Flat Belly Diet!

Let me first say that even though I have been 30 to 40 LBs overweight for decades I have never even entertained the idea of going on a diet and always thought they were stupid and didn't work in the long run. I have watched my wife go through numerous various diets through the years, and sure, they all worked as long as she stayed on them but eventually she couldn't take the boring routine and/or food after some period and eventually dropped them gaining the weight back and then some.I myself had previously lost 19 lbs in two months in 1980 on my own self-designed program but the effort, willpower and dedication and time out of my daily life required to get me there was unsustainable. I had just simply made up my mind one day (after looking sideways in the mirror at my overhanging gut) to cut out all junk foods, eating between meals, and start eating better and smaller meals, and adopting a regular excercise program. I started an hour-long daily Yoga routine to increase my flexibility and mental focus and starting walking 6 to 8 miles daily after dinner during the week and 16 miles each day on the weekends. I did all of that walking because I enjoyed it but that is the kind of effort it took to lose the 19 lbs in two months. Eventually I had to quit because since I was still working 10 hour days at that time I had no time left for a life. The weight stayed off for a year but all came back plus 20 lbs over the next few years. I have continued the daily Yoga routine and periodically restarted much shorter walking programs with positive results but again unsustainable longterm each time.I purchased both the Flat Belly Diet for Men and the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook in March this year and just finished the 4-Day Flat ABS Kickstart Program for men yesterday. I had read many of the reviews prior to purchasing them and I got sucked into the hype of MUFAS and the claimed 4 to 8 lbs of weight loss in just the first four day kickstart program. I believed for some unknown reason this diet would be the one that worked! Stupid Me. I scanned through the receipes for the 4 day and 30 day programs and even though they had no appeal to me I was enthusiastic to give it a try. I vowed that if the four-day kickstart program yielded the significant results claimed I would follow through with the remaining 30-day program.I grabbed a copy of the shopping list, and my wife and I went off to get the supplies. What a joke! It was a list to cover basically only four days but it seemed like enough for an army. My wife's list for our regular monthly groceries doesn't cover all of this. Regarding the Produce portion we were able to locate everything on the list, even the Cremini Mushrooms which I had never heard of and wasn't ecpecting to find. We got the last package and we just happened to stumble onto it without asking for help. We also found by accident the "Sabra Roasted red Pepper Hummus" I had never heard of. Regarding Dairy we couldn't locate the "Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Light Original Semisoft Cheese" (Duuh!) with the grocery people not having heard of it. We selected what was probably a poor substitute not knowng what we were looking for as far as specifications go and with no listed substitutions stated for anything on the list. Regarding the Meat/Seafood portion we couldn't find any all-natural uncured Deli Ham or Roast Beef and again with no substitutes given selected the cured variety Obviously the salt is the downfall here. The Deli personnel informed us that they would never order "uncured" meat. For the Pork Tenderloin, instead of the 4oz stated the smallest portion we found was 2.6 lbs for $20! Ridiculous! Regarding Dry Goods we couldn't find any raw unsalted Cashews or Almonds and had to get the salted kind, again defeating the purpose of this kickstart diet. For Mayonnaise it didn't state what type or brand and regarding the bad fats Mayonnaise is a bad actor. It made no sense not specifying the brand or type so we just got straight Mayonnaise as stated. I discovered later too late at the end of the program from another source it was supposed to be "Canola Mayonnaise". We wouldn't have found that anyway but the shopping list was screwed up. We couldn't find "Tahini" and the grocery personnel never heard of it. I see now that it was a MUFA required for the specific meal but since we didn't know what it was we couldn't even do a substitute.The total grocery bill came to $150!! Assinine! One of the reviews stated their grocery cost for the 4-day program was $160 but I didn't believe that was true as no one else mentioned cost being an issue.I mixed up the "FIREWATER" drink solution and started the 4-day diet. OH MY GOD! That solution (UGLY JUICE) was the most god-awfull disgusting liquid I have ever put in my mouth! It was all I could do to keep from hurling with every swallow throughout the four days. It became easier with time but just barely tolerable by the end of the program. I had made a commitment to stick it out and I did. I can't believe the several people in the reviews stating they loved it! What the hell were they smoking? As one negative reviewer stated, the people liking this diet couldn't possibly have any taste buds.DAY 1 breakfast was OK but not desireable. Unsweetened cornflakes (wood chips as I call them)with non-fat milk (tasteless) paired with an Apple (not on my breakfast list) was tolerable but cardboard would probably have tasted better.DAY 1 Lunch was the ham, whole grain bread, lettuce and tomato with yellow pepper slices? Ever eat a raw bell pepper?? It is not on my list of good eating. Overall the whole meal was tasty but required endless chewing taking much too long to eat the whole meal. It was way too much food.DAY 1 snack of Cashews and a Banana was good but the Greek Yogurt was disgusting and ruined the snack.DAY 1 Dinner of cooked brown Rice, Chicken Breast and cooked Green Beans was totally unpalatable untill I added enough salsa (not on the list). The rice was tastless and store-bought produce (beans) is also tasteless. It again was too much food too late in the day, required too much chewing taking forever to get down. The whole meal from preparation to end of cleanup was 2 hours! If my wife hadn't laid out all of the kitchenware for preparation and helped me cook I would never had made it. For just a one person meal the kitchen looked as if we had a party! Ridiculous!DAY 2 Breakfast was the worst of all four breakfasts with 2 packets of unsweetened Cream of Wheat, non-fat milk and raisins. It was unpalatable untill I mixed the raisins into the Cream of Wheat, and then it was just tolerable.DAY 2 Lunch was good but I don't like Roast Beef particularly.DAY 2 snack was very good.DAY 2 Dinner of Cod, Green Beans(we substituted frozen beans for the tastless fresh ones), and a Sweet Potato was Very Good but again way too much food, too much chewing, and too much prep and cleanup for a one-person meal.DAY 3 Breakfast was the best breakfast of the four.DAY 3 Lunch was a close repeat of day 1 and very good but again too much food and chewing.DAY 3 Snack was good with the Pita and Pepper Hummus filling along with an apple.DAY 3 Dinner of Pasta, Cooked Turkey Breast and Creminni Mushrooms was very good but too much food and too much chewing. Too much prep and cleanup time. The mushrooms (dried) never did soften after steaming for a long time but did finally soften with saliva and were good.DAY 4 Breakfast of cornflakes, etc. again was OK but not desireable.DAY 4 Lunch was 2 5oz cans of water-packed Tuna with 2 Tablespoons of mayonnaise with again a Raw Yellow Bell pepper. YUK! Thats it! Just a pile of canned Tuna fish incompatible with the Pepper! It was disgusting and unpalatable. I couldn't take it and wound up throwing it out!DAY 4 snack of cheese and almonds was just ok.DAY 4 Dinner of pork Tenderloin, Sweet Potato and Green Beans was good but too much food, too much chewing and too much prep and cleanup time. The pork was only a 4oz piece stated to require 15 to 20 minutes in the oven but took almost an hour never getting to the stated 160 degrees. We finally gave up and I just ate it.THE FOUR DAY (the longest 4 days of my life) PROGRAM IS COMPLETE! WHAT ARE THE RESULTS??Overall I dropped only TWO Pounds! The scale has an error of +/- 1 pound so the weight loss is insignificant! It is definitely not the 4 to 8 as advertised.My waist (belly button level) actually increased 1 inch to 46 inches! I think I have an explanation for that. My abdomen when lying on my back is really sunk in now and very soft so I am sure I lost an extensive amount of fluid but the flab is still there and pooches out further when standing.My Hips and Real Waist stayed the same at 41 inches.I FOLLOWED THE 4-DAY PROGRAM AS CLOSE AS I COULD USING THE SUPPLIES I COULD GET WITH MY SUBSTITUTIONS FOR WHAT I COULDN"T GET. This also included my normal daily routine of 2.5 to 5 mile walking program, 1 hour daily Yoga program and working on my quarter acre of 50 fruit trees and several various gardens, so exercise was also a major part of this program. If it wouldn't have been for my wife who took it upon herself without my asking doing the prep work for all the meals I probably would have quit soon after starting. I had no idea all of the work it was going to take prepping, eating and cleanup for just those single-person meals. All of the dinners and a couple of the lunches contained way too much food, required too much chewing and too much prep and cleanup time. Breakfast is the most important meal and should be packed with nutrients to get the day started but only one breakfast qualified.Dinner is a useless meal unless one is going dancing or roller skating afterwards as no one needs all those calories at the end of the day to watch TV and go to bed. I stopped eating dinner years ago and have better control over my weight and sleep better without all that food having to be processed through the lengthy digestion process while one should be sleeping and repairing the body.I have definitely proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that for me this diet program is a total BUST! Save your money and time and look elsewhere. This was the most miserable 4 days of my life and my first and LAST diet program I will ever attempt!

I first learned about this diet after an older co-worker of mine (about 55) lost a significant amount of weight over the course of 2 or 3 months.I originally tried the diet before the "For Men" version was released but the two are fundamentally the same. When I tried the diet the first time, I was about 29 years old, 5'9", and 220 Lbs. I was also working a full-time job and taking evening MBA classes 3 nights a week. I was able to keep up the diet for about 4 weeks before I fell off the wagon; my lifestyle made it too difficult for me to maintain the diet, particularly the food preparation (and reduced alcohol consumption). I did lose about 10 lbs. over the 4 weeks but I gained it all back over the next year.I returned to the diet again in December of 2011. This time, I purchased the "For Men" version of the book and read it thoroughly; I really wanted to make it work this time. When I started the diet a second time, I was 33 years old, and now a whopping 235 lbs. During the first 4 days of the diet, which seems very gimmicky but works, I lost about 6 lbs. Over the course of the next three weeks, I continued to lose gradually until my total weight loss was about 15 lbs, and about 2" off my waist. Then I mostly plateaued for the next month, hovering around 220. I had started to get a little lazy on the diet and I was still "cheating" on the weekends and eating too many calories (mostly in beer). I recently doubled-down on the diet becoming more strict with my weekend food consumption and now adding exercise into my diet -- I have been lifting weights and running on a treadmill. The weight has started slowly coming off again and I am on target to hit my target weight of 190lbs. in 12 months. Also, just by my cooking differently for dinner, my wife has also lost about 6 pounds, and she isn't even on the diet!A few things to remember:- Rapid weight loss is BAD!!! Your body wants to retain fat as energy reserves. It's an evolutionary throwback to the days before there was a McDonald's on every corner. If you lose weight too fast, your body will fight you by slowing down your metabolism and counteracting your dieting. That's why this diet calls for 2000 calories a day.- You MUST change your lifestyle; if you lose your weight on this diet and then go back to eating the way you used to, you will gain it all back.- Exercise is key. Not only will you lose weight faster but, I have found it helps me regulate my appetite as well. I get much less hungry throughout the day after running 3 or 4 miles.- You will have to become much more disciplined. You have to make sure to eat breakfast every morning. You have to make your meals the night before and bring them with you to work; you CANNOT pull this diet off by buying your food from cafeterias, restaurants, or even "Healthy" places like Subway. The problem is that you don't know what's in the food so you cannot effectively gauge caloric intake, MUFA consumption, or Saturated Fat intake.- You will have to experiment with new food. There was a previous reviewer who complained about the use of spices such as Cardamom; You will have to experiment with new spices like these to keep your food appetizing. If you pack a food with fat, sugar, and salt it will taste good no matter what. If you remove all that stuff, you have to become much more creative with your food.- You must invest $20 in a good digital food scale... AND USE IT! You will be amazed by how little the difference between 1 serving and 2 servings of peanut butter look like, except the latter is an extra 180 calories.... yikes!Some additional foods I would recommend trying out with the diet:- Smoked Paprika (adds a smoky, bacon-ish flavor to stuff)- Annato seeds (cook in oil to give the oil a bright red color and great flavor. Great for caribbean and mexican cooking)- Cumin- Japanese rice seasoning (a mix of sesame seeds, seaweed, and other flavors... just watch the calories)- Cauliflower - Ugly, bland, but very filling. Toss it raw into a blender with some garlic, salt, and olive oil. Then put it into a dish and bake it at 300F for 15 minutes. It tasts great, is incredibly filling and a whole head of cauliflower isn't even close to your single-meal limit of 400 calories.Give it a try, be patient, and good luck! Remember, healthy weight loss is not rapid weight loss. The Biggest Loser is not an example you want to follow.--Matt-

Do you remember the adage "Pinch an inch" to see whether or not you had excess weight to lose? Well, after reading this book and applying its principles, I am happy to say that I can now pinch an inch. I'm happy because I could once pinch much more than that! My wife and I have tried several diets only to put the pounds back on and then some. I think this one is working for us for three reasons: 1) I did the reading and training instead of relying totally on her; 2) This is not a fad diet with crazy recipes; adn 3) we changed our eating habits not our buying habits--no special ingredients that we would normally not buy. Some of my old cravings are gone. It's neat to be able to stand in the grocery line and not hear the candies calling my name.

My husband and I bought the original flat belly book two years ago. To this day, we have been able to keep our weight off with no struggle whatsoever. This book is not a fad diet or would I even call it a diet book. Its an instructional manual on portion control and lifestyle changes. This book has shown us a new way of eating to live not living to eat. For those reviews I have read that were not in favor of the book I have this to say: You're really not serious about your health and are looking for a quick fix. Also, I gather some of the people who write these awful reviews don't even really read the book- they just look for the miracle fix in the book and when it doesn't work for them, they give up because it obviously requires an effort. Living well requires all your effort not the minimum.

Great book purchased for my husband for Christmas, I think he will enjoy it and act upon the advice therein! I have read some of it and it is understandable why this diet works.....I will join him in the meal planning and each the same food too as ~i could do with losing the odd sone or two as well!

Nutritionally unsound. American so most of the ingredients used not available in UK, except perhaps in London.

Really good book so far. Full of great information and handy tips on diet and exercise. A very good purchase.

Great book but still have a flabby belly yet I'm skinny everywhere else!

Very easy to read and refer to, makes a lot of sense.