Zone Diet

Can The Zone Diet help you manage insulin levels better and lose weight? Will this diet plan, based on a bestselling diet book, work for you? Take our Top 60 Diet Quiz to find out whether or not The Zone is the best plan for you. Our comprehensive diet analysis examines your lifestyle and dieting preferences, and reviews your needs versus the Zone diet as well as other popular diets. Then BestDietForMe.com gives you a group of your best diet program “matches" and unbiased reports describing each company’s diet program, complete with reviews of diets like The Zone, so you can choose the right one…

The Zone

(Diet Book, by Dr. Barry Sears)

After you read our review below - Try our Top 60 Diet Quiz to find out which diet programs are best suited to your specific needs, and which ones will help you keep the weight off.

Type of Counseling: company phone counselors available

Typical Cost: under $30 for book alone, optional club with $168+/year cost

Type Program: diet bestseller and related website -- ZonePerfect Nutrition Program

Type of Foods Used: regular grocery store food -- meal replacements, entrees, and vitamins with optional Zone Club plan

At-Home or Direct Mail Plan Available? Yes

How The Plan Works

According to The Zone Diet, the ideal ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats is 40-30-30%, respectively. Ideally, a Zone-favorable meal or snack will have this macronutrient ratio every time you eat. It is not necessary, however, to do math at every meal. By using the "eyeball" method, it is very easy to approximate the right serving size of each macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, fat) by using a very accessible tool, your hand.

Each Zone meal begins with protein. The question is: "How much protein to I need in each meal?" Luckily, your hand is a good guideline. The size of your hand is relative to the size of your body and, therefore, your protein needs. Your protein portion should be equal to the size and thickness of your palm.

Protein

During your first few weeks in The Zone, use your hand. Just gauge the size of a chicken breast or a piece of fish by the size and thickness of your palm. Once you determine the amount of protein that you should have at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you need to determine how much carbohydrate goes along with it. The amount of carbohydrates is determined by the size of your fist.

Carbohydrate

The Zone Diet classifies carbohydrates as either favorable, or unfavorable. If you choose favorable carbohydrates, you get two big fists worth of it--two big, loose fists. If you choose unfavorable carbohydrates like pasta, you get only one tight fist worth. Highly refined foods like pasta, white breads and bagels are considered unfavorable.

Dietary Fat

The last macronutrient of The Zone Diet plan is dietary fat. Fat is easy. Just add a few nuts, some olive oil, or a couple of olives to balance your meal. If your protein source is high in fat, don’t add any extra dietary fat.

Eat Five Times a Day… The five fingers of your hand should remind you to eat at least five times a day; three meals and two snacks. The Zone Diet wants you to try to eat your first meal or snack within an hour of waking and your last meal or snack an hour before going to sleep. Your hand also reminds you to never let more than five hours pass between a meal or snack.

The Zone Diet doesn’t ask you to count calories. Instead of emphasizing calories, The Zone Diet views food as a "drug" that dramatically affects your body’s production of the hormone insulin. Barry Sears believes that significant swings in insulin levels affect mood, endurance, mental acuity, and weight gain or loss. Over time, uncontrolled insulin levels will have a negative impact on your overall health and well-being.

There are four key elements to the program:

The Zone Diet

The use of monounsaturated fats

Supplementation of diet with Omega-3 fish oils

Exercise

Zone "blocks" can be moved around to fit your lifestyle. Most people are used to eating 3 meals a day, so we recommend starting with three main meals and two snacks. This schedule, however, is just one of many options. As long as you eat at least five times a day, eat within an hour of waking and hour of going to sleep and never let five hours pass between meals, you can arrange your blocks anyway you like.

More Than a Book: The ZonePerfect Nutrition Program

The centerpiece of the ZonePerfect Nutrition Program of course is The Zone Diet, which was originally developed by Barry Sears, PhD. This science-based nutrition program claims to harnesses the powerful and almost drug-like effects of food, to position your body within a hormonally controlled "Zone" 24 hours a day.

However, one can use The Zone weight loss program in a variety of ways, as follows:

Purchase the best-selling book

Access a simple scaled down version of the program via diet website eDiets.com

Join the company’s "club" and purchase their products via the website,

The Zone Club seems to be the most comprehensive in terms of available products and services. There is a $35 sign up fee that’s usually waived. Once you join, you can have the company’s microwaveable meals/entrees, multivitamins, fish oils, meal replacement shakes and other products shipped to your home once a month. There is a minimum order of $28, and six shipments per year. One can order these products at the website’s shop or by phone (800-390-6690).

Phone counseling is available, via "Zone certified instructors". These counselors are available Monday to Thursday 8 AM to 8 PM, Friday 8 AM to 6 PM, Saturday 9AM – 4 PM. These NO are medical professionals or dietitians, simply people that have gone through the company’s training program. Call the Toll-Free number 1-800-390-6690 to speak to a Zone Associate.

Comment

The authors of this diet best seller have been one of the few that have expanded the plan beyond simply a do-it-yourself weight loss program (as has Atkins). After reading the book, you are not just left to fend for yourself. If you want something more, you do have access to counselors by phone, can visit the company’s website, and can buy diet entrees, vitamins, and meal replacements to support your efforts. In this respect, The Zone plan has more substance than other diet books, and is worth a look. In addition, if you prefer an online diet service, you can use The Zone plan via eDiets.com, which has licensed The Zone program as one of its 16 or so plans, for a fee. Consequently, BestDietForMe.com analysts rate this self-help program high on flexibility.

This seems to be the latest trend, regarding diet books—producing more than just a bestseller. Any diet books/diet gurus that don't also have a related website today will be considered by many dieters to be lacking, leaving them wondering: "Is that all there is?"

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The information on this web site is intended for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Before starting any weight loss program, it is recommended that you consult your physician or health care professional.

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