A Victoria’s Secret Model Trainer Blames This Popular Diet for Making His Clients Gain Weight

If you haven’t jumped on the juice cleanse bandwagon just yet but assume it’s the silver bullet supermodels use to whittle themselves into runway shape, well, don’t invest in that Vitamix just yet.

Personal trainer Justin Gelband, who works with Victoria’s Secret models like Karlie Kloss and Miranda Kerr, recently revealed that some of his clients’ attempts at juicing were far from, er, fruitful. "At Fashion Week some models went on a juice diet and didn't tell me,” Gelband told Business Insider. "Not one lost weight, some actually gained weight. That got me in big trouble."

For those of us too busy ranking our favorite pizza toppings to pay attention to what a juice diet involves, the idea is to consume only liquids, usually derived from fruits and vegetables, for a period of a few days up to a few weeks. Juicing advocates often tout benefits ranging from detoxification to improved mental clarity to swiftly shedding pounds.

Gelband, however, explained that he “makes” his clients eat actual food in order to keep up with his workouts since “food is key to energy,” adding that he likes the paleo diet, an eating plan that eschews dairy, legumes, grains, and processed foods for meat, seafood, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds—foods that cavemen are believed to have eaten.

Registered dietician and University of Miami adjunct professor Monica Heather Auslander of Essence Nutrition Miami told The Feast she doesn't recommend juicing either, especially since you miss out on much of a fruit or vegetable’s fiber when you extract only the juice. “Juice cleanses are essentially like hanging an IV bag of sugar into your body, which immediately promotes fat storage and an impaired glycemic response,” says Auslander, whose clients range from models to the Miami Marlins. “Americans think that if something is good, more is better. So, if a carrot or an apple is good, eating six of them in a 12-ounce juice bottle is better? That’s flawed and dangerous logic. If you want to harness the phytochemical power of fruits and veggies, eat them.”

But unlike Gelband, Auslander isn’t a fan of the paleo diet, either. “We have no evidence that dairy...causes any kind of ill health effects, unless you have an allergy or intolerance,” she says. “Cutting out major food groups like the paleo diet advises sets you up for major nutrient deficiencies and creates disordered eating patterns.”

Auslander’s best advice? Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods you enjoy and stop eating when you’re full.

Now that sounds like a model eating plan.