Kim Kardashian stunned in Marilyn Monroe's dress at the Met Gala. But at what cost?

• Kim Kardashian turned heads at the Met Gala wearing Marilyn Monroe's dress.
• Kardashian lost 16 pounds in three weeks to fit into the dress by cutting out all sugar and carbs.
• Experts and social media users worry this messaging glamorizes diet culture.

At Monday's "Gilded Glamour"-themed Met Gala, Kim Kardashian stunned in the original skin-tight, sparkling nude dress that Marilyn Monroe wore to sing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy – but the jaw dropping look came at a cost.

In order to fit into the figure-hugging piece of history, which is worth millions of dollars, the reality TV star and entrepreneur had to quickly shed pounds.

On the red carpet, Kardashian told pal LaLa Anthony she lost 16 pounds in three weeks in order to don the dress, which couldn't be altered. And headlines swirling around the internet about her weight loss helped to glamorize the speedy transformation. That messaging from such a prominent star has worried both experts and fans, who fear Kardashian is promoting a dangerous diet culture that our society has tried to move away from in recent years. 

"I tried it on and it didn't fit me," she said. "I had three weeks and I had to lose 16 pounds... It was like a role. I was determined to fit into it. I don't think they believed I was going to do it, but I did it."

In an interview with Vogue, she detailed the lengths she went to make the dress fit.

“I would wear a sauna suit twice a day, run on the treadmill, completely cut out all sugar and all carbs, and just eat the cleanest veggies and protein,” she explains. “I didn’t starve myself, but I was so strict.”

According to Vogue, Kardashian only wore the dress for a few minutes before changing into a replica so as not to damage the original.

While it's inevitable you will lose weight when you eliminate food groups, experts have long warned against crash diets. 

"We have to remember that food is energy for our body, and we should not be afraid to eat whole wholesome foods, and we should focus on the foods that we should eat versus ones we shouldn’t eat," Angela Lemond, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, previously told USA TODAY.

Instead, she recommends a well-balanced diet rather than deleting or demonizing certain foods.

After the Met Gala, social media users were quick to point out the danger in normalizing extreme weight loss.

"The big #MetGala fashion moment, I guess, was Kim Kardashian wearing the Marilyn Monroe dress, which she said she lost 16 pounds in three weeks to fit into. If that's not the regressive messaging this industry has tried desperately to distance from, what is?" tweeted fashion journalist Amy Odell.

"Kim losing 16 pounds for that dress should never be glamorized," Twitter user @lordlydavid shared.

"Kim saying she lost 16 pounds in 3 weeks just to wear a dress and they're acting like this is normal 🥴" user @kingbealestreet tweeted.

"I get the historical significance of the (Marylin Monroe) dress but pushing yourself to lose 16 pounds just to fit into it for a few hrs? Diet culture is dangerous 😭" user @wavywhit_ added.

This isn't the first time extreme dieting has been normalized – and even celebrated – in Hollywood.

In 2014, Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club," where he shed nearly 50 pounds for his character after following a restrictive meal plan of fasting and subsisting on a diet of fresh fish and a daily glass of red wine.

Similarly, years after overcoming her own disordered eating, Lily Collins lost weight to star in Netflix's anorexia movie "To the Bone" in 2017. And in 2019, Beyoncé made headlines for her "Beychella" diet, a program she followed to get in shape for her Coachella performances after giving birth to twins.

Beyoncé spoke about the diet in her Netflix documentary "Homecoming," explaining she refrained from carbs, sugar, dairy, meat, fish and alcohol – and admitted she was "hungry." 

Kardashian has also sparked controversy before for questionable comments on rapid weight loss. Weeks before the 2017 Met Gala, she tweeted: “The flu can be an amazing diet. So happy it came in time for the Met." 

Experts also note that there are other issues with dieting.

Research shows 95% of people who diet will gain back their weight, according to Natalie Ingraham, a sociology professor at California State University whose research focuses on the intersections of body size, gender, sexuality and health, 

Kardashian posted on her Instagram Story about eating doughnuts and pizza after the Met Gala concluded. "Guys, I haven't had sugar and carbs in... definitely three weeks. I'm so excited!" 

"It's not that people should never watch what they're eating or never have to change what they're eating," Ingraham previously told USA TODAY. "But I think the change toward eating particularly focused on weight loss as the main outcome is just a boulder up the hill, and your body's going to fight you back on it. It wants to be at a certain weight, a certain size, and it's going to do what it can to stay there."

Contributing: Rasha Ali and Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY

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