The Zone Diet review

3:52 AM |

The Zone Diet, created by Dr. Barry Sears, is a somewhat scientific approach to dieting, which at its core focuses on controlling the hormone levels in your body that are key to weight control and health. The basic tenet, in bold headlines on the Zone Diet website is that it "… is not a diet. It’s a healthy, balanced lifestyle."
The concepts behind the diet take some time to understand (Zone Blocks, SuperZone vs. Zone foods), but there is plenty of straightforward information to walk you through it on their free online site. It focuses on the components of food and how they should be consumed for optimum health and weight control.

Basic Diet Tenets/Nutritional Philosophy (5)

The Zone Diet is about balancing your hormones within a specific range to control hunger on fewer calories while still getting the proper nutrients your body needs for long-term health. It is a moderate carbohydrate, moderate protein, moderate fat diet that has approximately 1 gram of fat for every 2 grams of protein and 3 grams of carbohydrates (also known as the Zone 1-2-3 Method™). These ratios represent the newest dietary recommendations from the Joslin Diabetes Research Center at Harvard Medical School for the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
With the right balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats, you can control three major hormones generated by the diet – insulin, glucagon and eicosanoids.

Insulin – A storage hormone. Excess insulin makes you fat and keeps you fat. It also accelerates silent inflammation.
Glucagon – A mobilization hormone that tells the body to release stored carbohydrates at a steady rate, leading to stabilized blood sugar levels. This is key for optimal mental and physical performance.
Eicosanoids – These are the hormones that ultimately control silent inflammation. They are also master hormones that indirectly orchestrate a vast array of other hormonal systems in your body.

The Zone Diet website is a large, comprehensive site that lets you diet cheaply from the information it provides. There will be some ramp up time if you are new to the clinical principals the diet is based upon, so plan on spending some time reading the book or cruising the website before beginning your new diet.
With a free membership come all the resources of the site: recipes, meal planner, body fat calculator, forums, newsletters, tips and more. You can also shop online for Superzone foods, Zone foods, and supplements.

Exercise/Fitness Component (1)

Exercise, 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, is also recommended as part of the Zone lifestyle balance. While there are encouragements on the site in the form of a sample workout, testimonials, and articles on fitness, there is no structured program or component.

Food (4)

The balance of food for a Zone meal starts with a palm-size portion of low fat protein, adds twice as much favorable carbohydrates and a little good fat. Generally this equates to 1/3 of your plate being protein and 2/3 of your plate being fruits/vegetables/good carbs, with a splash of healthy fats thrown in. Low-fat protein examples are skinless chicken, turkey, fish, very lean meat, and tofu. Favorable carbohydrate examples are most fruits and vegetables, oatmeal, and barley. Good fat examples are olive oil, almonds, avocados, and fish oil.
The way that the Zone Diet meal plan works is that you have "food blocks." This reminds of the Weight Watchers counting points system. The system assigns you the number of blocks available for a meal. For an average woman's lunch that would be 3 protein, 3 carb, and 3 fat blocks. This is reasonable for the protein portion, which would equate to 3-4 ounces of meat, but the carbohydrate portions seem a bit out of whack. If you were to choose 3 blocks of artichokes, you would have to eat 12, with broccoli - 9 cups, brussel sprouts – 4.5 cups, cauliflower – 12 cups, or alfalfa sprouts – 30 cups. This could pump up your food bill considerably, what with the cost of artichokes at $1/per.
There are SuperZone and Zone foods and supplements available, however they can be costly. The majority of the Superzone bread products—bagels, breakfast rolls, sandwich rolls—come in a five-pack and cost $12.50. Five packages of pasta or pizza crust will set you back $25. Snacks (5 to a package) are also $12.50. Zone Nutrition Bars (in 9 flavors) and shakes (in 6 flavors) ring in at $35.95 per 14-pack.
For the most part you will be responsible for preparing your own food. There is guidance through recipes, meal planners, and the website offers tips and suggestions to make it easy for you to dine out, so you are not restricted to eating at home. There are even food suggestions for eating at many fast-food restaurants.

Ease of Use (3)

The 1-2-3 concept is not difficult, but employing food blocks and determining meals can be complicated. There are no prepared meals. Once you spend time on the diet, these things should become easier to manage and be more routine.