iDiet365

It is the number one selling book on Amazon today, The Flat Belly Diet is gaining popularity as a favorite method for weight loss. The pitch, follow this plan and shed the fat around your belly. The Flat Belly website is loaded with success stories of people (mostly women) who have had great success following this relatively simple diet plan. After spending a few hours researching the program online, I have found only a moderate level of negative reviews. In fact, the majority of naysayers don’t appear to have actually tried the program.

Check out the story from the Rachael Ray show.

You should always be skeptical of “fad diets.” When something sounds way too good to be true it probably is. The claims made by the proprietor of the program Prevention magazine are naturally overwhelmingly positive.

“Loose up to 15 pounds in 32 days!”
“Eat Delicious Foods and Never Feel Hungry!”
“No crunches required!”

It is the last claim regarding crunches that highlights the core objective of the diet program. The Flat Belly Diet is designed to target the extra pounds surrounding your midsection. You know what I am talking about! Those love handles aren’t doing you any favors.

The Plan

First Four Days

The diet provides a reasonable level of flexibility as long as you follow the basic tenants. It begins with a four-day “Anti-Bloat Jump Start” and here is the summary:

• Eat four meals a day following the meal plan and totaling 1,200 calories.
• Drink one full recipe of Sassy Water (recipe below).
• Take a quick 5 minute after meal walk
• Eat slowly
• Work your mind, the book includes “mind tricks” to keep you motivated.

Also avoid things like salt, highly processed foods, and decrease your intake carbohydrates. Eat cooked food over raw food. Stay away from gassy, fried and spicy foods. And no chewing gum, sugar alcohols, carbonated drinks, alcohol, coffee, tea, hot cocoa or acidic fruit juices.

All of these things attribute to bloat, and by avoiding them the idea is that you will see immediate weight loss and feel less heavy.

Sassy Water
2 Liters water (8.5 cups)
1 tsp. freshly grated ginger
1 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium lemon, thinly slices
12 small spearmint leaves

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and let flavors blend overnight. Drink the entire pitcher by the end of the each day.

Next Four Weeks & Continuing On

Continuing in the program, the next four weeks require you to consume four meals per day at 400 calories each. You are instructed to never go more than 4-5 hours without eating. Each meal is followed by a 15 minute walk.

The unique part of the diet is that it instructs you to include one Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acid food from the list below with each meal. The Flat Belly Diet refers to these as MUFA, a  “good fat”, that has been shown to help in the reduction of LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol. Read more about MUFA here.

The diet program also incorporates positive thinking, stress management, and changing the way you think about food and eating.

Simply put the plan is to eat several low-calorie meals a day with the inclusion of a Monounsaturated Fatty Acid and addition of moderate exercise (no crunches required).

Background

The Flat Belly Diet was authored by Liz Vaccariello, Editor-in-Chief, and Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, Nutrition Director of Prevention Magazine. It was developed to cater to their readership’s requests for diet plans that target the waistline.

Costs

The book is selling on Amazon for around $17.00 USD. The website, www.flatbellydiet.com, offers a support program for participants including meal plans, food trackers, message boards and forums. If you purchase the book from the website ($31.95 + $7.99 S&H) they give you three free months of access to the online program. it appears that the program itself costs $15.00/month.

Criticisms

Very few blatant criticisms to be found. The diet itself is noncontroversial. However, several aspects of it specifically the MUFA approach are similar to the Mediterranean Diet. And the program really downplays the importance of exercise in any weightloss plan.

Buy the book on Amazon

Flat Belly Diet [Main Website with online program]
Prevention Magazine [Flat Belly Diet Info]
WebMD [Meet the 5 Flat Belly Foods]