DIETS THAT WORK The Dance-and-diet Duo

How Shakira Got Her Fab Figure Back:

Her hips don’t lie — and neither does any other part of her stunning figure. After the birth of her second child (with her partner, Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué) in 2015, Shakira worked hard to drop the baby weight fast — and did she ever! These days, the 40-year-old Grammy-winning Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer and record producer looks as trim and toned as ever, thanks to a rigorous workout schedule (with more than five hours of dance and interval workouts per week) and a diet consisting of small, healthy meals to keep her energy revved throughout the day.

PROMISES, PATTERNS & PATIENCE

Though she didn’t work with Shakira, registered dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner applauds the star’s willingness to give maximum effort to her slimdown plan. “It seems like she really committed to the process and was patient with it,” says Blatner, author of The Superfood Swap. “She changed her diet by combining produce and protein for snacks and choosing chicken or fish instead of jamón [ ham]. It also helped that she created regular meal patterns.” For breakfast, Shakira would have coffee and avocado toast. Lunch usually consisted of a salad with chicken or fish, while dinner would be steak or fish with asparagus. To maintain her energy between meals, Shakira snacked on seaweed chips or beef jerky with cucumber or melon. For a post-workout pickme-up, she’d have coconut water (a great source of natural electrolytes) and some protein. And she worked out doing an activity she loves (dancing!), Blatner notes, while wearing a heart-rate monitor to make sure she was exercising at the right intensity. “If you want to look like that,” Blatner says, “you have to be committed to doing the work to get and stay that way.”