As Hollywood welcomes a new crop of celebrity mums, you can guarantee the race is on to see who can lose all the baby weight first.
Just when they should be cooing over their little bundles of joy, Hollywood's newest celebrity mums are limbering up to lose their baby weight — in record time. Just a week after giving birth, Christina Aguilera and Nicole Ritchie will no doubt be furiously trying to purge the extra pounds with a post-natal, super slim-quick plan.
Regular mums know that this race to lose the baby weight is unhealthy for both mother and baby but what kind of crazy weight-loss regimes are these Hollywood women following to ease back into their size 000 jeans? Here are some of the wackiest…
The post-caesar tummy tuck
When Britney Spears gave birth to second son Jayden James, now 2, rumours surfaced that her surgeon had performed a tummy tuck immediately following her caesarean. Technically, a full abdominoplasty isn't possible because the uterus is so swollen, but several surgeons claim they can help tighten up the dreaded "belly hang" minutes after birth. It can cause more pain than the actual caesar and leave you bed-bound for two weeks — but someone else can look after the baby, right?
Super-girdles
Elle Macpherson did it, Gwyneth Paltrow did it and even Kate Moss reportedly used a special 'binding' girdle 24-hours a day to help flatten her post-baby tummy. Celebrity baby guru Dr Gowri Motha claims this traditional Indian practise is the only way to get your shape back.
"The ribs flare out by one or two inches during pregnancy, so a vacuum is created in the abdominal cavity when the baby is born," says Dr Motha. "If we don't bind the abdomen and lower rib cage then the organs around the cavity can collect fat." Dr Motha's methods have become so popular that she's even designed post-natal waist-cinching briefs ($140) for Agent Provocateur.
Crazy diet
Katie Holmes reportedly lost post-Suri weight thanks to a special 'KH' diet (soup for breakfast and raw broccoli for lunch and dinner), while according to reports Victoria Beckham ate nothing but fresh prawns and peas in balsamic vinegar for three months.
We hear Liz Hurley still eats nothing more than a couple of bowls of watercress soup after it worked wonders for her following the birth of Damian, now five (although she did refuse to come out of hiding for 12 weeks while she dieted).
But British glamour model Jordan takes the biscuit. She drank a mixture of avocado, pineapple, spinach and celery juice following the birth of her second child, Junior, and was out partying in a bikini three weeks later.
Train, train, train
In the real word very few mums have the childcare or the cash to disappear to the gym for hours. Just nine days after Mel C gave birth to Angel she was back working out, six days a week for two hours each morning but that's nothing compared to My Name Is Earl star Jaime Pressley. She admits spending three hours a day, seven days a week with a trainer and then does a yoga class every night.
Heidi Klum's example takes the workout cake — she hired a personal trainer 24-hours a day and asked celebrity fitness star David Kirsch to provide her with high protein, low carb meals and work out with her whenever bub was asleep.
How you can do it too — safely
It's only natural for new mums to want to go back to their pre-pregnancy weight but time is the key factor.
"Your body needs time to recover," says fitness expert and author of The Complete Guide to Postnatal Fitness, Judy DiFiore. "It takes the uterus around six weeks to return to its original size. So, exercise only after your post-natal six week check-up."
Click here for top 10 healthy diet tips
Running and heavy weights is out as the uterine ligaments aren't strong enough to support the womb during high-impact exercise and your core strength isn't there. Instead, ask a fitness professional for advice about getting your deep abdominals up to speed again, maybe with Pilates.
Walking is a first-class calorie burner, as is swimming, so hit the park for a few laps and then head to the beach for a swim.
Nutritionally, you should aim for regular, small, low-fat meals but, if you're breast feeding add in some calcium-rich foods. "Try yoghurt sprinkled with fruit and nuts," says Kellie LaTume a Sydney-based nutritionist. "Or mix it up with hummus and vegetable dips, beans on toast or eggs."
Other Hollywood stars are saying enough is enough, no more fad diets. So perhaps they are realising what the rest of us have always known, the most sensible 'diet' is all about healthy eating.
Maybe the best piece of advice is that it takes nine months to gain your baby weight so it should take nine months to lose — not nine days!
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