Login:

Search blogs:

---

How many calories is Victoria Beckham taking on?

Posted: 19/10/2009 at 10:21am by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness

Taking for a moment that it’s true, Victoria Beckham’s newest diet is on the surface a healthy sounding, if minimalistic approach to keeping slim.

Millions will read about her latest supposed eating habits, maybe even believing that a mix of just berries and sashimi (specially prepared raw fish, of which salmon, squid, mackerel and tuna are popular ingredients) is a healthy diet.

The Mail on Sunday led yesterday with how VB’s adopted yet another diet in a bid to stay model-slim in order to flaunt her fashion range. The story, given to the paper by an ‘unnamed source’ will no doubt be featured in the glossies this week too, and be taken by many women desperate to lose weight as fact, and worse still, a good idea.

I’ve got two points.

One: I seriously doubt the validity of the story, and believe it to be a celeb-named column filler. Recently, a band of documentary makers called the Starsuckers duped the tabloids into running entirely false celebrity stories without any attempt at fact verification whatsoever – their film will be debuted at the London film festival later this month. If you read about Amy Winehouse’s hair being set on fire at a party, yep, that was one of theirs.

Two: a diet of just berries and raw fish, which as I mentioned sounds healthily devoid of any food nasties is particularly dangerous, even for the Queen of Wags.

Presuming she ate it for every meal (the story said nothing different, except that she drank a glass of wine a night), and ate regularly (so we’ll go with three meals a day as the norm), and ate regular portions, here’s what she’d be taking in.

Tuna Sashimi (most popular type of sashimi)
Serving size: 3 oz, Calories: 49, Fat: 2.1g, Carbs (sugars): 0g, Protein: 7.2g

Berries (story didn’t specify, so we’ll go with mixed)
Serving size: 100g, Calories 100, Fat: 0g, Carbs: 23g, Protein: 0g

Glass of wine a night (again, not specified, so I’ll give average info)
Serving size: 175ml, Calories 120, Fat: 0g, Carbs: 3.5g, Protein: 0.3g

So, if the story’s to be believed, she’s taking on just 567 calories a day from her diet, up to 865 calories if she eats 5 times a day.

At an alleged 5’6”, with a weight of around 7 and a half stone if reports are to be believed and at 35 years of age, Victoria Beckham should be eating 1200 calories a day to maintain her weight if she was at rest all day.

When we add in her potential activity (on a scale of 1-5 from sedentary to extremely active, I’ll estimate she’s moderately active, being a mum of 3 and an exerciser – in the band of people who enjoy moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week), and multiply her calories by this factor, it takes her to 1860 calories a day that she would need to eat to maintain her weight, more than 3 times more calories than she’s potentially taking on a day, again, IF the story is to be believed.

Without calculating the protein and carbohydrates she’d be taking on a day, you can see at a glance it’s a ridiculously low amount. Of course, all this is hypothetical and based on assumption of her habits rather than fact, but at this rate, Victoria would almost certainly be damaging herself and providing a pathetically poor example to her 3 young kids. Carbohydrates are the primary fuel source for many of our vital organs, so taking on a dangerously low amount can result in problems with our vital organs, particularly the liver.

The worst thing about this is that people will likely adopt this diet, based on what is in effect just puff; or insignificant and irresponsible journalism on Katie Nicholl at the Daily Mail’s part. Make sure you’re not one of those people. You’ll lose weight initially sure, but will inevitably revert back to normal eating and be much worse off for it. Plus, you’ll be absolutely knackered.

Now, I’m off to read about Katie Price’s latest headline grabbing antics, no doubt accurately backed up by yet more unnamed sources close to the glamour model/entrepreneur/singer/mum/attention seeker.


'Skinny' Posh Spice

Add Comment View Comments

Comments

Currently no comments.

Add a Comment

Name: *
Email: *
Website:
Message: *
Enter the security code: *

Newsletter Signup

Sign Up For Free Tips & Advice

Enter your e-mail address:

Top 5 Blogs

Guest post - Why do we overeat? Includes tips on how to beat it!

Guest post: Male fitness cover-model David White gives his diet alternatives!

Rich gives guest interview to online fitness magazine finalfitness.co.uk

Real life story - How Fitness Changed My Life

Good news: a big bum = healthy! Health, Diet and Fitness Today - 12/01/10

Have you read these?

Fat Free Fitness gets some really nice weight loss coverage online...

Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson the new face of Weightwatchers

Fitness product review feature coming soon...

The 10 Biggest Lies Blokes Believe About Weight Loss part one of two

Healthy snacks that won't ruin your weight loss!

Fat Free Fitness Weight Loss