Flat Belly Diet! By Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass, RD

My Diet Surplus Disorder kicked in again as I had to select a new diet for the month of January…too many diets to choose from. Well, I’ve selected the Flat Belly Diet by Liz Vaccariello with Cynthia Sass, RD. The principal of this diet is to include mono-unsaturated fatty acids at every meal. They like to call these MUFAs. (Add an extra “f” to MUFA and in Italian, this means mold. Not very appetizing!) Anyway, according to the book, research has shown that dieting with MUFAs help eliminate visceral fat more so than dieting without them. Visceral fat is the underlying fat that sits closer to all your organs and is considered more dangerous than surface fat. There is a 4 day anti-bloat jumpstart phase to the diet and this is followed with a 28 day plan.

There are 3 basic rules to the diet:

1. Eat 4 - 400 calorie meals/day
2. Don’t go longer than 4 hours without eating
3. Eat a MUFA at every meal

There is an optional exercise program with this diet that includes brisk walking and interval cardio along with belly and resistance workouts. The exercise plan has you exercising 6 days a week. I find this to be a bit of a pain as it’s not always easy to fit it in everyday. That sums it up in a nutshell!