Wouldn't it be nice to get a lean, flat belly just by eating the right foods -- and not doing any crunches? According to Liz Vaccariello, editor of "Prevention" magazine and author of the book "Flat Belly Diet!" that's exactly what you can do. Along with the book's coauthor nutritionist Cynthia Sass, Vaccariello lays out a diet that purportedly melts away both subcutaneous and visceral fat without having to do any exercise. The authors claim that the key to this diet's success is not just eating the right food, but eating the right kind of fat.
Premise
The Flat Belly Diet is a 1,600-calorie-a day diet that focuses on eating small portions of monounsaturated fatty acids with every meal. Monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs, are plant-based fats found in olives, oils, avocados, nuts, seeds and dark chocolate. The book's authors maintain that a diet rich in MUFAs can actually help reduce the accumulation of belly fat. In support of this argument, they refer to a 2007 Spanish study led by J.A. Paniagua published in the journal "Diabetes Care." There, the researchers found that subjects who ate a MUFA-intense diet were more likely to lose belly fat than subjects on diets high in other types of fats or carbohydrates.
Features
The Flat Belly Diet consists of two parts. The first phase is called the "Anti-Bloat Jumpstart," a four-day fast-track diet designed to diminish belly bloating caused by gas, heavy solids and excess fluids. In this portion of the diet, you are required to follow an exact menu, which amounts to four meals per day totaling 1,200 calories. The second phase is called the "Four-Week Eating Plan." Here, you are not required to eat any particular menu but are instructed to eat four meals per day consisting of 400 calories each. Every meal must contain a MUFA, such as olive oil on a salad, a handful of almonds or a few dark chocolate chips.
Recommended Foods and Beverages
"The Flat Belly Diet" book offers daily menu plans and 59 recipes that can be used during the Four-Week Eating Plan portion of the diet. Each recipe gives the nutritional breakdown of the meal and includes a MUFA. The diet also recommends eating certain brands for "Quick-Fix" meals. Coauthor Cynthia Sass has chosen these meals and brands because of their "taste, quality, availability and nutritional value." While you don't have to use the recommended brands, the authors advise making sure that any substitutions have the same caloric level. The diet also places great emphasis on drinking water and recommends a particular drink named for coauthor Sass, called "Sassy Water." This water contains freshly grated ginger root, cucumber, lemon and mint leaves. It purportedly helps calm and soothe your GI tract.
Effectiveness
The authors claim that you can lose up to 15 lbs. in 32 days on this diet. Throughout the "Fat Belly Diet" book, the authors provide several "success stories" of test panelists who undertook the diet for 32 days. Although one person lost as much as 15 lbs. and 10 all-over inches, the weight and inches lost greatly varied. Moreover, nutritionist Jennifer Nelson of the Mayo Clinic website notes that there's really no scientific evidence that the Flat Belly Diet is better for weight loss than any other well-balanced low-calorie diet, and that it shouldn't be viewed as a quick fix.
Exercise
The Flat Belly Diet does not disregard the importance of exercise, despite its claim that you can lose belly fat on this diet without it. The book includes a chapter describing several exercises designed to boost your metabolism. The authors point out that those test panelists who combined exercise with the Flat Belly Diet plan lost 70 percent more body weight and 25 percent more inches than those who didn't exercise.
References
- "Flat Belly Diet;" Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass; 2008
- Mayo Clinic: Can The Flat Belly Diet Help You Lose Weight?
- Dietician: MUFA Diet and How to Shop for MUFA Foods
