Lady Gaga, who strength-trains 5 days a week to maintain her toned bikini body, is an unabashed exercise fanatic who works hard to stay fit.
'Hard Work Keeps Me In Shape'
"I do yoga, I do Bikram and I run, and I eat really healthy," Gaga, 25, says in the October 2011 issue of Harper's Bazaar. "You know, my work sort of feeds me. I keep in shape by working hard."
The 5'1" Gaga, who was bullied as a teen for being fat and ugly, also does 35-minute strength-training sessions five days a week to stay taut and lean.
Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, recently put her muscles to the test by surfing for the first time during a two-day vacation in Mexico.
"I fell off a lot in the beginning," Gaga recounts, "but one of the surfers said to me, 'Now that you can stand up, just look into the future and enjoy the ride.' I thought that was an interesting metaphor about life."
Gaga, who stunned fans by revealing she used to sleep with makeup on every night, insists she feels comfortable with or without her dramatic makeup.
'I'm the Same Person Inside With or Without Makeup'
While critics contend Gaga's over-the-top maquillage and fashions are a gimmick, the pop icon insists she doesn't rely on artifice to get attention.
"I don't really view [not wearing makeup] as 'natural,' " she explains. "I think that artifice is the new reality. It's more about just being honest and sincere to the core of what you do.
"Whether I'm wearing lots of makeup or no makeup, I'm always the same person inside. I think the perception that I 'put it on' every day is probably not true."
To Gaga, elaborate makeup is whimsical, and not an integral part of who she is at her core.
"Don't you think that what's on the cover of a magazine is quite artificial?" she asks. "There's this idea that it's all-natural, but everything's been staged to look natural. It is also an invention. It's just that my inventions are different.
I often get asked about my artifice, but isn't fashion based on the idea that we can create a fantasy? I think what has been lovely about my relationship with the public is that they expect something unexpected from me."
'I Embrace Solitude'
Gaga, who lives for music, is a workaholic who makes no apologies for her passion, ambition and drive.
"[I work] about 16 to 20 hours a day," she says. "And when I'm alone, I write, I imagine, I create things, and I decide how I want to do my future performances. I don't take much time off."
Gaga says her nonstop travel schedule has made her comfortable with solitude.
"When you're alone as much as I am, you become accustomed to your solitude and embrace it."
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