Beyonce’s Weight Loss - Dreamgirls

Beyonce's description of her diet during "Dreamgirls" filming is similar to the Master Cleanse - but her poor understanding has the media calling it a starvation diet.

Beyonce Knowles has brought negative media attention to the Master Cleanse (a.k.a. the Lemon Cleanse) with recent mention of her weight loss for Dreamgirls, the film in which she plays a role based on Diana Ross of Supremes fame.

Beyonce reputedly lost between 14 and 20 pounds during filming in order to show a significant difference in the appearance of her character over a span of time in the movie.

Media reports say she claims to have lost weight so quickly with a "starvation diet” of “cayenne pepper and water” or “maple syrup and water.” Where the master cleanse is accurately represented, Beyonce has made comments about how she felt like she was dying while on the cleanse and about the fatty, processed foods she gobbled after completing it. She quickly gained back all the weight she lost during her cleanse. The media is, of course, slamming Beyonce and her “diet” as an example of starlets and their penchant for anorexia and fad dieting.

This is misinformation about the lemon cleanse at best and sheer ignorance at worst.

The lemon cleanse is not a weight loss fad diet, to be picked up to lose a quick few pounds and then dropped to return to bingeing on junk food. If done correctly, the cleanse eliminates the chemicals, heavy metals, candida and other parasitic organisms that cause sugar and junk food cravings.

It’s impossible to argue with the fact that Western culture has an obsession with thinness that encourages celebrities and people in the public eye, particularly women, to be ashamed of their curves and want to lose weight. Plenty of actresses and pop singers do engage in frighteningly unhealthy diets and no few are anorexic. It’s unfortunate that Beyonce’s flippant interviews have presented the Master Cleanse as just another bad diet craze.

Having done the Master Cleanse twice, once for ten days and once for twelve, I am frustrated and dismayed by Beyonce’s inaccurate description of how the cleanse works and how it feels. When I did the lemon cleanse, I was energized and felt great. While I was happy to return to solid food, I certainly didn’t feel like bingeing afterwards.

I can only assume that she was on a modified version of the cleanse that may have affected how she felt and spoiled the effectiveness of the cleanse for her.

For an overview of the real lemon and maple syrup cleanse, see The Master Cleanse.