Jennifer Hudson is in the UK working as a judge on their version of The Voice. I’m jealous. It’s such a sh-tshow in the US now although from what I’ve heard things are also bad in the UK. (But come on, you guys can’t have it as bad.) She was on the British talkshow Lorraine when she was asked how she maintains her weight. Hudson, as you may remember, lost 80 pounds in 2010 as a spokesperson for Weight Watchers. She told Lorraine that she just is really careful about what she eats now and that’s how she keeps her weight in check.
Speaking on Wednesday’s episode of Lorraine, 35-year-old Jennifer explained: “I don’t have time to do much exercise. I just watch what I eat… I’m very careful and conscious of what I’m eating and I just try to place those meals throughout the day. Like, ‘Ok, eat here’, ‘Don’t eat there’. When it’s early in the morning, ‘Ok, well I would still be asleep right now. So I’m not gonna eat.’ I’m just very conscious of what I put in my body.”
Jennifer became a rep for Weight Watchers in 2010 after welcoming her son David with partner David Otunga, a professional WWE wrestler. The little boy, who is now seven, has appeared alongside his mum on The Voice a number of times, and has even showed off his impressive dancing skills live on stage.
“He’s loving that he gets to dance on the show,” Jennifer told Lorraine. “I’m so proud of him. He’s really shy so for him to do that is major.” The star also opened up about making her home in the UK while working on The Voice. “I’m definitely homesick. I mean, I’m never home, but I miss the States. But I’ve made a home here now and my son likes it here too.”
I like to still eat junk so I exercise when I can but I have heard this many times. One of the trainers at my gym loves that saying “abs are made in the kitchen” and it’s true. All you need to do to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn, but you get so many less if you’re not exercising too. You have to be really disciplined that way, but it sounds like Hudson has it down. She looks great and I love her hair. I wish I could pull off a pixie like that. It’s so cute that her son can be on the show with her and that he likes to dance. Also, she’s a freaking Oscar and Grammy winner and she’s working on The Voice overseas. Just an observation.
Exercise is so much more than a means to lose, maintain or gain weight. It’s about Health.
I agree. Excercise is super important for your bones, muscles, brain etc. To be fair, she didn’t say that she doesn’t excercise at all. I interpreted her comment to mean that she doesn’t have time to work out on a daily basis, and controls her weight through following a careful diet.
That’s how I took her comment, she’s probably super busy between work and her little boy. But hopefully she will make more time for exercise as time goes on. The older I get, the more important regular and pretty strenuous exercise is to both my mental and physical health.
so much THIS.
+1. I was brought up by two people who hate exercise and sports. Now, in my late 30s, I’ve come to a point at which I enjoy going to the gym or at least the feeling that comes with regular trips to the gym. I go for my mental health. The other stuff is the unprocessed cherry on top. 🙂
Yes!
It’s like brushing your teeth. Do it every day for your health and enjoy the resulting look and the way fresh breath/exercise makes you feel as a bonus.
Exercise doesn’t have to be an hour in the gym, either. It’s just that for so many of us, our lives are lived in a chair. Making a conscious effort to get up and move around for 10 minutes a few times a day becomes a necessity.
She looks beautiful and I love her in short hair. Love her.
I read that upper classes are in the midst of an extreme exercise epidemic. And as record numbers are doing the marathons, ultra marathons, ironmans, triathlete competitions, etc some doctors are saying perhaps we just need to be exercising in moderation (brisk walks, jogs, and in nature preferably, 30 mins a day).
My dr said do a marathon if it is on your bucket list, but you don’t necessarily need to do 10 or 20 marathons to be fit in his eyes, and he would prefer Something that lowers stress – like yoga with meditation, walking with a good friend- Things which clinically lower stress and cortisol, and because he feels stress (whether socioeconomic, relationship induced,etc) can contribute to poor health a lot, lead to substance abuse, depression, anxiety – all of which can impact weight and health.
It seems to me like it must be a lot easier for Hudson to maintain her figure with money, status, security, caregivers, etc in her life having as much impact as food or exercise. just my opinion.
Your doc is a wise man!
+1 I’ve read and been told by doctors over and over that your diet is the way to lose/maintain weight and it clearly works for her. But I had a mini panic attack reading this because I exercise 7 days/week for health. I’ve seen so many people fall victim to horrible health issues and I just take life and health so seriously that I could never NOT exercise. I’d be in a constant state of panic as my bp crept up, pictured my brain and bones falling apart, etc
TATA I agree that marathons can be quite bad for you. But bodies NEED and expect and run on the premise that we will be using and moving them.
I agree with you. I have some friends that used to stay slim because of diets but they realized they started to lose muscle tone and develop some aesthetic problems in the legs so they started to work out in an often basis.
Yeah, I was going to say, I exercise for my heart and my bones (which is good because I haven’t lost any weight!)
Also, eating well means so much more than just “fewer calories in”. It means “eat more vegetables and whole grains. Less refined white sugar and flour. Cook for yourself as much as possible”. Which is also where “Abs are made in the kitchen” comes from.
Amen! I get criticized sometimes because I’d rather stay at home and cook simple, delicious meals than go out to a restaurant to eat. My thought is that at least I KNOW the ingredients in my food are fresh and not full of chemicals, and my family will be healthier this way.
A combination of diet and exercise is what works to lose and maintain weight. If you overdo one or the other it will be harmful to your health.
I don’t exercise but I maintain weight by diet and by moving. I’m just active without exercise because we live out in the country, and there’s a ton to do, and it’s physical labor.
For me exercise is not about weight loss but about strength and fitness. Weight loss is 80% the food you consume. As you age this becomes even more true. I’m nearly 46 and exercise a lot but notice it’s so much harder to lose weight and so easy to gain.
Celebitchy – The Voice was previously on the BBC here but viewing figures were pretty woeful and none of the winners went on to be successful. This year, it’s moved over to our other big network, ITV and had a bit of a format refresh. And the viewing figures are even more woeful!
The Sixlets make me watch it. Gavin Bushman is creeptastic as a judge but Hudson comes over well, I think. We like her anyway.
While diet is the key to losing weight and holding it, exercise is also key to being healthy
Not to mention doing some sort of exercise keeps you mentally happy and healthy, better sleep.
Even doing the house chores regularly is a nice way of working out to stay healthy.
I do the same. Many people wrongly believe as long as they exercise they can eat however much they want and don’t understand why they aren’t losing weight. The way to weight loss is through your diet. If you are gaining weight you are eating more than your body needs. It’s really simple. Obviously, exercise is wonderful for your overall health though. But unless you are working out really hard, it isn’t going to give most women the leadway to eat that many more calories a day. Many women think they are burning way more calories exercising than they really are.
Very true. When I exercise I try not to eat THAT much more than I normally do. The elliptical will always tell me I burned some insane amount of calories, but I just don’t buy it. I’ll check websites (and even other machines) and they’ll all tell you a different amount.
You canot out run a bad diet period.
Unless you are an Olympic level athlete you should never count on exercise to burn your fat. You would be surprised how few calories you burn in a one hour gym session. You may not even be burning off that smoothie “treat” you bought on your way out. You should exercise vigorously for heart health and even mental health but dont expect to lose that fat on just a daily morning run.
Yeah, that was me. I gained a whole bunch of weight after I got married, eating big meals and drinking. I tried exercising to lose weight but I never really lost much. Maybe 5 pounds, so discouraging. So I finally decided I would try watching my diet. I downloaded the Lose It app. I’ve cut down on my exercising and I’ve still lost 15 pounds. I feel so silly, I’m 41,I could have done this a long time ago but I didn’t want to watch my diet. But I feel it’s worth it now. I will work out though. But I was doing certain workouts, thinking I was probably burning 300 calories. I finally looked it up and it was more like 190. I must have been eating a lot of calories cause I still go over 1600 calories a lot and I’m still losing weight!
@Anon & Cherise, that is very true, and very difficult to accept for most people.
Exercise is seen as a compensatory tool, a pass for eating more food than we need, but if the person is not eating properly, no amount of exercise is going to keep their body healthy, let alone thin.
100% true.
Very true. I’ve tried eating whatever I want and working out like a fiend, and I gained 30 pounds over a year or so. Now I’m low carb and on 1500 calories a day, and if I go over I try to make sure I exercise enough to offset. Preferably I don’t eat back my exercise calories, but whatever. I’ve lost 20 lbs since October on a low carb diet, so it’s what works for me.
She looks great, and yes her haircut is very cute and flattering.
I imagine she’s still very active but isn’t spending hours in the gym each day.
I loathe excersice, going to the gym etc. not only because I spent years at the gym with a hyper-controlling, abusive ex but also because I suffer from terrible migraines that are triggered by high blood pressure and any type of straining or overheating. However, everyone always asks me how I lost weight(after having each of my children) stay in shape, and it’s all because of diet. Believe it or not, I still eat what I want, I just eat smaller portions and I eat when I’m hungry and that’s it. It doesn’t matter if it’s at 3pm or 3am. If I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m not hungry, I don’t.
I wouldn’t say I’m overly concious of what I put into my body but I try to eat what it tells me I need. Basically, I’m all about biofeedback. Also by eating only when I’m hungry and not depriving myself of things I keep my metabolism guessing.
Like yesterday, I ate a half of hamburger and a little red beans and rice for a late lunch and I skipped dinner. Not because of calories, but because I wasn’t hungry. This morning, I already ate a banana and some oatmeal. I may or may not be hungry by lunch. If I am then I’ll eat. If I’m not, then I’ll wait until I am.
It’s really pretty simple. Also, I stay busy raising and running after 4 young boys (one of them a toddler) so I think that counts for excercise.
I exercise mainly to build the muscular strength (women really should weight lift – we need the bone density later in life), but she’s right about diet controlling most of your weight gain/loss. You can’t exercise out a bad diet, and I’m unfortunately having to curb a lot of bad habits from childhood later in life after developing thyroid disease. Carbs are delicious, but they are definitely not your friend.
recent findings show that weight loss from exercise and weight loss from calorie reduction produce slightly different results
if you lose your weight through exercise, the loss doesn’t impact your muscle mass. if you lose the weight solely through diet, you lose muscle mass as well.
it will be interesting to see how that fits in with the trends of alternate day fasting, 5:2, time restricted fasting etc. I’d like to see info on the timeline required for muscle loss and how these fasting states impact muscle mass.
Started tracking my calories and have lost 45 lbs in the past year. Just now starting to add some workouts.
The bigger issue is how much muscle mass women begin to exponentially lose every year after age 40. Just to maintain muscle mass, and thus mobility later in life, it’s important to keep up the weightlifting. So don’t worry about big time cardio, just get your heart rate up a few days a week and walk often. But if stressed for time,do some weights!
Weight-bearing exercises are as beneficial as weight lifting. Yoga poses, push-ups, planks, squats, step-ups, lunges, curb-walks, dips… there are also many core exercises that are weight-bearing which do not require the use of weights. Your own body weight is enough.
I love Jennifer Hudson. A lot. Just wanted to say that.