Kelly Ripa says she ate like her husband for 3 days to help fit into her Oscars dress

Business Insider

11-06-2025

It turns out that all Kelly Ripa needed to do to fit into her Oscars dress was eat like Mark Consuelos for three days.
On Monday's episode of " Live with Kelly and Mark," Ripa spoke about how she struggled to fit into her gown for the Academy Awards
"So right before the Academy Awards, I was having trouble getting my dress zipped up the side. It was a side-zip dress, and I kept getting zipped into the dress," Ripa said. "I don't know if any women have experienced having your side skin sipped into your dress. It is a punishing thing."
To help Ripa get red carpet-ready, Consuelos suggested she follow his high-protein diet.
"It's the only time I've listened to Mark about my diet because I typically don't like to do what you're doing," Ripa said. "I just find, you're like, way too disciplined. I can't live that way."
But she didn't mind giving it a shot if it's just "for 72 hours," Ripa said, adding that some of the foods she ate included steak, yoghurt, and vegetables.
"I didn't love it, because I'm not big on animal protein. I don't love it, but I ate exactly how you told me to eat, and that dress zipped right up, no side skin," Ripa said. "And I looked super fit. Super, super fit. So thank you for that."
Consuelos added that increasing protein should go hand-in-hand with meeting daily fiber needs.
"It's crucial for maintaining a healthy gut microbiome and may lower the rates of chronic disease such as diabetes," Consuelos said.
Protein helps build lean muscle mass, boosts immunity, and is good for weight loss.
The latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the United States Department of Agriculture, recommend 14 grams of dietary fiber for every 1,000 calories consumed. This amounts to 22 to 28 grams daily for adult women and 28 to 34 grams daily for adult men, depending on their age range.
Dietitians previously told Business Insider that salmon, shrimp, and black beans are high-protein foods that can be beneficial to include in a weight-loss diet.
Eating a lot of protein isn't usually harmful, but it can mean you're not getting enough of other important nutrients.
"Most athletes that I talk to are eating too much protein because they think eating more protein means building more muscle," sports dietitian Nancy Clark told BI. "It's actually the carbs that fuel muscle. All the protein they're eating displaces the carbs that are needed to fuel the muscles."