Anna Wintour is a name synonymous with fashion, power, and an unwavering dedication to a disciplined lifestyle. As the editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1988 and artistic director for Condé Nast since 2013, Wintour’s influence on the fashion world is undeniable. Her impeccable image and seemingly ageless physique have led many to wonder about the secrets behind the Anna Wintour diet and exercise routine. Anna Wintour is legendary for her regulated and disciplined lifestyle. She’s in incredible shape for a woman of her age, and her body is something that many women far younger than her aspire to. Many people want to know more about the Anna Wintour diet and the Anna Wintour exercise routine, and about how anna wintour stays in shape.
The Anna Wintour Diet: A High-Protein, Low-Carb Approach
Anna Wintour's diet is often described as high-protein and zero-carb, a departure from the eating habits of many in the fashion industry. Wintour avoids all ingredients that might possibly be linked to weight gain. For her, that means cutting carbs out of her diet completely, and eating only lean meat with no fat. While this approach isn't for everyone, it appears to work for her, maintaining a lean and healthy physique.
Typical Daily Meals
While specific details of Wintour's diet have varied over time, certain patterns have emerged.
- Breakfast: In the 90s, Anna’s go-to breakfast was an “egg on a roll”. More recently, she reportedly starts her mornings with a Starbucks latte made with full-fat milk and a blueberry muffin-a routine she’s followed for decades.
- Lunch: A steak with salad, or a hamburger with no bun. Her go-to lunch is a bunless steak paired with a caprese salad-with the tomatoes removed. According to Amy, “for years she was getting a steak and a caprese salad without the tomatoes from the Palm Restaurant close to her office in New York”.
- Dinner: Anna loves grilled fish and pasta, in particular, carbonara. However, it’s unlikely you’ll see Anna with a glass of wine in hand - “at most she’ll maybe have a little white wine” - or dessert with her meal.
What Anna Wintour Avoids
Wintour avoids sugar, starches, and dairy, aside from the morning latte. She does not usually eat dinner, sticking to only two high protein meals per day.
The Controversial Tomato-Less Caprese Salad
One particularly intriguing detail about Wintour's diet is her penchant for a caprese salad without tomatoes. The entire dish consists of only three ingredients: tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. To lose the tomatoes is like ordering fish and chips without the fish, or macaroni and cheese, hold the macaroni. Wintour declined multiple requests to be interviewed for the biography.
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Expert Opinions on Anna Wintour's Diet
While Wintour's diet may seem extreme to some, experts acknowledge that it aligns with certain popular approaches like the ketogenic diet. However, they also emphasize that such a protein-focused diet isn't a guaranteed path to weight loss on its own. Its benefits primarily lie in helping to allow Anna Wintour to exercise ruthlessly and reap the maximum rewards without needing to burn off any empty or unhealthy calories.
Anna Wintour's Rigorous Workout Routine
In addition to her carefully controlled diet, Anna Wintour maintains a consistent and disciplined workout routine. Every morning, without fail, she gets up at about 5:30 AM and sets out for early morning tennis.
The Benefits of Tennis
Tennis is a great form of exercise, particularly when it’s used that regularly. It provides both aerobic and anaerobic exercise, and even an average player with a competent opponent can burn somewhere around 500 calories per hour of tennis playing. This habit gives her a great full body workout every single morning, and the discipline required to get up so early for such vigorous exercise every single morning is a large part of her lifestyle and impressive self control.
Consistency is Key
Anna Wintour’s daily routine is known because it’s such a large part of her life. She has established her own way of doing things over the course of her life, and has stuck to it ruthlessly throughout. She never deviates from her routines, and that’s a large part of her success. Her discipline, self control, and ruthless consistency are perhaps even more influential in her weight loss than her diet and exercise habits.
Beyond Diet and Exercise: The Importance of Discipline
While diet and exercise play significant roles, the key to Anna Wintour's success in maintaining her physique likely lies in her unwavering discipline and consistency. She never deviates from her routines, and that’s a large part of her success. Her discipline, self control, and ruthless consistency are perhaps even more influential in her weight loss than her diet and exercise habits.
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The Broader Context: Health and the Fashion Industry
Anna Wintour keeps a close eye on her weight, as body size has always been an important part of the high end fashion industry, but she is surprisingly heavily focused on the health of her models. It's a topic that continues to create endless debate, in the press and in the community. Wintour does not advocate the unhealthy lifestyle you might expect, and actively bans the use of models known to suffer from eating disorders in all of her publications. Internationally Vogue has since launched a project called Health Initiative, instigated by the US Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, which bans the use of models under 16 and pledges that they will not use models they know to be suffering from eating disorders.
The Pressure on Models
One of the most controversial aspects of fashion magazines, and the fashion industry, is models. The "fit" model begins the fashion process: designer outfits are created around a live, in-house skeleton. Few designers have a curvy or petite fit model. There will also be casting directors and stylists involved who have a vision of the type of woman they envisage wearing these clothes. For some bizarre reason, it seems they prefer her to be young, coltish, 6ft tall and built like a prepubescent boy.
The Vicious Cycle
It is the ultimate vicious cycle. A model who puts on a few kilos can't get into a sample size on a casting and gets reprimanded by her agency. She begins to diet, loses the weight, and is praised by all for how good she looks. But instead of staying at that weight, and trying to maintain it through a sensible diet and exercise, she thinks losing more will make her even more desirable. And no one tells her to stop. Girls who can't diet their breasts away will have surgical reductions. They then enter into dangerous patterns of behaviour that the industry - shockingly - begins to accept as par for the course.
Lessons from Other Successful Individuals
Anna Wintour isn't alone in recognizing the importance of exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Numerous studies have found exercise to be one of the most important habits you can develop to transform your life. Exercise has helped the president become the man he is today.
- President Barack Obama: Sweats it out 45 minutes a day, six days a week.
- Richard Branson: Gets four additional hours of productivity every day by working out.
- Warren Buffett: Chooses exercise over diet.
- US Sen.: every Sunday, the OKCupid founder plays basketball at P.S.
- Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich: Works out to keep up with the growing demands of his business.
- Nick Woodman: Shreds some waves.
- Ryan Holmes: Uses yoga to heal and refresh.
- Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi: Plans her day during her 45-minute morning power walks.
- Frits van Paasschen: Runs 10 miles every day.
- Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat: Follows an exercise regimen called the Spartacus Workout that's meant to 'torch fat.'
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