What Experts Really Think Of Britney Spears' 'Ice Cream Diet' To Drop Pounds

Is retired pop star Britney Spears really losing weight by eating ice cream?

The "Oops!... I Did It Again" singer has been showing off her fit figure on social media for quite a while now, leaving many of her followers wondering how she stays so toned. Although it's clear that Britney does a lot of dancing in her free time, she has also claimed that a new "ice cream diet" has helped her keep her shape.

The “Circus” singer revealed that she was trying out the ice cream diet in February 2021, which was only a few months before her controversial 13-year conservatorship came to an end. She has since made comments about fasting, but has not directly stated how long she was on the ice cream diet or what – if any –  results she achieved from it.

“So .... I tried the ice cream diet and since my favorite flavor is strawberry. I realized after a week eating it twice a day I needed to mix it up !!!!” she wrote at the time. “I switched to chocolate .... then I got bored of that one really fast so finally I went to vanilla !!!!”

It’s no surprise that many nutritionists label the “ice cream diet” as a fad diet that has undergone little scientific study. The original diet is actually based on a book by Holly McCord that was published in 2002. The diet involves counting calories, but still making time for a scoop of ice cream every night.

“This is a calorie-restricted diet,” dietitian Jo Bartell told Healthline. “Anytime people follow a calorie-restricted diet and eat fewer calories than they burn throughout the day or more than they ate before following the plan, they lose weight.”

The ice cream diet works much like any other calorie-restricted diet, while still leaving room in your caloric budget to squeeze in a scoop.

“There is definitely something to be said for allowing dieters a treat like ice cream every day,” says Bartell. “When people aren’t feeling deprived and getting to enjoy something they love, they will be more likely to stick to eating for weight loss.”

So does it work? “Anyone who eats 1,200 calories per day will lose weight in the short term because the body will be in a caloric deficit,” she explained. “This has to do with lack of calories and not the ice cream.”

Although that was the original idea behind the ice cream diet, there have been dieters who have tried to survive on nothing but ice cream to see how it would transform their bodies. Men’s Health reported on a man named Anthony Howard-Crow, a 32-year-old online trainer, who decided to eat 2,000 calories of ice cream a day, along with 500 calories of protein supplements and a bit of alcohol for 100 days straight.

In addition to losing 32 pounds, he also saw improvements in his blood work. Although eating ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner sounds too good to be true, Anthony later said, “This diet was, hands down, without a doubt, the most miserable dieting adventure I have ever embarked upon.”

Although many want to lose weight in order to achieve a more “toned” appearance, that won’t happen without muscle. Anthony reported that, unfortunately, a good amount of the 32 pounds that he lost on the ice cream diet was lean muscle. As he noted at the end of the experiment, “I was still not extremely lean.”

The ice cream diet also tanked his motivation, which meant he was not pushing himself in the gym when he usually did. The diet became difficult to continue, with Anthony noting, “I was moody, and just generally unenjoyable to be around.”

As to why he did the “stunt diet,” Anthony says, “The overall goal of my projects is never to present them as healthy, real ways to lose weight,” adding that his goal was to show that calories count more than macronutrients when it comes to weight loss.

It's unclear if Britney Spears also felt miserable while on the diet, but one thing is for sure: when it comes to an ice cream diet, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!