CHAPTER 4
The Secret to Flat Abs
THE 4-STEP PLAN THAT WILL STRIP AWAY POUNDS IN DAYS.
You can have flat abs.
That’s the first thing you need to convince yourself of before you start this plan. Like most women, you probably find it hard to believe that you can flatten your belly without starving yourself or removing a few ribs. After all, it’s not like you haven’t tried to eliminate your pooch in the past. Do marathon cardio sessions and Pilates sound familiar? How about diets that forbid you from eating after 6 p.m.? Maybe you’ve even made a few purchases of so-called toning equipment from QVC that are now hiding under your bed. To score the sizzling body you want, you need an approach that doesn’t require a complete lifestyle makeover and isn’t full of empty promises.
Consider this the last solution you’ll ever need. This diet and exercise plan is based on cutting-edge university research that utilizes the most effective fat loss strategies. In fact, the foods you’ll eat on this program have been found to boost fat loss by more than 30 percent compared to the standard American diet. And when combined with The Abs Workout, you’ll transform your body into a calorie-burning machine that even works as you sleep.
Best of all, by following these tips, you’ll eliminate the reason why most diets fail: frustration. Most diet and exercise plans tell you exactly what to do and when. Suddenly your flexible lifestyle is trapped in concrete. Between teaching yourself to like new foods and trying to find hours to exercise each day, you burn out. The supposed healthy plan becomes a threat to your comfort zone. This plan is different. The exercise and diet were designed around simple strategies that put you in charge of owning the body you want.
There’s a secret among the top nutritionists in the world. Most diets are created for short-term results. It’s a cruel trick that has created the endless cycle of deceptive weight loss and depressing weight gain. Your body is very good at losing weight—until it adapts and makes it seemingly impossible to burn off another pound. It’s why each of your ex-diets ended in a messy breakup. Atkins? Sure, he was great, but you’ve always been a bread-and-pasta girl, and you just couldn’t commit. South Beach? It had its thrills, but you’re not into math and counting all your meals. Paleo? The caveman thing was retro, but we progressed passed the Stone Age for a reason.
If you want to keep eating the foods you like—and losing weight—you need to understand how the body processes food and work with it, not against it. We understand if you want to swear off diets forever, but there’s something else the nutritionists tell their clients: Diets work. That’s why it’s time to eliminate your fears about the dreaded D-word and show you how to make food work for you.
The nutrition experts at Women’s Health understand the adaptation process and know how to prevent you from hitting the dreaded plateau that has been the beginning of the end for all your previous diets. This plan fills your body up with the right kinds of foods, so you burn calories more efficiently. The payoff: You can eat more food, burn fat faster, and still indulge in some of your favorite treats. If it sounds too good to be true, we don’t blame you. But we’ve already seen the results. In fact, dieters in a study at UCLA followed a plan that included similar foods to what you’ll find in this book. Not only did they lose more weight compared to a traditional diet, they also consumed more food and felt more satisfied from their meals. Sounds like your type of plan, right?
So dig in and enjoy this new approach to eating. It’s a proven road map to tone up all your trouble spots and scorch belly fat, regardless of your shape, size, or age. We’ve created a plate that represents what you should consume at each meal. Your job: Simply select the foods you enjoy from each category and see results that last. That’s it. No counting calories. No removing foods completely. Follow each of these guidelines, and science will prove that the pounds will melt off in no time.
The key to a good diet is remaining satisfied. That’s why The World’s Greatest Flat Belly Plan is all about filling your plate. But sometimes it’s difficult to know how much to eat without overeating. So we searched for a simpler way to fill your plate without having to count calories and created a system that’s as easy as counting to four. Literally. These four steps, when utilized for each meal, will have you on the fast track to a flat belly. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure that you’re always eating enough, seeing results, and never having to count calories again!
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STEP 4: |
Few dieters realize that it’s the small, simple tactics that create the greatest changes. Food is habitual, so it’s best to determine the daily changes you can make that can become a part of your lifestyle. Few weight loss strategies are as easy—and effective—as drinking water. Everyone knows that a little H20 is good for your body. But drinking water at the right time does more than hydra te. It can actually set you up for a day of fat loss without any effort.
In a recent study in the journal Obesity, dieters lost an additional 4.5 pounds when they drank 2 cups of water before each meal. That’s why the leanest individuals start every meal with two glasses of water and continually drink throughout the day. A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that having 2 cups of water before breakfast can cut your daily food intake by 13 percent.
Additional research performed by German scientists revealed that 6 cups of cold water per day (think just 2 cups before breakfast, lunch, and dinner) can raise your resting metabolism 50 calories a day. Although 50 calories probably doesn’t have you thinking, “Skinny jeans here I come!” they add up to 5 pounds in one year. Sounds a little better, right? Though the extra calories you burn drinking a single glass don’t amount to much, making it a habit can add up to pounds lost without any effort.
Drinking water also means that you’re not dehydrated—another stealthy roadblock in your fat loss journey. Scientists at the University of Utah found that when you don’t drink enough, your metabolism burns up to 2 percent fewer calories per day. When you’re trying to fight back against a stubborn metabolism, the last thing you need to do is give your body any reason to store fat.
Abs Secret #1
Before each meal, consume 16 ounces (2 cups) of water. The water can be cold or hot. Feel free to mix your water with tea, preferably one without any calories or sweeteners. We recommend green tea because of its extra metabolism-boosting benefits.
Fill Your Plate with Vegetables
It doesn’t take a doctor to tell you to eat your vegetables. You know that greens are good for you, but they possess enough weight loss and health benefits to fill an entire medical encyclopedia. Vegetables are packed with so many supernutrients that they have been linked to improving heart health, fighting off nearly every disease imaginable (including cancer), increasing positive emotions, creating more energy, and even revving up your sex life.
We know what you’re thinking. “Great. A diet based on salads. Original.” We might not be the first to suggest vegetables, but on this plan your veggies are just the appetizer, not the main course. Here’s why: A 20-year review of dietary behavior by the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who added just one serving of veggies daily had a positive impact on weight loss. And Penn State researchers found that when the study participants included vegetables before every meal, they cut their caloric intake by 11 percent and lost more weight.
But that’s just the beginning on why it’s great to go green. Leafy greens happen to possess special nutritional qualities that allow you to eat as much as you want without gaining weight. After all, no one ever became fat on a diet of spinach, bell peppers, and mushrooms. In fact, a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that you can eat more and still slim down. The researchers compared women who needed to lose weight. One group followed a reduced-calorie diet, while the other followed a similar approach but feasted on vegetables. The veggie group ate 25 percent more food (by volume) but lost more weight. How? They were loading up on vegetables, which decreased their hunger, but they actually ended up eating fewer calories.
That’s why we suggest you start every meal with vegetables. It guarantees that you won’t forget to eat this weight loss superfood, and eating them early in the meal can potentially make your fat loss more potent. Research has shown that high-fiber vegetables can rev your fat burn by as much as 30 percent. So by kicking off your meal with your favorite variety, you improve satiety and ignite more caloric burn during your meal. Whether you eat a starter salad or mix vegetables with your main course, this will be one of the most important steps in keeping you satisfied and helping the pounds vanish.
Abs Secret #2
Pile your plate high with veggies and enjoy them before you begin your main meal. Remember, green veggies, bell peppers, onions, and a host of other options are “free food.” That means you can literally eat as much as you want—but that doesn’t mean you can pour as much salad dressing as you want. Start with 1 to 2 cups of steamed broccoli or spinach, a side salad, or some bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms drizzled lightly in olive oil.
It’s time for you to admit something to yourself: You probably don’t eat enough protein. Sure, you might sneak a can of tuna or toss some tofu in your stir-fry, but women are notorious for significantly undereating the most powerful abs-friendly food group. Maybe it’s because of your fear of growing bulging muscles or the mysterious nature of protein smoothies. But your body could use more of nature’s most potent nutrient. According to British researchers, emphasizing protein in each meal leaves you feeling fuller, accelerates fat loss, and spares your lean muscle mass.
Look at some of the fittest women in the world. All seem to possess a lean body secret—and it’s not just because they can afford trainers and live-in chefs who prepare their meals (although that helps, too). Fit women understand that high protein intake is critical to losing fat and having a rocking body. Perhaps the biggest benefit of a high-protein diet is that you burn calories by eating. Your metabolism is increased when you eat. This process is known as the thermic effect of food (TEF). Every type of food affects your metabolism differently, but nothing is as powerful as protein. The TEF of protein is about 30 percent, meaning more than a quarter of the calories this nutrient provides are burned during digestion and processing. Carbohydrates have a TEF of 8 to 10 percent, and fat’s TEF is just 3 to 5 percent. This is why consuming protein at each meal can keep your metabolism elevated and prevent larger meals from storing too many calories.
No matter what, we don’t want you to worry about protein turning you into Suzy McBulky. Adding muscle mass to your body is the result of your hormones and eating a significant amount of calories. So unless you decide to start injecting yourself with testosterone or consuming 5,000 calories a day, your high-protein diet will make you look more like Mila Kunis than The Rock. In fact, as you build more muscle, your body will burn more fat, which makes every dietary slipup (we know you love the occasional slice of cheesecake) a nonfactor.
While you might not be thinking in terms of saving your muscles, that’s the difference between your bikini body and looking “skinny fat.” Think about it: As you lose weight, you want to make sure you reveal a sculpted, hot body. Eating protein helps makes this possible, especially when it’s consumed before and after your workouts. University of Syracuse researchers found that when you down protein around your weight training session, you blunt the effects of cortisol, the stress hormone that tells your body to store fat. As a result, you burn more fat not only during your workout, but for an additional 24 hours afterward.
Focusing on protein also keeps your stomach more satisfied and keeps it lean. When you overeat carbohydrates or fat, both nutrients are easily soaked up by your body and stored as fat. But protein is different. That’s not to say protein can’t make you fat, but when you need a little food therapy after a rough day, a high-protein meal is less likely to make you fat.
Abs Secret #3
Here’s where you can go a little crazy. There are lots of flavorful protein options just waiting to be enjoyed. Grill yourself a steak. Bake some chicken. Crack eggs or pan-sear your favorite fish. If you’re a vegetarian, create your favorite soy variety or try seitan (called the wheat meat). Even if your favorite form of protein has some fat on it, don’t worry (see “Eat Fat to Lose Fat”). However, if you select a form of protein that’s high in fat, make sure you limit how much additional fat you add to your meal.
So how does dessert fit in to all of this? Simple: Your daily desserts will come from your snack allotment. Remember, you can enjoy one small indulgence every day, whether it's a small candy bar, a scoop of ice cream, or maybe a cocktail. For the first two weeks, we'd recommend that you limit dessert to every other day (if you choose to eat it). This isn't necessary, but if you struggle controlling your junk food urges, this should help you adjust to the smaller portions.
Here's your guide to keep you lean and satisfied.
1 glass wine = 2 servings grains
½ cup ice cream = 1 serving fat
2 party-size candy bars = 2 servings starches/grains
1 small slice of cake/pastry = 2 servings starches/grains
EAT FAT TO LOSE FAT
Everything you need to know about the dangers of consuming a diet that’s high in fat can be summarized in one sentence: The health scare surrounding saturated fat and cholesterol was overblown.
That was Walter Willett’s conclusion after reviewing 21 studies on high-fat diets. Willett, MD, DrPH, the chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard University, published a study that showed there is no evidence that dietary saturated fat is associated with coronary heart disease, stroke, or cardiovascular disease. This was the defining moment in a 30-year battle to determine if eating fat makes us fat. The confusion began in the 1980s when obesity rates began to climb. The low-fat craze took over, and the next thing you knew, we all became fatter. The number of overweight people increased by 30 percent while the amount of fat consumed decreased by 11 percent. So clearly, fat wasn’t the problem. What people didn’t realize is that not only is fat not bad, it’s actually an incredibly potent weight loss tool.
Research now indicates that as much as 20 to 35 percent of your calories should come from fats. Not only do the fat-filled meals keep you full, they also burn calories. Researchers from Georgia Southern University found that eating a high-protein, high-fat snack increases your resting calorie burn for up to 3.5 hours. When it comes to understanding fat, your options can be broken down into two main groups: saturated and unsaturated fats. Both of them are good, and both possess a variety of benefits.
Monounsaturated fats—MUFAs (pronounced MOO-fahs), for short—come from the healthy oils found in plant foods such as olives, nuts, and avocados. A report published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that a MUFA-rich diet helped people lose small amounts of weight and body fat without changing their calorie intakes.
Another report found that a breakfast high in MUFAs could boost calorie burn for 5 hours after the meal, particularly in people with higher amounts of belly fat. And a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people who swallowed 1.9 grams of omega-3s daily (you’d find twice that in a 4-ounce portion of salmon) reduced their body fat, lowered their triglycerides, and raised their HDL cholesterol.
Saturated fats—like those found in red meat, eggs, and milk—used to be avoided. But now they are an essential part of a healthy diet. No food represents the benefits of fat better than eggs. If you’re skipping out on the yolks, you’re missing out on one of the best fat loss foods. A study in Nutrition Research showed that the fat in eggs helped reduce appetite for up to 24 hours. And British scientists discovered that dieters who ate eggs for breakfast instead of a bagel lost 65 percent more weight—without any negative consequences to their cholesterol or triglycerides. Research has also found that consuming calcium dairy foods, such as milk and yogurt, may also reduce fat absorption from other foods, which makes it easier to stay lean.
Abs Secret #4
Embrace fats in the form of avocados, butter, nuts and seeds, as well as olive, canola, and coconut oil. Cook your foods in these healthy fats, or add them to your meals for additional flavor, nutrition, and fat loss benefits.
The time has come to reinvent weight loss. Rather than repeating the mistakes of so many diets, we want to accommodate the most overlooked aspect of every weight loss approach: YOU. An eating plan should revolve around your preferences, your busy lifestyle, and your need to adjust to daily demands. And let’s be honest, while all diet plans expect some give-and-take, few provide real flexibility required for long-term success. It’s expected that you’ll have to make changes to how you eat, but that doesn’t mean you need to give up your favorite foods or be forced into an eating schedule that doesn’t work for you. We’re all familiar with late-morning starts altering our breakfast plans, unscheduled business lunches disrupting an anticipated meal, or nonstop travel making it seem impossible to eat healthy. That stops here.
We already mentioned that you’ll choose how frequently you’ll eat. Whether you want six smaller meals or three big meals, you decide what you need, without having to worry that one option will be better for fat loss. This all becomes possible with snacks. These are flexible foods that you can eat at any point in the day—and they are usually the foods that you enjoy the most. Think pasta, bread, and even dessert. As long as you follow the Lessons of the Lean, you can have some fun with your diet.
You might be wondering what makes this approach to snacking any different than other plans. Simple: We’ve created a diet where you’ll only eat a snack when it’s needed. Because the foods you’ll be eating will keep you satisfied longer, you’ll find that you need to eat snacks less frequently. And when you do, they won’t be sabotaging your weight loss plan. You see, the snacks have been strategically designed to only take up a small portion of your daily calories. It’s enough to leave you satisfied and not craving some of your favorite foods—but not so much that you’ll derail your diet faster than you can say “Ho Ho.”
Here’s how it works: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be the foundation of your eating plan. You decide when to eat them, and structure each meal around the Lessons of the Lean. That means start by drinking water, then consume veggies and fill your plate with protein and healthy fats. From there, the fun and flexibility begins with “floating meals.”
Ever feel like you needed just a little more food on your plate? Or you were curious about how much you could graze without gaining weight? Snacks, or floating meals, solve all of these issues. These are foods that you can add to any meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner), or you can use these foods as daily snacks. That means if you want to add two or three mini-meals during the day, you simply select the foods you want from the floating meals allotment to keep yourself satisfied. If you’re not much of a snacker but would prefer a bigger meal, you can take the floating meals and eat them in addition to one of your main meals. This way, you can eat more without taking a step back.
The plan is designed to always leave you feeling satisfied, and it takes into consideration that sometimes your hunger is unpredictable and the demands of your day can control how you eat.
Abs Secret #5
Add the following foods as snacks during the day or in addition to your main meals. These additions are optional, so if you’re satisfied by breakfast, lunch, and dinner—or by just a few of the snacks—you don’t need to eat more. The idea is that these foods will fuel your body, not your fat cells. So you can eat them if you’re hungry, but keep in mind you only need to consume them if you’re not satisfied. And always remember the first three rules: Drink water first, begin your plate with veggies, and stack up on protein. And if your protein source is high in fat (like pork or a rib eye steak), try to avoid adding nuts to the meal.
Your Snack Allowance
Unlimited servings: vegetables
1 serving: healthy fat/nuts or dairy
1–2 servings: fruit or starches/grains
1–2 servings: protein
THE TRUTH ABOUT LATE-NIGHT MEALS
Breakfast has long been touted as the king of all meals. In fact, many researchers have hypothesized it’s the most important meal of the day. A University of Massachusetts medical school study found that people who routinely skipped breakfast had a significantly higher incidence of obesity than those who ate eggs and an English muffin. But just because one meal is good doesn’t mean the others are bad. Yet, somehow the importance of breakfast turned into a dietary game of telephone that condemned dinner as a meal that packs on pounds. Fortunately for you, nothing could be further from the truth.
Cutting-edge research from scientists all over the world appears to have finally cracked the weight loss code. And the solution is late-night eating. If you’re serious about changing your body, these findings might be the key to unlocking new fat loss pathways. That’s because your body’s ability to gain weight is mainly about what you eat and how much, not when you eat. Your body isn’t on a 24-hour clock. What counts is whether you burn more calories than you ingest by the end of the day (or better yet, the week).
Researchers from Israel wanted to test whether eating more at night actually led to more weight gain. What they found was groundbreaking. In the 6-month study, the scientists compared people who ate their largest meal at breakfast to those who ate their largest meal at dinner (8 p.m. or later). The participants who satisfied their late-night munchies not only lost more fat, they also experienced more fullness throughout the entire 6 months and saw more favorable changes to their fat loss hormones.
Consider some of the impressive findings. Compared to the morning eaters, those who ate at night:
• Had less hunger cravings and were more satisfied with their meals
• Lost 11 percent more weight
• Had a 10 percent greater change in abdominal circumference
• Lost a whopping 10.5 percent more body fat
What’s more, a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture also showed some convincing evidence for nighttime feasts. When dieters ate 70 percent of their calories after 7 p.m. compared to earlier in the day, they preserved muscle mass and lost more body fat.
So how did we come to fear late-night meals and, even worse, carbs? It was a classic case of misunderstanding. Many people eat at night out of boredom or other emotions instead of hunger, and they wind up consuming more calories than they need for the day. Remember when we said that counting calories works? Well, nighttime eaters typically bust past their calorie goal, leading to fat storage. But that doesn’t mean your body processes food differently at different times of day. In fact, late-night meals actually do a better job of priming your hormones for fat loss and improving sleep.
If you’ve ever experienced a stressful week at work or in your home, you know that a lack of sleep appears to instantly add pounds to the scale. And researchers from Wake Forest University discovered why: Too much or too little shut-eye causes weight gain. People who slept 5 hours or less each night gained nearly 2.5 times more abdominal fat than those who logged 6 to 7 hours. People with sleep deficits tend to eat more (and use less energy) because they’re tired, say the researchers. And if you’re sleep deprived and not just groggy, University of Chicago researchers report that lack of sleep can torpedo weight loss by slowing metabolism, increasing appetite, and decreasing the number of calories burned. All the more reason to eat late, sleep better at night, and watch the pounds melt—and stay—off your body.
But the best reason to eat late at night has nothing to do with losing fat or sleeping better. It’s a decision that’s best for our social life. How many times have you gone out and sabotaged a perfect day of eating with a few drinks or a big celebratory meal? On this plan, you can eat out without the guilt. Simply save your carbohydrates for the last meal of the day and indulge. Not only will these carbs help you sleep better, they’ll also fuel more fat loss. This doesn’t mean you can’t have carbs earlier in the day, but most people prefer a big dinner to a big lunch. And on this plan, we encourage this approach for amplified results.
Abs Secret #6
It’s time for you to let loose and have some fun with your eating plan. If you’ve been following The Abs Secret guidelines, you should be free to enjoy your final meal of the day. If you haven’t used up your floating meals, this is where you can squeeze in more calories to help you sleep better and improve your metabolism. We recommend that you save 1 to 2 servings of your grain allotment for dinner. Remember, carbs at night can be a great thing for your weight loss goals. But if that’s not your preference, your results won’t be slowed.