The Skinny on the Zone Diet
Take any recent article or newsletter comparing the pros and cons of various popular diets, and the Zone Diet is likely to be one of them. The diet, developed by biochemist Barry Sears, has become hugely popular in the past few years for those attempting to achieve significant fat loss. The Zone Diet website publishes plenty of glowing testimonials, and rumor has it that celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Renee Zellweger have tried it. But does it really work, and what are the downsides? I’ve ventured to find out.
The Basic Premise
The major theory behind the diet is that the food you put into your body triggers certain hormones and cellular processes. These processes affect your ability to achieve fat loss, the way in which you store or burn fat, and your energy level. The diet’s inventor, Dr. Barry Sears, recommends a balance of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fats in every meal.
The diet stresses regular, moderate exercise and consumption of low-fat proteins, low-sugar carbs, especially fruits and vegetables, and monounsaturated fats, following the 40:30:30 ratio. Diet followers are also expected to take high daily doses of Omega 3 fish oil supplements and polyphenols from fruits and vegetables or in supplement form. The diet also recommends taking a regimen of nutritional supplements specific to your health and lifestyle profile.
The diet’s potential benefits are based on the assumption that certain food combinations quell hunger pangs more effectively and produce the optimal performance of major hormones, particularly insulin. Carbs that release their sugars quickly cause a spike in blood sugar. This causes insulin to go into overdrive, storing more food energy as fat.
Sears further claims that fluctuating insulin levels cause what he calls “silent inflammation,” and that moderate exercise and high-dose omega-3s counteract that inflammation. According to Sears, polyphenols help increase cellular levels of ATP and protect EPA and DHA. If you haven’t taken a cellular biology class lately, this explanation probably reads like a bowl of alphabet soup. This basically means the supplements increase the energy molecules and anti-inflammatory molecules in our cells.
Upside
The eating instructions are nice and simple: fill 2/3 of your plate with recommended varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables and 1/3 with a portion of lean protein—skinless chicken, tofu, egg whites, and so one. The meal is completed with a dash of monounsaturated “good” fat—from olive oil, nuts, or fatty fruit like avocado. In the interest of variety, the creators of the Zone helpfully provide different recipes that conform to this structure. There are also tips for determining where, and how well, prepackaged foods fit into the fat loss scheme.
The Zone Diet doesn’t ask dieters to starve themselves. Dr. Sears encourages followers to eat regularly—at least every five hours—and the recommended ratio of carbs to proteins and fats does seem to stave off major cravings.
There are clear nutritional benefits in many of the diet’s strictures: junk food is out, as are most sweet treats and starchy foods, and fresh fruits and vegetables are highly recommended. The Zone is considered a “low carb” or “high-protein” diet, but it emphasizes lean proteins and doesn’t include red meat or egg yolks, which are high in cholesterol and saturated fat. Many people swear by this diet and claim to have experienced rapid weight loss and increased muscle mass, which is believable on the basis of the food recommendations.
Downside
Following the Zone plan strictly can be quite expensive. Aids like dietary calculators (including the measurement of something called a Zone Block) and specially prepared foods come at a price, as do the cookbooks and Zone Diet guides designed to keep users on track.
The big-ticket items are the supplements. The Zone guidelines recommend that dieters take these supplements religiously, and they strongly encourage followers to buy their supplements through Zone Labs, which claims superior standards of potency and purity for its Omega-3s, polyphenols, and other products. In order to fully “Get Into the Zone,” in other words, be prepared to buy Dr. Sears’ products on a regular basis.
Another, more disturbing caution about the Zone Diet is how heavily it relies upon science that many nutrition experts find questionable at best. One of the central ideas of the diet is that the consumption of complex carbohydrates leads to “silent inflammation” from “bad eicosanoids,” which in turn leads to heart disease and obesity.
“While it's true that eicosanoids are hormones involved in many metabolic processes, the relation of ‘bad’ eicosanoids to obesity and disease is at best a scientifically unproven gimmick,” writes Dr. Charles Attwood, a pediatrician and public promoter of low-fat and vegetarian diets.
According to Dr. Attwood, Dr. Sears’ diet increases bad cholesterol and demonizes many healthy foods on the basis of flimsy evidence or sloppy thinking. Furthermore, Dr. Attwood claims that the Zone is a short-term “fad diet” that fails to provide lasting solutions.
Most nutritionists agree that the Zone diet is not necessarily dangerous, but there isn’t any scientific evidence to prove Dr. Sears’ theories about hormones and gene expression or their effect on weight loss, diabetes, and heart disease.
The diet won’t hurt you, but we have yet to prove that it helps. The supplements are probably good for you, but no one has determined whether Dr. Sears’ regimen has any unique benefits. As nutritionist Bonnie Liebman of the Center for Science in the Public Interest has said, “a lot of the science is bunk.” Still, Liebman and her colleagues agree that the diet itself is okay.
Bottom Line
The Zone’s ratio of carbs to proteins and fats makes sense in terms of what nutritionists know about weight loss and metabolism—especially when it comes to the relationship between blood sugar levels and fat storage. On the other hand, the cure-all claims and mysterious “scientific” jargon are over the top. In my opinion these claims fall into the “too-good-to-be-true” category. The fact that Zone dieters are expected to buy specialized supplements and keep track of their “Zone Blocks” makes me wonder how long a person could realistically stick with the plan.
That's why I prefer a simple eating plan like Fat Loss 4 Idiots. It offers a wide variety of food choices, customized plans, and no counting of carbs or calories. FL4I is like the Zone in that it subscribes to the theory that your body must be "tricked" into burning fat rather than holding on to it because it has entered "starvation mode." This is the same idea Dr. Sears attempts to express when he talks about fluctuating insulin levels, but without the hocus-pocus about “silent inflammation.” FL4I’s food recommendations keep your metabolism up and running so you are always burning calories and achieving fat loss. And, you get three “free” days after being good for 11 days. Anyone can stick to a diet for 11 days!
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Can the South Beach Diet Really Get You Ready for Swimsuit Season?
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