How To Get a Celeb's Body By Elise Lindsey

Reviewed by Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RD

"Offers a lifestyle fix"

What’s the theory?

With a foreword by football WAG Coleen McLoughlin and written by a personal trainer and fitness presenter this book promises great things.

The theory couldn’t be more straightforward: the easiest and most effective way to look and feel fabulous is to add exercise to your life. As a result, the main focus of the book is on fitness. However, there’s also a section on diet with a view to helping you eat more healthily.

What does the diet involve?

You’re encouraged to start by keeping a food diary, including a hunger rating for each thing you ate and how you felt when you ate, to help you identify exactly what you are munching on.

It’s then recommended that you follow a detox plan for 14 to 21 days, although you need to devise this yourself based on the foods allowed.

Dairy, eggs, meat, fish, processed foods, booze and sugar are out while fruit, veg, salad, grains, rice or soya milk, guacamole, hummus, pulses, unsalted nuts and seeds, oat and rice cakes, porridge, Quorn and wheat-free pasta and bread are allowed.

After the detox, it’s time to progress to a healthy eating plan based on wholegrains, five daily fruit and veg, lean protein-rich foods and not too many sugary, salty and fatty foods. Again you’ll need to devise this plan yourself.

How much weight will I lose?

There’s no weigh loss promise given.

What can I eat in a typical day?

There’s no set meal plan – it’s up to you to create your own meals from some of the suggestions given. For example, for breakfast you could have homemade muesli with rice milk and berries; for lunch a vegetarian chilli with salad; and for dinner carrot, celery and coriander soup followed by a veggie stir fry with brown rice.

What else does the book include?

There are a limited number of recipe suggestions, food swaps with calorie savings and advice on eating out the healthy way.

The main content of the book though is dedicated to extensive exercise advice including how to get prepared for a new fitness regime, warm up exercises and a selection of workouts including aerobic and toning and specific exercises for different parts of the body such as legs, back, arms and tummy.

Finally, there’s advice on how to achieve good posture and feel-good fashion and beauty tips to reward yourself.

Juliette’s verdict

Despite the name, this book has very little to do with celebs! If you’re looking for ways to get Beyonce’s flat tum or J-Lo’s booty you won’t find it here. Instead, this book offers a lifestyle fix rather than the usual celeb quick fix, which is to be commended.

Some of the nutrition information is a little dodgy and the recommended detox may also leave you short on nutrients, particularly iron and calcium, as dairy and red meat are off limits. But generally nutrition information is based on sensible advice and encourages you to make small changes.

For novice slimmers who know little about eating sensibly, it might be a useful read, although you’ll still need the support of WLR to help you work out exactly how many calories you’re allowed each day. But for hardened slimmers the diet information is guaranteed to be too basic, although you might want to give it a go for the exercise advice.