Pippa Middleton's Pre-Wedding Diet May Actually Be Dangerous

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

From ELLE

Pippa Middleton's wedding to James Matthews is less than one month away, and, according to E!, Middleton's pre-wedding diet and amped-up workout routine are both in full force.

Middleton was photographed leaving KX Gym, a fancy fitness center in London, on Wednesday after taking a 75-minute Pilates class. (Middleton is an endurance athlete, so this isn't anything too crazy for her.)

But E! also has details on her pre-wedding diet, which is allegedly the Sirtfood Diet. The diet has 20 specific foods-arugula, red wine, cocoa, coffee, kale, strawberries, and walnuts among them-that are rich in polyphenols. This chemical apparently ramps up the body's metabolism and enhances its ability to burn fat. The trick, supposedly, is to eat more foods with that chemical in them in order to lose weight faster.

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

The Sirtfood Diet has two phases-which is where, as The Cut points out, it gets a little more dangerous. During the first phrase, which lasts seven days, according to Sirtfood's site, you consume only 1,000 calories for the first three days. This is through just three Sirtfood-rich green juices and "one full meal rich in Sirtfoods." The rest of the week, intake is pushed up to 1,500 calories, with two green juices and two meals allotted for each day.

Phase two is 14-day maintenance, which includes three "Sirtfood-rich meals plus one green juice" each day. After that, the site says those two phases can be repeated "whenever you like for a fat-loss boost."

The Cut spoke to registered dietitian Brigitte Zeitlin, who agreed the diet would be effective for weight loss because of its restrictive nature. But the weight loss wouldn't last. "It's unhealthy and unsafe to eat below 1,200 calories a day," Zeitlin said. "In addition to not giving yourself the proper energy and nutrients you need each day you're on this fad diet, eventually you're going to go off of it. You're going to gain all of the weight you lost back, and more often than not, you're going to gain even more weight back." Toss in an extreme workout routine where you're burning hundreds of calories per session, and the combo is really extreme.

Yo-yo dieting can also be dangerous because repeatedly losing and gaining weight can damage your heart, screw with your metabolism, stress your body, and increase risk of inflammation, according to Zeitlin. Instead, she recommends just having a steady, healthy diet with a variety of whole fruits, vegetables and lean protein each day.

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