Mark Anthony's diet tips

by Taryn Davies | 11 January 2012

We all need a little bit of help and motivation

We all need a little help sometimes when it comes to persaverance on a diet, so we've enlisted the help of Mark Anthony to share his tips with you.

The fitness guru and health expert has worked with some big names in the industry, Katie Price, Billie Piper, Lucy Mecklenburgh and Caroline Flack have achieved their goals thanks to him.

He's passionate about his job and it shows - so, take on board his advice and come out with a better you for it.

Eat Enough!

If you are hungry a couple of hours after a meal, you haven`t eaten enough

Space out meals evenly

Evening is the most frequent binge time and is often a result of restricting calorie intake during the day

Do not eat late at night

Eat protein and fat at lunch, carbohydrates in the evening

Drink enough water

Water is the best appetite suppressant

Drink water before reaching for food, often we mistake thirst for hunger

Choose foods that hold your blood sugar steady

Some foods cause a blood sugar spike leading to more snacking

Low GI foods (most fruits, vegetables, grains and pulses) act as a constant source of energy and prevent snacking later in the day

Cut down on fats to improve sensitivity

Be generous with fibre

Fibre is found in fruits, vegetables, pulses and whole grains

Provides bulk, making foods filling without being fattening

Allows foods to be digested slowly, avoiding the rapid changes in blood sugar and giving you natural resistance to snacking

Stimulates body to release natural appetite-suppression hormones

Helps body transport fat and calories through the digestive system

High carbohydrates cause the brain to produce serotonin, which boosts mood and makes you feel better

Eat more raw foods

Boost appetite-taming leptin

Hormone that helps control appetite and cravings

Increase metabolism

Low-fat plant-based diet leptin, while fatty foods suppress leptin

Low-calorie diet will make body misinterpret diet as starvation and fat cells will quickly slow down leptin production so that appetite can increase again

Skipping meals or eating less than your body needs will reduce the amount of leptin in your blood and will impair your leptin system for the long haul

Start with a healthy breakfast

Sets tone for entire day

Skipping breakfast will make you over compensate at lunch and snacks and overall calorie intake will be higher than if you had eaten breakfast

Beat craving

Cravings are often a symptom of mineral deficiency, if you have a persistent craving for particular foods, chances are that your body is craving a specific mineral or even several minerals

Don`t keep foods you want to avoid at home

Change places/people/schedule that tend to trigger binges

Go to bed earlier, fatigue fuels cravings

Cut down on alcohol, it dissolves will power

Taste buds have memory of about three weeks. Commit to changing your diet for three weeks to help break craving cycles and eliminate undesirable foods

Beat premenstrual cravings by keeping fat intake low, this allows oestrogen to stay at more modest levels throughout the month, so it will never climb too high or drop too low in the week before your period

Reduce or eliminate addictive foods

Dairy, gluten, sugar and chocolate are high addictive!

Like recreational drugs, they work on your brains pleasure centre and trigger a greatly exaggerated dopamine response

They stimulate opiate receptors in the brain

Eat immediately after a workout

Most important meal of the day for fitness

Eat fruit immediately following fitness training

To recover quickly from a workout with minimal soreness eat a simple carbohydrates source as soon as possible after training

Avoid fat after a workout, it slows down digestion time and impedes absorption of protein and carbohydrate

Include super foods in your diet

Have a super food smoothie for breakfast

Have a super food protein shake before or after a workout