Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow were together for more than a decade. If anything, they seem to get along better post-divorce than they ever did during their marriage. During their marriage, I think Gwyneth was often bored, unfulfilled and unhappy, which led her to delve even further into her crazy dieting, disordered eating and “cleanses.” People always assumed that Chris stayed out of it and that he had a “normal” relationship with food. But what if that was never the case? What if Chris has terrible views on food and healthy eating too? I ask because Chris Martin just revealed that he only eats one meal a day. Sigh.
Chris Martin has revealed that he no longer eats dinner so he can look as good as Bruce Springsteen, who does the same. The Coldplay frontman said he noticed Springsteen, 73, was “more in shape” than him when they met up for lunch in Philadelphia last year. During the meal, Patti Scialfa, Springsteen’s wife, revealed that The Boss eats only one meal a day to maintain his lean physique.
Martin, 46, made the admission while speaking to Conan O’Brien for his comedy podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. Asked by O’Brien what advice he had been given by fellow musicians over dinner or while socialising, Martin replied: “Funnily enough, I don’t actually have dinner any more. I stop eating at four [pm], and I learned that from having lunch with Bruce Springsteen.”
He went on to relate the anecdote, telling O’Brien: “I was lucky enough to go over there to lunch the day after we played Philadelphia last year. I was on a really strict diet anyway. But I was like, ‘Bruce looks even more in shape than me.’”
He added: “And Patti said ‘oh he’s only eating one meal a day’. So I was like, ‘Well, there we go. That’s my next challenge’.”
The British music star did not disclose what his regular meal consists of, but joked that Springsteen’s was “flank of buffalo with a steroid sauce”.
First of all, my radar pinged when Martin said “I was on a really strict diet anyway.” It’s possible he meant that he was on a strict diet because he was touring, and he needed to keep his energy up while not overconsuming. But yeah… a man in his 40s shouldn’t be on the same “diet” as a man in his 70s. I get that Bruce is in good shape, but he’s also not a f–king nutritionist and God knows what his meals actually look like. Now, one of the best ways to “diet” is to eat an early dinner and/or not eat anything past a certain time, like “no eating after 6 pm.” But to not eat anything between 4pm and noon the next day? Stupid. Bad for your body. Disordered. Paltrow-esque. I’m sure Gwyneth looooved it when Chris told her his new thing. She was probably like, “what do you eat for the one meal, bone broth??”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
-
- Coldplay performs at Rockefeller Plaza for the Today Show’s concert series in New York. Featuring: Chris Martin Where: New York, New York, United States When: 17 Jun 2021 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages/Cover Images
-
- Coldplay performs at Rockefeller Plaza for the Today Show’s concert series in New York. Featuring: Chris Martin Where: New York, New York, United States When: 17 Jun 2021 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages/Cover Images
-
- Celebrities appear on ‘The Graham Norton Show’ Featuring: Chris Martin (of Coldplay) Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 14 Oct 2021 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages/Cover Images **ONLY AVAILABLE FOR NORTH AMERICA**
I can imagine being married to Gwyneth would trigger disorderd eating.
He was huge into intermittent fasting. Which is how lots of guys show the world their disordered eating. It’s sad.
“But to not eat anything between 4pm and noon the next day?”
Isn’t that intermittent fasting? I thought that was a good thing.
It is a type of intermittent fasting, which many people find very beneficial. I fairly regularly do a 18:6 fast, which is basically the same thing. I’ll have one substantial meal and two small snacks each day. It’s helped me get my A1c under control as well as lower my cholesterol levels, and I’ve lost some weight.
Yep, fasting can be very healthy if done right. Of course, like most things, it can easily toe the line into a disorder and I’m sure many use it to mask EDs. It’s changed my life for the better. I don’t fast every day but a few times a month, at best.
Mr. Jaded is type 1 diabetic and has 2 meals a day plus one small snack and his A1c’s are perfect. He has a healthy brunch around 10:30, a snack of nuts or cheese and veggies around 4:00, and a healthy dinner at 6:30.
I don’t know if it’s intermittent fasting but that is what I try to adhere to, maybe not 4 pm cuz I’m still at work, but I try to eat dinner by 5 pm and nothing after that because of GERD that will otherwise disturb my sleep. I am not sure why that would be considered disordered eating, many of us have medical conditions where we need to finish our digestion early. Maybe the disordered part is that it’s his only meal, surely he needs to eat something more substantial during the other 23 hours at some point.
I’m the same, I don’t really eat dinner anymore because of indigestion at night. If I do eat, I try to not eat too much. I do eat two lunches because that seems to work better for me personally.
I’m on the verge of joining this club. Ive had GERD my entire adult life but lately, even if I have dinner by 5:30/6:00 and go to bed around 10:00, I wake up with a throat full of acid.
Yeah, the disordered part is not really the “finishes his eating for the day at 4 pm,” it’s that he doesn’t seem to be eating very much before he finishes his eating. I’m part of the GERD club too (whee) and when it was really bad I had to stop eating pretty early in order to be OK for bedtime, but I had more than one meal per day!
For all of my fellow GERD friends, while I’m sure you already know this, sleeping with two pillows so my head is elevated significantly helped my GERD at night! Along with the other standard tricks – no caffeine, no alcohol for a few hours before bed, no tomatoes/balsamic vinegar, etc. So none of the tasty stuff for dinner.
Eh, except for certain medical conditions, it isn’t really shown to have much of an effect one way or another for most people according to some newer studies. My guess is it helps some people who have a tendency to snack after hours, but it didn’t do anything for me. I naturally tend to stop eating around 6-7pm, as it is.
But no, this isn’t really intermittent fasting, IMO. With IF, you do small meals spread out over a 6-8 hour period, not in one giant meal. This screams disordered eating to me, especially because he associates it with looks instead of health benefits.
No, it is not. Dieting is not beneficial.
There’s a group here in NYC that practice ultra-low calorie consumption—some of them only eat one meal a day. New York mag had a big article about 7-8 years ago. The bottom line is they believe near starvation will help you live longer or even become immortal—and lo, here we are —“Siri, how can I be 40 forever?”
There have been studies that associate low caloric intake with longevity, but I think that’s only true once you hit a certain age.
My parents are both foreign-born and raised and they have a much, much healthier relationship to food than we do in the US. They eat real food, not too much of it, and have no big feelings around food (i.e., no guilt when they eat something sweet, no cravings, no eating to buffer sadness or anger, etc.). I try hard to follow their lead but the American in me is not nearly as clean about it as they are.
Not to different from how I ate when I had an ED. Severe calorie restriction is really a non-diet because it mostly revolves around not eating. And I can tell you that even though it gets easier with time–eventually the cravings go away–it takes a ton of discipline and wreaks havoc on your health. I definitely don’t recommend it.
I remember that article. They were all licking their dinner plates after their meal. What a way to maybe “live longer”
Okay, there were studies done that found that low calorie, high-nutrient diets in primates did lead to longer lives with better health in old age, EXCEPT they didn’t control the diets of the primates who were NOT calorie restricted very well.
In other words, they were comparing primates with a very controlled, very healthy diet to overweight primates with a poor diet (they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted of whatever they wanted). Of course the ones with the better diet lived longer and in better health.
Once better studies were done that controlled for that, they found less of an improvement in lifespan/health.
Basically, many people today are already living like the healthier primate group, because they eat well. So you can’t expect eating this very calorie-restricted, high-nutrient diet would give you enough gains to be worth the discomfort. If you eat well already, you probably can’t improve much over the gains you’re already getting from that.
These weird eating habits are all in the name of looking good by staying very thin. Not about actual health.
But interestingly, when I read about these handful of places around the world where many people lived to be 100, the pictures in the book didn’t show really thin old people or really muscular ones either. It showed old people who were a bit overweight. Not obese but certainly they had some extra weight on them.
So I think I’ll eat the Mediterranean diet, make sure I walk, make sure I don’t sit in my recliner for hours at a time, and spend time with others like family and friends so I’m not lonely. Because those are the things that work for these societies of people who live long lives. Never was it mentioned to have very low body fat.
Eating a tasty meal is one of the great pleasures in life. Too bad for them for denying themselves that pleasure but once a day.
Exactly! You are so right!
This reminds me of how my friends and I went to Greece and visited Hydra. It’s really hilly and this older pot bellied monk kicked our 25 year old butts as we simultaneously tried to climb to the top of the island. Actually he started after us and made it to the top like an hour ahead of us. A good reminder that you can be thin and quite out of shape, which we all were.
Right. It’s also the most organic, natural, logical way of eating. Smaller portions, fresh food, nice combo of mostly carbs and fiber, a little fat, and a bit of protein. This is how my French mother and my dad eat. They’re both healthy and in good shape and they’re pushing 80.
And I know it can be cost and location prohibitive to eat produce but even if you can get your hands on a bag of spinach, some rice, a can of beans…not terribly expensive but a complete meal for sure.
Hear, hear!
Yes to all of this
They’ve actually done studies that found the sweet spot for longevity is about 10 lbs overweight. It gives you a buffer of energy to live on if you get seriously ill, without increasing your health risks appreciably.
Exactly. All this fad diets selling absurd expectations are the equivalent of trying to drive a car in the highway on fumes. Our bodies are not the same. Also we do different activities. Of course we can’t eat all the same. Something works for someone and something doesn’t. Bottom line: build a healthy relationship with food and do it sooner rather than later is my moto. No food is bad. Huge quantities of said food might be bad. That’s the Mediterranean diet: eat all the foods combined together. A salad is never just some green leaves. A plate of meat has vegetables on the side. A glass of wine here and there doesn’t make you alcoholic. A small dessert doesn’t give you diabetes.
As for this guy, he obviously has muscles that aren’t fueled with one meal per day. For sure he takes all the supplements and powders possible otherwise he would be a stick. And that’s the absurdity with these diets. Something is missing, always.
So many children around the world would be thrilled to have one meal a day. #FirstWorldProblem
This is ptsd from Gwyn
Poor kids.
What are the chances they have healthy relationship with food with these parents?
Right? I remember the story about how he used to take them to McDonald’s sometimes and I thought “oh thank god they’re getting a more normal dietary example from someone,” but I’m now rethinking that. Sheesh.
Or, OR…and hear me out…you could exercise and eat (almost) to your heart’s content. Stupid people don’t understand nutrition. Instead they deliberately starve and then get IV drips for vitamins. Not gonna work. No wonder Paltrow looks like a Brittle Betty and is developing osteoporosis. And Chris Martin doesn’t look much better, honestly. Eat some food, lift some weights (everyone, not just men), have dessert. Call it a day. Life is for living, not slowly killing yourself.
You know, when I started finally paying attention to what my body wants vs needs, skipping exercise a few days or a week, is noticable in even minute ways. I stop metabolizing as fast, I’m tired, sad, etc. Exercise is everything. Grr.
You mean actually being healthy? Shocking!
Rich people with too much time on their hands and a lack of understanding of some of life’s basics. I totally get why they were married.
Exercise is super important for the body and mind but not the answer to losing weight until you can exercise at a pretty high rate for a decent period of time.
What worked for me was to think of exercise as something I *got* to do, not something I had to do. It’s a privilege and made me feel better. But I rarely see good results when people exercise to lose weight or with the idea that they can then eat what they want.
Additionally, exercise is absolutely crucial but the “I ran for 3 miles so now I can eat a a whole pizza” mentality is not it. I mean, you can do that but you’ll still gain wait.
I’m an avid runner who banks around 60 miles a week and if I stick to my normal diet, I maintain my weight. If I want to lose weight, I have to eat less, period.
We should never downplay the importance of exercise, but we also need to be honest about the importance of diet and calorie intake. If you want to lose weight you need a calorie deficit which means you need to burn more than you consume which means that if you’re a consistently active person you need to eat less.
Jesus Kitten! Sixty miles! Goals. Goals. Goals.
Exercise doesn’t burn as many calories as people think. You really do have to control intake if you want to maintain, much less lose. I definitely can’t do it through exercise alone. It can also definitely be another area you funnel body dysphoria through, since exercise bulimia is definitely a thing. I suffered from it in my early twenties – less so now and only, in part, because my body stopped allowing it (exercise-induced urticaria sucks, if anybody’s curious, don’t recommend it).
The larger problem is the conflation of thinness with healthiness and the refusal to acknowledge that some bodies just aren’t naturally built for it. This is definitely something I struggled with in my twenties, despite being at my absolute thinnest, because the standards for female beauty are women with tiny builds, and if you’re a woman whose body is inherently stockier, you just aren’t allowed to feel like you’re ever “small” enough. That’s more dangerous to me – not acknowledging that some people legitimately would have to starve and abuse their bodies into a shape that others may be able to attain far more easily.
Intermittent fasting. I know several people who only eat one meal a day, and that was before IF was a “thing”
When I do IF, I eat around noon and again no later than 6 pm. I healthy snack in-between, as much as I want and that includes chocolate.
I feel so much better when I eat like this but I also stress eat so that’s my downfall.
I usually only eat once a day, not on a diet, it’s just how my appetite works. He’s going to destroy his metabolism. Any extra food he puts in his mouth his body will hold. He’ll look at a chip and gain weight. It’s so unhealthy.
I feel so bad for the Martin kids. Who is there to show them what healthy eating looks like?
It’s intermittent fasting. I highly recommend Dr Jason Fung’s book the Obesity Code. Autophagy is the goal.
Seconded. There is so much misinformation out there about diet and weight (tons of examples already here in the comments). This should be required reading.
intermittent fasting may work for some and not for others. i’m always leery of diets/lifestyles that require that people “control” what or when they are eating. there are entire nations of people who do not engage in intermittent fasting and are healthy, weight-appropriate, and live long, healthy lives. the best lifestyles are the ones that have the healthiest relationships to food. to me, it’s not about any one way to lose or maintain weight, it’s all about why you are eating what and when you are eating.
This.
I do it naturally during the weekend, because I am not hungry for lunch.
Usually I eat when I feel I need it, but not because I have to.
Yup. It’s the only thing that’s worked all these years for a five foot woman lol.
Eleonor, you do the weekend. I do during the week. 🤣
The last time I read anything about his “intermittent fasting,” he was only eating 2 days a week and “fasting” the other 5 days, so this is an improvement, I guess. I use the quotation marks because I hate when people use the words “intermittent fasting” to disguise their anorexia.
Well, one could say it’s odd for someone to declare that someone has anorexia and is only using intermittent fasting as a cover, when they know absolutely nothing about said person. Blithely throwing around the term anorexia is just as bad. You know nothing about Chris Martin, apart from what these articles report, to credibly suggest he’s anorexic.
I know he said he didn’t eat 5 days a week. Call it whatever makes you feel comfortable.
Hmmm…if that is a recent photo, he might only be eating once a day, but he’s got to be supplementing with protein power or something. If those muscles are from the gym and not steroids, he would have a hard time maintaining them on one meal.
This. He also may be eating small snacks and doesn’t count them.
I have been doing intermittent fasting, well as often as I can, for the last five or six months (suggested by my endocrinologist). I had started to have digestion issues and would get bloated and was starting to gain weight around the middle. So I aim for eating between 11:00 am and 6:00 p.m. Just doing this has set my digestion back on track and I don’t have the same problems with weight gain and bloating. Also, I now get hungry. My digestion was so bad previously that I never got hunger pangs, I would just get loopy when I needed food!
In general, I now usually just eat one regular meal with a few snacks throughout the day. I don’t seem to “need” as much food now. I think it can be a great help, especially for older people whose digestion has slowed down or people with blood sugar issues.
Funny, I listen to this Conan podcast regularly, and I was thinking this was a weird interview. It doesn’t usually get covered here, does it?
Full disclosure: I am currently doing intermittent fasting 5-6 days a week, but only fast between 7pm and 11am. It sounds like I’m just skipping breakfast, but for me the big deal is actually skipping the mindless post-dinner snacks, sweets, glass of wine, etc.
However, one meal a day seems really restrictive to me. Physically you could surely get used to it, but wouldn’t it put so many restrictions on regular socialising? Not trying to judge, though.
This was the very first Conan episode that I shut off half way through and didn’t go back to finish. It was a weird interview, and I found CM to be very off putting. I didn’t even make it far enough to get to this point in the interview.
I listened to it as well and thought it was interesting the interview was done without Sona and Matt and wonder why that was. What did you find off putting? Martin’s constant name dropping or him praising celebrities for being able to speak normally to mere mortals (like Woody Harrelson being pleasant to his Dad backstage) when they “didn’t have to do that”? I also wondered how this story would be covered compared to GP recently discussing basically the same diet (paleo-ish, IF, etc.) and how many people would blame her in some way. Martin has seemed very health/performance focussed in interviews for years.
@Rhonda, Sona and Matt don’t always join Conan when he interviews. Particularly really big names that aren’t technically Hollywood actors and comedy folk. They are still salty that they missed out on Michelle Obama!
Not to speak for @DeadNotSleeping, but I thought CM came across as a very nice guy, only really dry, humourless and kind (inevitably, I guess?) out of touch. I remember him saying something like everyone just needs to find their talent and then pursue it out something like that, and it was just like, are we still getting the message from incredibly rich, talented, and powerful people that you only need to discover your passion to do what you love and be happy? Just, ugh.
I don’t judge Gwyneth for her food comments because I don’t look to her as an example of healthy living. I think she just seems silly and bored, and I don’t know why anyone would envy that lifestyle of constant, calculated deprivation.
I eat one meal a day around noon or so. Not for weight loss but because it works well with my schedule and I feel great doing it. I don’t count calories, weigh food, any of that. I eat what I want until I’m full and then don’t eat again until the next day.
If I get hungry earlier, I’ll eat. If I don’t get hungry until a bit later, I’ll wait. If I feel like I need to eat again, I will. Honestly it’s not so complicated, and I feel like I think about food way less obsessively than most people.
I completely agree with you. Some people have found that what works best for them to manage their weight and health is to eat fewer than the standard 3 meals/3 snacks a day. I don’t get why when someone says they only eat one full-on meal a day, everyone piles on and says they have disordered eating or some other negative comment. Let people eat the way that works for them! He could be eating 2000 calories in that one meal!
Personally for me, I don’t eat after 7pm and before 12pm. I eat a normal sized lunch (usually a salad with small portion of protein), a smoothie and then a salad or healthy soup for dinner. That’s it. It works for me.
I think its mostly because they couldn’t imagine doing it themselves, so it must be crazy and bad. Or, they think about people with eating disorders like anorexia and assume that reducing eating frequency must = disordered behaviour. And probably mostly because food companies have told us for years that you have to eat, eat, eat in order to be healthy and have a good metabolism. Must have 3 meals a day… with snacks!
But look around, guys. Obesity rates are skyrocketing. Type ll diabetes, insulin resistance, PCOS, etc – the prevalence is staggering. Eating nonstop and having your blood sugar spiking all day long over and over again is *not* the healthy option. And lastly, not all of us feel like we *have to have that piece of cake* in order to enjoy life. I have a lot of fun on the regular! I don’t need to eat biscuits or whatever to feel like I have a “complete life”. It’s very odd how emotionally attached people get to their sweets/processed foods. You never hear anyone saying you can’t have a fun life without, like, eggs or salmon or something 😅 It’s always the crappy stuff 🤷♀️
It’s because he deliberately changed his eating patterns and promotes it as the key to staying in shape and looking young or whatever. All the commenters here who do eat one meal a day are saying it’s how their appetite works naturally and it’s what works for them. There’s no shame in that and if Chris had said it dovetails with his health goals, allows him to keep a healthy relationship with food, and that it’s obviously not for everyone, that would be fine. But as far as I can tell, that’s not what he’s saying.
@Quinn, Same. I thought intermittent fasting sounded crazy until I started doing it, purely to cut down on night snacking, and it ended up feeling really great. I have the same schedule as you. I eat dinner with my family, but since my kids are still young, we eat early. Then I’m done eating until lunch next day. I haven’t lost a pound, but I feel so great–sleeping better, more alert in the mornings, more energy– that I don’t care!
I couldn’t do omad unless it was dinner, because sharing that meal with my family is important to me. And I don’t think I could go the whole day without eating due to a very active job and lifestyle. But I see how it could work and each to their own.
Ugh.
This isn’t anything new or weird… people have done this in different parts of the world forever… I had an ex boyfriend who only ate one meal a day and he wasn’t specifically into being healthy, bodybuilding, being muscular, etc. He just did it because that’s what felt best for his body. He wasn’t too skinny or unhealthy.
Great comment and totally agree.
And agree with all the commenters who hate breakfast and say eating breakfast tends to set the stage for bad food choices the rest of the day. I notice if I’m on holiday and have the hotel buffett I’m “fake hungry” by lunch. As in, I’m not really hungry but my body feels like it wants to eat. (I have normal blood sugar and am not even remotely diabetic and I rarely have sugar.)
As my mom could tell you, I hate eating in the morning. And it continued through my life. I also grew up eating dinner around 6:30. So while I dont agree with the one meal a day, the time between meals (intermittent fasting) I dont even think of. That said, I also eat when I want so I do occasionally eat in the am!
It makes sense to me when Bruce is touring that he only eats once a day. He’s probably at the venue from 4pm or so, with sound check and getting ready, concert from 7-10, 7-11, he probably goes to bed and crashes, wakes up whenever rock stars wake up, maybe exercises, and then probably eats around noon or something. I can’t imagine performing like he does on a full stomach.
We are seeing him two weeks from today and my husband is so excited. I like Bruce and he’s the best live, but the excitement is a little much, LOL.
Anyway I kind of intermittent fast. I’m not super strict about it. My eating window is from 10 am to 8 pm (so I only fast for 14 hours) but it usually works out that I don’t eat until 11 or 12 for my first meal after I work out. for me, I found that breakfast was one of my triggers, so to speak. Like I am MORE likely to eat crappy the rest of the day when I eat breakfast, regardless of what I eat for breakfast. If I start eating with lunch (which is still “breaking my fast” obviously) I end up eating better. IDK. If I’m starving at 9 am though, I eat something.
Hi Becks1,
Just wanted to say that I took my daughter who is a huuuuge Bruce fan to see him in Houston a month ago and it was the highlight of her 12 year old life. We are seeing him again in November and she is literally counting down the days. I am sure you guys will have an amazing time in two weeks.
Also, every time I see Bruce I wonder what he does to look so great. I mean, he looks amazing and obviously has reservoirs of energy and if one meal a day gets me to that in my 70s, then so be it, that may be the path for me! Lol!
I came to say I LOVE Bruce and have been a fan for decades & now my daughter is a fan as well. We just saw him a few weeks ago and it was amazing as usual. That man looks fantastic so whatever he’s doing & eating works for him!!
Depending on the time of year, I eat like this too. I usually eat a little snack for breakfast (which I don’t think counts as a meal), have a normal size lunch, and that’s it. I’m just not hungry in the evening.
Same here
It’s actually recommended that people in their 70’s eat less (though only one meal a day feels excessive) – mainly due to the fact that they generally are expending less calories overall. But Chris is in his 40’s. He should NOT be on the same diet as a man in his 70’s who may have underlying health issues that restrict his diet. People think Chris and Gwyneth were opposite but I always knew that wasn’t the case. They are both hippy-dippy pseudoscience folks. I think the issue in their relationship was that they simply fell out of love with each other and were better off divorced and as friends.
Ok, this is what I was thinking. My mom usually only eats one meal a day now that she’s retired. She will eat in the evening, if she’s hungry. But she’s in her 60’s and only moderately active at the moment. So it make sense for her. But Chris is, what, in his 40s? Probably pretty active, even if mostly on stage, it just seems unusual to me that his body can sustain that level with just one meal. I suppose it’s possible that his meal is high calorie.
My parents are in their 70s and also eat a lot less just because they aren’t that hungry anymore. My dad will have half an english muffin with PB for breakfast, a small-ish lunch, and then they eat their dinner at 430 or so and he has a snack again around 9. they’re eating smaller portions overall, etc. It’s not an intentional thing, my mom says they just are not as hungry as they were 10 years ago (but they are still very active, my dad works out for an hour everyday.)
I wonder how much impact Gwenyth had on his relationship with food. I know intermittent fasting works for a lot of people, but him talking about doing that and being on a strict diet, it seems a bit obsessive. Which of course, considering who he was married to for so long.
It’s interesting that you think SHE would impact him and not the other way around. Or that he wouldn’t have his own issues. He’s grown man with agency. It’s easy to hate on Gwyneth but let’s not make her exes issue hers.
Maybe if he ate more he’d have the energy to make music that doesn’t put people to sleep.
I can’t stand Chris Martin’s voice, he sings everything like a lullaby. Everything so soft and soothing it’s like you’re drowning in pastel color cotton balls.
I wonder where Dakota Johnson stands on all this
Julianne Moore says all actresses are hungry so I’m sure Dakota, who looks absolutely tiny, understands.
I end up eating only once a day quite often and it’s because I eat when I’m hungry and have stopped eating just because I feel like I should whether I’m hungry or not. I’ve noticed I sleep better and feel less fatigued during the day. Listening to your body and doing what makes it operate best isn’t disordered eating. Forcing yourself to eat whether you are hungry or not might be.
I totally agree. The recommended guidelines aren’t for everybody. Remember the food pyramid used to look really different in the 1950s. Eat the way that makes you feel best. I get sluggish when I eat three regular meals a day. Also abstaining from food gives your body a chance to get rid of all the forever chemicals and pollution most of us are exposed to regularly.
If I was to follow your advice I would never eat, because I never feel hunger. I can go 2 days without feeling proper hunger, and have to keep an eating schedule to make sure I get all the nutrients I need.
Your body won’t always tell you if you’re lacking in certain vitamins or minerals before it is severely deficient. So nah… One meal a day is just too little for a grown a** human.
I’m surprised he’s able to maintain that while touring. Their shows are very high energy and he bounces all over the stage the entire time. That feels like the kind of energy expenditure that would require more than one meal? I guess maybe he feasts right before performing.
One thing I wonder about is the effect this has on the kids and family life as a whole. Because G & C’s disordered eating is of course modeling horrible habits for the kids. But then also, like, does this family even eat meals together? Like, when the kids are with Chris does he just sit there and drink a glass of water while they eat? And the same with Gwyneth, except I guess she does eat keto-type dinners…
Stop asking people these questions!!!!
I remember the headlines when her 2013 cookbook, “it’s all good”, was published… I just googled it, here’s the infamous quote: “Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.” So, I don’t know if I would want that for my children, but then, I don’t feel that I am an expert on parenting.
Chris Martin was, as he popped up in an old interview with her, once mentioned as having smoothies, so probably that’s what he eats or drinks during the day/morning?
I’ve read plenty about intermittent fasting. The common theme is to limit the window of hours you eat in, but not limit it to 1 hour in a 24 hour period. Which is what he is doing.
I’d have to eat an 1,800 calore meal.
While I understand that some are saying it works for them, I hope you can also acknowledge that the 1 hour window that he gives himself to eat each day is an extreme way of looking at intermittent fasting.
You probably already eat an 1800 calorie meal and don’t even know it. Super easy to do.
No, it’s really not.
Considering There are 1,080 calories in a Big Mac Combo Meal with a medium Coca-Cola® and medium fries, and I wouldn’t even have a soda, I’m saying it is extremely unlikely I eat 1,800 calories in one meal, ever.
Has anyone ever read any scientific studies where intermittent fasting’s effects on a woman’s hormones were assessed? From what I’ve seen, the studies only include men. It’s time medicine stops thinking of women as just men with boobs and ovaries and that any nutritional and medical discoveries for men automatically apply to women.
I mentioned above in my comment that it was my endocrinologist that actually suggested I try intermittent fasting for my issues. I have and it really helps.
So he’s got an eating disorder. Not surprising, but sad.
Sigh.
I am so tired of celebrity disordered eating stories. Again, this is such a a huge problem in modern life. It is sad because, when it comes down to it, eating a balanced diet of normal food is what is truly healthy. But, no one gets it. Eating disorders are ballooning. People are dying. It is a seemingly neverending cycle of destruction.
I am a healthy person who used to eat three small meals a day and following the recommended guidelines of fresh produce, lean proteins, etc. Little snacking; I actually don’t like junk food that much. Over the long term I’d always feel sluggish eating like this and put on weight on this type of diet, even though I walk do 40 – 60 minutes of brisk walking EVERY SINGLE DAY and use a standing desk for work.
OMAD (one meal a day) works for me but I have to switch it up once in a while with two meals a day; otherwise my body gets bored and reactive. Doing two meals a day for a while seems to wake my body up and stimulates my appetite. I don’t lose weight on this type of diet, by the way; it’s just for health reasons so I don’t feel sluggish and I don’t gain weight.
I’m not a qualified professional but personally don’t think intermittent fasting is disordered eating. Lots of evidence showing it’s excellent for your blood sugar levels and mental clarity. Des O’Connor, Dick Van Dyck, Joanna Lumley, and a bunch of other celebrities follow a similar diet. Some people like Jack Dorsey take it to the extreme and don’t eat what I consider to be a balanced meal for their one meal though. I think for me, following any diet long term isn’t the best; I have to switch things up every couple of months. I do IF for a while and then maybe two meals a day for a couple of weeks and then back and forth again, but always eating balanced meals with plenty of vegetables, fruits, and wholegrains. What I do need to do more of is to add berries to my diet on a regular basis. Love wild blueberries!
Unless I’m missing something, he doesn’t actually say he eats NOTHING except one meal a day. He says he stops eating at 4 pm. He clearly lifts weights and he obviously has to have enough energy to get through a performance, so I’m guessing he has at least a protein shake in the morning, and then a huge lunch, and it’s possible he has a healthy snack at 3:30, too.
I could be wrong, but he doesn’t look unhealthy to me, or like he’s starving, so I think he fuels himself with more than a simple lunch everyday.
These comments have made me really happy. I also eat one meal a day and I used to feel weird about it. I began doing it to save money, and to do less cooking and cleaning as well as less planning and shopping. I used to eat three meals and it felt like I was spending so much time and effort making decisions, and I also agree with what someone else said about how, if you eat breakfast, you tend to get hungrier throughout the day for some reason. Psychologically, too, planning a meal and looking forward to it a little longer, and then being done with eating after that, works better for me and I feel better also. I have plenty of energy and am a normal healthy weight, so I don’t feel any drawbacks other than knowing some people will call this disordered eating, which makes me feel kind of bad. I do have a big mug of coffee in the morning and a 60-min walk in the park at lunch break, so I still have milestones in the day. I eat in the early evening, and it’s really nice actually. It tastes better to eat when you’re hungry. I’m definitely not starving and I don’t feel like I’m restricting, per se, I just feel like my life doesn’t revolve around eating and I have more time and energy to do other things. Plus digestion makes people sluggish, so it’s nice to only feel that in the evening when the day is winding down already and work is done. My kids are grown and out of the house though. When I had them at home I ate three square meals plus snacks to model the norm. Maybe that’s part of it too, after having done that for 20+ years it’s just liberating and actually fun to not be so tied down.
Great post, Ellen. I’m glad to see more posts about people adopting intermittent fasting and/or one meal a day, and less comments about disordered eating, which I find so tiresome. I too like thinking less about meal prep, as I dislike cooking. I’m a healthy weight, in great shape for my age, which is late 40s, and also go for a long walk every day… I do intermittent fasting of around 18-19 hours (no hard & fast rules for me), I have lots of energy, no food hang-ups, and I’ve been doing this for several years and unlikely to change. Thanks for posting!
He can eat me…
Plenty of people thrive on intermittent fasting. If he doesn’t stay up late and wakes up mid-morning, he really isn’t going all that ridiculously long. Let’s say he generally hits the hay at 10-11pm when not performing and wakes up 7-8am. That’s only 4 hours between waking and eating, and you aren’t supposed to eat within 2-3 hours before bed, anyway.
All that to say, I couldn’t/wouldn’t do what he’s doing, my blood sugar could never. But it isn’t crazy unhealthy as long as what he is eating is calorie-dense and nutritious.