Beyonce's Diet for Dreamgirls: Dream Diet or Nightmare?

Ever find yourself envying the lifestyle of the famous actresses and actors that grace our television and movie screens? Think their lives are all glitter and glitz and no problems? Think again. Often actors and actresses can undergo drastic measures to "fit" the part they are playing. This was true for actress and singer Beyonce Knowles when she played the part of Deena Jones in the 2006 movie version of Dreamgirls.

The movie Dreamgirls was set in the sixties, a time when females, particularly female singers were thin. Beyonce, on the other hand, is known for her curvy figure, a figure she had to lose in order to play the role of Deena Jones, an up and coming young singer. In fact, in order to properly portray her character, Beyonce was required to lose about 20 pounds in a time period of two weeks.

"Back in the sixties, models like Twiggy were popular and I knew Deena would have been thin, so even though I really love eating, it was necessary to lose the weight really fast because we shot Deena at sixteen and Deena at thirty-six two weeks apart," Beyonce explained in the China Daily.

Beyonce added that it was actually her nutritionalist who gave her the idea of using the master cleanse diet to lose the weight she needed quickly.

"My nutritionalist suggested the only way to do that (lose the weight that quickly) was to do the fast," Beyonce said.

The master cleanse diet is basically a fast where dieters only drink a lemonade type concoction that includes maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Along with drinking this lemonade beverage, Beyonce also said she took a few liberties with the diet. For instance, she said she included some vegetables while on the master cleanse diet. Generally those on the master cleanse do not eat any type of solid food. Even with the vegetables, however, Beyonce said she did not enjoy and would not recommend the diet to others. In fact, she admitted on The Oprah Winfrey Show that the diet made her "cranky" especially when those around her were eating donuts and sweets.

Beyonce regained her weight soon after she stopped the fast and resumed her normal eating habits. In fact, Beyonce herself discourages others from trying the diet as a weight loss plan.

While Beyonce did achieve her weight loss goal when she tried the master cleanse diet, the weight loss wasn't permanent. After finishing the diet, Beyonce returned to her old eating habits and quickly gained the weight back. So even though going on a master cleanse fast may help you to lose weight while you are on the diet, you will more than likely gain the weight back unless you change your eating habits and lifestyle.

What you can learn from Beyonce is that you should use the master cleanse to help achieve your long term health goals, and not as a quick fix. If you don't have any intention of making long term changes to your diet even the master cleanse won't be much help.