The Zone Diet was developed by Dr. Barry Sears, a biochemist, as a solution for effective long-term weight loss. Dr. Sears promotes this popular diet craze as a way to protect against disease, improve mental clarity, increase immune function, maximize athletic performance and add to longevity. The Zone Diet is a carbohydrate-restrictive eating plan that requires consumption of nutrients in specific proportions at each meal and snack. Once diet followers are "in the zone," Dr. Sears professes that their bodies are better equipped to control levels of the hormones insulin and glucagon, purportedly promoting weight loss and better health.
The Zone Menu
To follow the Zone Diet, you must adhere to a strict diet formula consisting of 40 percent carbohydrate sources, 30 percent protein sources and 30 percent fat sources. Each meal and snack should follow this formula. It is also important that your meals not exceed 500 calories and snacks not exceed 100 calories. You should eat five times per day -- three meals and two snacks -- whether or not you feel hungry, to continue the effects of the diet. Special Zone Diet foods are available to help dieters stay on course with this diet and special recipes are available that reflect the strict 40/30/30 proportions.
Food Choices
Choosing optimal foods within the proportioned groups is also advised when following the Zone Diet. Recommended carbohydrate choices consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, with lean protein sources and monounsaturated fat sources like nuts or avocados. You should consume grain sources, including pasta and bread, in limited quantities as a condiment to the other preferred food selections. The Zone Diet cautions against processed foods, refined foods or those high in sodium.
Stages
The Zone Diet consists of three stages and helps diet followers learn the ins and outs of the diet, eventually carrying them through lifetime commitment to it. In stage one, you can begin getting used to the 40/30/30 diet formula; this stage lasts two weeks. During stage two, you have the opportunity to tweak the diet, increasing the amount of fat slightly and paying careful attention to the time that lapses between meals -- no more than five hours is recommended. You should follow stage two for four weeks. During the third and final stage of the diet, you should add exercise to your diet plan. The point of this final stage is to get Zone Diet followers ready to stay "in the zone" indefinitely.
Considerations
Dr. Sears claims that by reducing the amount of insulin produced by the body and increasing the amount of glucagon production, you can expend excess body fat and weight loss can occur. Subsequently, hormones called eicosanoids are produced by the body, resulting in improved health. The effectiveness of these metabolic mechanisms are not rooted in scientific fact, according to an article published in February 2003 in the "Journal of the American College of Nutrition."
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