Original Diva

Halle Berry just turned 45, and by all measures, she really does look great. However, we need to be aware that when the media prints glowing articles about how “hot” an actress is in her 40s, that she probably had some help. Here in this photo, 45-year-old Halle looks good, but almost a little too skinny, in her bikini. If you’re a normal woman living a harried, normal life, you might wonder how it’s possible to have that flat of the stomach once you pass the big 4-0.

I grew up quite skinny myself, but have definitely found that after 40, my tummy likes to hang onto a little bit of belly fat. It’s not a huge deal, and I am not going on low-fat diet nor doing obsessive exercise to burn it off. I’m still the right weight for my height, and I honestly wonder whether it’d even be healthy to try to get a super flat stomach at my age! So I do know, based on how extreme my metabolism used to be, that any normal woman who gets to middle age is going to have a little bit of softness going on, because if I can get a little belly fat now after being able to eat anything and look downright anorexic in my 20s, most women are going to have a tough time staying super skinny into their mid-40s.

So how does a star like Halle Berry do it? There are a few things she might be doing – one is that she could be on an extreme diet of the “lettuce” variety. Two is that she could have gotten liposuction on her belly. Three is that she is using diet pills – and in Hollywood, there is a black market for diet pills for the extremely obese that are sometimes used by women who don’t really need the pills. Of course, she also has the time and money to use a high-end personal trainer and possibly even a personal chef to help her keep her body close to perfect.

Most female stars are under tremendous pressure to look good way past their prime. It’s a shame that more of them don’t stand up and just “own” growing older. But fear and attachment to being young and beautiful is probably the reason – and they are, after all, human.

We average women simply need to remember that, while bodies like Halle Berry’s do show us what’s “possible” for 40something women, they don’t express what’s realistic. Staying fit and being in shape is a worthy goal, but trying to maintain an unreasonably flat tummy  (to the point of being concave) is not.