Emily Blunt, star of the film adaptation of the Paula Hawkins book, The Girl on the Train, hosted SNL last weekend and looked good doing it.
Thankfully, playing a drunk in the film—her character, Rachel, is a blackout drunk—doesn’t require much of an extreme diet or intense workout regimen. And because Blunt has always been in decent shape—she even worked out during her pregnancy—and done hardcore training in the past with celebrity trainers like Jason Walsh, she seemingly always maintains a slender figure.
A Less Physically Demanding Role
She didn’t need to prepare the same way for this role as she did for a film like Edge of Tomorrow, where she went through some intense circuit training and made some dietary changes to provide a transformation that’s a little more extreme. Diet likely plays the biggest role in a transformation, so cutting things like processed foods, refined sugars, high-sodium food and alcohol can all help lead to faster weight loss. Limiting carbohydrate intake can also help strip away fat faster; but when going on a carb-depleted diet, it’s essential that you’re taking in plenty of healthy fats and proteins, while scheduling in appropriate carb re-feed days.
Picking the Right Diet for Your Training Program and Goals
If your goal is to adopt a high-intensity circuit-training program, it might be wise to adopt a higher-carb diet and make adjustments as you move through. High-intensity circuit-training programs, like Blunt went through for her more physically demanding roles, are designed to increase your cardiovascular and fitness levels, while focusing on building power and strength. She used full-body workouts and minimal equipment to give her the desired results. If you’re doing more of a physique-sculpting or fat loss program, or something with lower overall intensity like Pilates, you likely won’t need as many carbohydrates in your diet.
Whatever your goals are—putting on weight, losing weight, adding muscle, getting stronger, or increasing fitness—you want to find the right diet to complement your training program. As you make progress, your diet will change along with the intensity of your program, and you’ll either increase or decrease certain macronutrients to provide the desired results. At the end of the day, when it comes to your fitness goals, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Sources:
Beverton-Palmer, “Building a Hollywood body: Emily Blunt’s Edge of Tomorrow workout revealed,” Women’s Health web site, June 9, 2014; http://www.womenshealthmag.co.uk/fitness/celebrity-body/1502/jason-walsh-emily-blunt-edge-of-tomorrow/, last accessed October 18, 2016.
