The Zone Diet Can Help Achieve Your Weight Goal

The Zone Diet is another diet that can help achieve weight loss and can lead on the road to heart health.The purpose of a diet is to give you the proper boost; giving you the tools you need to begin living a healthy, active lifestyle.

Each person is different, we all know our own needs, wants, and cravings and deep down we all know our own strengths and weaknesses.

You should choose the diet or technique that helps you in your unique way to achieve the goal you want to obtain.This goal is to live a happy active lifestyle and prevent heart disease and other life threatening diseases.

The Zone Diet

The Zone Diet theory is a diet popularized in books by Barry Sears, who holds a doctorate degree in biochemistry and has specialized in researching drug treatments for cancer and heart disease for several years. He states that we should create a balance and moderation of the macro nutrients of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that we eat.

The zone diet theory says that by eating balanced meals and not eating too many calories at one meal, a metabolic change occurs. The body releases the stored fat cells and begins using them for fuel, this stabilizes the blood sugar levels, and reduces food cravings, and within one week we begin to lose weight.

The proper balance that we should eat based on the zone diet is 40% carbohydrates 30% lean protein and 30% Healthy fat

Protein 30 %

Protein which is necessary nutrient needed to feed the muscles and the immune system and can also stimulate gluacon. Gluacon is a hormone that is produced by the pancreas that raises the blood sugar level by promoting the conversion of glycolin to glucose in the liver.

This controls that the insulin levels don't increase and when insulin levels are neither too high nor too low, the human body uses stored fat for energy, causing weight loss.

The amount of protein to be eaten is:

• No more than the size of the palm
• 1/3 of the plate
• It must be lean with a minimum of saturated fat, such as chicken breast, turkey, fish, lean meat, egg whites, low fat dairy products, and soy protein.

Carbohydrates 40 %

Fruits and vegetables that have low insulin content, which excludes

• Vegetables such as carrots, peas, and beats,
• Fruits bananas and raisins,
• Breads, pasta, and rice.

Eating too many carbohydrates may increase the production of the hormone insulin, causing the body to store more fat.

Fat 30 %

These fats are the good fats that have been scientifically proven to reduce heart disease risk factors.

• Mono unsaturated fats such as: Olive oil, avocados, and nuts,
• Omega 3's: found in fish oil

According to Barry Sears in the Zone diet, that even causes weight loss because, the mono unsaturated fats in a meal contribute to a feeling of fullness and modulate the rate at which carbohydrates are absorbed into the bloodstream, and they restore and maintain the eicosanoid hormones.

The Other Necessary Components of the Zone Diet are:

Supplements

It is necessary to take daily supplements of 2.5 grams of fish oil while on the zone diet in order to increase the omega 3's in the body.

Meal Timing

• Breakfast no more then one hour after waking up
• No more then five hours can pass between meals
• Three meals and two snacks must be eaten daily

Thinking Hormonal

Begin thinking hormonal instead of caloric. When we eat we should think that our food is affecting our bodies hormonally. The carbohydrates stimulate the insulin hormone, the protein affects the glucagon hormone, and the fats affect the eicosanoids hormone.

The Critics of The Zone Diet

The formula is controversial, but studies over the past several years including non-scientific study by Scientific American Frontiers have shown it to produce rapid weight loss.

The Northwestern university Feinberg school nutrition fact sheets about the zone diet claims

That Sears uses several pseudo-scientific, misleading statements to describe the relationship between eicosanoids and weight control. This author supports these principles with anecdotal case studies, not any scientific research data.

That several claims, which the zone diet is based on, may not be true such as:

• "Eating fat does not make you fat." But excess intake of carbohydrates is converted into body fat.
• It's hard to lose weight by simply restricting calories.
• Diets based on choice restriction and calorie limits usually fail.
• Weight loss has little to do with will power.
• That there maybe certain Nutrient deficiencies:
• Such as vitamin D, vitamin E, iron, magnesium and calcium.
• Inadequate amounts of fiber
• And that Contrary to Sears' claims that the Zone diet is not restricted in calories.
• In fact, the weight loss results experienced by Zone dieters are probably due to the < 1500 calorie/day restriction in itself instead of the Zone's 40:30:30 ratio of protein to carbohydrate to fat diet composition.

You can read more details of the critique of the zone diet in the nutrition fact sheet here.

Considering that the main objective and goal is to lose weight, and become active and healthy. You should consider all the factors, and then go ahead and do what will help you achieve your goal. The Zone Diet can be can be the right diet for you, you can even get it delivered to you at ZoneDietAtHome