Just like keto emphasizes sticking to a specific eating ratio, zone diet instructs its followers to follow a specific ratio i.e., 30% fat, 30% protein, and 40% carbs.
While following this diet, the carbs included should have a low glycemic index. This is because when they are low on the glycemic index, they slowly release sugar into the blood that helps you stay full for a longer time. Protein included should be lean whereas fat should be monounsaturated.
A very famous American biochemist, Dr. Barry Sears, created this diet 30 years back. He wrote a book on this diet by the name The Zone that became one of the best sellers back in 1995.
Dr. Sears was motivated to create this diet after losing many loved ones to death from heart-related diseases. He was adamant to find a way to fight and thus, came up with zone diet. Zone diet was created to reduce the inflammation in your body. Dr. Sears projected that people gain weight, develop heart-related diseases, and age faster than they should because of inflammation in their body.
People who follow this diet claim that once you reduce inflammation in your body, your body starts cooperating. You start losing fat at a very fast rate, reduce the chances of being exposed to chronic diseases, improve stamina, and slow down ageing.
How to follow it?
Like most diets, the zone diet does not have specific phases because it needs to be followed for a lifetime. More than a diet, it’s a lifestyle. Anyway, there are two methods through which you can follow zone diet i.e., through the hand-eye method and zone food blocks.
The hand-eye method is much easier to follow and incorporate, thus, people start off with this method and shift to zone food blocks later. You can keep switching between the two the way you desire since both have their own health benefits.
The Hand-Eye Method:
It is a very easy method since your hand has to take on several duties. It is used to determine the size of the portion. An easy way to remember is, you should never go without food for 5 hours and you should try eating 5 times a day.
For the food portion, divide your plate into 3 parts. This will include a little amount of fat (olive oil, almonds, or avocado), 1/3rd amount of protein (lean protein – the size should be the size of your palm), and 2/3rd carbs (low glycemic index).
The Zone Food Block Method:
The zone block food method allows you to be creative. It allows you to choose your daily food portion according to your own body needs. The calculation is subjective and depends on your body type, waist, height, and hip measurement. The composition is different for males and females. An average male is supposed to consume 14 zone blocks whereas an average female is supposed to consume 11 zone blocks.
The main meal such as breakfast, lunch, or dinner contains three to five Zone blocks, while a snack always contains one Zone block.
Each Zone block is made of a protein block, a fat block, and a carb block.
- Protein block: Contains 7 grams of protein.
- Carb block: Contains 9 grams of carbs.
- Fat block: Contains 1.5 grams of fat.
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