Photo: instagram
They met through Instagram.
By Samantha Maffucci — Written on May 15, 2019
Over the years, Kim Kardashian’s body has gone through some major changes. Since rising to fame in 2007, she’s undergone a nose job, breast enlargement, alleged liposuction on her hips and waist, a lifted hairline, cheek fillers, and her famously large behind (which she denies getting surgery on).
Though Kim looks completely different, there’s no denying that she’s in amazing shape and works hard to keep her body fit. And she can thank one woman for pushing her.
Who is Melissa Alcantara? Here are six things to know about Kim’s personal trainer, their friendship, and her own personal weight loss journey.
1. Kim found her on social media.
After having a baby, she reached out to Alcantara on Instagram, hoping she’d be able to help Kim get her body back.
“Melissa is a trainer I found. She’s super-inspiring to me and I really want to meet up with her and see if she could train me. She could help direct my food and really get me on an amazing path...If I was 10 percent like her it would be life-changing. Like, my whole arms and back. It’s mostly food. I gotta have this lifestyle. I gotta try,” Kim said, as per a report by E! News.
And according to Kim, this is the most fit she’s ever been. Under Alcantara, Kim gets up between 5-6:30 AM and exercises for 90 minutes. She does a mix of TRX, squat jumps, resistance bands, and other workouts that require a lot to push through.
In an interview with InStyle, Alcantara recalled how she and Kim first got connected:
"[Kim] realized she needed a change — a real change. She needed it as a lifestyle. One day while browsing through Instagram at like 4 AM, she found one of my transformation images. Something told her that she needed to contact me. Kim wanted to be strong and healthy and do it the right way — AKA the hard way. Three days later, we were chatting at her apartment in New York City. I used to live in Brooklyn, and we really connected on a personal level. I told her that we were actually moving to LA in about a month from the time we met, which worked perfectly because she wanted to train with me and embark on this fitness adventure together. The rest is history. Kim is my homegirl and we push each other to do better every single day."
2. She makes sure to keep Kim motivated.
The workouts obviously aren’t easy, so that means Alcantara has to keep Kim moving. In a comment to Us Weekly, she revealed, “I like to work out with her sometimes. I feel like that gets her into it and she sees that I’m working just as hard as she is. We’re both up at 6 o’clock in the morning and I’m like, ‘Listen, if you’re gonna die, I’m gonna die, we’re both gonna die.’ That’s how we get through it every day.”
On Instagram, Kim occasionally posts their intense workouts, including quad workouts, leg presses, jump squats, and more. Says Alcantara, “She loves [working out in the morning]. Sometimes we have to work out in the afternoon and she’s like, ‘Ugh!’ You know? In the morning she’s up, she’s with it, she knows what’s gonna happen, and it’s literally obviously the first thing she does in the day, and the rest of her day just goes smoothly.”
3. She’s competed in challenges.
Earlier this year, Alcantara competed on The Titan Games, hosted by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and won! The Rock even tweeted about her performance, commenting, “You’re a champ and inspiration to everyone who witnessed your incredible performance tonight. Including myself.”
4. She began training after having a baby.
Alcantara has been through her own weight loss journey, deciding to improve herself after giving birth.
“It took pregnancy to really bring reality down on me, and it seriously poured painful truths over my mind and my body. I gained something like 70 pounds during pregnancy. After that, I had a beautiful baby and family support. But all my bad habits had caught up and I just felt depressed, overweight, and didn’t know where to start..."
“...I did Weight Watchers, Insanity, Crossfit, Jiu Jitsu, Yoga, all sorts of classes and eventually dedicated myself almost exclusively to bodybuilding as my way to train my body; my mind had already the materials needed to train and focus on my goals. One thing that growing up in chaos taught me was that no matter what happens in your life, you have got to fight,” she told InStyle.
5. But she also wanted to improve herself.
“I never set out to be a trainer or social media fitness chick; I did all this because I wanted it for me. I wanted to be legitimately healthy, honestly strong, see what my body was capable of, and be the best version of myself. I’m still deep in this pursuit: to create the best Melissa I can be regardless of my past or present. Now, I work with other people who want it just as bad as I do,” she revealed.
Not only does she want to be physically healthy, but mentally as well. That’s pretty inspirational in itself, and is something we can all apply to our own lives.
6. And she has some words of advice.
Specifically about nutrition, diet, and feeling good about yourself. In the same InStyle interview, she said:
“...we have made people believe that eating carbs is bad and that you should eat just protein and veggies to lose unneeded fat. Carbs are needed, and some people actually need a lot more carbs than other depending on certain factors such as their genetic type. But I'm talking about real carbs like sweet potatoes and quinoa, rice cakes and fiber crisps are NOT carbs, they're just processed food.
Women are doing detox teas, skipping carbs and loading on crazy amounts of protein, and perpetually doing endless hours of cardio... I want to end this nonsense. We all know it doesn't work but for a short period of time, and you end up literally starving yourself to lose weight; the worst part is that this approach ends up making you gain all the weight back plus some right after you stop starving. This approach is hormonally taxing to our bodies, it's just not sustainable and quite unhealthy.”
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.