Why are ballerinas so thin and what do they really eat?

Many texts have been written and movies made about how ballerinas exhaust themselves to become a prima donna. Do they really eat “one grain a day”, or is it a director’s move and author’s assumption, created to add spice to the plot? Let’s try to figure it out together.

Maya Plisetskaya: rigor, rules, results

Prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Maya Plisetskaya watched her health and adhered to strict dietary restrictions to stay in shape.

Her daily diet still does not include: meat, dairy products, eggs, flour products, sugar and coffee. Her diet favors cereals, vegetables (except tomatoes), fruits (except bananas) and fish.

Sample menu:

• Breakfast: porridge;
• Snack: one fruit of any kind
• Lunch: vegetable soup/salad;
• Snack: fruit/vegetable;
• Dinner: fish with vegetable/vegetable side dish.

Ilze Liepa: method of elimination

Famous ballerina Ilze Liepa has also eliminated sugar, flour products, potatoes and rice from her diet. She recommends consuming vegetable and animal fats, which are abundant in poultry meat and sea fish.

Ilze limits the intake of glucose, salt and hot sauces so as not to retain water in the body.

Sample menu:

• Lunch: fish/poultry meat with vegetables.
• Dinner: stewed vegetables.

Maria Allash. Moderation in everything

Prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Maria Allash adheres to strict rules in the diet only on the day of performances, and on ordinary days in moderation can afford and cake, and pasta, and kebab.

Sample menu:

• Breakfast: porridge/carrot;
• Snack: yogurt/fruit/nuts;
• Lunch: soup;
• Snack: yogurt/fruit/nuts;
• Dinner: fish with vegetables.

Svetlana Zakharova. It’s not about quantity, but quality

Svetlana Zakharova, a soloist with the Mariinsky Theatre, pays particular attention to breakfast: she usually eats porridge on water without salt and drinks green tea.

The ballerina tries to control her salt intake and urges her to check the expiration date on labels, as the microtoxins that are formed in spoiled products are harmful to the body. She also insists on the need to take into account the peculiarities of the body and make a choice in favor of those products that satiate you as much as possible and do not give a feeling of heaviness.

In an interview with Glamour magazine Svetlana Zakharova shared her rules with readers: “I realized long ago that you can’t deny yourself your favorite dishes: the body will demand its own anyway. You just need to get in the habit of controlling the amount you eat. I love cheese, chocolate and kippers with potatoes – but when I see that I have gained a little weight (it usually happens after returning from vacation), I eat a day not 100 g of chocolate, as usual, but 50 g, and slices of cheese cut twice as thin”.

You too can try to stick to any of these schemes or come up with your own meal plan. The main thing to remember is that the diet should contain carbohydrates and proteins, but fats should be minimized. The result will amaze you – up to minus 4 kg in a week.