Country star Leann Rimes has had a very public battle with her body image over the years. From making musical waves as a chubby teen, she went through a period of extreme thinness in her twenties, only to pile the weight back on. Now in her mid-thirties, Leann has achieved her ideal physique. Her transformation has a lot of people wondering how she finally managed to get on top of her life-long battle with body fat. We’re about to find out.

Stress Can be Good

When pressed for the secret to her dramatic weight loss, Leann was candid in her response. At the time she was having an affair with the man who would become her husband, Eddie Cibrian. She says that the stress of that situation (they were both married) was a major factor in her transformation. Of course, Leann isn’t promoting infidelity as a means to your ideal weight. She also had to transform her diet and work her butt off in the gym to create the physical package that she now flaunts.

Exercise Junkie

Leann loves working and does it every day. Her fitness trainer goes by the name of Michael Jackson (no relation) and he provides her with plenty of reasons to sweat. Jackson has Leann on a program that combines boxing, running and heavy weight workouts in the gym. Let’s break it down:

Boxing

Leanne will visit the boxing gym 3 times per week. She’ll start with a 10-minute warm-up of skipping. Then she’ll don the gloves and move to the heavy bag. A series of 45 second drills would follow.

The first drill that she would perform involved a series of 4 straight punches in the one-two, one-two pattern. Each punch would be accompanied by a waist pivot (key to engaging the core).

Then she would go to a series of 4 upper cuts. The third move involved a hook to the body, followed up with a straight punch.

She would perform the 3 boxing moves in rapid succession, then drop to do 4 push ups and jump up again to do 4 deep body weight squats.

Drill Number two for Leann involved ten straight front punches immediately followed by a super deep squat which would be held for 4 seconds. This pattern would repeat 4 times.

The third drill involved ten straight left hand punches followed by ten straight right hand punches. These would be followed by ten left leg hop lunges and ten right leg hop lunges.

To perform hop lunges, get into a wide lunge stance, holding your hands up in the defensive boxing position. Your rear leg should be back far enough that the rear knee is only about a foot off the ground. You now jump hop up and down, push front the front thigh to get as much height as possible.

Lean would complete this routine three times, with a rest period of two to three minutes between each round. She’d finish her boxing sessions with a light sparring session with her trainer.

Weight Training

She knows that working out with weights is a fantastic way to lose weight, while toning and build sexy muscle. On the days that she wasn’t in the boxing gym, she would hit the weights gym. For her, that usually meant Monday, Wednesday ad Friday for boxing and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the  weight room.

Rimes especially loves to do compound exercises that work multiple body parts together. Her all time favorite is the squat. It’s the exercise that she credits as contributing to her new, curvaceous figure more than any other. Leann goes heavy on her squat workout, following a pyramid progression that sees her dropping the reps and upping the weight each set. Here’s how she does it:

Set One – Warm up 15 reps

Set Two – 12 reps

Set Thee – 10 reps

Set Four – 8 reps

Set 5 – 6 reps

For that final set, she will pound out her half dozen reps with a weigh that is equivalent to 75% of her one repetition maximum.

The next time that she comes to the gym, she’ll switch her squat workout to a high repetition light weight session. This will involve three sets of 20 reps with 40% of her one repetition maximum. By mixing it up between high and low reps, Leanne knows that she will be stimulating maximum fat loss.

The balance of the weight training routine involved weighted lunges, the barbell bench press, pull ups, deadlifts and a variety of rowing exercises.

Running

Rimes loves to go for a jog in the early evening. She does this three times per week, usually on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She maintains a moderate pace and sets her stop watch for 40 minutes. She will typically run in her local park, enjoying the time to relax and soak in the sights and sounds of nature.

The Diet

Over the years, Leann has had a love-hate relationship with food. She has gone from using food as a crutch to cope with her anxieties to almost completely shunning it altogether. Finally, she has managed to establish a healthy relationship with food. In fact, she has now got such a handle on her nutrition that she points to it as the real key to her taut, terrific new look.

Leann’s macronutrient ratio is weighted toward lean protein. She consumes 55% protein, 25% carbohydrates and 20% fat. Her favorite proteins are fish, chicken and lean turkey. Carbs come from a lot of fresh vegetables such as broccoli, carrots and asparagus. She also eats fruit, but not after 3 pm. Her trainer, Michael Jackson explains why . . .

{See How Drew Carey Lost Over 75 pounds Here!]

Fruit contains a lot of sugar, and sugar metabolizes into carbs, so I try to have her eat that before she really gets active. Fruits are good source of energy, much better than energy drinks.

Jackson has Leanne follow a strict diet of all natural, unprocessed foods. He does allow her a cheat meal, but only once per week and early in the day, so that she can burn off the excess calories through exercise.

Leann eats six smaller meals throughout the day. She finds this to be a great way to avoid the urge to snack. Each meal will include a lean protein source to keep the muscles constantly supplied with amino acids. Protein keeps her full throughout the day.

With all of her working out, Leann needs a constant supply of energy to fuel her training sessions. She gets it in the form of a pre-workout formula that she takes a half hour before her training sessions. The powder contains 65% naturally sourced carbs along with creatine monohydrate to energize her muscles with ATP for strength and energy. She also takes a protein shakes as her mid afternoon meal.

She eats her last meal at around 6pm. It will normally be a lean protein such as skinless chicken breast, a baked potato and a tossed green salad with flax seed oil to provide essential healthy fats. She knows that it is important to stay calorie free in the last couple of hours before retiring for the night.

The Total Package 

Leann has fought the hard fight to get her body to where she feels comfortable and confident. In the process she has created a physique which is an inspiration to all women who are undergoing similar challenges. See The Jennifer Hudson Workout Here