Diet help

April 3, 2010 9:28 PM

Any diets out there to help me get rid of my pot belly this summer

I am currently 20 years old. I workout 7 days a week (3 cardio, 4 weights) I am in generally good physical condition, by no means overweight or unfit. Yet, partly due to genetics (I am in south asian) I can't seem to get rid of my pot belly. I eat relatively healthy. I was wondering if their were any healthy diets out there on the internet or wherever (no gimmicks, no quick fixes) that could help me loose the 10-15 pounds to get rid of my gut.

ps. I don't mind eating salad every meal as I do have awesome will power. I do not care if the diet is monotonous I was just wondering if their diets available that gave real results

posted by happydude123 to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

The No S Diet. I've been on it a month--not a diet of different or limited foods, but a change in the way one eats.
posted by partner at 10:13 PM on April 3, 2010 [4 favorites]

You might want to look at the increasing evidence of how sugar makes you fat.

A good place to start is the book Sweet Poison.
posted by Pranksome Quaine at 10:23 PM on April 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

Good Calories, Bad Calories is a nice guide to the research behind the sugar-makes-you-fat idea. (And a brutal debunking of the fat-makes-you-fat and no-carb-diets-are-unhealthy theories) My dad lost a good 30-40 pounds on that over 3 months or so, with his cholesterol going down, his pre-diebetes condition disappearing, all while eating a relatively high fat diet of meat and salads, for the most part.)
posted by sdis at 10:40 PM on April 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

the Abs Diet.
posted by Plug1 at 11:28 PM on April 3, 2010

There is no such thing as spot reduction. Aside from liposuction, of course.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 11:36 PM on April 3, 2010

Try low carb.
posted by The Toad at 2:28 AM on April 4, 2010

Zone diet might be an option too.
posted by backwards guitar at 4:48 AM on April 4, 2010

If you aren't losing weight then you are consuming too many calories, which means you probably aren't eating as healthy as you think you are. Use one of the numerous online diet sites to calculate your target daily calories, then track every single calorie you consume. I like Livestrong for this, but there are numerous sites that all do the same thing.
posted by COD at 6:16 AM on April 4, 2010

I gave up all sugar (i.e., sweets - I still eat sugars in fruits and things like pizza sauce) a little over a year ago. I changed nothing else at all about my diet (in fact, if anything, I eat more of other foods now). I lost 10 pounds in the first three months. Now I have lost a total of 15 pounds and am at my ideal weight.

I know diet is complicated, but at least to some degree it's true that sugar makes you fat.
posted by crapples at 6:54 AM on April 4, 2010

2nding crapples. I lost 40 pounds (=7 bmi points = 4" off waist) over the last 2 years by cutting down to sensible portions and giving up alcohol and sugar. The trick is not to say, "I'm going to lose x lbs. by such and such a date" but give up unhealthy routines like sprinkling sugar onto your morning cereal or drinking at every social occasion. The weight will slowly take care of itself (though a scale is a good way to track your progress) and in the long run you'll stay thinner, rather than dropping too fast and yo-yoing back up.

Sugary food makes you hungry and drives you to snack.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:49 AM on April 4, 2010

Writers at Prevention magazine came up with the "Flat Belly Diet" which is basically 1600 calories, 4 - 400 calorie meals a day with each meal have a little good fat (monounsaturated fatty acids). Avoid salt. You need some salt of course, but watch it.

Since this diet doesn't have any wacko ideas that could hurt you, even though it may not be thoroughly researched, I say why not try it and see if it works for you? - it is only 32 days.

Flat Belly Diet
Kickstart
First Week
Foods to Avoid

Of course you should avoid alcohol. Or at least just have one drink a day.
posted by cda at 8:39 AM on April 4, 2010

i weighed 220 this time last year and i lost 30 pounds simply by cutting salt out of my diet. start eating a real low sodium diet and you'll see some amazing changes in your body and metabolism.
posted by analogue at 9:45 AM on April 4, 2010

I really have to disagree with analogue. Sodium itself does not cause permanent weight gain, it's just that foods that are high in sodium tend to be high in other things that are bad for you. Correlation doesn't always imply causation.
posted by speedgraphic at 10:16 AM on April 4, 2010

This diet, loosely followed, helped me lose nearly 50 pounds in around 3 months. I also exercised (biking and kayaking hard for at least an hour 3 days a week or more). I think the biggest factors were portion size (eating until I was not hungry, not until I was full), getting off my ass and sweating, and staying away from sugars, breads and starches on non-cheat days.

Cutting soda alone lost me 20 pounds in a month (with regular exercise).
posted by dozo at 10:36 AM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

Don't forget to throw in ab-toning exercises targeted to the transverse abdominus (the muscle that flattens your belly).
posted by moira at 11:42 AM on April 4, 2010

Speedgraphic: I disagree with your disagreement. The more sodium you ingest the more your body retains water. Water retention is what leads to both high blood pressure, bloat, and extra pounds. I have friends who have lost as much weight as me by using prescription diuretics without switching to a low sodium diet.
posted by analogue at 12:05 PM on April 4, 2010

The website StrongLifts has a lot of good nutrition tips that worked wonders for me, including:

- carbs only after workouts
- eat whole foods, not processed (if it comes in a box, chuck it)
- 10% junk meals per week max (i.e. eat what you want)
- stop fearing "fat" - consume whole milk and butter instead of skim and margarine
- use Fit Day (free) to track food intake

I'm 6'2" 200lbs and work out quite a bit, but I too had a problem getting rid of love handles. This program worked really well for me to pare them back.

Also, strangely, I found that I wasn't eating ENOUGH to sustain myself -- so my body was retaining fat and burning muscle. By upping the calories (after tallying them up), I forced my body to start consuming the fat.
posted by teedee2000 at 2:07 PM on April 4, 2010

You might have success with stress reduction and relaxation techniques, like deep breathing, that lower your cortisol. Cortisol is a stress-related hormone that stimulates your body to produce and store fat in your abdomen specifically.
posted by neitheror at 1:18 PM on April 6, 2010