Days after Janice Min -- the former Us Weekly editor arguably responsible for our current obsession with Hollywood's post-baby bodies -- complained that there is too much pressure on new moms to instantly lose the baby weight, come some controversial comments from celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson.
The trainer to stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez and Courteney Cox who previously said her workouts can "take any woman from any genetic background and turn her into this teeny-tiny dancer type," revealed to DuJour magazine that she has lost nearly all her baby weight just six weeks after giving birth to her daughter Penelope in May.
"A lot of women use pregnancy as an excuse to let their bodies go, and that's the worst thing," Anderson told the magazine. "I've seen so many women who come to me right after [having children] with disaster bodies that have gone through hell, or they come to me years later and say, ‘Oh, my body is like this because I had three kids.'"
The former dancer was conscious of how much weight she put on with her second pregnancy; she gained 60 pounds when she gave birth to her son in 1998. "I feel like I’ve lived an entire lifetime since then," said Anderson, who only gained 30 pounds this time around.
Anderson's criticism simply emphasizes the pressure on new mothers in Hollywood and everywhere else to get their pre-baby body back -- something that's not always realistic.
Following Min's Aug. 17 article in the New York Times, More magazine editor-in-chief Lesley Jane Seymour told "Good Morning America" that women need to remember celebrity moms might drop weight instantly, but they have resources that most people don't.
“[Celebrities] have $40,000 exercising gurus. You’re not being paid for that. That is not your job. They have to get in shape in two weeks because they’ve got to go on the set. That is not the normal human being," she explained.
Those gurus are people like Anderson, who in addition to offering pricey one-on-one training sessions to Hollywood's stars, runs exclusive gym facilities in Los Angeles, New York and the Hamptons. According to a recent New York Times article, Anderson herself rarely teaches classes, and a private session with one of the trainers costs $250, with a monthly membership to her gym costing about $900.
