Zone Diet

The zone diet is considered a fad diet created by a biochemist named Barry Sears. In reality it's not a fad diet in that it is not planned to only be consumed in short periods, but rather to become the normal eating habits for a person. It is considered a low carbohydrate diet, however is more based on balancing hormones and therefore does not restrict carbohydrates as much as other low carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet.

The basis of the zone diet is a ratio of calories from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats all of 40 to 30 to 30. Some nonscientific studies done by various television shows have shown that the diet can indeed produce reasonable weight-loss. In fact, many of these nonscientific studies show that people gain muscle mass while losing weight on the zone diet. Many of the people in these studies also reported that of all the low carbohydrate diets, the zone diet was easiest to fit into an everyday lifestyle.

The zone in zone diet refers to a hormone balance in which insulin levels are perfect, glucagen levels are perfect, and thus the body releases various anti-inflammatory chemicals similar to aspirin but without side effects. In addition, claims Sears, the natural anti-inflammatories help with heart health. Another benefit of the zone diet is that once the human body is in this hormonal balance it becomes more efficient and stops storing excess calories as fat. Thus, with no fat stored, and with stored fat used as energy, the body loses weight. Later Sears added a Omega three and Omega six fatty acids to the diet, through such supplements as pharmaceutical fish oils.

A typical zone diet meal was described by its creator in the following manner. In every meal eat enough protein to fit in the palm of your hand, as many non-starchy raw vegetables as you can take, just enough carbohydrates to maintain mental clarity, and just enough oils to stop hunger.

This zone diet has a famous weight loss case in its files, that of the man who weighed over 1200 pounds. After two years on the zone diet he lost nearly 1/3 of that weight, all that after trying everything he could think of including liposuction that had nearly been fatal. The man's current diet consists of 2000 calories broken up into six meals per day. It includes egg white omelets, fresh salads, chicken, fish, and other healthy foods mandated by the zone diet.

Give the zone diet a try, but be careful.