Who has tried the Flat Belly Diet and what did you think?

[pjlla]

I'm down to about 10 pounds to go until I hit my goal weight. But I really only feel like I need to lose around my middle.... I'm fairly satisfied with everything else.

I read the book, cover to cover, on Friday. I agree with many things that were said. I DON'T get enough healthy fat in my diet... in fact, I probably don't get enough fat at all. I am stingy with my Weight Watchers points and I don't usually get my portions of healthy fats every day.

Have any of you tried the Flat Belly Diet? Any words of wisdom? Did you try the 4-day jumpstart? Any recommendations? How long did you do it?

I'm thinking of trying the 4 day jumpstart and then maybe a week or two of the regular plan to see how it goes. If my weight loss isn't any better than it is with Weight Watchers, I will probably just go back to my regular WW points at that point.

I intend to stick within my daily WW points limit, even when I am doing the Flat Belly Diet, if possible. But I will be spending many more points on nuts and fats than I am now.

Thanks in advance for any help and/or advise you can give me...........P

 

[MelanieC]

I had a friend who used it and there wasn't enough fiber in it for her since fiber can cause bloat. She ended up getting diviticulitis because she wasn't eating enough fiber. I didn't follow what she ate and don't know much about the diet except what I did read about it and not 100% sure it was the diet.

I know the healthy fats are so important on any diet. My favorite way to eat is the Eat Clean Diet. Its basically just all healthy natural stuff - nothing from a box, nothing artificial and nothing processed.

 

[corinnak]

I have read a lot about the FBD in Prevention Magazine, and I was also concerned about the reduction of fiber-rich foods. I am not convinced that the healthy oils actually "melt fat" or anything - that sounds a little shammy, to me, but it is a calorie controlled mediterranean style food plan with healthy fats, and I am sure it would work for those reasons, if the 400 calorie meals plus MUFA appeals to you as a way to keep your calories in check.

Having said that, I have definitely been better about getting the healthy fats in, though. I'm also stingy with my WW points - I only have 20 dailies anymore, and between the 2 pts. for healthy fats and the dairy requirement (2-4 pts), it can be hard to justify the points for such small food items. I do think it's beneficial, though. I love a teaspoon of olive oil on popcorn! It is so delicious, I think it's worth the extra point.

I actually looked this up yesterday and found a couple of articles:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/flat-belly-diet

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=88098

http://www.everydiet.org/diet/flat-belly-diet

 

[pjlla]

Thanks so much for the replies. I decided NOT to start the 4 day jumpstart this week for a few assorted reasons.

For the time being I am going to concentrate on just working those MUFAs into my daily points. I started yesterday with some avocado on my sandwich at dinner (I love avocado). This morning for breakfast I added a 1 point portion of walnuts to my oatmeal. It was tasty, but such a tiny portion! And I weighed out a 1 pt portion of sunflower seeds to put on my salad at lunch... again, such a tiny portion!

I eat nuts and seeds to rarely it was SHOCKING to discover that a 1 oz. portion of walnuts has 5 points! Fortunately, I have a good food scale and I was able to weigh out about a 1 pt portion accurately. And I gave DD a handful (under 1 oz) of almonds for breakfast along with her usual "running-out-the-door" Luna bar and juice. Hopefully it will help keep her fuller longer.

I am already down a bit this week, so if I have a good loss I won't contribute it all to this slight change in diet, but I'll be curious over the long haul to see if eating these MUFA's makes any significant difference in my hunger level and/or my weight loss and/or waist size.

I am also at just 20 points on WW right now and I am finding it difficult to justify spending an entire point on a teeny-tiny bit of nuts/seeds, but hopefully it will pay off in the long run. Thanks again for the replies. Thanks also for the links to the articles. I am at school right now and can't look at them, but I will definitely check them out tonight.......P

 

[MelanieC]

They had the editor of Prevention magazine on the Doctors yesterday. See if you can look up the info online.

Basically it sounds a like its a lot like the Mediterrean Diet. I really feel this about most diets..........take what makes sense to you and leave the rest. The stuff about the MUFA's is true. Eating fat helps you lose weight. You need fat!! It sasiates you, increases good hormones like endorphines and slows down your production of insulin.

What I don't like about Weight Watchers (I originally got to goal doing WW's) is that with getting "20" points per day you feel stingy about your food. It doesn't teach you about "healthy" eating necessarily because a lot of people try to eat "diet" low calorie foods that are processed to eat more instead of loading up on healthy dense filling foods - even if they are more points. It also ups the points for foods with fats.

I switched to counting calories and its so freeing. I get between 1200-1550 per day and can have more if I'm having a high points day (sort of like flex points) if I want to startle my metabolism. Then I just have a day or two of low points and then back in the middle of my range - always moving the target to keep it guessing. Now I'll eat that whole avocado or two or that handful of nuts because I'm not looking at it as 3-5 points, but now at 150 calories, or 200 calories or 350 or whatever. It just doesn't seem as restricting as saying it's 2, 4 or 5 points of my 20. Techincally both are the same - its a formula to limit calories, but I've found I don't restrict foods because of "points" now. Now I just try to eat clean healthy food. Weight Watchers does work though, I just found it was more of a mental game.

 

[pjlla]

Melanie, thanks for the reply. I feel like I do eat a healthy diet. I try to avoid most "diet" foods and fad-type low fat foods, like Snackwells cookies and such. I try to avoid most artificial sweetener. My last two holdouts are General Foods French Vanilla Cafe (1 cup per day) and my latest addiction, which is Arnold Sandwich Thins/Deli thins (whichever they are called). I was so disappointed to find that they had artificial sweetener, but by then I was used to having them around!

Anyhow, I totally agree with what you said about taking what makes sense to me! I think I am going to go forward, trying to incorporate more healthy fats and MUFAs into my eating, but not go "whole-hog" to the Flat Belly eating plan. It definitely doesn't contain enough fiber.... I eat a LOT of fiber! And I eat many of the more "gassy" veggies that the FBD seems to try to avoid.

Thanks again.......................P

 

[MelanieC]

I hope you don't think I meant you didn't eat healthy. I didn't mean it that way

I was just generalizing about the majority of people I would see at the WW meetings I attended.

You are doing awesome!! Keep up the great work! 10lbs - your so almost there!!

 

[pjlla]

I hope you don't think I meant you didn't eat healthy. I didn't mean it that way

I was just generalizing about the majority of people I would see at the WW meetings I attended.

You are doing awesome!! Keep up the great work! 10lbs - your so almost there!!

No... I didn't think that you meant that at all! I was just kind of thinking out loud, so to speak. And you are right, the majority of WW people that I talk to try to get the most out of their points by eating, IMHO, questionable foods on a regular basis (very processed, artificial type "diet" foods). They don't want to "waste" points on an apple or a piece of whole-grain bread when they could be eating a WW dessert or such. Don't get me wrong, I think we all need a treat now and then, but I agree that WW could be encouraging a healthier eating plan. Again, JMHO.

Thanks again for replying. BTW, is that Doctors thing you mentioned a tv show? I'm not familiar with it.............P

 

[corinnak]

This is so interesting - I haven't been to a meeting in a few years and I do kind of remember the focus on finding "cheap" foods. Just the other day, though, I was thinking that WW is a pretty good system for slowly weeding out the less high value foods. The way they encurage the consumption of fiber with the points calculation method, the free vegetables, the good health guidelines. As the daily points go down, I become more aware of where the trimming needs to happen. The problem comes in when , as you say, someone sees more value in WW ice cream treats and cool whip than the equivalent in actual food, I guess. And with the "flex points" being widely considered to be "extra." Cause those give the range and flexibility, if used. I feel good about using flex or AP for things like MUFAs, milk, fruit.

 

[pjlla]

I totally agree with you. Admittedly, some WW leaders do talk about healthy foods more than others. And their old CORE program did seem to encourage a more healthy eating lifestyle with whole grain, lowfat/nonfat dairy, etc. My opinion, overall, is that WW is a great program for MOST people... especially if you can learn about healthier options. The fact that NO food is off limits is very comforting and encouraging to most people when they start a new eating plan. They get scared away from some plans that say things about what needs to be "eliminated". And hopefully, as they learn more and more at WW, they learn that those treats, while not off limits, need to eaten rarely and counted properly.

And as you learn what it takes to burn off a particular food, it certainly can make it less appealing to EAT that food! I would rather skip the beer than spend another hour on the treadmill trying to work it off! And if you know how I used to love beer, that says a LOT!

Thanks for chatting with me..................P

 

[MelanieC]

I had some time to kill today at Target while DH and DS12 were shopping in the toy aisle, so I headed to the book aisle. There was a Flat Belly Diet cookbook and I decided to pick it up.

I was so surprised that almost all of the recipes were "clean eating" recipes. I didn't look at the desserts except to notice some had regular sugar and white flour in them, but pretty much almost all of the actual recipes in the book looked very clean, full of fiber, plenty of healthy fats (which I'm a big believer in) and just basic healthy recipes that I look for. When I look at a cookbook, I look for one that has clean recipes. Nothing canned, nothing processed, just real food from nature (does it have a mother or come from the ground) without added preservatives and ingredients. This cookbook was so good, I'm going to order it from Amazon now. Tons of really good looking recipes that look pretty easy. There was a curried chickpea and cashew soup with greek yogurt that looked awesome as well as plenty of others. And every recipe pretty much looked like there were some sort of healthy nut or fat added.

So this got me to thinking, what was my friend talking about? Why was she not eating enough fiber. There were plenty of veggies, whole grains and good fat in this diet that should allow you to reach your "proper" fiber intake. I'm not sure what the jump start allows - maybe this is where the "low" fiber foods come in, but otherwise I don't see anything in this diet that sounds bad.


I think the 1600 calorie for most women sounds a bit high and hitting a static 1600 per day would cause a serious plataeu. Personally being short I could do a few days on 1600 as I already do a few days at 1550, but I'd need to do a few lower days to cause my body to keep guessing.

The high fat is right on in my book, I don't think we should fear fats at all and think they help your body keep sasiated, tricked into thinking it's not going into starvation, great for your hormone levels, keeps you happy (again a hormone thing) and I think the fat free craze that went on in the 80's and 90's caused a lot of women problems.

So I was doing some digging -


Here is a Q&A that answers a fiber question.
http://www.examiner.com/x-660-Weight-Loss-Examiner~y2008m10d29-Flat-Belly-Diet-QA-with-Prevention-editor-Liz-Vaccariello

I read on the prevention website that for the jumpstart to avoid these (could be where the low fiber thing my friend ran into came from-maybe she only did the jumpstart and not the whole diet-I don't believe you should eliminate these from your diet and the cookbook proves these things are included in the diet):

Gassy Foods


Certain foods simply create more gas in your GI tract. They include legumes, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, onions, peppers, and citrus fruits.


Just thought I'd share!