Weight Loss Diets

What is the Zone Diet?

The Zone is that point where all your body processes are working at their optimum level, so that you feel at your best physically, mentally & emotionally and everything flows. You are strong, bursting with energy and your fat reserves are being used as fuel, so you don't need as much food. Sounds great, doesn't it?

According to Dr Barry Sears, we can get into this state any time we want to, simply by getting our balance of macronutrients right. Our body needs protein (amino acids, when broken down to it's simplest form), carbohydrate (glucose) and fats (fatty acids) for all it's chemical and hormonal processes, and when given the right balance will be in the zone.

Zone Diet, is also commonly referred to as the 40/30/30 diet. This refers to the proportion of each food group in the diet. In this case, 40% of daily caloric intake comes from carbohydrates, 30% comes from protein, and 30% from friendly fats.

The Zone Diet is backed by years of studies and extensive research. The Diet declares that it is effective because it regulates the insulin our body produces. Unlike the Atkins Diet, the Zone Diet petitions for a lower carbohydrate intake, not an absolute abolishment of them. The Zone is all about eating healthy for the long term. A meal would include meat and vegetables, but like most diets, portion control is key.

The Zone Diet encourages foods such as fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts, leafy green vegetables, sufficient protein consumption, and eight glasses of water everyday. However, Zone Diet prefers mono-unsaturated fats for saturated fats, says a big no to both processed foods and meals that contain too much salt. Zone Dieting means following recipes with a low-carbohydrate diet plan, where proteins do not dominate the carbohydrates. This allows dieters to get more energy from carbohydrates rather from proteins or fats.

The whole point of this 40/30/30 ratio is to balance two main metabolic hormones - insulin, which promotes the storing of excess calories as fat, and glucagon, which promotes the burning of fat.

INSULIN is a fat-storing hormone. It not only makes you fat, but high levels of insulin in your blood accelerate aging and lead to type-2 diabetes and heart disease. Insulin is produced by the pancreas when you eat carbohydrates. Carbohydrates that are packed with sugar and highly processed turn into blood sugar faster than others, and produce higher levels of insulin and more fat storage. Fruits and vegetables and oatmeal have less sugar, more fiber and are absorbed more slowly producing less insulin and less fat-storage. Eating mostly vegetables plus a few fruits is one key to insulin control and fat loss in the Zone. These hormones are controlled by what you eat. In order to keep your hormones in balance you need to eat a balanced diet.

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