In May, Rebel Wilson did an Instagram about her weight loss goals for the year and how sheâs gotten very serious about fitness and diet. She said her goal is to get down to 165 lbs, and sheâs already made a good start. Sheâs been using a trainer nearly every day for months, and sheâs been on a diet. In May, I wondered aloud if Rebel had gotten some kind of contract with Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig (or maybe even the Zone, if thatâs still happening). As it turns out, sheâs on a different diet, something called the Mayr Method (which I keep misreading as Martyr Diet). The diet involves no snacking, reducing gluten and dairy and⌠excessive food-chewing. *deep sigh* Okay, here we go.
Rebel Wilson recently declared that 2020 is her âYear of Healthâ â and sheâs working on her goals through a mix of workouts, frequent walks and a revamped diet. For the Pitch Perfect star, 40, it all started last year when she visited Austria’s luxury medical detox and wellness center VivaMayr with friend and TV host Carly Steel. While there, Wilson got âamazing resultsâ by following the centerâs Mayr Method diet plan, a source tells PEOPLE. And she’s kept it up ever since.
The Mayr Method is based on the âMayr Cure,â created by Dr. Franz Xaver Mayr, an Austrian physician, nearly 100 years ago. Mayr believed that most people are poisoning their digestive systems with the foods they eat and how they eat them.
âEverything starts with the gut,â Dr. Christine Stossier, assistant medical director of VivaMayr, told The Guardian in 2017. Using Mayrâs philosophy, the center revamps their clientsâ diets to eliminate snacking, reduce gluten and dairy intake and change how they chew their food.
âThe fundamental principle is that you can improve someone’s health through digestion,â Stossier said. Meals are centered around very slowly eating whole foods with high alkaline content, like vegetables, fresh fish and sheepâs milk yogurt. At breakfast, clients are given hearty spelt bread so they can train themselves to focus on consuming slowly â VivaMayr instructs them to count out 30 chews per mouthful, according to Jezebel. The act of eating is given increased importance at VivaMayr to aid in digestion. Clients cannot have their phones with them at meals, which are scheduled at least four hours apart, and they do not drink water while theyâre eating.
Now that Wilson is back at home, sheâs continuing to follow the tenets of the Mayr Method, while also increasing her workouts.
âShe exercises with a personal trainer up to six times a week, goes on walks and is trying to up her protein intake nutritionally,â the source says. âI know she’s also been working on conquering her emotional eating patterns of behavior.â
I mean, Iâm not a scientist or a dietician. The whole âchewing slowly and thoroughlyâ thing was something around in the â90s though? I remember that, not as part of a diet method, but people just generally talking about the need to chew your food a lot and to eat slowly. Iâve never been able to! I eat fast. But I go through phases where I try to stop snacking and I do feel like thatâs just good baseline advice for anyone trying to lose weight: eat proper meals and donât snack. Donât eat after a certain time in the evening. These sound like obvious things but you never know. Maybe Iâll eventually create The Kaiser Method. It involves no nighttime snacks but you can have a few McDonaldâs frappes every week.
Photos courtesy of Instagram.
I did some teaching and worked at a restaurant. I also have kids running around. I think I chew like 5 times and down it goes. Time is of the essence sometimes.
Deep sigh, indeed. Chewing your food is good. Chewing your food to lose weight is… very reminiscent of the pro-ana sites I crawled back in the 90’s.
Oh god, I was thinking this. In fact every celebrity diet sounds like an eating disorder waiting to happen quite honestly.
I’d rather do a liquid diet than have to chew each bite 30 times. That sounds incredibly tedious.
As someone with round face, wouldn’t excessive chewing build a bigger masseter muscle?
Giving the Mayr Method the benefit of the doubt, I think the chewing is less about chewing doing something magical to calories and more about being mindful and present while you eat.
Agreed. Like most “fad diets that magically seem to work”, it takes a logical thing (like how cutting out carbs or intermittent fasting aren’t some sort of sorcery, they just usually lead people to eat less in total) and adds some woo-woo. If someone usually disgustingly shovels a whole plate of food down their throat in no time flat, chewing each bite 30 times may slow them down enough that they don’t finish the plate.
Yeah, these are things everyone should be mindful of. Chewing thoroughly is obviously a huge difference boost and your body will thank you. And the idea behind slower eating with better chewing has other benefits as well. Our stomachs don’t tell us we’re full right away, so while you’re shoveling food, knowing when you’ve had enough takes longer. I notice when I slow down, I taste more, I enjoy the meal more and I’m full faster. Not really a diet though, just table manners lol.
I think I’m already on the Kaiser Diet! đ
That would drive me crazy. My partner chews everything like a million times and one day I am going to stab him with my fork ….
OMG, you made me guffaw. I’m picturing someone placidly chewing away, then looking up to see a fork coming at him.
I’m on The Hoover Method. You simply inhale as much food as possible without asphyxiating yourself and the big empty hole in your soul is filled.
Yes!
Lol
I wish her the best. Personally, sticking to any one diet or method has only helped me short-term â I dropped 20 pounds on Jenny Craig once, and gained that weight and more back when I went off of it. The program didn’t teach me how to eat well, it taught me how to eat their pre-packaged meals.
I’ve slowly but surely lost 12 pounds this year by finally just doing logical things â eating less, eating more fruits and veggies, eating more protein, and reaching for tea instead of carbs when I need a mid-afternoon snack. I imagine completely cutting dining out due to COVID has helped a whole lot, too.
Back in the 80’s the comedienne Rita Rudner had a funny bit about her ‘diet book’…it was just going to be one page, one sentence: “Don’t eat dinner.”
That always made me chuckle.
This sounds like an impractical pain in the ass.
Rebel is looking great! Good on her for taking her health into her hands. If eating slowly works for her, awesome! I have a tendency to shovel food and only realise I am uncomfortably full when it is too late. So while I wont chew 50 times I would like to eat more slowly.
In the late 19th century/ early 20th century, when there was this intense interest in health and wellness, with spas and new food trends like breakfast cereals popping up, there was a diet technique called Fletchering which apparently involved chewing each bite excessively before swallowing. Sounds like this. Think Franz Kafka practiced it. Anyway, good luck on the weight loss Rebel because weâre all trying, but chew your food properly. There are much more pleasurable ways to work ones jaw muscles.
At least this i only 30 times rather than Fletcher’s full 100 chews. I’d try and suck down milkshake just to avoid the counting.
Well considering that your brain doesn’t process your stomach being full until well after you’ve eaten enough, if you chew slowly then by the time your stomach is full your brain isn’t saying “Eat more, eat more! You’re still hungry!” I’ve become a slower eater over the years and by the time I take my last bite I’m done. Mr. Jaded, on the other hand, hoovers food and has double helpings and can’t understand why he’s gaining weight. Slow down I tell him, enjoying a healthy, tasty dinner isn’t a race to stuff as much food into your pie-hole as possible.