Beyoncé’s infamous maple syrup diet proves just how unhinged the 2000s were

Weight loss fads are nothing new, although the likes of TikTok have made new ones more common and pernicious than ever before.

There’s no shortage of influencers sharing unconventional tips for dropping pounds, generally with little to no medical or scientific merit, and it’s worrying to think about the harm people may do to themselves by following restrictive diets that haven’t been properly examined.

In the new era of semaglutides (Ozempic, Wegovy et al), any celebrity weight loss is chalked up to the drugs rather than adherence to batty diet regimens, but of course it wasn’t always the go-to explanation.

Beyoncé at Cannes whilst promoting Dreamgirls in 2006 (Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)

For someone like Beyoncé, who plies her trade on pioneering music, unapologetic bangers, and undeniable sexiness that’s central to her image and stage presence, there’s a tonne of pressure to maintain a trim, toned figure.

Back when she appeared in Dreamgirls, the Beyoncé of 2006 was hot on the heels of an iconic stint as a member of Destiny’s Child and a rocketing solo career courtesy of hits like Crazy in Love.

Despite already being a bona fide pin-up, the exacting skinniness standards of the 2000s meant that even Queen B felt obliged to shed some pounds for her role in Dreamgirls.

She lost 20 pounds by following the risky and ill-advised ‘master cleanse diet’, also known as the ‘maple syrup diet', which involves exclusively subsisting on a cocktail of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper.

She drank a mixture of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper (lauraag/Getty Images)

"I figured in the '60s Twiggy was the hot model, and Diana [Ross] and Cher and all the legends were thinner than I am," she told Oprah at the time.

"So I decided I wanted to lose weight and make a physical transformation. And it was difficult because I love food. I love to eat. I did a fast—a master cleanser for 14 days. Everybody was eating Krispy Kremes around me. I was grouchy, but I did it and I lost the weight."

Of course, this diet leaves you short on a tonne of essential nutrients, fibre, and healthy blood-sugar levels. Along with feeling tired, irritable and low on energy, the spikes and crashes in your blood sugar make for irregular insulin release that could lead to Type 2 diabetes, your guts will be an absolute mess, and you run the risk of developing deficiencies like anaemia.

Beyoncé supposedly followed the diet for two weeks, with the crash diet seeing her drop 20 pounds that, frankly, she didn’t need to lose.

She has since denounced the diet. Back in 2012, the Standard reported that she had forsworn such weight loss measures, saying, "I'm very happy with my curves."

Appearing on GMTV, the precursor to Good Morning Britain on ITV, she said: "It's great because I look at the movie and I don't recognise myself - which was the point!

"The funnest part was putting the weight back on and eating my doughnuts and all the other things, so now I'm back to my body.

"I'm very conscious of being a curvy woman and I'm very happy that I am a curvy woman."

Beyoncé in Dreamgirls (Paramount/Dreamworks)

In a separate interview with the BBC, she said: "It was no-one's suggestion I lost weight for the film, it was me who wanted to make a physical transformation.

"In Dreamgirls, [my character] Dina starts at 16 - and then 20 years pass. Normally they'd change your make-up or your clothes but I wanted to go the extra mile.

"Back in the Sixties, models like Twiggy were popular and I knew Dina would have been thin then. So even though I really love eating, it was necessary to lose weight really fast because we shot Dina at 16 and Dina at 36 two weeks apart.

"My nutritionist suggested the only way to do that was the fast. As soon as it was over I gained the weight back.

"I would never recommend it to anyone unless you are doing a movie and it's necessary, and you have proper help. There are ways to lose weight healthily if you want to lose weight, but this was for a film."

If you want to lose weight healthily, a rule of thumb is that you need a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories a week to lose one pound of fat over the same period.

In order to calculate the deficit required to lose fat at that rate, you would take your basal metabolic rate and remove a share of those calories from your food intake each day. For example, if your basal metabolic rate is 2,000 calories, you would need to cut your intake to 1,500 calories per day to reach a deficit of 3,500 over the week.

While exercise uses calories, studies have shown that our bodies figure out ways to consistently burn a similar amount of calories each day. For example, your body may spend less energy on inflammation around the body, and you may subconsciously expend fewer calories after a heavy workout by spending more time relaxing and doing things like taking the lift instead of the stairs.

That doesn’t mean exercise isn’t worth doing, of course, and it’s hard to measure the calorie burn that goes into muscular recovery post-exercise, but it’s less effective for burning calories and shedding weight than restricting your caloric intake.

Crash diets or attempting to starve yourself to lose weight can have ruinous effects on your body. Speak to a medical professional before adopting a new diet to make sure you know how to get all the sustenance you need and protect yourself against malnutrition.