Flat Belly Diet Review

The Flat Belly Diet is a book written by 2 editors from Prevention magazine,  Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass. The purpose of the book is simple: to help you lose belly fat, in particular the deeper visceral fat which the book claims is harder to lose.

In addition to the Flat Belly Diet! Book, the is also a Flat Belly Diet Cookbook. The Cookbook helps to create tasty meals which work in accordance to the diet rules.

The claims of this book are far reaching and include the following:

• Lose up to 15 pounds in 32 days, which is the length of the diet
• Lose mostly belly fat
• No exercise is required to get results
• Never feel hungry or deprived

How the Flat Belly Diet Works

The Flat Belly Diet advocates eating lots of Monounsaturated fats (or MUFA for short) as these are supposed to help you burn off belly fat.

The book makes mention of a research that supports this claim but many experts state that this is unfounded. Therefore, there is great doubt that MUFAs can in any way contribute to abdominal fat loss.

The diet runs for 32 days in total and has 2 main stages:

1. A 4 day initial phase in which you eat around 1,200 calories and need to avoid a lot of different foods like any fried food, salty food, coffee, tea, alcohol. You are also required to drink 2 litres of what is known as the Flat Belly Diet Sassy Water which is a mixture of herbs, spices, and water.

These 4 days are intended to help you reduce bloatiness and to achieve a fast weight loss. The claim is that you can lose up to 5 inches off your midsection in those 4 days. This is of course not real weight loss but a mixture of water and gas which is lost.

2. The second stage is 28 days long in which you eat 1,600 calories a day.

This stage has 3 basic rules:

• Eat MUFAs at every meal
• Eat 400 calories per meal
• Never go more than 4 hours without food

Exercise isn’t part of the program, although a part of the book does deal with it. This is a bit strange as the claims are than no exercise is required to achieve results.

This also goes against what most experts believe, that a combination of diet and exercise is required to really lose belly fat and to get flat abs.

Flat Belly Diet Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The book is very well written and easy to follow
• Encourages eating healthier fats than most of us eat
• Places an emphasis on eating small meals multiple times a day
• Has many positive reviews from readers

Cons:

• Isn’t right for men at all
• Makes extreme claims which appear farfetched at the very least
• MUFAs are not magical pills which target belly fat
• Does not place an emphasis on exercising
• Is low on calories and so may not be right for active women
• A limited time diet at only 32 days (usually less than what it takes to achieve optimal results)

In Conclusion

The Flat Belly Diet does have merit. However, it also has many weaknesses and makes claims which are extreme and difficult to believe. As someone who knows one or two things about what it takes to really lose belly fat and get flat abs, I believe that no single nutrient like MUFAs or any other can really help you to get a flat belly.

In addition, without exercising the chances of you ever having the kind of flat abs that people desire are virtually nil.

To really get a flat stomach, you need to combine a sensible diet with a solid workout routine.