Tyra is back and looking better than ever, since the infamous unflattering photos of her in a bathing suit created a firestorm on the tabloid and celebrity website circuit a couple months ago. Rumored to have tipped the scales at 170 lbs in December, she admitted having gained some 30 lbs since her modeling days. She went on a public relations blitz, appearing on the cover of People magazine and devoting a whole episode to the great “weight debate” on her Tyra Banks show. As these new photos reveal she is back in super-model form. How did she do it?

Discussing her weight gain on Extra in January, she admitted to enjoying an “IHOP breakfast, a burger or pizza for lunch and steak and some sort of sweet come dinnertime.” In the latest issue of In Touch weekly she reflects “I needed to take better care of myself.” Tyra’s diet and exercise plan for losing an estimated 30 lbs in five months and getting back in shape included:

• Hiring a chef to cook healthy meals.
• Cooking soup dishes for herself, from her favorite cookbook 400 Best-Ever Soups by Anne Sheasby. Losing weight with soup, is a diet tip also used by Cameron Diaz to maintain her starlet figure.
• Engaging in high intensity interval training which includes running and walking on a treadmill.

Way to go Tyra!

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) describes reps of high-intensity training followed by low-intensity training. Not only does HIIT improve cardiovascular fitness and endurance, it revs up your metabolism to burn body fat more effectively than low-intensity endurance type exercise. The ability to burn fat increased by 36% during continuous moderate cycling following HIIT, in one study. Another study showed HIIT produced 9x more fat loss over lower-intensity endurance type exercise, despite burning only 1/2 the calories.

Why does high-intensity interval training work?

• By giving the body time to recover during periods of lower-intensity exercise, HIIT allows exercisers to spend more time doing high-intensity activity, than they could do in one sustained bout. This helps build more metabolically-active muscle mass increasing resting metabolism.
• HIIT stimulates changes at the fuel-burning stage, in the cell’s mitochondria, that favors fat-burning first.
• By varying the intensity of a workout, HIIT helps recruit new muscle fibers to contract improving metabolism of fat and carbs.

Before starting HITT, or any exercise regimen, consult with your physician. This is especially true of HIIT, which causes large demands on your cardiovascular system.