your ability to keep weight off is severely compromised,’’ Mellor says.
‘‘A loss of lean muscle tissue effectively means your body’s energy-burning engine size is reduced. Once you start to eat normally again, you simply won’t have the metabolic tissue to burn up fuel if your muscle mass is depleted.’’
In short, your muscles help to burn calories, so neglect them and you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
‘‘If you need to lose a great deal of weight, then you need to find a plan that incorporates resistance training two or three times a week, cardio at a level you can consistently do over a sustained amount of time, be that 15, 30 or 45 minutes, and flexibility as part of long-term progress,’’ Wong says.