Tuesday, 20 March 2007

How Katie Holmes lost her baby weight

Victoria Beckham shared her diet tips with Katie to help her get back in shape

When Katie Holmes gave birth to her first child Suri with Tom Cruise in 2006, she knew exactly who to turn to for help in getting her red-carpet body back: step forward super-slim mum-of-three (and Katie's new best friend) Victoria Beckham.

'Victoria got her figure back within weeks of having all her sons, so Katie thought she was the perfect person to ask about shifting her baby weight in time for her wedding to Tom,' says a friend of the couple.

Mrs Cruise was advised by Posh to read The Flavour Point Diet by US diet guru Dr David Katz, so we caught up with him to find out about the diet that's taken Hollywood by storm.

What's The Flavour Point Diet about?

'We all know we need to eat less to lose weight,' says Dr Katz. 'So why do we polish off a whole packet of biscuits instead of just having one? And why is a handful of crisps never enough?' The answer, he believes, is simple: flavour.

He reckons the huge amounts of flavour in modern diets, in particular processed foods, over- stimulate our appetites. 'Take breakfast cereal, for example. Many of the sweet and sugary cereals contain as much salt as a bag of crisps. Equally, salty snacks contain sugar.

'Studies show that conflicting flavours trigger our appetite, causing us to overeat.'

The Flavour Point Diet works on the principle of not mixing flavours and sticking to foods with few ingredients. 'The longer a food's ingredients list, the more hidden flavours it has and the more it'll stimulate your appetite,' says Dr Katz.

The other principle is 'flavour themes'. Dr Katz believes his diet can help us reach the point when we're completely full and unable to eat anything else, quicker. He recommends sticking to a flavour theme each day. 'While flavour variety stimulates the appetite centre in our brain, flavour repetition soothes it,' he says. So by keeping a theme to each meal our appetites are more easily satisfied and the pounds will drop off.

How does it work?

'For the first four weeks of the diet – phase one – use the same flavour theme over all your meals,' says Dr Katz.

For example, on a 'cranberry day' you could have cranberry muffins for breakfast, a salad with cranberries for lunch and pork chops with cranberry for dinner.

The diet doesn't cut out any food groups – even carbs – the only rule is that you stick to a flavour theme and all your foods are wholesome, minimally processed and free from unnecessary flavours.

Dr Katz's wife is a gourmet chef and wrote most of the recipes in his book. 'Subtle yet repeated exposure to the same flavours will calm down your appetite centre, meaning you'll feel fuller and are less likely to overeat,' he says.

The flavour themes include raisin, peach, tomato, onion, spinach, thyme, lemon, orange and chocolate.

'After the first four weeks, you won't need to rely as much on the daily flavour themes to curb your appetite,' says Dr Katz.

'During weeks five and six – phase two – the meal plans include a bigger variety of flavours each day. In this phase each meal or snack, rather than the whole day, has a flavour theme. For example, breakfast might have a lemon theme, lunch may be basil and dinner is tomato.'

The final phase of the diet – phase three – is permanent. 'You can have a variety of food, without having too much variety at any one time,' he says. 'Salty foods are fine. Spicy foods are fine. Sweet foods are fine. You just can't eat them all at once.

'You can have a sweet breakfast with honey and fruit, then a savoury lunch of egg on toast. What you can't have is a savoury meat sandwich for lunch with a sugary fizzy drink, or a breakfast that consists of salty eggs and sweet jam – that'll send your appetite into overdrive. After six weeks on the diet, phase three will come naturally.'

How much weight will you lose?

Expect to lose up to 16lb over six weeks. 'That's just under 3lb a week,' says Dr Katz. 'You'll lose the weight slowly and steadily, meaning it will stay off for longer.'

The diet also promises to cure IBS, ward off illness, aid sleep, improve your skin and give your sex drive a boost. It sounds like Tom had a good honeymoon!