Healthy Diet to Tone & Strengthen Abs

It's important to eat healthy and exercise to lose weight. When it comes to having flat abs, it's almost all about the diet. The Abs Diet is a healthy diet that was created specifically to help you lose the fat over your abdominal muscles.

Superfoods for Your Abs

While exercising does help strengthen your abdominal muscles, losing the fat over those muscles is more about what you eat. The Abs Diet is a 6-week plan that involves both healthy eating and exercise. It recommends 12 power foods that help get rid of your fat in no time.

Those 12 power foods are berries (in particular, raspberries), dairy products, oatmeal (don't add sugar), whole grain cereal and bread, natural peanut butter, nuts (especially almonds), eggs, protein powder, greens and green vegetables, olive oil, legumes and beans, white-meat chicken and turkey, and other lean meats.

To eat better for healthy abs, eat six small meals throughout the day and include at least three of the previously mentioned power foods at each of these meals. Another option is to eat three medium-sized meals and three snacks. Be sure to use variety with these power foods to get benefits from all of them.

One great difference about the Abs Diet is that it works well and doesn't require you to starve yourself. The focus is about feeding the body and optimizing health.

Other Recommended Foods

The Abs Diet also recommends some other foods that you should consume regularly. These foods aren't power foods, but they are great for your body and your abdominal muscles. Eat fruit including apples, melon, citrus fruits, peaches and bananas. Eat vegetables and starches such as sweet potatoes, brown rice, peppers and asparagus. Other foods you should also include in your diet are garlic, peanut oil, Canola oil, shellfish, lentils, mushrooms, Canadian bacon, non-fat popcorn and low-fat (broth-based) soups.

Abs Diet Meal Plan

If you don't want to buy the Abs Diet book, Men's Health Magazine online provides a very helpful Abs Diet weekly meal plan (see Resources). Some of the suggested snacks are 1 oz. of almonds and 1/2 cup of cantaloupe, three slices of deli turkey and one large orange, one string cheese and as many raw vegetables as you want, and 1 oz. each of almonds and raisins.

Foods to Avoid

Despite the theory behind the power foods and feeding the body, you still need to eat sensibly. Avoid saturated and trans fats. You should also avoid refined sugar (think white sugar) and processed foods. Taking these simple steps will help you eat sensibly without having to count calories.