The Flat Belly Diet
These diet fads are getting as obnoxious as internet marketing launches. My e-mail inbox this morning had every guru in the world blasting me with the most important launch in the history of the internet. And every home page I mouse to has numerous ads on how you can lose a lot of weight really fast with this new Flat Belly Diet. I really do feel like we’re truly overloaded with hype.
The Flat Belly Diet certainly over delivers in the hype department. Can you imagine a weight loss program that initially promises pound shedding results without the need for exercise? That’s what the media is touting; however in the book the author highly recommends exercise for faster results.
This diet is nothing more than a regurgitation of any of the thousand or so low calorie regimes with the misguided inclusion of the magical MUFA as the most effective belly weight loss miracle known to mankind. You can and will lose weight with any decrease in caloric intake or decrease in carbohydrates. If you reduce your 2000 calories a day to the prescribed 4 meal / 1600 calorie a day program, you are naturally going to lose weight.
The Flat Belly Diet starts you out on a grueling 4 day anti-bloat regime consisting of only a 1200 calorie a day intake along with the sassy water only liquid intake. Sassy water is water infused with lemon, cucumber, ginger and mint. That actually doesn’t sound that bad (the Drink). This jump start will allow you to lose weight pretty quick as testimonials from this diet’s fans attest.
This initial weight loss is achieved because when you limit the body’s intake of calories or carbohydrates, the body starts to burn its store of glycogen. Glycogen contains large amounts of water and by burning the glycogen in your body instead of calories or carbohydrates, you naturally lose weight by the reduction of water in your body.
The MUFA Magic
The Flat Belly Diet claims that the inclusion of a serving of MUFA every meal will magically dissolve belly fat. NOT. MUFA (Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acid) has no effect on the reduction of belly fat. They certainly didn’t find any substantiating studies to support this miracle. In fact belly fat, which is truly dangerous to your body as is all viscersal fat is actually better trimmed using basic exercise rather than any prescribed diet.
MUFA’s certainly do have their place in any diet plan. Some of the choices for this good fat in the diet are nuts, avocado, and dark chocolate. These snacks are some of the richest sources of serotonin on the planet. Serotonin is a compound we have in our brains that promotes good mood feelings and produces the satisfied feeling after we eat, i.e. feelings of satiety (fullness).
In weight loss an outside boost in serotonin levels can fake our bodies into thinking we’re full, thereby helping us with our reduced caloric intake we need to achieve the weight loss. That said I do believe that the amount of MUFA’s allowed in this diet may be in excess of the amount we need. Eating one avocado a day exceeds the recommended 10% daily intake of good fats. So inclusion of a MUFA at every meal, unless in far smaller amounts may be counter productive.
As I wrote in an earlier post, these diets may work in the short run but most always fail due to the constant chore of counting calories, or because of the way this diet will trigger your metabolism into shutting down and thus delaying weight loss after the initial spurt. Plus, these diets naturally make you feel hungry all the time and also make your body feel sluggish and tired.
Lastly, this diet is expensive, the book is $39.95 and then the online guide is around $15 a month. Save your money. Go and read my review on the Belly Off Diet which is about half the price and in comparison is more sensible because it includes a metabolism taming one day a week full calorie meal plan and includes an exercise component that works.
