oprah winfrey

"I've heard of stars paying as much as $250 or more an hour for a top-name personal trainer, sometimes much more if the trainer has to travel with them to a movie location or on a concert tour," Michael Thurmond, a longtime personal trainer and creator of "Michael Thurmond's 6 Week Body Makeover," told The ENQUIRER.

"Stars like Oprah Winfrey, Debra Messing and Kate Hudson may pay top dollar for their personal trainers, chefs and nutritionists and get great results," said Thurmond, who also works with contestants on ABC's "Extreme Makeover." "But they can certainly afford it."

Oprah, who has gained and lost and gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the years, has spent big bucks getting skinny, splurging for such remedies as $7,000-aweek jaunts to the Cal-a-Vie health spa near San Diego, hiring her own chef, personal trainer and nutritionist, and even jetting to Hawaii to work out.

"The treatments, the spas, special imported natural drinks -- they easily run in the tens of thousands of dollars," revealed a source.

Uma Thurman wanted to lose her baby weight after giving birth in 2002. So the "Kill Bill" star turned to trainer/nutritionist Jackie Keller, whose company delivers healthy food to dieting stars.

MOBILE MEALS

She's in good company -- Lucy Liu, Quentin Tarantino, Christian Slater, Daryl Hannah and John Corbett all have opted for the same celeb meals-on-wheels program.

"Spider-Man 2" star Tobey Maguire didn't want to be known as Tubby Maguire, so he came up with a simple but pricey solution: Hire his own cook.

During one visit to the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Maguire's cook Eric LaChasseur even tagged along and marched into the resort's kitchen to supervise the preparation of lunch.

Queen Latifah shed pounds with a personal trainer, while Renee Zellweger has a personal trainer AND a yoga instructor and dietician.

What do you do if you're Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone, Barbra Streisand, Cindy Crawford, Jane Fonda or Catherine Zeta-Jones and want to drop a few pounds? Fork over $3,300 to endure a torturous week at The Ashram "boot camp" spa near Malibu.

SURGERY

Other stars resort to even more drastic measures: Al Roker, Carnie Wilson and Randy Jackson have all had expensive gastric bypass surgery.

And some top stars opt for five-week liquid diets that cost up to $2,000 and are supervised by Bo Wagner, who runs Universal Life Force near L.A.

"Everybody Loves Raymond" star Patricia Heaton -- who lost eight pounds in the week leading up to the 2001 Emmys, admits: "I've done major fasting detox programs with him where I drink these thick green shakes for a week and have five colonics in a row!" -- MICHAEL GLYNN

HIGH-PRICED CELEBRITY WEIGHT-LOSS ANALYSIS: