Janet Jackson’s weight has been scrutinized in the press almost as much as her music career and personal life. In 2005 Jackson gained a lot of weight for her role in a film that she didn’t end up doing.

To bulk up for the part, Janet says she was eating a lot of junk food like french fries and, one night, an entire Domino’s Pizza.

After tipping the scale at 180, and starting to feel very uncomfortable, the 5-foot-4-inch Jackson was on a mission to lose the 60 pounds she had put on. With the help of her nutritionist David Allen and tough-as-nails trainer Tony Martinez, Janet, 41, remarkably dropped the weight in four months.

“I really worked hard at it,” she says. Tony had her doing workout sessions of no less than 30 minutes, five or six days a week. And David cut out her much-loved fried food and replaced it with a clean diet of grilled lean proteins like fish, chicken and veggies.

Janet recalls, “I was having small portions every three to four hours, so I was eating all day long. Even when I didn’t want to eat, I had to eat.” This kept her metabolism revved up throughout the day, and the weight melted off.

In recent weeks, Janet has been looking better than ever while promoting her new movie, Why Did I Get Married? Nutritionist Allen says, “She looks better than she’s ever looked in the last five years right now. She really looks good.” This has come as a shock to those who’d seen a plumper Janet as recently as July.

Allen admits, “I don’t say numbers, but she put a little weight on through the summer. She’s normal like everyone else and fights the same battles.” But when it was time to prepare for her film’s promotional tour, Janet got serious again and is back to a strict routine. “She motivates herself a lot,” Allen says. [via]