The flat belly diet assures its followers that they can trim their waistline and lose belly fat and that too without a single crunch. It is designed by Prevention Magazine editor-in-chief Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass.

According to them with the use of this plan, one can lose up to 15 pounds and feel the drop in their belly fat in a period of 32 days:

• Eat 400 calories equivalent food per meal, four times per day (daily total: 1,600)
• Don’t skip eating for more than 4 hours
• Prefer Mono-Unsaturated Fats (MUFs) at each meal

How does it work?
The flat belly diet is planned in two phases:

• A four-day jump-start period (1200 calories in-take)
• A four-week eating plan (1600 calories in-take)

Both of these phases are broken up into three meals and a snack. In the jump-start phase, diet followers are advised to avoid salt, processed foods, high-carb items pasta and bagels, and gas-producing food like onions, cabbage, legumes. The flat belly diet followers are supposed to avoid coffee, tea, sugar, alcohols, and carbonated drinks. During the four-week duration of the flat belly diet, each meal must contain a MUFA.

During the 4 days jump-start period, you should follow a few instructions. You should avoid salt intake strictly and total calorie consumption should be 1200 calories for a day. The list of food items that should be avoided for the flat belly diet includes:

• Processed foods
• High-carbs food items like pasta, bananas, and bagels
• Foods that can promote you to become gassy, like broccoli, beans, and onions

One important point about flat belly diet is to drink every day 2 liters of water mixed with ginger root, lemon, cucumber, and mint leaves, which is termed as “sassy water” by the diet designers. In the four-week eating plan, you can follow a Mediterranean-style diet with 1,600 calories per day. Sample menus can be Greek Lemon Chicken and Pumpkin Maple Cheesecake.

Pros of the flat belly diet

• The biggest advantage to the flat belly diet plan is the healthier food options involved in the meals. Food options included are like avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fish are highly beneficial for overall health and are also parts of the other dietary plans.
• It promotes to eat monounsaturated fats, which are good for the heart.
• The flat belly diet is enough flexible with meal-replacement options and gives several choices for eating out at restaurants, which is helpful for today’s busy lifestyle.

Cons of the flat belly diet

• One major drawback with this diet is that it oversells the concept, that MUFAs magically help you lose belly fat, according to Sandon.
• Another drawback to the flat belly diet is the lack of proper research to advice consuming the sassy water.
• The last one, this diet fails to recalculate the calories for differing requirements, with height, weight, and activities.

This diet due to the use of MUFAs in the diet instead of saturated fats holds positiveness for the people who suffer from conditions like high blood pressure, heart conditions and diabetes. If you have any medical concerns like diabetes, you must use this diet under strict medical supervision.