Understanding the Victoria's Secret Diet Plan

January 1, 2026 •

4 min read

According to research, many fad diets promise rapid weight loss but often lack crucial nutrients and scientific backing. The Victoria's Secret diet plan, which gained popularity during the 2010s, is no exception, and is less a structured program and more a collection of intense, often restrictive, dietary and exercise habits shared by various models.

Quick Summary

The Victoria's Secret diet plan is an informal set of guidelines based on models' individual habits, emphasizing whole foods, restrictive eating, and intense exercise for weight loss. It lacks universal rules and can involve unsustainable practices like severe calorie restriction and intermittent fasting.

Key Points

Not a Single Plan: The Victoria's Secret diet isn't a standardized program but an aggregation of individual model routines, often based on interviews and social media.
Clean Eating Focus: The diet emphasizes whole foods like lean proteins, vegetables, and healthy fats, while restricting processed foods, sugar, and refined carbs.
Intense Exercise is Key: Rigorous, targeted workouts such as boxing, Pilates, and strength training are a mandatory part of achieving the desired physique.
Potential Health Risks: Criticisms include promoting unrealistic body standards, nutrient deficiencies from restrictive eating, and a risk of developing an unhealthy relationship with food.
Lacks Scientific Support: Unlike evidence-based nutritional guidelines, the Victoria's Secret diet lacks scientific backing for its extreme and short-term practices.
Focuses on Aesthetics, Not Health: The plan prioritizes achieving a specific look for performance, rather than promoting sustainable, long-term health and well-being.
Better Alternatives Exist: Health experts recommend focusing on balanced nutrition, moderation, and sustainable lifestyle changes for lasting health benefits.

What is the Victoria's Secret Diet Plan?

Contrary to popular belief, there is no single, official Victoria's Secret diet plan with a set of rules or regulations. Instead, the term refers to an amalgamation of the individual eating habits and intense exercise routines that past and present models have publicly shared in interviews and on social media. The plan’s tenets generally revolve around disciplined eating, rigorous fitness, and, in some cases, highly restrictive habits leading up to a show or photoshoot. While some elements promote healthy eating, others are considered highly restrictive and potentially unsustainable for the average person.

Core Tenets and Food Guidelines

Models who have discussed their routines typically follow a "clean eating" philosophy. This involves a focus on nutrient-dense, whole foods while heavily restricting or eliminating refined sugars, processed foods, and refined carbohydrates.

Commonly included foods:

Lean Protein: Chicken, turkey, fish, and eggs are staples, providing essential amino acids for muscle repair and satiety.
Vegetables: A wide variety of green, leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, broccoli, and asparagus are encouraged for fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Healthy Fats: Sources like avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil are incorporated to support hormonal health and provide sustained energy.
Whole Grains: Some versions of the plan include complex carbohydrates like quinoa, brown rice, and oats in moderation, often consumed earlier in the day for energy.
Fruits: Berries, apples, and oranges are favored for their vitamins and antioxidants, though higher-sugar fruits are sometimes restricted.

Commonly restricted foods:

Processed and Refined Foods: This includes snacks like chips, cookies, fast food, and most packaged baked goods.
Added Sugar: Models typically avoid table sugar, sugary drinks, and even natural sweeteners like honey.
Refined Grains: White bread, white rice, and traditional pasta are often cut out, especially in the weeks leading up to a show.
Alcohol: Consumption of alcohol is generally avoided.
Salty Foods: Sodium intake is often limited to reduce water retention and bloating.

Exercise Regimens

Intense and consistent physical activity is a crucial component, often more important than the diet itself for achieving the signature lean and toned physique. The workouts are designed to build muscle tone and maintain a low body fat percentage.

Typical workout activities:

HIIT: High-Intensity Interval Training is used to maximize calorie and fat burning in shorter periods.
Boxing: A popular choice for cardio and full-body toning, endorsed by many models.
Pilates and Barre: These disciplines focus on core strength, flexibility, and muscle sculpting.
Weight Training: Incorporating resistance and weight lifting is key to building and maintaining muscle mass.
Yoga: Practiced for flexibility, balance, and stress relief.

The Health Controversy and Risks

The Victoria's Secret diet has drawn significant criticism from health professionals for promoting unrealistic body standards and potentially harmful practices. The models' disciplined routines are for a specific, temporary performance goal, not a sustainable lifestyle.

Unrealistic Expectations: The expectation to emulate a model's physique is unattainable and unhealthy for most body types.
Restrictive Behavior: Severely restricting calorie intake or entire food groups can lead to nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, and muscle loss.
Yo-Yo Dieting: The cycle of extreme restriction followed by potential binge eating is associated with poor health outcomes, including metabolic issues and eating disorders.
Conflicting Advice: The lack of a standardized plan means conflicting advice is widespread, making it difficult for individuals to follow safely.

Comparison with Standard Healthy Eating Guidelines


Feature	Victoria's Secret Diet	Standard Healthy Eating (e.g., WHO guidelines)
Focus	Primarily rapid weight loss and physique-sculpting for short-term events.	Overall long-term health, wellness, and disease prevention.
Caloric Intake	Can be very low (e.g., 1300 calories) and potentially insufficient for adults.	Balanced energy intake tailored to individual needs and expenditure.
Food Variety	Restricts entire food groups (e.g., refined grains, higher-sugar fruits) and is often repetitive.	Encourages a wide variety of foods from all food groups in moderation.
Sustainability	Not sustainable for the average person due to restrictive nature and intense demands.	Promotes balanced habits that are sustainable over a lifetime.
Processed Foods	Strictly limits or avoids ultra-processed foods.	Recommends limiting consumption of processed foods, sugar, and saturated fats.
Exercise Intensity	High-intensity, focused workouts often multiple times a day before events.	Promotes regular, moderate physical activity as part of a balanced lifestyle.

Is the Victoria's Secret Diet Safe?

While elements like clean eating and regular exercise are beneficial, the overall approach of the Victoria's Secret diet is not recommended as a safe or sustainable lifestyle for the general public. The extreme nature of the pre-show preparations and the relentless focus on aesthetics over health can foster an unhealthy relationship with food and body image. Nutritionists and dietitians emphasize that focusing on long-term, balanced habits is a much safer and more effective way to achieve health goals. An individualized approach that considers personal nutritional needs, activity levels, and overall well-being is always preferable to following a generic and restrictive fad diet.

Conclusion

The Victoria's Secret diet plan is less a formal dietary strategy and more a collection of rigorous, short-term regimens adopted by models for specific performances. It promotes healthy whole foods and intense exercise but often involves highly restrictive and unsustainable practices that can be detrimental to health. The pursuit of an unrealistic and narrowly defined body type, often ignoring genetic diversity, carries significant physical and psychological risks. For a healthy and sustainable approach to fitness and weight management, focusing on balanced nutrition, moderation, and overall well-being is the recommended path.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Victoria's Secret diet plan is not a standardized program but is based on the anecdotal eating and exercise habits of the brand's models as shared in media interviews and on social platforms.

No, it is not considered safe or sustainable for the general population. The extreme calorie restriction and rigorous exercise, particularly in preparation for shows, can pose significant health risks like nutrient deficiencies and fatigue.

Models often restrict processed foods, refined carbohydrates (white bread, pasta), added sugars, alcohol, and starchy vegetables. Some may also limit dairy and gluten.

The exercise routines are typically very intense and frequent, including activities like HIIT, boxing, Pilates, yoga, and weight training. These are aimed at sculpting a lean, toned physique.

Some versions of the Victoria's Secret diet, as practiced by certain models, do include elements of intermittent fasting, though this is not a universal rule for all models.

Achieving a model-like body is highly dependent on genetics and requires extreme, often unsustainable, discipline. Health experts discourage this diet due to the unrealistic and potentially harmful standards it promotes.

A healthier alternative is to focus on a balanced, nutrient-dense diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, combined with a sustainable, enjoyable exercise routine, rather than chasing a specific, unrealistic body type.