Banish belly fat—permanently

Whether you call it bilbil, “Bill Blass,” puson or salbabida, belly fat is the biggest physical challenge for both men and women who want to lose weight, get fit, and look good. That unsightly tire around your waist is extremely stubborn and sneaky. Often, despite a healthy diet and regular exercise, you still can’t win the battle.

I’m a prime example of that. I went on a three-month diet and exercise program and, despite losing 25 lbs. and about the same number of inches all over my body, my muffin top was still there — reduced by a couple of inches but seemingly invincible.

Now, there is hope. You know those Century Tuna Superbod winners with their washboard abs? Food coach to the stars Nadine Tengco and Pinoy Biggest Loser coaches Jim and Toni Saret have partnered to write The Century Tuna Superbod Abs Plan: Your Ultimate Belly-Off Guide, a book charting out step-by-step how you can achieve, not only that desired six-pack, but also the body you’ve always dreamed of.

Containing a diet plan, recipes, and exercises you can easily do at home sans gym equipment, it’s important to note that this is a book made by Pinoys for Pinoys. While there are plenty of tips and advice out there on how to attain that coveted six-pack, most of the information is from foreign sources. The book’s authors customized this affordable and accessible belly-busting plan especially for Pinoys. The recipe ingredients are found in your local palengke (market) or supermarket, while the workouts are only 15 to 20 minutes long, so you waste no time in traffic getting to the gym, and you have no more excuses that you don’t have time to work out. Everybody can squeeze 15 minutes into their schedule.

Abs are made in the kitchen

Tengco says abs are made in the kitchen, which means that 70 percent depends on your diet, while 30 percent hinges on the kind of exercise you do. Here are more important points to learn:

• If you carry fat around your waist (a.k.a. “love handles” or “salbabida”), chances are, your hormones are out of whack. Hormones control almost every aspect of our weight: our appetite, cravings, metabolism, and where we store our fat.

• The right foods can balance our hormones and are our best weapon against belly fat.

• The Superbod Abs diet is the food solution to your flat belly. Once you’ve lost the fat and the bloat, the workouts will help trim and sculpt rock-hard abs.

The Superbod abs diet

Tengco says there are some sneaky causes why we can’t seem to banish the belly fat — part of our fat may not be “true fat” at all. We could just be bloated or retaining water for one reason or another.

There are two major causes of belly fat: sugar or stress, both of which cause inflammation. Consuming a lot of sugar leads to insulin resistance, which causes fat storage around the waist. Stress releases the hormone cortisol, which also causes insulin resistance, fat storage around the waist, and muscle breakdown.

Tengco’s solution is to fight fat with fat — the good fat, that is. Her diet is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids from fish; she recommends eating a tuna or bangus meal at least once a day. In her plan, which I love because you eat five times a day — three square meals and two snacks in between — the mid-afternoon snack should be high in MUFAs (mono-unsaturated fatty acids) from avocados, nuts and seeds, dark chocolate or cacao, and olive oil.

Belly bloat, on the other hand, is caused by intolerance to common food allergens and inflammation. The way to banish both is by proper hydration and drinking lots of Tengco’s Abs Water, which is simply drinking water combined with herbs like lemongrass (tanglad), ginger, mint and lemon or lime. The book also contains recipes for anti-bloat beverages like her Coco Detox drink.

My Superbod abs experience

After a tour of Ireland, where I drank Guinness and Irish coffees like there was no tomorrow, I gained three lbs. and three inches around my waist, so the Superbod Abs Plan was a godsend. I tried it for a week before doing this review.

The diet consists of two parts: a Three-Day Reboot and four-week meal plan to fuel your workouts.

The exercise program is comprised of three phases: Phase 1 is Burn (fat), Phase 2 is Tone (muscle), and Phase 3 is Shred (or sculpt your shape, to see those cuts).

To determine which phase I should start on, I first had to determine my waist-to-height ratio (WtHR), the formula of which is in the book. To my consternation, even after my previous weight-loss efforts, my WtHR put me in Phase 1, the beginner’s phase. The bright side was, I could start with the easier exercises.

The three-day Reboot diet felt like a real detox, or cleanse. I’ve never drunk so much water in my life — nine glasses a day, three of them with a teaspoon of C-lium. I normally drink half that. My bathroom time was doubled as well: I kept having to rush to the loo like a pregnant woman.

The Reboot meals for the first three days are filling but bland without salt; there is enough sweetness provided by the fruits in the salads and snacks. (Stevia is the only recommended sweetener.) As someone with a more “savory” tooth, the lack of that salty taste was the most challenging for me.

And I won’t lie: the exercises are intense and therefore tough, because you have to max out those 15-20 minutes. You do three rounds of exercises like jumping jacks, pushups, planks and burpees, completing as many reps as you can for 20 seconds, then resting for 10 seconds before moving on to the next exercise. Each round consists of eight to 10 exercises with one-minute rests in between.

After one round, my sweat would be dripping. The book has a log where you can record the number of reps you do per round, but I found this difficult to do while trying to time myself. It’s easiest to have someone time you and tell you when to start and stop. I suggest enlisting a supportive spouse, sibling or helper. Another nice thing is that you work out only five days a week, with two “active” rest days in between, doing activities you love.

By Day 2, I noticed that my lips were no longer chapped and my skin was less dry, now that I was hydrating properly.

By Day 3, I’d lost two pounds and an inch off my waist!  I also felt well detoxed. The exercises started involving more core work, like scissor and flutter kicks on your back, using your legs.

The Reboot was over by Day 4 and the diet scaled down to eight glasses of water a day, with no more C-lium. The food was also more flavorful, thanks to well-placed herbs and spices. Eating a chocolate pancake for breakfast and a frozen banana pop for a MUFA snack, I didn’t feel deprived, either. Tengco shows that health food needn’t be boring food.

By Day 5, there was so much food to eat I couldn’t even finish it, with two patties of Tengco’s Sneaky Burger for lunch and a huge jar of Coco Loco pudding for a snack. My takeaway here is that if food is prepared healthily, or if your meal consists of a very lean protein like chicken breast accompanied by vegetables, then you can eat your fill, and much larger portions of it.

By the end of the week — a mere seven days — I had lost four lbs. and two inches off my waist, and was eager to continue the program to see more rapid results.

Tengco says we all have a six-pack; it’s just buried underneath our belly fat waiting to be uncovered. If you took up the book’s challenge and do the plan for four, eight or 12 weeks, imagine how many more pounds and inches you could lose. You’ll be saying, “Goodbye, belly fat, hello, abs” in no time.

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The Century Tuna Superbod Abs Plan is available at National Book Store and Fully Booked for P250. You can also get the Century Tuna Abs Plan “Essentials Pack” at selected Robinsons Supermarket and Ministop branches.