Thanks to Kim, I’m waiting for the phone to ring, or an email to come through, or for someone to slide into my DMs saying: “she lost sixteen pounds in three weeks, and I’ve actually got six weeks until I go on holiday, so can you help me lose thirty-two pounds?”. Why is a personal trainer from Crawley worried about a Kardashian impacting her clients? Because there’s a butterfly effect to this one…
In case you hadn’t heard, here’s the backstory: earlier this week, in it’s traditional May slot for the first time since 2019, one of the most bonkers events in the US glitterati’s calendar – the Met Gala – took place. It’s horrifically exclusive, and involves wilder outfits than a McQueen/Westwood collab modelled by Bjork-in-That-Oscars-dress and Lady “Meat Dress” Gaga.
Kim Kardashian attended with her partner, Pete Davidson, and she wore the dress that the one and only Marilyn Monroe sported to sing then-Mr President, JFK, “Happy Birthday”. Despite Marilyn’s famous curves seeming similar to Kim’s, the dress either didn’t fit Kim, or she wanted it to fit differently, and she has – with absolutely no shame – gone on the record to state that, in order to wear it, she lost 16 pounds (just over 7kg) in three weeks.
And with that bombshell, words that I read a few weeks ago in Celeste Headlee’s book, “Do Nothing”, came back to me: “…we don’t compare ourselves to our neighbours and colleagues anymore… As the sociologist Juliet Schor explains, we are now trying to keep up not with the Joneses but with the Kardashians.”
I first learned about Kim’s look via Twitter, as photos from the red carpet streamed through. As usual, she stole the show visually, but this time also with her story, not just of wearing a genuinely iconic gown, but of how she got into it – literally. I was initially only aware of the extreme weight loss, but the details I’ve researched to write this piece have shocked me further.
Many will realise that this kind of behaviour is “on-brand” for Kardashian: she has long promoted weight loss supplements and external aids such as waist trainers, all to an extremely devoted and often vulnerable audience. And at a point when diet culture is having another period of headline news in the UK, thanks to recent regulations in the hospitality industry requiring many food outlets to display the calorie counts of each item they sell, it may feel like an additional assault to some.
And we have seen this kind of behaviour before – most notably, Beyonce outlined a diet and fitness regime she followed after giving birth and before performing at Coachella (she also underwent a significant intentional weight loss whilst filming “Dreamgirls”) – and there’s no doubt that, for the general public and their fitness trainers, it is damaging.
Allow me to remind you of the fallacy that we all have the same number of hours in the day as, that’s right, Beyonce. A woman whose net worth is far beyond our wildest dreams, who employs a crew of staff to take care of the everyday basics of running a home and other elements of personal care, so that she can focus on being herself and meeting the expectations of the media and her fans. I say this without criticism – given additional means, many of us would choose to employ a housekeeper, chef, driver, or maybe even a beauty squad. But that is the point – her means (and Kim’s) are far beyond our own.
It isn’t only about how much time you spend in the gym, or whether you put a bin bag on before your hoodie prior to stepping onto the treadmill for 5am, midday, and 7pm cardio. It’s availability of resource, and that’s before we even begin to question whether this kind of behaviour is physically or emotionally healthy, and what on earth made anyone think it’s a good idea.
One of my greatest frustrations since I entered the fitness industry as a beginner gym goer five years ago has been the perpetuation of quick fix cycles. I have never fully understood why anyone is in such a rush… until this happened, and I realised that we’ve been influenced. Hypnotised by our celebrity idols, we’ve convinced ourselves that the correct way to live our lives and prepare for important events such as weddings, holidays, and trips up the red carpet, is to crash diet into an outfit which is too small, or with the false belief that our bodies being smaller means that they’re more socially acceptable when swimwear-clad.
But what if life weren’t about fitting into dresses, and what if our relationship to fitness weren’t tied to when we’re next going to the beach? What if – and this might sound radical – we purchased clothes that fit our bodies as they are now? And what if we looked beyond our travel plans to our lives in general, and focused on feeling stronger and more comfortable to live those effectively?
When the phone rings, and someone asks me whether I can help them drop 7kg (or even 2kg) in three weeks, the answer will be no. I would like to have a chat with that person. Buy them coffee, and listen to what drove them to ask me that, see whether they will share more about themselves and their hopes, so that I can try to help.
Nobody – other than a surgeon – can guarantee weight loss. And, morally, I won’t support your crash diet plan. What I’ll do instead, is come up with a strategy to help you enjoy your body, and your physical activities. If you’re ready to talk about that, get in touch and tell me when you’d like to go for that coffee.