14 DAY TRIAL // Songwriter and producer Kara DioGuardi also happens to have one of the best bodies in the industry, as she revealed herself on the last season of American Idol, when she ripped her dress open to show off her well-defined abs in a contest with “Bikini Girl.” Speaking with Women’s Health, the April 2010 issue, Kara now says that moment was a career-defining one, though perhaps not in the sense we might have believed.
The “Girl” was one of the contestants who’d been turned out during auditions but who was asked back on the show for being bold enough to present herself in front of the judges in nothing but a two-piece swimsuit. Since Kara had been the most vocal about her (bad) performance, the two sang together. At the end of the song, Kara ripped open her dress and revealed a two-piece swimsuit, as well as a banging body.
“It probably saved my job. It was a defining moment. Like, ‘She’s serious and industry, but also as kooky as everyone else on this panel’.” Kara now jokes. The American Idol, as we also noted on a previous occasion citing one of her older interviews, battled an eating disorder for a long time, a disorder that she developed because she’d resorted to food to deal with her emotional issues. “I’d pretty much clean out the refrigerator. Food was my drug of choice. It anesthetized me so I wouldn’t have to feel whatever I was feeling. I’d stuff myself full of sugar and fall asleep,” the star recalls.
She’s come a long way since then, though, as the photos in the latest issue of Women’s Health magazine also show, two of which have her flashing her incredible abs. Kara eats healthily now, but she’s not on any diet because, to put it simply, she likes to eat. So, she exercises portion control and makes sure she works out a lot so that she builds muscle, muscle mass that later burns calories.
“The more roughage you eat, the more it fills you up. […] Two huge bottles [of water] a day, minimum. I have them around – one upstairs, one in the car – to force me to remember. […] Two miles of running or 25 minutes of cardio – boxing, treadmill, step-ups, walking lunges, sprints. I mix it up. And weight training is important as you get older. You build muscle which burns fat when you’re at rest,” DioGuardi says of her three secrets to an amazing figure.