by Penny Phillip

Created on: December 09, 2008

The 'secret' of the Flat Belly Diet is a MUFA (mono-unsaturated fatty acid) at every meal. MUFA's are a type of good fat found in dark chocolate, almonds, olive oil, soybean and avocados. In addition to including these fats in every meal, the diet is based on an intake of 1600 calories per day, 45 percent from carbohydrates, 20 percent from protein and 35 percent from fat (mostly MUFA's).

This daily caloric intake is divided equally into four meals spaced four to five hours apart, and is adjusted according to a person's sex, age, height and activity level. No refined grains, trans fat or artificial food additives are allowed. Exercise is encouraged but not mandatory with the Flat Belly Diet.

The Flat Belly Diet is preceded by a four day anti-bloat jumpstart period, which includes drinking two litres of a special blend of flavored water each day. This period helps get beginners into the right frame of mind for dieting and, as the name implies, is also directed toward reducing bloating. Menus and recipes for the jumpstart period and for the subsequent period of dieting, are provided.

A test panel of eleven individuals who followed the Flat Belly Diet for four weeks, showed a maximum weight loss of fifteen pounds and 3.5 belly inches.

As appealing as the promise of a flatter belly sounds, some real questions remain:

1. Does a slimmer waistline without improved physical fitness indeed translate into a healthier you?

2. Are these eating habits easy to maintain or do the dieters fall back into old dietary patterns after four weeks?

3. Do the pounds and lost inches remain lost or do they creep back once the dieting period is over?

4. With a test panel of the size described, can the reported results be accurately generalized to the whole population and wouldn't average weight loss among panel members be a more valuable statistic?

That exercise is only an optional part of the Flat Belly Diet rather than an integral one, is somewhat disappointing. It would seem a reasonable to assume that people with enough discipline to stick to a diet for a few weeks might also be open to incorporating regular physical activity into their daily routines.

It remains to be seen whether the emphasis on MUFA's is really the weight loss secret here or whether this is simply the gimmick used to promote the old commonsense dietary principles of healthy foods taken in the right proportions at the right intervals.

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