“THE ABS DIET HELPED ME CHEAT DEATH!”

Name: Dan Shea
Age: 40
Height: 5'7"
Starting weight: 226
Six weeks later: 207
Dan Shea had seen what happens to a man who doesn’t take charge of his
weight and his health, and he didn’t want it to happen to him. His own dad—a
once-fit airborne ranger who used to be in incredible shape—was now, at age
70, on the verge of losing a foot to diabetes. Shea wanted to plot a different
course: “I want to be skiing when I’m 70,” he says.
But at 40 years old, 5 feet 7 inches, and 226 pounds, Shea knew he had to
make a change—a 60-pound change. He had a 13-year-old daughter he
wanted to watch grow up, and at the rate he was going, he was a heart attack
waiting to happen. So he started the Abs Diet and immediately took to it. He
realized he wasn’t eating enough breakfast and also realized the importance
found in most animal products, and those food products are important
for the Abs Diet for other reasons (the calcium in dairy
products, the protein in meat). But I do want you to consume the
low-fat and leaner versions of meat and dairy products. You want
the nutritional benefit from one part of the food without high
amounts of saturated fat.
AVOID
Fatty cuts of red meat
Whole-milk dairy products
Polyunsaturated fats: GOOD. There are two types of
polyunsaturated fats: omega-3’s and omega-6’s. You’ve probably
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of eating often—making sure he had a midmorning snack consisting of a
couple of the Powerfoods. “Even though I wasn’t hungry, I ate it,” he says. “It
was like fighting years of dietary knowledge to have that midmorning snack. I
wasn’t hungry yet, but if I hadn’t eaten, I’d have been starving at lunch.”
But his biggest affection is for the Abs Diet smoothies that he makes with lowfat
yogurt, low-fat milk, some fruit, and a scoop of protein powder. “Best damn
thing on the planet, like going to Dairy Queen,” Shea says. “For fun, I’d layer it
with a couple of tablespoons of fat-free, sugar-free whipped topping. My life is
all about smoothies now. It’s my snack of choice—really my meal of choice. If I
could have a blender in my office, I’d have them three times a day.”
Shea lost 19 pounds on the plan and now has made the Abs Diet his regular
eating and nutritional plan as he strives for his goal of 165 pounds. “I look
great, or so my wife tells me. My pants are much looser, and I need a new belt.
I tuck in my shirts now. I walk taller somehow, stand taller. My confidence level
has been boosted. In fact, I had an interview for a position for which I was way
underqualified, yet I was short-listed and came quite close to getting it, based
largely on my strength of presence,” Shea says. “I’ve lost in my gut and butt,
but mainly my man breasts are now less Dolly Parton and more Gwyneth Paltrow.
I know this is a great plan, and I know I’m going to reach my goal. I mean,
I’m in it for the long haul, and this is a plan that is easy to do for the long term.”
heard of omega-3 fatty acids. They’re the fats found in fish, and
a diet high in omega-3’s has been shown to help protect the
heart from cardiovascular disease. That’s plenty enough reason
to include seafood in your diet. But new evidence suggests that
this type of fat can actually help you control your weight. In one
study, subjects who took in 6 grams a day of fish oil supplements
burned more fat during the course of a day than those who went
without. Researchers suspect that a diet high in omega-3’s actually
alters the body’s metabolism and spurs it to burn fat more
efficiently.
Now, you can take fish oil supplements if you want, but you’ll
miss the muscle-building protein benefits of real fish. The fish
with the highest levels of omega-3’s are the fish you probably
enjoy the most already—salmon and tuna, to name two. (To see
where your favorite fish falls in the omega-3 sweepstakes, see the
chart on the opposite page.) In addition to being packed with
heart-healthy, fat-burning omega-3’s, fish is also a great source
of lean, muscle-building protein.
There’s another amazing, secret Powerfood that bodybuilders
know about but you may have never even heard of: flaxseed. Flax
is a seldom-used grain that’s loaded with omega-3’s as well as cholesterol-
busting fiber. You’ll find flaxseeds and flaxseed oil in most
health food stores. Grab it! I keep ground flaxseed in the fridge,
and I toss it on breakfast cereals, into smoothies, and on top of ice
cream. It’s got a mild nutty flavor you’ll like. It crushes cholesterol
with its omega-3’s, it adds artery-scouring fiber to your diet, and
it might just be your best weapon against fat.
Omega-6 fatty acids also help lower bad cholesterol and raise
good cholesterol. They’re found in vegetable oils, meat, eggs, and
dairy products. They’re so common to so many foods, in fact, that
only those of you currently shipwrecked on deserted islands living
off flotsam and jetsam need worry about not getting enough in
your diet.

HOW TO CHOOSE A MULTIVITAMIN

Multivitamins are good insurance for the day you don’t get the daily maximum
amount of nutrients. Look for one with a concentration of chromium and vitamins
B6 and B12. Chromium improves your body’s ability to convert amino acids
into muscle. A University of Maryland study found that men who exercised regularly
and took 200 micrograms of chromium a day added more muscle and
lost significantly more body fat than lifters not taking the supplement. Also,
since hard workouts deplete your B vitamins, it’s good to find vitamins with high
doses, like Solaray Men’s Golden Multi-Vita-Min, which has megadoses of vitamins
B6 and B12, plus your entire daily allowance of endurance-boosting zinc.
Take control of your trans fat intake. Check the ingredient labels
on all the packaged foods you buy, and if you see PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED
OIL on the label, consider finding an alternative. Even
foods that seem bad for you can have healthy versions: McCains
shoestring french fries, Ruffles Natural reduced-fat chips, Wheatables
reduced-fat crackers, and Dove dark chocolate bars are just
a few of the “bad for you” snacks that are actually free of trans
fats. And remember—the higher up on the ingredients list PARTIALLY
HYDROGENATED OIL is, the worse the food is for you. You might
not be able to avoid trans fats entirely, but you can choose foods
with a minimal amount of the stuff.
The other way to avoid trans fats is to avoid ordering fried
foods. Because trans fats spoil less easily than natural fats and
are easier to ship and store, almost all fried commercial foods are
now fried in trans fats rather than natural oils. Fish and chips,
tortillas, fried chicken—all of it is packed with belly-building
trans fats. Order food baked or broiled whenever possible. And
avoid fast-food joints, where nearly every food option is loaded
with trans fats; drive-through restaurants ought to come complete
with drive-through cardiology clinics.
For more on trans fats—where they come from, how they act
inside your body, and how to fight back, see the Special Report on
page 127. In the meantime:
AVOID
Margarine
Fried foods
Commercially manufactured baked goods
Any food with PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OIL on its list of ingredients
Saturated fat: BAD. Saturated fats are naturally occurring
fats found in meat and dairy products. The problem with saturated
fats is that when they enter your body, they tend to do the
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same thing they did when they were in a pig’s or cow’s body:
Rather than be burned for energy, they’re more likely to be stored
as fat in your flanks, in your ribs, even—ugh—in your loin. In fact,
they seem to have more of a “storage effect” than other fats. A new
study from Johns Hopkins University suggests that the amount
of saturated fat in your diet may be directly proportional to the
amount of fat surrounding your abdominal muscles. Researchers
analyzed the diets of 84 people and performed an MRI on each of
them to measure fat. Those whose diets included the highest rates
of saturated fat also had the most abdominal fat. Saturated fats
also raise cholesterol levels, so they increase your risk for heart
disease and some types of cancer.
I don’t want you to eliminate saturated fats entirely; they’re