There are six general guidelines that are the basic
principles of the Abs diet. These are: eat six meals a day,
drink smoothies regularly, know what to drink and
what not to; do not count calories; eat anything you
want for one meal a week; and focus on the Abs diet
twelve power foods.
The diet strongly recommends its followers eat six
meals a day since it helps to maintain what researchers
call an energy balance. This is the number of calories
burned in an hour versus the number of calories taken
in. Georgia State University researchers found that if
the hourly surplus or deficit of calories is 300–500 at
any given time, the body is most susceptible to burning
fat and building lean muscle mass. To stay within this
range, Zinczenko recommends the following daily
meal schedule: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch,
mid-afternoon snack, dinner, and evening snack.
Another guideline is to drink smoothies regularly
in place of a meal or snack. Smoothies are mixtures of
low-fat milk and yogurt with ingredients such as ice,
protein powder, fruits, and peanut butter, that are
prepared in a blender. Although there are no definitive
studies, some researchers suggest that the calcium in
the milk and yogurt helps to burn body fat and
restricts the amount of fat produced by the body.
A third guideline details what to drink and not
drink. Drinking eight glasses of water daily is recommended.
The benefits of 64-oz of water are that it helps
to alleviate hunger pangs, it flushes waste products
from the body, and it delivers nutrients to muscles.
Other acceptable drinks are low-fat milk, green tea,
and no more than two glasses of diet soda a day.
Alcohol is not recommended at all since it does not
help to make a person feel full. It also decreases by
one-third the body’s ability to burn fat and makes the
body store more of the fat from food. In addition,
it decreases production of testosterone and human
growth hormone that help burn fat and increase
muscle mass.
Although burning calories is required to lose fat,
Zinczenko says calorie counting makes people lose
focus and motivation. The foods allowed on the diet
are energy-efficient and will help dampen feelings of
hunger, according to Zinczenko.
Another guideline is that dieters are allowed to
cheat for one meal a week. The meal should include
foods that the dieter misses most, including items high
in carbohydrates and fats. This helps prevent diet
fatigue that many people go though when dieting.
The last guideline is to focus on the twelve power
foods of the diet to help meet core nutritional requirements.
The twelve power foods are:
-almonds and other nuts (unsalted and unsmoked)
-beans (except refried and baked)
-green vegetables, including spinach, broccoli, brussels
sprouts, and asparagus
-non-fat or low-fat dairy products
-instant oatmeal (unsweetened and unflavored)
-eggs and egg substitute products
-lean meats, including turkey, chicken, fish, and beef
-peanut butter
-olive oil
-whole-grain breads and cereals
-whey protein powder
-berries
Other foods that can be eaten often include
almond butter, apples, avocados, bananas, bean dips,
brown rice, Canadian bacon, canola oil, cashew butter,
citrus fruit and juices, edamame, fruit juices
(sugar-free), garlic, hummus, lentils, mushrooms, melons,
pasta (whole-wheat), peaches, peanut oil, peas,
peppers (green, yellow, and orange), popcorn (fatfree),
pretzels (whole-wheat), pumpkin seeds, sesame
oil, shellfish, soup (broth-based), sunflower seeds, sweet
potatoes, tomatoes, and yellow wax beans.
