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Flat Belly Diet | 
| Authors: Liz Vaccariello, Cynthia Sass
Publisher: Rodale Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $15.57
You Save: $10.38 (40%)
Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 25
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 1594868514
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.25
EAN: 9781594868511
Publication Date: October 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Prevention magazine is the country's most authoritative, trustworthy, and innovative source for practical health, nutrition, and fitness information. Now, its editors bring you a weight-loss plan that's specifically designed to target your number-one trouble spot: BELLY FAT. For women over 40, belly fat is incredibly stealth and incredibly stubborn. It's also the most deadly, contributing to a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, and chronic illness than any other type of fat on your body. Finally, science has helped uncover a key dietary weapon in the fight against belly fat. Monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs, help dieters lose more weight--in their bellies specifically--and keep it off longer. Flat Belly Diet! will lead you step by step, day by day, meal by meal toward a flatter belly...and a longer, healthier life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 36 more reviews...
 The Deja Vu Diet All Over Again November 4, 2008
118 out of 179 found this review helpful
It's cheerful and bouncy. It's encouraging and hopeful. But haven't I heard all of this somewhere before? Some of it went a long way to sound fresh (I'm looking at you, Sassy water). A lot of the recipes are so exotic they're just weird (yes, hot dog cooked in peanut oil and topped with celery seed--I mean you).
Of course I like hearing that I should eat more avocado, olive oil, cashews and chocolate. Where do I sign up? And I'm a sucker for a new plan that's based on scientific studies. But the real crux of the diet is good old calorie restriction: The author recommends 1,600 a day. I have two problems with that. One is that I'm not so sure that the calorie count is low enough for me or other people who are just looking to trim by 20 pounds. The other problem is that if calorie counting were so effective, would any of us need another diet book? I think not.
Of course, the book argues that because they've worked a MUFA (short-hand for mono-unsaturated fatty acid) into every meal, you won't be hungry and this time you will finally be able to stick to your (possibly overgenerous) calorie allotment. Maybe so. I do find myself buying more avocados lately, and they do tend to hold me pretty well. And I love me a peanut butter and banana smoothie (the recipe is online at Prevention in the Flat Belly Diet area, but I didn't see it in the book), which is very satisfying. So the plan is not totally without merit. But it's not a major breakthrough, and it appears to have some pretty serious flaws.
For example, maybe you can lose weight without exercise, but this book appears to be pandering to a crowd of couch potatoes. Who wouldn't love someone authoritative to tell them it's really not necessary to pry their butts off the couch for a few minutes a day? I'm reminded of a comedian who said,"I've been really trying to lose weight but it just isn't working. I've tried everything short of diet and exercise." That joke's only funny because we all know you've got to get moving to be healthy and trim down. This book makes that sound optional. Sure, the last chapter has some workouts and pictures of people lifting weights, but that's long after they've already made the point that you don't have to do any of it to be successful with this diet. Call me a skeptic for questioning that promise.
Which makes me wonder--is it true that I should be eating more chocolate and avocados, or is someone just pandering to those of us who have trouble putting down the fork when we know we should? Pass me the guacamole while I think about that one.
If you need a reminder to eat whole grains and vegetables, to write down what you eat, to slow down and enjoy your food, then okay, maybe this book will be valuable for you. Or, for no charge I can tell you that you really ought to control your portions and exercise for at least 30 minutes a day.
In return, maybe you can send me some avocados. I seem to be out.
 Ready to get flat? November 20, 2008
110 out of 145 found this review helpful
The Flat Belly Diet!, like other diet books, presents a program that takes an unusual angle on slimming your waistline: eating a reduced calorie diet that is high in monounsaturated fat (MUFA) in order to flatten your belly with no exercise required. The program is 32 days long and it's based on "studies" that suggest this is enough time to make a dietary and lifestyle change.
The first thing the book teaches you is there are two types of primary body fat: subcutaneous and visceral. Directly under your skin you find the subcutaneous and then the visceral fat surrounds your organs. Visceral fat is far more dangerous to your health (common scientific knowledge). here is no disputing the fact that visceral fat is the most dangerous one for our health. There are many ways to reduce your visceral fat, but this diet focuses on monounsaturated fats (MUFA) that are part of your subcutaneous fat (your belly!).
Like other diet books, this one is filled with stories of people who have lost inches off their waistline using this program. With MUFAs the solution for this plan, you are supposed to fill up on them, and this will eliminate your belly fat.
The first part of this diet is called the Four-Day Anti-Bloat Jumpstart. The book promises you'll lose up to 5 total inches. The premise for this is to get you motivated to proceed with the remainder of the diet by seeing some results happen quickly. The goal for these four days is to eliminate gas, heavy solids, and excess fluid. A 1,200-calorie diet is given with the instructions. From there you spend the next 28 days eating a 1,600-calorie requirement (based on a 40 year old woman of average height, frame size, etc). That's pretty much it. MUFAs are this book's new addition to the world of diets.
I also bought a book called The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book after seeing it recommended here with Flat Belly Diet!, and I strongly recommend it because it's a fascinating book and it helped me to control some of my emotional eating by becoming more self-aware and improving my ability to self-manage.
Eat Good Fats To Lose The Weight October 29, 2008
36 out of 55 found this review helpful
From: www.BasilAndSpice.com
Author & Book Views On A Healthy Life!
A FirstLook Book Review: Flat Belly Diet (Rodale Books, 2008) by Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD
The Flat Belly Diet is the brainchild and highly anticipated book of Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Prevention Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass the publication's nutrition director. Sass has 10 years of experience helping women drop weight.
The Flat Belly Diet states that the reader/participant could potentially lose up to 15lbs in 32 days, even without exercising.
The authors write that we have two types of fat--subcutaneous (that beneath the skin--pinch an inch) and visceral (deep within the body--near the organs). The former is necessary for life, is all over the body, keeps us warm, and is a disease risk factor in large amounts. Visceral fat plays a role in the inflammation process, can be deadly because of its proximity to the heart and liver, and increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. The authors quote the National Institutes of Health, "A waist measurement of above 35" for women and 40" for men--no matter how much you actually weigh--is an unhealthy sign of visceral fat."
"The only way to minimize both visceral and subcutaneous fat simultaneously is to eat the right..fat."
Good fats are monounsaturated, found primarily in dark chocolate, olives, nuts, seeds, avocado, and some oils (ex. Olive, flax). Monounsaturated fats are also known as MUFAs--or monounsaturated fatty acids.
Research published in Diabetes Care (Spring, 2007) led to the Flat Belly Diet. The study has shown that when compared with a diet rich in saturated fats or a high carbohydrate diet, the diet with MUFAs is the only diet that reduces belly fat. "No other nutrient can do this," the authors state.
The Flat Belly Diet is broken into two parts: a Four Day Anti-Bloat Jumpstart--which will drop the water weight and eliminate gas and constipation problems; a Four Week Eating Plan--at 1600 calories a day it offers meal plans for those who cook and those who don't.
Four "Bloat Bad Guys" are stress, lack of fluids, shortage of sleep, and air travel. The reader is also asked to avoid salt, processed carbs like pretzels and bagels, bulky raw foods (eat cooked veggies), gassy foods (ie. beans, peppers, broccoli), gum, fried foods, spicy foods, carbonated drinks, alcohol, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, acidic fruit juices, and sugar alcohols--maltitol, xylitol.
What's left you think? Vaccariello and Sass provide readers with a Jumpstart grocery list. Some items listed: low fat string cheese, turkey breast, green beans, raisins, Mrs. Dash (salt-free) and Rice Krispies.
Key Points From The Flat Belly Diet:
* Keeping a journal is a must
* Eat a MUFA at every meal
* Drink Sassy water every day--2 liters of water, grated ginger, cucumber, lemon, and mint
* After age 40, a woman's hormones change and estrogen declines which allows for more belly fat
* Stick to 400 calories per meal
* Never go more than 4 hours without eating
Pitfalls To Avoid:
* Failing to plan ahead for social occasions
* Feeling deprived
* Underestimating the number of calories
Nice Flat Belly Additions:
* Success stories with stories and photos--see p. 312 Evelyn Gomer: She looks great after losing 6lbs and 8.5" in 32 days.
* Meal Plans are mix and match. Recipes are numerous, ethnic, and include whole grains, low fat dairy, vegetables, and fish. There are no photos. Ones to try: Wasabi Salmon Sandwiches, Tuna Bruschetta, Asian Soup with Shrimp Dumplings, and for dessert Double Chocolate Chip Oatmeal.
* "Did You Know" boxes with pertinent information
* A 4-Week Journal
* An exercise chapter with a walk plan and flat belly exercises (includes photos as demonstration).
* 6 pages of references
The difference between the Flat Belly Diet and some other diet books are the real life photos and stories of participants who tried the diet and lost the weight.
5 Stars
 Overpriced Advice with a New Gimmick December 31, 2008
29 out of 40 found this review helpful
Like some other readers, I was disappointed in Flat Belly Diet, and I feel like a complete idiot for wasting money on something that made me suspicious when I first read about it. However, curiosity, a non-flat belly, and wishful thinking joined forces to persuade me into another unwise diet-book purchase. It is indeed another calorie-restricted diet with a gimmick that, however science-based, is based on very specific foods in weird combinations. I was very interested in MUFAs until I actually tried to follow the diet. For me the best success comes with eating a little bit of everything. I originally read about this diet in Prevention magazine, which used to be a great nutrition and health information resource. In recent years, however, it seems like one of those brochures that you get with your junk mail advertising books. The articles are often "teasers" for expensive publications that contain a little bit of information in many, many words. I have now read several of these Prevention books, and they have mostly been deadly dull and the information so fragmented, so poorly organized, that the reader cannot easily use the information provided. Though Flat Belly Diet is a step up from that, it is certainly no different from any other diet that focuses on a particular food group or food category as the key to weight loss. Multiple weekly shopping trips to find particular brands, items you have to buy in quantities that you will never use up--if you are a repeat dieter, you know the drill. Skip it.
 where do you buy the suggested ingredients? October 29, 2008
23 out of 40 found this review helpful
Just once I'd like to see a diet book that bought all the ingredients for the recipes at a "Super Wal-mart"! Rural America does not have access to gourmet grocery stores to buy all these fancy groceries. I suggest that the author send her nutritionist to a "real" grocery store and then send a supplement to this $20 book to all us poor folk.
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