Like many people, you might have made a resolution at the beginning of the New Year to lose weight. Like many women, you scramble to find products and diets that will help you get rid of the excess fat around your middle area. Although a moderate amount of fat is necessary for life, excessive amounts of visceral fat residing deep within your torso can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. The Flat Belly Diet is constructed by Registered Dietician, Cynthia Sass Liz Vaccariello, to help you lose those extra layers of fat around your stomach by eating a diet that will keep you satiated.
What are MUFAs?
The most essential ingredient for success with the Flat Belly Diet is the consumption of monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs. A diet rich in MUFAs replacing saturated fats may lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, such as blood pressure and high cholesterol. MUFAs are found in vegetable based oils such as canola and olive, avocadoes, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, and nut butters. However, your dietary fat should make up no more than 25 to 30 percent of your daily caloric intake.
The Flat Belly Diet
The diet consists of two components: a four day Anti-Bloat Jumpstart program followed by a four week eating plan. To jumpstart the diet, you must drink 2 litres of Sassy Water made of ginger, cucumber, lemon, and spearmint leaves mixed into water daily for four days. The following four weeks must consist of four 400-calorie meals that include a MUFA at every meal which will help you feel satiated. According to Sassy and Vaccariello, in 32 days your mind will adapt to the changes accepting it as a lifestyle while you shed pounds.
How Effective are MUFAs?
A study in 2003 conducted by Piers et al. researched the effect of MUFAs on eight overweight men that followed two separate diets for four weeks each. The first four weeks were focused on the consumption of saturated fats followed by a diet rich in MUFAs replacing those fats for the next four weeks. The study's results show that the men had a lower weight and fat mass at the end of the MUFA rich diet than the saturated fat diet. Thus, concluding that the replacement of saturated fats with MUFA rich foods can produce small, but significant, loss of body weight.
Considerations
Although daily physical activity is required as part of leading a healthier lifestyle by the United States Department of Agriculture, the Flat Belly Diet does not require exercise within the program. However, the authors of the program provide some exercise routines in their book, recommending an active lifestyle to gain more success from the diet.
References
- MayoClinic: Nutrition and Healthy Eating: MUFAs: Why Should My Diet Include These Fats?
- "British Journal of Nutrition"; Substitution of Saturated with Monounsaturated Fat in a 4-week Diet Affects Body Weight and Composition of Overweight and Obese Men; Piers, L.S., Walker, K.Z., Stoney, R.M., Soares, M.J., O'Dea, K.; 2003
- Flat Belly Diet!; Vaccariello, L. & Sass, C.; Chapter 1
- Softpedia: The Flat Belly Diet: Gaza, M.: 2008
- MyPyramid.gov: Inside the Pyramid: How Much Activity is Needed
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