Danielle: “Exercise has helped me ward off post-natal depression”

After dropping a dress size since giving birth to baby No.4, Danielle Lloyd opens up to Closer about her new energy-boosting diet plan, her beach wedding and ‘mad’ plans to have another child

Danielle Lloyd has been on a health kick. And, posing in a bikini after having four children, she’s clearly enjoying the fruits of her labour. But while the busy mum planned to lose a few pounds for an upcoming holiday, the size 8 star admits she mostly wanted to find an eating plan to boost her energy.

She tells Closer, “I feel so confident in a bikini – my body is different after having children, but I feel great. Having four kids is really hard work, and Ronnie [Danielle’s six-month-old son] hasn’t slept through the night since he was born, so a lot of the time I’m exhausted. I needed to do something to increase my energy.”

Danielle – mum to Archie, seven, Harry, six, George, four, and baby Ronnie – admits she was lucky to only go up to 11st 8lbs when she was pregnant last year. And she’s dropped from 10st 8lbs to 9st 12lbs and lost a dress size in just over four weeks after consulting a nutritionist.

“I certainly didn’t feel fat. I just needed to get more energised and feel good on holiday,” says Danielle. “I spoke to a nutritionist, who devised this plan for me, and it’s worked. I wasn’t eating badly before, and I was going to the gym regularly, but changing my diet has made a huge difference. I feel so much better – I now look forward to getting up in the morning.”

BEING DISCIPLINED

Danielle’s energy-boosting plan means she eats little and often to stabilise blood sugar and avoid cravings. It contains plenty of protein to keep her feeling full and vegetables for nutrients. Her daily diet consists of an omelette made with one egg and three egg whites cooked in butter for breakfast, oats with protein powder and raspberries for lunch, chicken with sweet potato at 4pm, salmon, lettuce and halloumi for dinner and fat-free Greek yoghurt with a spoonful of hazelnut butter at 9pm.

“I eat a lot, but it’s all good stuff,” she says. “It’s hard being so disciplined, though, and I’ve had a few treats. Once I get back from holiday I’ll probably follow this plan during the week, and relax at the weekends. You can’t eat healthily all the time. Last week was my friend’s birthday – we all went out, and I ate and drank what I wanted. Life’s too short to be strict 24/7. If I want a glass of wine, I’ll have one. If I want chocolate, I’m going to have it. I just don’t overindulge in general.”

POST-BABY BLUES

Danielle has made no secret of the fact that she’s been badly trolled by online bullies, who called her a “whale” while she was pregnant, and criticised her looks and even her children. She says, “Reading those comments makes me feel so horrible about myself. They were saying really nasty things. But I’m going to try not to let it get to me – if you’ve got a happy family life, then nothing else matters.”

Danielle, 34, has also been going to the gym 3-4 times a week, doing a mixture of high intensity interval training (HIIT) and weight training.

“I go first thing in the morning, before breakfast, which helps to burn fat,” she says. “Going to the gym helps me mentally, because I get some time to myself. Life is busy at home – wonderful but busy – and exercise really helps me feel more positive and energised.”

Danielle admits that she’s been working out partly to ward off post-natal depression, which she’s suffered from badly in the past, admitting to having drunk herself “into oblivion” after giving birth prematurely to Harry in 2011.

“When I’ve had post-natal depression in the past, I’ve sat at home and eaten rubbish, which makes you feel even worse,” Danielle says. “Exercise has definitely helped me this time around – I feel so positive, and exercise releases happy hormones. Going to the gym helps put me in the right frame of mind. Being happy and healthy for my boys is so important.”

A FRESH START

But despite her size 8 figure, Danielle says her body will never spring back like it did in her 20s. “I’ve lost weight, but my skin hasn’t been able to go back to the way it was before,” she says. “I’ll always have loose skin around my tummy. But it was worth it to have my boys.”

After a difficult divorce from her ex-husband, footballer Jamie O’hara, in 2014, Danielle says life is brilliant now her fiancé Michael O’neill, dad to Ronnie, is around. The pair – who got engaged two years ago – hope to have a low-key wedding in the next few months.

“I think it’s going to be a very last-minute, ‘Right, let’s get on the plane and go!’ thing,” she says. “We really want to get married, and it will be just family, somewhere hot and on a beach. Though my friends said to me the other night, ‘You’d best not be running off anywhere in secret – we’ll go mad! So I’ll invite friends, and if they want to come, they can.”

Danielle also hopes to have more children – last year she caused controversy after saying she’d go abroad so she could have a procedure to select the gender of her next child and achieve her dream of having a girl. But while Danielle says that’s still the plan, she may put off going for a fifth child just yet. “With Ronnie sleeping so badly, I’ll probably wait a bit longer, simply because I’m so exhausted. But I’ll have a girl next,” she says. “I don’t want to look back when I’m 40 and wish I’d done it. In fact, I’m that mad I’d probably go for more than just one more. I love kids, so I say, ‘the more the merrier’. I just love a big, busy family home.”