Never mind Ferraris, Harley-Davidsons and speed boats. The brand new midlife crisis for celebrity men is all about drastic weight-reduction plan, psychedelic drugs and woo-woo wellness.
Take buff Coldplay frontman Chris Martin — the ex-husband of Gwyneth Paltrow and current squeeze of actress Dakota Johnson — who, at 46, has revealed he only eats one meal a day after taking weight-reduction plan suggestions from Bruce Springsteen.
Or Will Smith, 54, who fled to India for a month to practice yoga and meditation after he slapped Chris Rock on the 2022 Oscars.
And 4-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers went right into a darkness retreat — an off-grid “cave within the Oregon wilderness — to achieve the choice to depart the Green Bay Packers and join the Recent York Jets. That is, when the 39-year-old wasn’t drinking hallucinogenic ayahuasca tea with boxer Jake Paul, who recalled “reflecting and going into the deepest parts of the mind” together.
“Self-control and extreme self-improvement have grow to be the brand new middle-aged Alpha male mantra,” Tim Samuels, award-winning documentary maker and former host of BBC Radio’s “Men’s Hour,” told The Post.
“Within the Eighties, it was once, ‘I’m so successful I only sleep 4 hours an evening.’ Now it’s, ‘I sleep eight hours an evening at optimal room temperature whilst monitoring my circadian rhythms before waking as much as consciously not eat breakfast.’”
Stars akin to Jimmy Kimmel, 55, and Chris Pratt, 43, are also fans of intermittent fasting diets, and 51-year-old Phil Libin, co-founder of the start-up company All Turtles, leads the way in which in Silicon Valley extremes by fasting for as much as eight days — which, he says, makes him a greater CEO.
Twitter founder and billionaire Jack Dorsey, 46, only eats dinner — except on Saturdays when he has nothing to eat in any respect.
Sam Rice, British nutrition expert and writer of “The Midlife Method: How you can Lose Weight and Feel Great After 40,” said there may be a “macho element” to this “bro mentality” super weight-reduction plan.
“And now we now have this bio bro hacking approach to health — attempting to shed the years. This extreme approach to wellness appears to be much more prevalent amongst men,” she said.
“Since when did rock stars start giving dietary advice and will we actually be listening to them?” Rice added.
There are also loads of middle-aged gurus promoting this ultra-macho, push-yourself-to-the-limit trend.
Controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, 60, has said he only eats beef, salt and water — and lost 60 kilos on this weight-reduction plan, which allegedly cured his anxiety and depression.
And don’t forget the “Liver King”: Forty-five-year-old TikTok influencer Brian Johnson is famed for wolfing down organ meats — including a every day serving of liver — in his videos, which have attracted greater than 1.8 million Instagram followers and show him shirtless and gnawing on raw meat like some sort of caveman.
He claimed that his “ancestral living” weight-reduction plan could cure depression and help attain peak physical health. But in December, he admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs and was slapped with a $25 million class-action lawsuit alleging he tricked customers into buying supplements and following “a dangerous and life-threatening weight-reduction plan” which caused “a big portion of consumers” to suffer from “severe” food-borne illnesses.
As with so lots of society’s problems, Rice blamed pressure from social media for men to look good.
“There’s something really fueling this midlife makeover,” Rice said. “With social media and so many more images of celebs on the market, possibly they feel the added scrutiny to be in higher shape? Although I still don’t think it’s the identical pressure for men because it is for ladies.
“For me, weight-reduction plan tends to be quite extreme when men do it … a whole lot of men get to midlife and it may be the primary time they’ve ever needed to take into consideration their weight-reduction plan and so they embark on the dietary equivalent of a triathlon.”
Coldplay singer Martin, 46 last week revealed how he had cut his meals all the way down to one a day after visiting 73-year-old Springsteen at home.
“I don’t even have dinner anymore ― I stop eating at 4, and I learned that from having lunch with Bruce Springsteen,” Martin told Conan O’Brien on his podcast.
That is referred to as the Omad (one meal a day) weight-reduction plan, where you eat before 4 p.m. after which can only drink water, tea or coffee — no sugar.
But Rice said it might result in “disordered eating … It’s quite dangerous to advertise this type of weight-reduction plan.”
She added: “Yes, there are some documented advantages of fasting. You may give your gut a rest, besides this extreme nature of weight-reduction plan outweighs any advantages.”
Samuels said fasting dates back to the Paleothic Era — but not by selection. “As cavemen, we’d have had unsuccessful days and are available home empty-handed, so we’re wired to have the ability to miss meals,” he explained. “Usually skipping two out of three meals a day seems like an extreme type of self-control. Eating and control can easily be caught up with one another in an unhealthy way.”
It’s also an indication of celebrity privilege that, Rice identified, “doesn’t slot in with most individuals’s lifestyles — when you work, you’ve got a family and a traditional job, I can’t see you with the ability to have only one meal a day. It’s a bit mad.”
On his BBC wellness podcast, “All Hale Kale,” Samuels delved into extreme routines and wellness hacks, including Dorsey’s love of ice baths and 51-year-old Mark Wahlberg popping himself right into a cryo chamber to decompress
“We’re living in the identical minds and bodies that evolved to principally hunt, gather and ideally not get mauled by lions. We’re wired to deal with finding food and staying alive. Our cave man brains aren’t wired to be bombarded by the madness of social media or, for some guys, the pressures of fame,” Samuels said.
“So you’ll be able to see why for some they’ve had enough — and have literally gone back to the cave. Back to living in darkened rooms,” he added of the varied woo-woo wellness practices which have overtaken privileged men of a certain age.
“Or doing tribal experiences. It’s our cave man brains saying ‘enough of this contemporary madness.’
“Plenty of guys will relate to this: our brains have been held hostage by our smart phones — when, at times, all we would like is an easier life that matches how we’re wired.”
Like Aaron Rodgers, 38-year-old Prince Harry has turned to psychedelic outlets to manage.
He recently told Dr. Gabor Maté that ayahuasca triggered feelings of “release” and “comfort” that helped him deal together with his trauma.
‘It removed all of it for me and brought me a way of rest, release, comfort, a lightness that I managed to carry on to for a time frame,” the prince said. “It was the cleansing … of the windshield, the removal of life’s filters … “
But don’t have any fear, celebs’ old-school vanity can be still firmly in check.
In response to one highly-placed Hollywood exec, one Oscar nominee showed off his recent hair plugs on the awards trail this 12 months, while 2022 Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh’s hair color looked as if it would magically vary between several shades of orange and red as he promoted his film “Belfast,” industry insiders identified.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Hakimi, who works with the Elite Body Sculpture clinic in Beverly Hills, said he has noticed a “surge” in men coming to see him following the pandemic once they stared at their faces over Zoom.
“I see a whole lot of men,” he said. “Either their wife or someone [else] made a comment and so they just run straight here.”
One in all his top procedures is neck liposuction or radio frequency skin tightening, which takes lower than a few hours. “It shapes the jawline and creates a more masculine look,” Hakimi said.
Then there’s chest liposuction to combat man boobs — a selected worry in Hollywood. “Very often, celebrities must go shirtless on TV and need to look good,” Hakimi said. “There are men understanding and using supplements to create muscle, but they’ll start growing breasts. I’ve also seen an increase in gynecomastia [breast growth] as men smoke increasingly marijuana.”
The largest trend in male makeovers, the doctor said, is hi-def liposuction — full body lipo that will help sculpt six packs and muscles. “We will take the fat from the abdomen and waistline and transfer it to the deltoids within the arms.”
Famous or not, Hakimi added, vanity gets everyone in middle age.
“It blows my mind: Male celebrities are available in with the identical insecurities as a police officer or a faculty teacher.”
