At the 2022 Met Gala, Kim Kardashian's outfit, borrowed from the one and only Marilyn Monroe, was tough to beat. Exactly 60 years after Marilyn first wore the shimmery, nude, curve-clinging gown, Kim took it to the Met, making her the only other person to ever wear the iconic dress. Covered in more than 6,000 hand-sewn crystals, it is currently valued at over $10 million, the New York Post reported.
And on the November 10 episode of The Kardashians, Kim pulls back the curtain and reveals just what it took for her to fit into Marilyn's iconic dress.
“The idea really came to me after the gala in September last year," Kim told Vogue." What’s the most American thing you can think of? And that’s Marilyn Monroe."
But the look took serious—and unhealthy—dedication to pull off. “I always thought [Marilyn Monroe] was extremely curvy," Kim said. "I imagined I might be smaller in some places where she was bigger and bigger in places where she was smaller. So when it didn’t fit me I wanted to cry because it can’t be altered at all.”
"I knew I had to lose at least ten pounds for it to even go up on me," Kim said in a confessional during the November 10 epuside. "This is exhausting, but it feels like a movie role. How an actor will lose weight for roles—this feels like my role is Marilyn Monroe. I am determined."
So, Kim decided to start a new diet and exercise plan that would help her drop enough pounds to squeeze into the dress without altering it. “I would wear a sauna suit twice a day, run on the treadmill, completely cut out all sugar and all carbs, and just eat the cleanest veggies and protein,” she said. “I didn’t starve myself, but I was so strict.”
After losing 16 pounds in three weeks, the 5'2" Kardashian was able to fit into Marilyn's dress for the Met Gala. But is it really healthy to lose that much weight so quickly? Women's Health sat down with two experts for the full breakdown:
No, Kim Kardashian's Met Gala diet isn't healthy.
Kim's diet is "definitely not a safe way to lose weight," says Jonathan Valdez, RDN, the owner of Genki Nutrition and spokesperson for New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, in an email to WH.
It's also unrealistic, says FitOn trainer Bree Mitchell, CPT. First, "weight is not always equaling body fat," she explains. Meaning, those 16 pounds that Kim lost may not have all been fat—they could also have been water weight.
Plus, both Valdez and Mitchell agree that losing so much weight so quickly can be hard on the body. "Rapid weight loss risks include electrolyte imbalances, gallstones, gout, fatigue, constipation, diarrhea, and nausea," according to Valdez. Mitchell says your levels of stress and cortisol will likely go up, too, and you probably won't be getting all the valuable nutrients your body absorbs from meals.
Mitchell says a diet like Kim's can also have negative effects on your metabolism and even lead to muscle loss. "We work hard for our muscles," she explains, but "you really do risk losing muscle after that type of extreme weight loss."
It's not sustainable in the long run.
While cutting out carbs and sugar may make you lose weight, "carbohydrates actually serve a lot of great functions in our body," Mitchell says. Carbohydrates are your body's main source of energy. Eliminating carbs from your diet can cause your body to reduce the amount of insulin it makes, which in turn causes your metabolism to shift, one 2020 study found. (For these reasons, it's especially risky to cut out all carbs if you have diabetes or if you're at risk of having diabetes, Valdez says.)
Plus, cutting out all carbs and sugar is extremely difficult. Valdez notes that most vegetables have carbohydrates in them, so it's unlikely that Kim's diet was completely carb-free.
"I certainly don't think it's a long-term solution," Mitchell adds. After going on an extreme diet, it's likely your body would gain the weight back sooner, rather than later. "When you go that far in one direction, that's where that rebounds on the other side," she says. "Your body's always going to find a way to get what it needs." Plus, any water weight loss will return as soon as you up your water intake again, she notes.
For Kim, the plan was short-lived. After the Met Gala, she posted a video on her Instagram Story of a huge spread of pizza and doughnuts in the star's hotel room.
“OK guys, so after the Met, I am starving, and my favorite doughnuts in the entire world, in New York City, are these mini doughnuts,” she said, per Page Six. “And pizza! You guys, I haven’t had carbs or sugar in almost a month, definitely three weeks."
Here's how the numbers break down:
Mitchell says a healthier weight loss goal would look like losing one to two pounds a week, compared to Kim's five or more. She adds that even on an extreme diet, Kim would have needed to add in an extra 22 workouts each week (assuming that she burns at least 500 calories per workout) to achieve her goal.
TBH, I'm tired just thinking about it.
Kim's trainer wants to clear up 'misconceptions' about her exercise plan.
Kim's personal trainer, Don-A-Matrix, said “I think one of the misconceptions is—she works really hard. I was there through the process and it wasn’t like a starving yourself type of thing,” per TMZ. “She’s been on a real balanced diet and at times she wouldn’t eat as much, but then the second thing was she went to the gym and put the work in.”
He added that Kim would "sometimes" exercise "twice a day." "It’s possible to lose 20 pounds in a healthy way," he explained.
Other celebs reacted to Kim's diet.
Riverdale star Lili Reinhart took to Instagram to share her thoughts: “To walk on a red carpet and do an interview where you say how starving you are...because you haven't eaten carbs in the last month...all to fit in a fucking dress?” she wrote in an Instagram Story.
“So wrong. So f*cked on 100s of levels. To openly admit to starving yourself for the sake of the Met Gala. When you know very well that millions of young men and women are looking up to you and listening to your every word. The ignorance is other-worldly and disgusting. Please stop supporting these stupid, harmful celebrities whose entire image revolves around their bodies."
"I am not generally an angry person but I swear to god, the toxicity of this industry really gets to me sometimes and I have to do my little Instagram-story rants to release my rage,” Lili finished.
Kim hit back at the critics.
On May 4, Kim posted an image on her Instagram Story that read: "Be teachable. Be open. You're not always right."
While it didn't directly reference her Met Gala transformation, the post comes just two days after the event, per E! News.
One month after The Met, Kim slammed critics who questioned her weight loss. “It was just important to me to reach that goal,” she explained in an interview with The New York Times. “I just simply couldn’t have gone [if I didn’t loss the weight], which wouldn’t have mattered.”
She added: “To me it was like, ‘OK, Christian Bale can do it for a movie role and that is acceptable.’ Even Renée Zellweger gained weight for a role. It’s all the same to me. I wasn’t saying, ‘Hey everyone, why don’t you go lose this weight in a short period of time?’”
