The Zone Diet is a somewhat unorthodox diet, which focuses on controlling body hormone levels, which are crucial in weight loss and in maintaining health. According to the website, the Zone Diet is not a diet, but rather a lifestyle.
Basic Ideas
The point of the Zone Diet is to balance the level of hormones in the body by consuming less calories, and a normal amount of nutrients. This diet is based on a ratio: for every gram of fat consumed, you have to consume 2 grams of protein, and 3 grams of carbs. With the right balance, the diet is supposed to help maintain the three major hormones central to this diet – insulin, glucagon and eicosanoids.
The Zone Diet website is large and contains a lot of information. As it happens, in order to fully comprehend how the diet works and how it should be followed, you will have to learn a large part of this information.
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 for Zone Diet foods online.
Exercise Component
Although there is no specific exercise regimen in this diet, 30 minutes of exercise a day, 6 days a week is recommended for the lifestyle.
Food
The Zone Diet meal plan is based on the 1-2-3 ratio of fats, proteins and carbs. Basically, the diet deals with “food blocks”: the program assigns you the number of available blocks for a meal. For example, the lunch of an average woman would consist of 3 protein, 3 fat, and 3 carb blocks. This works well for the protein, but not so much when it comes to carbs, because the amounts seem to be rather large, and, consequently, rather expensive.
The foods and supplements available at the Zone Diet website are rather expensive too. The good thing, however, is that if you take the time to learn the nutrition values of various foods, you should do fine with your own choices.
Practicality
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.