The Flat Belly Diet – A Complete Overview

It sounds like a dream come true: Eat certain foods and banish belly fat forever.

The Flat Belly Diet promises a flat belly and weight loss of up to 15 pounds in 32 days. "A flat belly is about food & attitude ... not a single crunch required," it boasts on its cover.

The basic Flat Belly Diet plan is a 1,600-calorie Greek Mediterranean-style diet with an emphasis on wholesome, unrefined foods including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, seeds, lean protein, and very little red meat (once a month). 

According to the authors, the secret ingredient in the Flat Belly Diet that whittles away belly fat is the addition of a monounsaturated fat, or MUFA, at every meal. MUFAs are found in olives, avocados, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, soybean, flax, and olive and sunflower oils.

"Research shows that MUFAs have health benefits and target belly fat. They also help control satiety, so by adding in one MUFA at meals and snacks it is easier to stick with the plan and lose belly fat.”

Exercise is optional but encouraged.

What You Can Eat In This Diet

Whether you are a vegetarian or a meat eater, have food allergies, or are lactose intolerant, this plan can be adapted to meet your individual needs. The plan calls for four, 400-calorie meals spaced every four hours, and each meal includes a MUFA.

Dieters don't count calories. Instead, they choose from a list of 28 interchangeable mix-and-match breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snack packs. Food lists with portion sizes and calories allow flexibility in creating snack packs and can be used whenever you need it most. Eighty recipes are included with nutrient analysis of calories, protein, carbohydrates, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium and fiber.

Anti-Bloat Menu Sample

Breakfast: 1 cup Rice Krispies, 1 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup pineapple, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Lunch: 3 oz chunk light tuna in water, 1 cup carrots, 1 light string cheese

Dinner: 3 oz chicken breast, 1 cup mushrooms sautéed in 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/2 cup brown rice

Snack: pineapple smoothie (1 cup skim milk, 4 oz. pineapple, and 1 tablespoon flaxseed)

2 liters sassy water

Flat Belly Menu Sample

Breakfast: Apple almond oatmeal

Lunch: Pesto ham and cheese sandwich on whole-grain English muffin with lettuce & tomato and 1 cup grape tomatoes

Dinner: 3 oz grilled salmon steak with 2 tablespoons almonds, 1 1/2 cup green beans

Snack: 1/4 cup hummus with 2 tablespoons pine nuts and 1 cup red pepper strips

Calories of meals and snacks during the diet phase are controlled at 400, but the other nutrients can vary. "You can get up to 40% of your calories from fat if you choose the higher fat menu items," says Sass, which exceeds the National Institutes of Health recommendation of 20%-35% of calories.

How This Diet Works

The premise of the Flat Belly Diet is that if you trim calories to 1,600 per day, add a MUFA at every meal, eat every four hours, and get regular exercise (although this is optional) you will lose weight and belly fat.

Chances are you will lose belly fat on the Flat Belly Diet, but not because of the MUFAs. When you lose weight, you are more likely to lose it in your midsection regardless of the type of weight loss plan, says Michael Jensen, MD, Mayo Clinic obesity researcher and endocrinology specialist. The plan promotes a lifestyle of overall healthy eating, weight control, stress reduction, and exercise that could be sustained beyond the 32 days. Log onto flatbelly.com for added support, motivation, additional menu plans and the option to print shopping lists or track nutritional intake. For people who skip meals or don't eat breakfast, the structure of the diet can help change bad habits into good ones.

Flat Belly Diet Tips

Tip 1: Integrate the following food into in the daily menu.

Nuts: almond, hazelnut, walnut; beans and bean pods; spinage and other green vegetables; fat-free, low-fat milk or acidophilus milk; low-sugar instant oatmeal; eggs; turkey meat and other lean meats; peanut butter; olive oil; whole grain bread, such as wheat and oat; protein rich foods; berry fruits, such as grape, strawberry, carambola and guava.

Note: Get more than two kinds of above-mentioned foods every meal.

Tip 2: Eat 6 meals a day

When you go on a diet, the most common problem is that your body will be more rapid to accumulate fat, as the result of lack of alimentation and strong sense of hunger. In order to avoid that, you can spread the calories out over six balanced meals.

Tip 3: Control the calories you drink into

Carbonated and alcoholic beverages not only haven't good nutrition but also let you absorb too much calories, although drinking can relax your nerve and mood, at the same time it will slow down the fat burning process, so water, low-fat milk, acidophilus milk and home-made fruit and vegetable juice are best choice for you.

Tip 4: DIY Fresh Fruit Juices.

Learn to make your own fruit juices, you can not only choose fresh ingredients but also control the proportion of sugar, to avoid excessive intake of calories. You can drink 250ml of fruit juice every day, add some ice cubes into the juice and blend well for 10 minutes at least pour a little water into blender when the juice is thick, which can make you feel full.

Tip 5: To Ensure Acidophilus Milk Intake

We have done an experiment, one group of people drank 3 cups of acidophilus milk every day, and another group doesn’t. After 12 weeks, compare with the group of people who didn't drink acidophilus milk, the group of people who drank acidophilus milk lost 61% of fattiness.

Tip 6: Stop Calculating Calories

The correct way is that calculate how much weight you lose, or make a mark on your strap. Record the changes of your size and weight don't pay more attention on calories.