Jennifer Lawrence’s Diet and Workout Secrets: Achieve Realistic Fitness Goals Today!

Jennifer Lawrence, a celebrated actress known for her talent and relatable personality, has captured the hearts of audiences worldwide. From her breakout roles in independent films to her leading roles in blockbuster franchises like The Hunger Games and X-Men, Lawrence has proven her versatility and dedication to her craft. Beyond her acting prowess, she is also admired for her body positivity and realistic approach to health and fitness. Unlike many celebrities who promote restrictive diets and grueling workout routines, Lawrence emphasizes balance, moderation, and consistency.

Jennifer Lawrence's Body Positivity and Realistic Approach

Jennifer Lawrence is known for her body positivity. Over the years, Jennifer’s body has changed some, and she embraces it. She can pull whatever look she chooses. She's open about her love of food, especially junk food. She’s also open about her hatred of dieting, and that she eats whatever she wants. “I don’t like when people say, ‘I only do this or eat this,'” she told Vogue. “Because I eat.

Aversion to Dieting and Emphasis on Enjoyment

Jennifer Lawrence isn’t a big fan of diets. She loves food (remember when she brought pizza to the Oscars?), and says she’d prefer to work harder in the gym in order be able to eat what she wants. She tries not to be too restrictive, and she says she struggles to work if she’s hungry at all. For example, when she’s craving a burger, she normally lets herself eat a burger. She is absolutely against the idea of starving herself, which is why she won’t even go on a diet for a film. In many interviews, Lawrence has opened up by saying that diets make her very hungry, and she cannot afford that while working. Besides, she is not one for being very strict about what she eats. If she craves a pizza, she doesn’t deprive herself and has a slice, then later makes up for it in the gym.

Healthy Eating Habits

Still, she doesn’t just want junk food. She likes to eat healthily. On set, she likes to have Greek yogurt and veggies and hummus on hand in case she gets hungry. Jennifer avoids gaining too much weight by indulging her sweet and salty tooth carefully. Dalton says that he didn’t recommend Jennifer eat granola bars because they are typically full of sugar. He always recommends picking whole foods even if they are slightly higher in calories. Most people will find them more satisfying, feel healthier, and end up eating less if they’re eating unprocessed food, he says.

Yes, Jennifer indulges, but she sticks to portions that make sense to her. She doesn’t feel the need to binge a lot of food because she picks meals that will satisfy her cravings. When she goes out to eat, she likes to pick a starter for a main course and split dessert with a loved one. Overeating isn’t for her.

According to her trainer Wong, the following are some healthy foods that Jennifer would consume more often than others:

Full-fat Greek Yogurt: Greek-style yogurt is thicker and creamier than regular yogurt and has a higher protein content.
Dark Chocolate: Compared to other varieties like milk chocolate, which is often higher in sugar and unhealthy calories, dark chocolate has impressive health benefits. It has remarkable anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-microbial properties, boosts heart health, improves brain function, and helps maintain a healthy lipid profile. Also, it is an excellent mood enhancer as it interacts with happy hormones such as dopamine and serotonin.
Almond Milk: It is an excellent source of healthy fats, antioxidants, and micro-nutrients and is a great low-calorie, plant-based alternative to dairy milk.
Peanut Butter-filled Celery: Peanut butter - which is free of additives - is a rich source of unsaturated fats, protein, vitamin E, iron, and fiber. Celery, on the other hand, is high in water content and health-boosting antioxidants. The combination of the two makes a highly nutritious and delicious snack that keeps one satiated for hours.
Hummus with Vegetables: While hummus is a powerhouse of plant-based proteins, dietary fiber, and healthy fats, vegetables paired with it such as carrots, cucumbers, and celery are rich in essential micronutrients. This is an extremely nutritious, fiber-packed, and delicious snack, which is also vegan.
Hard-boiled Eggs: There’s no denying the superiority of eggs as a protein source. And, Lawrence prefers her eggs to be hard-boiled, which is among the healthiest ways of consuming them.

Other healthy foods that Lawrence often consumes include air-popped popcorn, cashews, blueberries, apple slices with walnut butter, coconut milk yogurt, etc. amongst others. She likes healthy snacking from time to time to prevent junk food cravings while also feeling satiated.

Workout Regimen

Jennifer has a busy schedule, which means working out can be hard. However, she says that she makes sure to stay active, whether she’s preparing for a role or not. Overall, Jennifer says she doesn’t love to exercise, but she’s willing to do it to stay healthy and to achieve the body that she wants. Jennifer credits her former trainer Dalton Wong for helping her understand a healthy, fun, and balanced approach for exercise. She admits she’s not a fan of exercise ‘I hate saying, “I like exercising”,’ Lawrence told Glamour in 2012. ‘I want to punch people who say that in the face. But it's nice being in shape for a movie, because they basically do it all for you. It's like, “Here's your trainer. This is what you can eat”. I don't diet. I do exercise! But I don't diet.

As Lawrence doesn’t like to diet, she prefers going into her beast mode during workouts and usually exercises a lot more than an average person. It was her preparation for the role of Mystique for X-Men: First Class that primed her exercise routine for the following years as well, under Wong’s training.

Key Elements of Jennifer Lawrence's Workout Plan:

Short HIIT Circuits: During the time she worked on the film, she would often incorporate regular bursts of HIIT circuits (15-minute-long) on the film’s set. Lawrence doesn’t feel the need to practice cardiovascular exercise separately as her HIIT workouts incorporate many sprints and aerobic exercises to help increase her heart rate.
Weight Training: Joining the club of the best action actresses in Hollywood wouldn’t have been possible without practicing a great deal of weight training exercises. Besides, Lawrence is big on muscle strength and overall fitness.
Posture Exercises: Wong’s training laid the most emphasis on posture exercises, especially when J-Law was shooting for Red Sparrow.
Yoga: Lawrence's exercises also incorporate a lot of yoga stretches and breathwork to boost flexibility and enhance mind and body connection. She also practices diaphragmatic ujjayi breathing before bedtime - something Wong refers to as ‘beditat-ing’ - to improve her lung health and sleep quality.
Pilates: To tone her body and improve coordination and core strength, Lawrence engaged in cross-training in the form of Pilates.

Training for Specific Roles

Jennifer’s workout routine has changed over the years. She’s needed to do different types of workouts for different movies, and her interests have changed too. From the Hunger Games franchise to her role in Red Sparrow, J Law doesn’t mess about when it comes to fulfilling a particular filming brief.

Read also: Inside Jennifer Aniston's routine

Red Sparrow

While preparing for her role in the film Red Sparrow, Jennifer worked with ballet coach, Kurt Froman, to help her train. Jennifer was required to lose weight and tone up for her role in Red Sparrow. After all, she was playing a ballet dancer! Preparing for this role was the first time she went through an intense diet. The main thing that Jennifer did to prepare for the movie was to cut calories. Although she hasn’t shared how many calories she ate a day, she did say that she counted banana chips to make sure she wasn’t eating too many! She also made sure to eat lots of vegetables and lean protein like chicken. Jennifer filmed all of her ballet scenes at the beginning of the production process so that she didn’t have to diet for too long. She really hated the process!

She trained for four months for 5 days a week with Kurt Froman, a ballet expert and trainer who also worked with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis on Black Swan. Each training session with Kurt would last for four hours! After training with Kurt, Jennifer would go to a one-on-one Pilates session with trainer Kit Rich. Together, they’d train for 90 minutes. Kit helped Jennifer tone her muscles and create a really lean, long look common with ballet dancers.

Lawrence played an ex-ballerina-turned-spy, and it involved multiple nude scenes, stunt work and dancing. A lot, basically. So, Lawrence decided to work with a ballet coach for three months.‘I worked with Jen six days a week, three hours a day for three months, as well as doing cross training in the form of Pilates, or toning and weight training, or gyrotonics,’ professional dance coach Kurt Froman told Body and Soul.

X-Men: First Class

Jennifer also works with trainer, Dalton Wong, to help her craft a healthy lifestyle. She first started working with Wong for the film X-Men, and credits him with helping her stay in shape. Jennifer even wrote the forward to Wong’s book, writing, “[Dalton Wong] changed my body for that movie but gave me the skills to change my life. I could never live on a ‘diet.’ Dalton taught me how to eat, move, and live a delicious but healthy life. Albert L. Dalton tells Elle that he makes sure that Jennifer eats healthy while on set. He says that he makes sure the actress is keeping healthy food and snacks in her trailer.

In his book, Wong said Lawrence's workout plan for the X-Men films was based around morning runs, and short, regular bursts of high intensity interval training (a.k.a. HIIT workouts), using body weight only, so that having ‘no equipment’ was never an excuse.

J-Law recruited PT Dalton Wong as her fitness trainer who got her in shape for the role of Mystique - a stealth and sinewy mutant in the film X-Men: First Class. Her exercise regimen at the time included training for 10-12 hours a day, comprising posture exercises, full-body circuit training, push-ups, pull-ups, press-ups, and splits. This left little room for J-Law to incorporate cardio into her routine too. Her hard work toned her body significantly, which toned her body immensely and supported the film’s action scenes. According to the actress, Wong changed her life by training her.

The Hunger Games

When Jennifer needed to get in shape quickly for her role as Katniss Everdeen, Dr. Horrigan answered the call. And he trained her hard with sprints, stationary bike rides, archery lessons, and rock and tree climbing with the stunt crew.

For the Hunger Games, Lawrence trained with chiropractic sports medicine doctor Dr. Joe Horrigan, who told Teen Vogue Lawrence did, ‘sprints, stationary bike rides, archery lessons, and rock and tree climbing’.On days when she had little spare time but needed to get her heart rate up, Lawrence turned to skipping, Dr Horrigan said.

Shooting for Hunger Games joins the list of one of Lawrence's worst experiences with body image in her film career. While she had an optimal body weight and good health at the time, she was still pressured to shed 10 pounds for the role of Katniss Everdeen. To this, she outrightly refused and has never gone on a diet for any role ever since. And thank God for that, because Lawrence looked absolutely stunning in the film series with her perfectly healthy physique, and we wouldn’t want to see any pounds off. Even before this movie, one producer had asked her to lose 15 pounds in two weeks, when she was trying to land roles. He had also told her that she could star in porn films with her appearance, in addition to many other inappropriate remarks.

Tips Inspired by Jennifer Lawrence's Approach

Several actionable tips can be gleaned from Jennifer Lawrence's approach to fitness:

End every workout with something relaxing: It helps Jennifer to do yoga or some deep breathing to wind down.
Get out in nature when Jennifer was feeling uninspired: A run or walk outside would help her get motivated for more!
Consistency is key: There’s a common denominator across all the training she does for her films: she’s consistent. Take her time prepping for Red Sparrow. She trained for three hours a day, six days a week, for three months. That’s 216 hours across three months, or nine whole days. When filming X-Men: First Class, she spent up to 10-12 hours a day with her trainer Wong, for three months.
Make workouts realistic: During her time working with Wong for the X-Men films, they’d do short 15-minute bursts of HIIT circuits while on set. ‘We would focus on core exercises and some yoga stretches,’ he said in his book, The Feelgood Plan. ‘A lot of people might not have the hour to commit to doing something but lots of people have 15 minutes.’
Posture work is important: Wong previously shared that posture was a focus during his time working with Jen, telling Byrdie: ‘There is no point spending hours in the gym if you’re not going to work on improving your posture.’
Prefer to work hard in the gym than restrict what she eats: Food is big for J Law. 'I don’t like when people say, "I only do this or eat this,"' she told Vogue. 'Because I eat. I’m not very strict with my diet: If I want a piece of pizza, I eat a piece of pizza.'For me, it’s easier to put that extra effort into the gym instead of putting the extra effort into: "Oh no, I can’t eat that."'
She admits she’s not a fan of exercise ‘I hate saying, “I like exercising”,’ Lawrence told Glamour in 2012. ‘I want to punch people who say that in the face. But it's nice being in shape for a movie, because they basically do it all for you. It's like, “Here's your trainer. This is what you can eat”. I don't diet. I do exercise! But I don't diet.

tags: #jennifer #lawrence #diet #and #workout