Mexican Beauty Queen Claims She Lost Crown Over Six Pounds

Aug. 8, 2011 -- When Cynthia de la Vega accepted her crown at the Nuestra Belleza Mundo Mexico pageant last September, she was thrilled that it meant she would represent her country at the 2011 Miss World pageant.

But the crown has been snatched from her because of six pound weight gain, she claims.

"I was very, very excited because I thought this would be a great experience," she told "Good Morning America."

But now, she will never make it out of Mexico to fulfill her pageant dreams.

De la Vega has been stripped of her crown, she claims, because she failed to lose enough weight before the competition.

Organizers of Nuestra Belleza Mexico, Mexico's equivalent of the Miss USA pageant, withdrew the 19-year-old's title last month, claiming that she had a "lack of dedication and discipline."

De la Vega came in second in the September pageant. The first place winner moves on to the Miss Universe pageant while the runner-up, de la Vega, was slated compete in the Miss World contest on Nov. 6 in London.

But de la Vega says her title was stripped over a mere six-pound weight gain.

"I was very sad and very deceived," de la Vega said. "I cried and cried and cried."

Beauty Queen Loses Crown Over Six Pound Weight Gain

The beauty queen admits she has gained weight while pushing herself hard to prepare for the upcoming Miss World pageant, but says she had not been warned of any physical requirements for the competition.

In a press conference last week, de la Vega revealed that her personal pageant coach, Luis Rangel, prescribed her with a diet plan via email, which consisted of "the same food during the whole month."

But she said that the pageant itself should have been the ones to offer her diet and exercise assistance if they were going to hold her to a weight standard.

"Organizers of the Nuestra Belleza Mexico contest demanded that I lose a few kilos, but they never provided a nutritionist or any other assistance to ensure the weight loss," she told reporters. "A proper nutrition plan should be specific for each day of the week and should also be supervised to make the necessary adjustments."

Pageant organizers strongly contest de la Vega's claims that weight was the reason behind their decision.

In a statement announcing the withdrawal of de la Vega's crown, Lupita Jones, national director for the Nuestra Belleza Mexico pageant, cited a lack of discipline, not weight.

"It was a lack of dedication and discipline" that caused her removal as she "did not comply with the recommendations and goals agreed upon for her preparation," her statement read.

Pageant Weight Struggles

While six pounds may be a blip in the neverending weight struggle for everyday folks, it can, as De la Vega's example may prove, be career-ending in the cut throat pageant world.

Earlier this year, teenage Texas beauty queen Domonique Ramirez, went to court to keep her crown following accusations that the then-recently coronated Miss San Antonio violated her contract and gained too much weight.

The 17-year-old claimed that, at a bikini photoshoot shortly after she won, a pageant official said she needed to "drop 13 pounds" and "lay off the tacos."

After her court battle, in which she showed off her size two physique and made a joke out of her diet by eating a doughnut in court, Ramirez won back her crown.

On the other end of the spectrum is Miss South Carolina Bree Boyce, a beauty queen who once weighed 234 pounds, competed in pageants for years and won her title only after losing more than 70 pounds.

Although de la Vega hired her own nutritionist to lose the weight and says she's now in better shape than before she won the crown, she's not so hopeful her story will have a happy ending like that of Ramirez, or even Boyce.

"I think it's very difficult because Mrs. Jones is very cold," she told "GMA" of the Nuestra Belleza Mexico pageant director who decided her fate. "Once she makes a decision, there is no turning back."

The pageant has already named Gabriela Palacio as De la Vega's substitute, who will go on to represent Mexico in November's Miss World.