Losing belly fat is a combination of eating fewer calories without starving yourself, and without losing nutrients. You need to eat more nutrient dense food and less calorie or energy dense food. Make the food you eat count.

The Flat Belly Diet

This fairly new book is called The Flat Belly Diet written by Liz Vaccariello.

The hot topic now is MUFAs (pronounced moo-fahs). MUFA stands for monounsaturated fatty acids. MUFAs are in olives, olive oil, healthy dark chocolate, avocados, nuts and seeds. Eat plenty of these foods and you will lose weight.

This book is based on a 2007 study, which was published in the journal Diabetes Care [1] where Spanish researchers tested three different diets. The three diets were a diet high in saturated fat, a diet high in carbohydrates and a diet high in MUFAs. These diets were fed to the same subjects sequentially while their blood glucose levels and body composition were tested. The conclusion was that the diet high in MUFAs prevented the fat from being distributed in the abdomen or belly area. And the high carbohydrate diet did redistribute the fat towards the belly.

I have some questions about an entire diet book written on this one study. It didn’t say how high the percentage of the carbohydrates was in that portion of the test diet. Was it as high as 80%? The study only involved 11 volunteers. These 11 volunteers already had belly fat, they were the offspring of diabetics and they also had insulin sensitivity, which is a precursor to type II diabetes. If they already had insulin sensitivity, then would too many carbohydrates affect them in this way? And the study didn’t say what type of carbohydrates, which means it could have been donuts, white bread and sugar cookies.

Prevention magazine had Dr. David Katz MD of Yale University Prevention Research Center confirm the Spanish study. The research center followed 9 overweight women who followed this diet and did find that the Flat Belly Diet reduced the visceral belly fat by 33% in just 28 days. The follow up also found that the diet lowered cholesterol an average of 21 points, lowered blood pressure and inflammation and insulin resistance [2].

This diet is actually the Mediterranean diet explained a little differently. The book is worth reading, plus there are many recipes in the book and in a companion book.

Saturated Fat Diets

Authors and followers of these types of diets tell us that ever since we were told fat is bad for us and we have become a low-fat society, we have gained weight and become obese. So they surmise that fat isn’t the cause of this and fats are healthy. These diet books will tell you that eating saturated fats are healthy and eating a lot of saturated fats will actually get rid of belly fat, reduce cholesterol, reduce heart disease risk, cleans the liver and the arteries [3].

The basis of this type of diet and other low-carb high-protein diets like The Zone or Atkins diets is that too many carbohydrates is what elevates insulin, which is what causes fat to be stored in the belly. Replace carbs with protein is the idea, except some of these diets take it even further by saying saturated fat is healthy and will actually cure heart disease and clogged arteries. I have noticed that many of these books say corn oil has been the main cause of obesity, and that coconut oil is not only healthy, but will help you lose weight. Since the low fat trend started in about 1980, our food has been drowned in corn oil.

You will probably lose weight using the high saturated fat diets, but would it be healthy as a life long way to eat and live. Too much protein from meat elevates uric acid levels. A recent study published in the National Academy of Science found that a low carbohydrate high protein diet does cause plaque in the arteries or thickening of the arteries from the buildup of fat and cholesterol (Arteriosclerotic Vascular Disease) [4].

Vegetarian Diets

I have never met an overweight vegetarian or vegan. At least not the vegetarians who ate a healthy vegetarian diet, who realized the difference between refined carbs and healthy carbs. Opponents of a vegetarian diet say that they don’t get enough protein and a vegetarian diet is too high in carbs causing insulin resistance causing fat to be stored in the belly. Yet again, I have never met a vegetarian with belly fat. Many still believe that a diet high in carbs is a diet high in sugary cereals, refined white flour products, potato chips and donuts. And that is wrong. Being vegetarian doesn’t mean you eat only carbs all day. You can eat less of the starchy carbs like potatoes and bread and lose weight quicker.

Two of the better vegetarian authors you can read are Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. John McDougall and are worth reading.

The Best Diet

The best diet to lose belly fat is to stop eating the foods that you ate that caused the belly fat. And that is going to be fast food, processed foods, refined foods, soda pop and too much sugar. You have to read all ingredients because of hidden sugars in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). You have to eat whole foods and you have to eat foods that are high in fiber. The foods that are high in fiber are carbohydrates.

Refined foods are not whole foods and whole foods don’t have an ingredients list that is an entire paragraph of chemicals. Stay away from MSG since it could also cause weight gain. Be wary of low-fat products, they can have a lot of added sugar or HFCS. Fat has more than twice the amount of calories than carbohydrates do. A gram of fat has 9 calories and a gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories [5]. And don’t be overly afraid of healthy fats, fish oil is a fat and it is very healthy.

Conclusion

The problem is that when we all started eating low-fat foods, the food companies put a ton of sugar and high fructose corn syrup in these low-fat foods to make them taste better.

You can read studies of remote islands in the South Pacific that find populations that eat diets high in saturated fat, which comes from coconut oil and they have no heart disease [6]. But these studies never tell you that these populations do not eat processed and junk food. Their food is natural and natural to them. Every study of cultures that are healthy for various dietetic reasons have one thing in common. They all eat natural whole foods, not processed junk foods. That is very important. How to lose belly fat is all about eating whole foods, eating less and get active. Make every bite of food nutrient dense.

Next Article: How To Lose Belly Fat: Exercise Matters

© 2010 Sam Montana

Diet Books

12 Days to Dynamic Health by Dr. John McDougall

McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss by Dr. John McDougall

Eat More Weigh Less by Dr. Dean Ornish

Reversing Heart Disease by Dr. Dean Ornish

Flat Belly Diet for Men by Liz Vaccariello

Flat Belly Diet by Liz Vaccariello

Resources

[1] Diabetes Care July 2007 30:1717-1723; published March 23, 2007, doi:10.2337/dc06-2220

[2] Yale University Prevention Research Center Study

[3] 6 Week Cure for the Middle Aged Middle by Michael R. Eades and Mary Dan Eades

[4] PNAS - Vascular effects of a low-carbohydrate high-protein diet

[5] PubMed - Cholesterol, coconuts, and diet on Polynesian atolls: a natural experiment: the Pukapuka and Tokelau island studies.