With her tiny waist and slinky hips, it’s hard to believe that just three months ago Katie Hopkins weighed 12 stone. But since giving birth to her third child, Maximilian William in November last year, The Apprentice star has lost an astonishing 3 stone and she got back into her size 10 jeans just 10 days after giving birth!
Katie insists: “It was a thoroughly enjoyable moment, but I still need to lose my muffin top. My plan is to lose another 7lbs over the next few months.”
Katie, 34, became a national hate figure two years ago when she clashed with her fellow Apprentices thanks to her ‘tell it like it is’ attitude, before turning down Sir Alan Sugar¹s offer of a place in the final. It’s this tough, no-nonsense personality she credits for helping her to lose her baby weight so quickly.
“I spent two years in the Army so I’m incredibly tough on myself about losing the flab. I¹m used to discipline,” she says.
In Katie’s characteristically blunt way, she says fat women aren’t taken seriously in the workplace.
She says: “Business is a tough place to be, especially for a woman, and if you’re overweight then you lose respect because you appear lazy and undisciplined.”
'I spent two years in the Army so I'm incredibly tough on myself about losing the flab'
She even applied this disciplinarian attitude to motherhood and had Max induced on her chosen date, 29 November.
“My middle child, Poppy, was late and weighed over 10lbs and I didn’t want that to happen again. I also had a business meeting booked in early December so this baby was going to fit in to my schedule,” she admits.
Being a lifelong fitness fan, Katie exercised until just days before the birth, in the final weeks swapping her three-times-a-week runs for cycling around her hometown of Exeter, Devon.
She also ate normally during her pregnancy.
“I don’t put on that much extra fat when I’m pregnant other than on my bump, my boobs and my face,” she confesses.
Katie, who at 5ft 7 usually weighs 9 stone, says her body “zipped back into shape” quickly after her first two pregnancies with daughters India, five, and Poppy, four, and with Max it’s been the same.
Within a week of his birth she was walking with him in the buggy for an hour before building up to a slow, 30-minute run within a month.
But while she got back down to 10 stone in just 10 days, Katie admits she’s having to make an extra effort to get back down to her ideal weight.
“I always have the problem with that last stone, and now I’m going to have to work on my muffin top,” she says.
Katie’s idea of “working on it” involves running for an hour, three times a week in training for a half-marathon in April, as well as cardio gym work once a week, while her nanny cares for the children. She also does as many sit-ups as she can.
“Everyone says ‘give yourself a break’ after you’ve had a baby, but I find it better to get back into a routine,” she says.
“And I haven’t been dieting as it only makes me think of food more.
“Breastfeeding has helped me lose the weight and I’m eating what I always eat Bran Flakes for breakfast, a tuna sandwich for lunch, and dinner has to be something like curry or a roast.”
'Everyone says 'give yourself a break' after you've had a baby, but I find it better to get back into a rountine'
But while Katie now has her diet and fitness regime under control, it hasn’t always been that way.
The blonde businesswoman reveals there have been several occasions in her life where she has been so unhappy she has dropped to 7 stone and a tiny size 6.
In 2006, she and her first husband businessman Damian McKinney dad to India and Poppy porced, which caused the pounds to drop off.
And the media frenzy over her Apprentice performance and tabloid revelations of her affairs with married men including her current partner, Max’s dad Mark Cross, a 43-year-old graphic designer, had an equally devastating effect on her appetite.
“Being called a maneater and the biggest bitch in Britain was the best diet ever,” she says wryly.
“I don’t regret anything I did or said, but it was still a huge shock at how I was vilified. I found it difficult to eat for about four months. I threw myself into running as it was the only way to clear my head.”
And Katie loves running so much, she’s turned it into her next project.
Having already completed the London and New York marathons in the past, Katie plans to do six full marathons next year!
And now things are finally settling down in her life, Katie and Mark, who is recently porced, have booked a holiday to Corfu in May where she’s planning to wear a bikini.
“That’s another goal to aim for,” she says. And somehow you just know it’s one she’ll achieve.
By Vicki Grimshaw