Fresh into a new tour in Amsterdam, Lady Gaga has been stalking stages sporting her trademark meat suit – and a new body type. The petite singer put on 25 pounds, but is batting away rubberneckers with a pragmatism about her body and the fluctuations it undergoes between tours.
"I'm dieting right now, because I gained, like, 25 pounds," she recently told a radio host. "And you know I really don't feel bad about it, not even for a second. I have to be on such a strict diet constantly. It's hard because it's a quite vigorous show, so I tend to bulk up, get muscular, and I really don't like that. So I'm trying to find a new balance."
It's a refreshing attitude, and works especially well when you have an army of personal trainers who will whip you back into shape with back-to-back spin classes and yoga marathons. It's unlikely real folk ever get to enjoy their seasonal binges – well, at least not the billowing results – as much as Gaga.
The 26-year-old has been unapologetic about her eating and boozing habits.
"I am on the drunk diet," she told a Sirius radio host last year. "I live my life as I want to, creatively. I like to drink whiskey and stuff while I am working. But the deal is I've got to work out every day, and I work out hung over if I am hung over. And it's about the cross-training and keeping yourself inspired. I have to say, I do a ton of yoga."
Her occasional, obsessive discipline has also yielded criticism, as when she tweeted in April, "Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger," adding the hashtag #PopSingersDontEat.
This time around, much of the criticism isn't about Gaga's appearance ("Finally. A woman from New York who eats," wrote one commenter) – it's that she's using the weight gain to promote her daddy's restaurant.
"I love eating pasta and pizza," Gaga told the radio host. "I'm a New York Italian girl. That's why I have been staying out of New York. My father opened a restaurant. It's so amazing … it's so freaking delicious, but I'm telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in there. So my dad wants me to eat at the restaurant, and I'm, like, I've got to go where I can drink green juice."
Well if your rear end is going to be scrutinized the world over, why not send the family business some traffic to boot?