Kim Kardashian made waves when she wore Marilyn Monroe’s iconic dress to the Met Gala, and the waves kept rippling when she revealed what she had to do to fit into the famous Happy Birthday dress.
When Kim revealed that she lost 16 pounds in three weeks just to fit into the gown, she faced enormous backlash from social media and other celebrities alike for promoting unhealthy dieting culture.
However, Kim was determined to wear one of her idols’ dresses and says that she made a choice to lose weight for the event for herself, not for anyone else.
Kim Kardashian stands by choice to lose weight to wear the iconic Marilyn Monroe dress
It’s not uncommon for members of the Kardashian family to try different cleanses or diets, as fans recently saw Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker complete a panchakarma cleanse on The Kardashians.
To fit into the iconic dress, Kim wore a sauna suit, ran on the treadmill, and cut all sugar and carbs out of her diet, mostly just eating vegetables and protein.
As far as Kim is concerned, losing the weight for the dress was similar to how actors and actresses will lose or gain weight for their roles.
She told The New York Times, “To me, it was like, ‘OK, Christian Bale can do it for a movie role, and that is acceptable.’ Even Renée Zellweger gained weight for a role. It’s all the same to me.”
She added that she wasn’t promoting her weight loss to encourage others to lose weight; the choice to diet strictly was a personal decision that she doesn’t think has any negative health consequences for herself.
She noted, “I wasn’t saying, ‘Hey everyone, why don’t you go lose this weight in a short period of time?’” and added that she “didn’t do anything unhealthy.”
Although no health professionals have confirmed or denied whether or not Kim’s health was negatively impacted by her rapid weight loss and strict diet, they are concerned that others may see the weight loss and try to do it themselves in a similar fashion.
Experts weigh in on the dangers of rapid weight loss
Experts aren’t thrilled that Kim’s diet could be tried by others just from hearing about it, even if she isn’t directly telling people to do what she did.
Obesity specialist Catherine Varney for the University of Virginia Health System said, “I want to believe that most people know her weight-loss techniques were concerning and unrealistic. But I’ve seen enough adolescents in my primary care practice to know that normalizing this behavior by indirect promotion in the media is harmful.”
The Cleveland Clinic reports that there are a lot of big risks in cutting out “entire food groups” from your diet, such as cutting out carbs or dairy. Cutting out whole food groups can cause problems with digestion, lowered immunity from diseases, and even impact bone density and cause hair loss.
The Kardashians airs every Thursday on Hulu.