The Abs Diet for women

By Alexis Korman | Special to amNewYork

June 18, 2007

The Abs Diet, written by longtime Men's Health editor David Zinczenko, offers a six week weight loss plan geared specifically towards women. It promises to not only help you lose pounds, but to flatten your abs and firm up your body.

The rules? Eat six evenly spaced mini-meals a day, and base your meals on the following groups of foods which, in acronym form, spell out ABS DIET POWER:

Almonds and other nuts
-Beans and legumes

-Spinach and green vegetables
-Dairy (fat free or low fat yogurt, milk and cheese)
-Instant, unsweetened oatmeal
-Eggs
-Turkey and lean meats
-Peanut butter
-Olive Oil
-Whole grain breads and cereals
-Extra protein (Whey powder)
-Raspberries and other berries

Zinczenko's diet is designed to rev up the body's metabolism and burn belly fat by having women eat muscle-building protein and fiber-rich foods at frequent intervals--a theory he makes credible by citing endless scientific studies showing that more food + more muscle = less flab.

Though eating more while dieting sounds great in theory, I found that eating six times a day was simply a daunting task.

Other obstacles to my success seemed to include the book itself. Clocking in at nearly 400 pages, I had to sift through extraneous pages of health bulletins, exercise diagrams, and success stories to get to the heart of the diet.

Zinczenko's prose style also left something to be desired--recipes had downright ridiculous names like "Spaghettaboutit!" and "Pimp My Shrimp", and didn't seem to directly address a well known deal-breaker for many female dieters, the debilitating craving for sweets.

Though I didn't lose any weight after two weeks on this plan, I believe that the Abs Diet does provide a clear path to weight loss for a person who has plenty of time to prepare smoothies and to cook their meals in advance.

If you've ever dreamed about eating more to weigh less, and are dedicated to spending six weeks on a diet, this may be the plan for you.