She’s dropped 25kg in just three months, but Beyoncé says she regrets the pressure she put on herself to lose her baby weight so fast.
The singer flaunts her slim and sexy body in the April issue of Shape Magazine, showing her dramatic weight loss after the birth of her first child, daughter Blue Ivy, now 14 months old.
The 31-year-old star says that while she was determined to get back her pre-pregnancy figure, she regrets putting herself into the position where she had to “get back in shape quickly”.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to lose the weight because I scheduled a show [in Atlantic City] three months after I gave birth, which I would never do again,” she tells the magazine.
Labelling herself as someone who is “not naturally thin”, Beyoncé reveals, “I am a person that has to work at keeping my body in shape.”
Crediting 80 per cent of her weight loss to cutting back on food, the Grammy Award-winner admits she followed a “very low-calorie diet” and had to give up her favourite food, pasta.
“I stayed away from red meat and ate a lot of fish, replaced pasta and rice with quinoa,” she says.
Although her meal plan was strict, Beyoncé was able to stick to it, with the exception of one cheat day a week.
“I always have breakfast, say, scrambled egg-whites, a vegetable smoothie, or wholegrain cereal with low-fat milk,” she tells.
“For lunch and dinner, I eat a lot of fish and vegetables. And throughout the day, I try to stay hydrated … I always treat myself to one meal on Sundays when I can have whatever I want. Usually it’s pizza, which is my favourite indulgence.”
But a strict diet isn’t the only thing Beyoncé relied on for results. She also burned off the kilojoules with dance workouts.
And despite her own weight loss, Beyoncé stresses that women should embrace their differences rather than place too much emphasis on what the scales show.
“Everyone is not supposed to be the same. Be healthy and take care of yourself, but be happy with the beautiful things that make you you,” she adds.
