Hollywood status isn’t the only thing that Jennifer Aniston, Sandra Bullock and Sarah Jessica Parker have in common. All these celebrities claim to have followed the Zone Diet to achieve their famous slim figures. But what does ‘Being in the Zone’ involve and is it a healthy way to achieve the weight loss you are looking for?

Barry Sears, creator of the Zone Diet, tells us that if you ‘Enter the Zone’ you will lose weight permanently, reach peak physical performance, improve your brain skills and even delay the signs of ageing; but is it all too good to be true?

The Zone Diet was all the rage in the mid 1990’s but despite newer diet plans such as the Atkins and the South Beach diets hitting the bestseller lists the Zone Diet remains a popular choice for people looking to lose weight.

How does it work?

The Zone Diet is based around a theory that excess insulin, the hormone that controls our blood sugar levels, makes us fat. Keeping insulin levels within a ‘zone’ is said to help your body burn fat more efficiently and causes weight loss.

To control insulin levels you need to keep your blood sugar in check, and to do this you have to eat the perfect balance of low-carbohydrates, low-fats and high-proteins at every meal. In this way the Zone Diet is not dissimilar to many other fashionable high-protein, low-carb diet plans.

What do you have to do?

The diet plan itself seems quite complicated; you’ll need to spend quite a bit of time learning about ‘zoning’. The overall idea is that to get in the zone you need to stick to a 40-30-30 ratio; that is 40% of calories come from carbs, 30% from protein and 30% from fat. And you need to achieve this ratio for every meal, including snacks.

Of course Barry Sears has tried to simplify the zoning process by developing ‘Zone Food Blocks’, with each block containing a standard amount of carbs, protein and fat. You then allocate a number of these blocks to each meal and snack.

To help with this, ‘Zone Food Blocks’ have been developed, where each ‘block’ contains a standardised amount of carbohydrate, protein or fat. To lose weight, a certain number of blocks are allocated for each meal and snack.

The number of blocks you need to eat each day depends on your weight, height and hip and waist measurements. For example a 10 stone woman who is 5ft 2in and has a 28 inch waist and 37 inch hips would be allocated 12 blocks a day; four for breakfast, three each for lunch and dinner and then one each for an afternoon and evening snack. The larger you are the more blocks you are allocated.

Using the Zone Diet’s website its quite easy to calculate how many blocks you need to eat; turning this into a diet plan is the tricky bit! You can buy a Zone Diet book to help you, or simply turn to the pre-packaged Zone Diet meals and snacks.

What level of weight loss can be achieved?

Followers of the diet plan claim you can lose at least 5lb in the first two weeks, followed by a steady 1-1.5lb in the following weeks.

What are the advantages?

The Zone Diet is not as restrictive as other low-carb diet plans and encourages you to swap crisps, cakes and biscuits for fruit and vegetables. Eating fewer fatty foods is good for your heart.

And the disadvantages?

Following the plan properly can be time-consuming and complicated. You really need to buy a Zone Diet book as well as a set of scales and measuring spoons so you’ll need to spend some money to get started. Eating out is difficult too if you’re counting food blocks.


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