Musicians have been ripping off Bruce Springsteen’s sound and persona for decades now, but apparently they’ll even copy his diet. On a recent episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin revealed that he only eats one meal a day because he heard that’s what The Boss does.
“I actually don’t have dinner anymore. I stop eating at 4 and I learned that from having lunch with Bruce Springsteen,” Martin said. “I was lucky enough to go over there to lunch the day after we played Philadelphia last year. I was on a really strict diet anyway. But I was like, ‘Bruce looks even more in shape than me.’”
Don’t Listen to Intermittent Fasting Influencers, The Science Doesn’t Back It Up
A new study found that time-restricted eating is no better than eating a low-calorie diet throughout the dayApparently, according to Martin, Springsteen’s wife Patti Scialfa then told him that the musician was only “eating one meal a day.”
“I was like, ‘Well, there we go. That’s my next challenge,’” Martin said.
It should go without saying, but this is very dumb. For one, it obviously hasn’t yielded the desired effect. Martin is nowhere near as jacked as Springsteen. That’s probably because every body is different, and what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another; you’ve got to factor in things like age, lifestyle, metabolism, any other underlying health issues. And, of course, starving yourself — or as Martin describes it, adhering to a “very strict diet” — isn’t going to make you magically grow muscles.
There’s also the fact that science has proven that intermittent fasting and other time-restricted diets don’t actually provide any more benefits than eating a regular, healthy diet throughout the day. Martin didn’t specify what his one meal a day typically consists of, but unless it’s a massive 2,000-calorie feast, he’s probably not eating enough. He’s obviously not responsible for what other people eat or don’t eat, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that this comes on the heels of his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow catching heat for her extremely restrictive diet — which seems to mostly consist of bone broth and vegetables.
It’s 2023. Aren’t we past promoting disordered eating and bragging about how little we consume in a day?
Whether you’re looking to get into shape, or just get out of a funk, The Charge has got you covered. Sign up for our new wellness newsletter today.