The Flat Belly Diet

My wife decided last week that she was going to do the Flat Belly Diet. Being supportive of her is good, but actually doing the diet with her and working as a team is better. Now I’m doing it too..

My metabolism has always been high and if I tweak a few things in my diet, I can drop weight very quickly. Doing this diet (or any diet) does not get me particularly motivated, but doing it with someone who is really excited about it, does. That is why I have committed to spending the next month following the Flat Belly Diet.

I will be doing a review of this diet upon completion, so I will keep my (already forming) opinions to myself for now. This is a very popular diet plan, so I hope to shed some light on it and offer some good insights into how and why it works (or doesn’t).

About the diet

This book was written by Liz Vaccariello, who is the Editor-in-Chief at Prevention Magazine. Given that fact that they have more than 11 million readers, she does have a modicum of credibility.

This 32-day diet is based on targeting belly fat. More specifically, visceral and subcutaneous belly fat. According to Liz, this is the only diet on the market that helps you lose belly fat specifically. The diet claims that you can lose up to 15 pounds in 32 days, never feel hungry, and drop up to 5 3/4 inches in the first 4 days.

The first four days consist of the Anti-Bloat Jumpstart which is not so much a detox, but rather a way to see quick results and sparks your emotional commitment to the entire program. It also is designed to:

• Flush Out Fluids
• Reduce Water Retention
• Relieve Digestive Issues

The second part of this diet is 28 days and is based on the idea that eating  monounsaturated fats (or MUFA’s), is the only way to minimize both visceral (surrounding your organs) and subcutaneous (visible) fat simultaneously. According to Liz, no other nutrient can do this. The diet focuses on reducing visceral fat, which is linked to a number of health problems, such as:

• High Blood Pressure
• Diabetes
• High Cholesterol
• Breast Cancer

How do you determine how much visceral fat you have?? Well, according to the National Institutes of Health, an effective means to measure this type of fat is by looking at your waist measurement. A measurement above 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men, regardless of how much you weigh, is an indicator of unhealthy levels of visceral fat.

There are other means of determining your visceral fat, which must be administered by your physician. These include MRI testing, Sonograms, CT Scans, and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis.

The highlights of this diet

• Eating four small meals per day, each including MUFA’s
• 1600 calories per day
• Learning to change your eating habits
• Changing how you think about food
• An exercise program consisting of 30-60 minutes of walking per day and a very light core and strength training regime

The diet also discusses managing stress, the importance of staying hydrated, keeping food logs, and motivation tips.

I will offer up my thoughts about this diet in 33 days….

6/29/10-UPDATE

Well, it didn’t last long, that’s for sure. We began the diet with great intentions, but after four days of eating 1,200 calories and drinking a terrible tasting water mixture, we had had enough! We were both starving all day and were in terrible moods mainly due to lack of carbohydrates. We decided to scrap the diet and try our hand at something a little more sustainable at a later date.