The Flat Belly Diet: It's All About the 'Tude and Food

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The Flat Belly Diet promises that a weight loss and a flat belly could take only 32 days, without having to work out like a demon and without having to eat like a bunny. (For those of you struggling with the image of demon bunnies right now, I am sorry).

Written by two members of Prevention magazine, arguably one of the best health mags in the industry, the plan focuses on eating a Mediterranean style diet and adopting better eating habits for life, not only for the duration of a "diet".

For those of you who want to be preached at with numbers and dietician sounding phrases, this may not be the book for you, because the author is more laid back. The tone of voice she uses is one of a woman hanging with her pals rather than as an "expert" who thinks you should do what she says because she has a degree.

Founders of The Flat Belly
The Flat Belly Diet was written by Liz Vaccairello, the Editor-in-Chief at Prevention magazine and was co-written by nutrition director at Prevention - Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD.

The Flat Belly Diet Jumpstart
To kick off your weight loss, the Flat Belly Diet starts with a four day, anti-bloating, detox. On these four days you drink 2 liters of "sassy water" which is water with a blend of spices, herbs, citrus and cucumber. The calorie count for the jump start is right around 1200-1400. After completing the jumpstart you move to the diet, which features four, four hundred calorie meals per day.

Like all diet plans and diet books, the Flat Belly diet has its good and bad points. Let's cover the good news first.

The Flat Belly Diet: The Part That is Good (Here is a Hint: It's the Food)
Most registered dieticians, nutritionists and food gurus agree that eating a Mediterranean style diet is healthy and fairly easy to stick with. This diet's basic food plan sticks to around 1600 calories and features unrefined, wholesome foods including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seeds, beans, nuts, and lean protein. Red meat is limited to one time per month on this diet plan.

The diet also adds monounsaturated fats (MUFA) at every meal, which is derived from sources such as olives and olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate and other oils such as soybean, flax and sunflower.

The diet can be altered by going to the website and adjusting the calorie count. While there, you can also leave questions for the authors, if you would like.

Another big boost for the diet is the fact that it may be helpful in teaching good food habits for life. You do not count calories, but instead learn what a healthy, reasonable portion of healthy foods is supposed to look like. The foods are listed on 28 interchangeable menus and there are over 80 recipes included as well.

The Flat Belly Diet: The Bad Part ( Too Much of a Good Thing?)
The drawbacks to the diet start with the MUFA's- for one thing, they may be providing too high a percentage of your daily calories. Secondly, there is no scientific proof that they help with weight loss in any capacity. And lastly, the claim that the MUFA will help target belly fat expressly is dubious at best - there is no proven food or exercise that can target a single area of the body.

Exercise is not a huge part of this program, in fact it is treated as a completely optional concept rather than as a strongly recommended necessity for enduring weight loss. Even suggesting a walk every evening would be better than suggesting nothing at all.

Other than the email option on the website, there is not a lot of support for dieters on this plan, which has been proven to be a sticking point for many in the past.

The 40% of fat calories in this diet are higher than the recommended level of 20-35% which is worrisome, even if they are the good kinds of fat. Too much of something that is good, can be bad.

Getting Started on The Flat Belly Diet
Visit the Flat Belly Diet Website to get started on your diet - http://flatbellydiet.prevention.com

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