Followers of Heidi Klum’s Instagram either think the model is lying, or that she’s encouraging young women to starve themselves, after she recently revealed that she only consumes about 900 calories a day to maintain her slender model’s figure.
The former Victoria’s Secret Angel, 50, shared the numbers on her disturbingly low intake of calories during a now-expired Q&A on her Instagram Story Sunday, according to Page Six and the Daily Mail.
The judge for “America’s Got Talent” also revealed that her day usually starts off with a very low-calorie breakfast that consists of three poached eggs in warm chicken broth. When a follower asked her current weight, Klum pulled out a scale and stepped on it with her bare feet, to show that she currently weighs 138 pounds.
Given that the German-born model stands 5 feet 9 inches tall, her body mass index would be within normal range, Page Six reported, citing the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute. But medical experts would say that her daily calorie intake is well below the normal range. Generally, they say that the recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men.
Klum’s purported 900 daily calories takes her close to what would be called a “very, low-calorie diet,” which can be considered a crash or semi-starvation diet, according to Very Well Fit. Restricting calories to 800 calories or fewer is only advised when someone is under medical supervision and needs to quickly lose weight due to the health consequences of obesity.
Generally, nutritionists say that consuming 800 or fewer calories a day isn’t healthy or sustainable in the long term, Healthline reported. Doing so starves your body and can lead to numerous health risks.
Since Klum clearly isn’t obese and likes to present herself as healthy and fit enough to go swimming, boating and hiking around the island of Capri on a recent Italian vacation, she apparently has no medical need to be restricting her calories to 900 a day.
That’s one reason that some who read the Daily Mail story thinks she exaggerated her low calorie intake.
“I don’t believe the 900 calories a day bit,” said a reader from Raleigh, North Carolina, commenting on the Daily Mail story. “At 50 years old and 5’9,” to maintain 138 pounds, she would have to be eating about 1,500 calories a day, and that is if she was sedentary, which she’s not. There is no way she’s living on 900 calories a day.”
“900 calories per day???” someone else said. “If that was true, she would be emaciated.”
Others pointed to a darker and more serious message in Klum’s low-calorie boast. They said she could be pushing other women and girls to develop distorted ideas about body image, if they weren’t already struggling with those ideas. They could also develop eating disorders, if they believed that they also needed to seriously restrict calories in order to have a body like Klum’s.
“That amount of calories is very dangerous,” a reader from New York said. “Now young followers are going to say it’s okay to near starve themselves. Bad bad bad.”
“She’s encouraging women to starve themselves,” commented a U.K. reader. “There’s no way she only eats 900 calories a day. I did that for a few weeks, and ended up passing out. She’s muscular so she must have a lot more protein than she admits to.”
“900 calories? I hope everyone realizes how UNHEALTHY this is,” said another reader.