The Dukan Diet was already a huge bestseller when the British media reported that Kate Middleton’s mother was following it to prepare for her daughter’s wedding on April 29. Created by French doctor Pierre Dukan, the program is a variation on the Atkins Diet—high-protein, low-fat, and modest carbohydrates—and has many critics who doubt its efficacy. (This being a French plan, there is also a “celebration meal,” which allows for wine and dessert.) When news broke that Carole Middleton was a Dukanniste, many wondered if Kate herself was on the program, especially since the future Queen is known for her sweet tooth. (Last month, Kate’s favorite candymaker, Haribo, created a new gummy product in her honor.) So far, the palace has been mum about Kate’s weight, but The Dukan Diet will be published in the U.S. on April 19.
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Singer Katy Perry may be famous for her voluptuous figure, but in advance of her wedding to Russell Brand last year, she went on a strict diet and exercise regimen to get into the best shape of her life. Perry followed the 5-Factor plan, developed by Harley Pasternak, fitness guru to Lady Gaga, Halle Berry, and Robert Pattinson, among many others. On 5-Factor, participants eat five times a day (two modest, well-balanced meals and three snacks), exercise 25 minutes a day for five days, and get one free day to eat as they please. And even though Perry reportedly dropped two dress sizes before her big day, Pasternak says that is not the goal of his program. “Women should look like women. They need natural curves.”
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Before she married Office star John Krasinski last year, actress Emily Blunt went to work—with celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson. Known as the woman who sculpted the bodies of Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Shakira, Anderson put Blunt on a serious regimen of yoga and Pilates four and five times a week. “It’s so hard,” Blunt told HollywoodLife. “That’s a lot of cardio. It’s the most cripplingly difficult, [but] I actually enjoy it!”
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Her father was famous for his Big Mac attacks, but before Chelsea Clinton walked down the aisle with Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010, she hit the indoor bike—hard. The former first daughter reportedly lost 30 pounds and was such a regular at SoulCycle on New York’s Upper West Side that she even taught a 90-minute spin class last year to benefit the relief effort in Haiti. Front-row “seats” went for $1,000 and the event raised nearly $67,000. "Chelsea’s just so amazing,” SoulCycle co-founder Julie Rice said of her famous client. “She's really like any other person that is part of our exercise community. So for her and the others to help when something like a tragedy like in Haiti comes up, it's really easy for us to rally our troops.”
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The Paleolithic diet has been a fad regimen since the 1970s , but its principles have, of course, been around for millions of years. The idea behind the controversial diet (which is typically derided as The “Caveman” Diet) is that participants should only eat the plants and animals that were consumed by the hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic era. To prepare for her wedding to Arun Nayar in 2007, Elizabeth Hurley tried Dr. Loren Cordain’s Paleo Diet program, which reportedly flattened her stomach in a week. But by late last year, Hurley had moved on to another odd weight-loss program. The 45-year-old actress tweeted that she believed in skipping breakfast and then having “mugs of hot water first thing, maybe an espresso and a few oat cakes mid morning."
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"I carry all my stress weight, all my potato chip weight, around my midsection," Carrie Underwood told a radio interviewer shortly before her wedding to the NHL’s Mike Fisher. To combat that, the 26-year-old country star hired trainer Tony Greco, who put the American Idol winner on an intense regimen of 45-minute workout sessions, including plenty of lunges and squats. “She trains like a pro athlete,” Greco said. “She’s very competitive."
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When your stepfather is a former Olympic champion and your fiancé is an NBA star, staying in shape is a big deal. So when Khloe Kardashian needed to lose 20 lbs. before her wedding to Lamar Odom, she turned to a hardcore diet and exercise regimen—30 minutes of cardio a day, including boxing and hiking—as well as a product she endorsed called QuickTrim. “I eat whatever I want until noon. Then from noon on, I watch what I eat," Kardashian told Us Weekly. "I only drink Champagne. 100 calories in a glass, and I'm good." Soon after the big day, however, Kardashian admitted on her website: “After my wedding, I put on a little love weight, but fortunately I had already discovered QuickTrim and was able to lose that poundage in less than two weeks."
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Actress Vanessa Minnillo takes a low-key approach to staying fit before her wedding to Nick Lachey. Though she works out three times a week with Gunnar Peterson—who trains Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, and Sylvester Stallone—she told InTouch Weekly, “I still eat a lot of what I want, I am just aware not to eat the whole pizza. I am happy with where my body is now. I am happy in general, and I think it’s all connected."
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When it came to shedding for her wedding to NBA star Tony Parker, Eva Longoria relied on celebrity trainer Patrick Murphy, whose clients include Olivia Wilde and Mario Lopez. “I make sure Eva never does the same workout twice,” Murphy told People magazine. But even reading his bootcamp regimen can be exhausting. And though she and Parker divorced this year, the 36-year-old Desperate Housewives star, who is featured on the April 2011 cover of Allure, still begins every day with a workout.
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“[Chelsea] doesn't think I'm in shape,” President Clinton admitted to reporters before his daughter’s wedding. "You know, she told me the other day, 'Dad the only thing you gotta do is walk me down the aisle, and you gotta look good.' So I said, 'Well, what's your definition?' And she said, 'Oh, about 15 pounds.'" The president, who was still recovering from heart bypass surgery, explained his diet secrets to Wolf Blitzer: “I went on essentially a plant-based diet. I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit. I drink a protein supplement every morning—no dairy—I drink almond milk mixed in with fruit and a protein powder so I get the protein for the day when I start the day up. And it changed my whole metabolism and I lost 24 pounds and I got back to basically what I weighed in high school.”
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