The shocking secrets behind celebrity fitness

Mila Kunis

For her role as a ballerina with a bad attitude in the Oscar-nominated Black Swan, actress Mila Kunis had to transform herself into a professional dancer in a very short amount of time. Apart from mastering pointe shoes, the already-slender actress also had to lose weight-quickly-and reportedly dropped below 100 pounds. “The preparation was: get as skinny as you can, as fast as you can,” Kunis said, in an interview with MTV. “[I danced] seven days a week, five hours a day, and was put on a 1,200 calorie diet-for a total of five, six months.”

Gruelling workouts and severe calorie restriction are not healthy ways to lose weight, but incorporating a dance-based workout into your regular fitness routine can be a lot of fun. Channel your inner Black Swan with Ballet Bootcamp or a Zumba class.

Mark Wahlberg

As a former underwear model, Mark Wahlberg is well known for his muscular physique-he even has his own workout video. But to play professional boxer Micky Ward in The Fighter, Wahlberg had to take his workouts to the next level. In an interview with Ellen Degeneres, the actor revealed that he’d installed a boxing ring in his home to help train for the role. Wahlberg told Ellen that at one point, he had only five weeks to drop 30 pounds. How’d he do it? “We’d run eight miles in the morning, most of it uphill, and then we’d have breakfast,” he said on the show. “Then we’d go in the ring for 30 rounds…and then another 15 rounds of jumping rope and hitting the mitts. Then we’d eat lunch, then we’d play basketball and then we’d do a bunch of other exercises.”

Spending eight hours a day working out isn’t exactly practical (or healthy). But if you’ve got one hour to spare, why not give a kickboxing class a try? Not only will you improve your agility and coordination, but you’ll also torch anywhere from 600 to 800 calories in an hour.

Gwyneth Paltrow

While she reportedly had to gain 20 pounds for her role in the Oscar-nominated Country Strong, actress Gwyneth Paltrow is no stranger to slimming down for the big screen. To reprise her role as Pepper Potts in Iron Man 2, Paltrow turned to her trusted personal trainer, Tracy Anderson, for an intense fitness and meal plan. The star shared her program with readers in her newsletter, GOOP, in which she said, “I am not going to lie, the process was an arduous one.”

So what does it take to look like Pepper Potts? Apart from eating a lot of kale in soups and juice (no, not in chip form) Paltrow also completed regular workouts that included 45 minutes of cardio dance, and 26 minutes of challenging leg work. To get your own red-carpet worthy gams, give our ultimate legs workout a try.

Hugh Jackman

It’s not easy to get the body of a comic book superhero. Just ask Hugh Jackman, who endured a 6,000 calorie a day diet as he prepared to reprise his role as the title character in the sequel to the action film Wolverine. “Every two hours is 10 ounces of steak or chicken, rice, broccoli and beans or cauliflower,” he said in an interview with Extra. “It’s very boring.”

As for the workout to go along with this high-calorie diet, Jackman admits, “It’s not long, but it’s intense!” We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again-you don’t need to spend hours at the gym to get results! Kick your workout up a notch when you’re crunched for time with a bodyweight exercise routine or a challenging 10-minute toning session.

Jennifer Hudson

Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson has been making headlines for her dramatic weight-loss transformation after dropping 80 pounds. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Hudson admitted that part of her motivation for losing weight was to play South African political activist Winnie Mandela in the upcoming film Winnie. While her involvement with Weight Watchers has garnered a great deal of attention (she acts as the company’s spokesperson), Hudson has another weight-loss secret: Canadian celebrity fitness trainer Harley Pasternak. “He was the one who started me out with walking,” said Hudson of Pasternak, in an interview with The Canadian Press. “He said, ‘All I need you to do is make sure you get up and you walk,’ and you start that out, and also strength training.”

But you don’t need to spend all your free time with a trainer to get a superstar physique. Pasternak shared some of his best weight-loss secrets with Best Health, so you can work out like a celebrity right in your own home.

Related:
• Inside a celebrity trainer’s kitchen
• How to lose baby weight like a celebrity
• 6 tips for an Oscar-worthy body