How To Achieve A Victoria's Secret Body Without The Fad Diets

It's not just the boys who gush over the beautiful Victoria's Secret Angels. Their stunning bodies also serve as major #fitspo to us females. But achieving a physique like theirs isn't easy and it certainly doesn't involve going on any fad diets. In fact, these ladies are incredibly fit and focus on living a healthy life not counting calories.

Spot Reduction Is Not Really Possible

"Lose Belly Fat With This Workout/Supplement," we see these how-to's everywhere on Youtube and many 'health' commercials. However, those 100 crunches isn't going to take you anywhere near to a flat belly (perhaps a stronger core) if you are not incorporating other exercises or a healthy diet in your routine. Additionally, spot reduction is actually not possible. This means that in reality, it is not possible to only lose weight from your stomach, because when you do, fat is actually lost from all parts of your body not just the muscles that are being flexed (in this case, abs). However, muscular specific exercises do help to target muscle building which is important for strengthening and toning.

Cutting Back On Calories Will Keep You Slim

While this is true to a large extent, the effects of a diet also depends on what you put into your body, not just how much you eat. Being on an excessive calorie-deficit diet for a prolonged period of time can cause your metabolic rates to dip and for you to eventually hit a weight-loss plateau. This change in metabolic process is also known as adaptive thermogenesis, whereby your body adjusts to expending less energy as you lose weight which is the likely cause for the fast weight gain after coming off a diet.

Furthermore, these unsustainable crash diets often neglect an individual's nutritional needs. Not consuming sufficient calories and protein (and excluding resistance training) can cause muscle loss which also wrecks your body's calorie burning mechanism, as muscle tissue burns more calories than body fat, even at rest.

Lifting Weights Will Actually Help You Stay Toned and Slim

The common sentiment that lifting weights (a.k.a resistance training) will result in a 'bulkier' body is not true. Just look at Sara Sampaio smashing her heavy squats while staying slim and toned. Weight-lifting helps to build muscle tissue which increases your basal metabolic rates – which effectively increases your metabolism during rest and when you’re active.

Gaining muscle helps to sustain your physique in the long term as well. A 2015 Harvard study of more than 10,500 people found that over 12 years, people who weight trained lost about twice as much belly fat (0.33 cm vs. 0.67 waist circumference) as those who just did cardio.

Workouts that Angels Actually Do

Your favourite Angels do not just stick to the treadmill. These models vary their workouts to stay toned and slim, while keeping their routine exciting. Taylor Hill frequents the Dog Pound gym and religiously does resistance training and HIIT, alongside many celebrity models like Romee Strijd and Jasmine Tookes.