The Flat Belly Diet is a 32-day weight loss program from Prevention Magazine, and the Anti-Bloat Jump-start plan is for the first four days of the diet. The Anti-Bloat diet promises to shrink your stomach, and the emphasis is on healthy fats. The Flat Belly Diet is not a medical weight loss diet; a nutritionist can help you develop a nutritionally adequate diet for the long term.
Diet Overview
This Flat Belly Diet is a commercial weight loss program, and only some information is available for free online. Once you pay to join the online program, you can participate in online community discussions, access multiple recipes and keep a food log and activity journal. You can also purchase Flat Belly Diet books with recipes and meal plans. The Flat Belly Diet claims that you can lose up to 7 lbs. during the 4-Day Jumpstart, but the Mayo Clinic states that a weight loss of 1 to 2 lbs. per week is more sustainable.
MUFA
The Flat Belly Diet claims that you can lose up to 5 inches from your waist during the 4-Day Jumpstart by emphasizing monounsaturated fats, or MUFAs. Good sources of this type of fat are peanut butter, olive oil, avocados and canola oil. MUFAs may be healthy for your heart because they lower levels of bad LDL cholesterol in your blood, but they do not directly cause you to lose more weight in your stomach, according to MayoClinic.com.
Food and Smoothies
Eat three meals and a smoothie each day on the 4-Day Jumpstart. A sample day on the diet includes cereal, milk, pineapple and sunflower seeds from breakfast, tuna, carrots and string cheese for lunch, fish, vegetables, potatoes and olive oil for dinner and a smoothie for your snack. The diet suggests a different smoothie recipe for each of the four days, and the options are blueberry, pineapple, peach and strawberry. Each smoothie has milk and flaxseed oil, which contributes monounsaturated fats.
Sassy Water
Each day during the 4-Day Anti-Bloat Jumpstart, drink a batch of Sassy water, made with 2 liters of water, 1 tsp. ginger, a medium cucumber, a sliced lemon and 12 spearmint leaves. The Flat Belly Diet claims that this recipe calms your gastrointestinal tract to reduce bloating, and helps you stay hydrated and full. Also, drinking this special water reminds you to stick to your diet.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Flat Belly Diet: Can It Help You Lose Weight?; Jennifer Nelson; July 2010
- Flat Belly Diet: Cynthia Stirs up Sassy Water
- Flat Belly Diet: It's About Food
- Flat Belly Diet Plan: Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 32 Days
- MayoClinic.com; MUFAs: Why Should My Diet Include These Fats?; Katherine Zeratsky; November 2010
- MayoClinic.com: Fast Weight Loss: What's Wrong with It?; Donald Hensrud; November 2009
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