The Zone Diet is a Favorite With Celebrities

Madonna, Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore and Cindy Crawford swear by the Zone Diet, not South Beach or Atkins Diet. The celebrities say they're experiencing enhanced health after they entered the Zone. What is the Zone Diet, and why are these famous stars so happy with it?

Other well known celebrities enjoying the benefits of the Zone Diet are Sarah Jessica Parker, Sandra Bullock, Ben Stiller, Rene Zellwegger, Charlie Sheen, Bill Cosby, and Lorraine Bracco. Probably the most well known celebrity on the Zone Diet is Jennifer Aniston. She wanted to shed a few pounds while she was filming "Friends", and the Zone Diet worked for her. Since then, dieters commonly refer to it as the Jennifer Aniston Zone Diet.

"All these celebrities are under considerable stress. They must lose weight one way or another to keep the offers flowing in. Whether the name of the torture is “Zone”, “Atkins” or “South Beach”, their will and motivation is strong enough to stand it, because the results may be worth million dollars," says Enter the Zone Diet.

What is the Zone Diet?

Researcher Dr. Barry Sears, created the Zone Diet and went on to write a bestseller, "Enter the Zone", a diet plan that advocates eating 30 percent of your calories each from protein and fat, with the remaining 40 percent from carbohydrates. According to Sears, this ratio will stimulate the metabolism to burn fat. Eating low-starch fruits and vegetables as your carbs is the trick.

The Zone Diet has been described by some as a moderation diet, meaning the diet plan is moderate proteins, moderate fats, and moderate carbohydrates. Eating roughly one gram of fat for every two grams of protein and three grams of carbohydrates, represents the popular Zone 1-2-3 Method. This diet plan is designed to balance your hormones so it controls hunger while getting the proper nutrients on less calories. Dr. Sears claims with this balanced diet plan you can control three major hormones generated by the diet – insulin, glucagon and eicosanoids. His diet aims to "turn off" inflammatory genes that Dr. Sears projects are the underling cause of chronic disease.

Calorie amounts usually don't exceed 500 calories per meal, and snacks are around 100 calories.

Although the Zone Diet does include more fat than most diet programs, many people report a reasonable amount of weight loss while on it.

The Zone Diet Plan

    * 40% Good Carbs - Most fruits and vegetables, oatmeal and barley.

    * 30% Protein - About 3-4 ounces skinless chicken, turkey, fish, very lean cuts of meat, egg whites, low-fat dairy products, tofu, soy meat substitutes.

    * 30% Fats - Olive oil, Almonds, Avocados, Fish oils, and some butter or even guacamole.

    * Limited Quantities - Bananas, figs, prunes, raisins and grapes, potatoes, peas, carrots and corn.

    * Thumbs Down - Sugar in all forms, breads, pastas, potatoes, rice, Bagels, cereals, juices, sodas, alcohol and caffeine. Although frowned upon, you can have these foods in moderation.

Making a Zone Diet Meal

    * Divide your plate into three sections.

    * Place 3-4 ounces of low-fat protein on 1/3 of the plate.

    * Heap the rest of the plate with fruits and vegetables.

    * Add a small amount of fat from the list above.

    * That's it. You're done!

Zone diet

The Zone diet is a diet popularized in books by biochemist Barry Sears. It advocates consuming calories from carbohydrates, protein and fat in a balanced ratio.

The diet centers on a "40:30:30" ratio of calories obtained daily from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, respectively. The ideal formula has been under debate, although studies over the past several years (including a non-scientific study by the PBS documentary show Scientific American Frontiers) have shown that it can produce weight loss at reasonable rates.[citation needed] The Scientific American Frontiers study compared the effectiveness of several popular 'diet' regimes including the Zone; somewhat to the surprise of the show's staff, the participants on the Zone experienced the greatest fat loss while simultaneously gaining muscle mass.[citation needed] Participants also reported the Zone as the easiest regime to adjust to, i.e. having the fewest adverse affects such as fatigue or hunger.[citation needed] Most people who report fatigue find that the fatigue diminishes by day 2 or 3.

"The Zone" is Sears' term for proper hormone balance. When insulin levels are neither too high nor too low, and glucagon levels are not too high, then specific anti-inflammatory chemicals (types of eicosanoids) are released, which have similar effects to aspirin, but without downsides such as gastric bleeding. Sears claims that a 30:40 ratio of protein to carbohydrates triggers this effect, and this is called 'The Zone.' Sears claims that these natural anti-inflammatories are heart- and health-friendly. There is no evidence that eating in this way affects hormone levels.

Additionally, the human body in caloric balance is more efficient and does not have to store excess calories as fat. The human body cannot store fat and burn fat at the same time, and Sears believes it takes time (significant time if insulin levels were high because of unbalanced eating) to switch from the former to the latter. Using stored fat for energy causes weight loss.

Another key feature of the Zone diet, introduced in his later books, is an intake of a particular ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids. Dr. Sears is believed to have popularized the taking of pharmaceutical-grade Omega 3 fish oils. Hormonal paradoxes

Sears believes in a hormonal paradox contrary to the "low-fat" rationale of most diets, claiming that low-fat diets increase the production of the hormone insulin, causing the body to store more fat. The example proposed by him is the cattle ranching practice of fattening livestock efficiently by feeding them lots of low-fat grain. However this is due to the amount of the grain, and thus the total amount of calories consumed, being large. He and others also point out the supposed irony that human diets in the West for the last twenty years have been full of low-fat carbohydrates, yet people are considered more obese now.

Additionally, Sears suggests fat consumption is essential for "burning" fat.

His rationale is: Monounsaturated fats in a meal contribute to a feeling of fullness and decrease the rate at which carbohydrates are absorbed into the bloodstream. Slower carbohydrate absorption means lower insulin levels which means less stored fat and a faster transition to fat burning. If the body needs energy and can't burn fat because of high insulin levels, a person feels tired as their brain starves and metabolism slows to compensate. This occurs because the brain runs on glucose and high insulin levels deplete blood glucose levels. Such a condition, rebound hypoglycemia, causes sweet cravings (which just starts the high-insulin cycle all over again).

Sears describes a Zone meal as follows: "Eat as much protein as the palm of your hand, as much nonstarchy raw vegetables as you can stand for the vitamins, enough carbohydrates to maintain mental clarity because the brain runs on glucose, and enough monounsaturated oils to keep feelings of hunger away."

Comparison to low-carb diets

Whether the Zone diet is a low-carb diet is a matter of opinion and definition. It is much less restrictive in total carbohydrate intake as the Atkins diet that became extremely popular throughout the United States in 2003 and 2004. Sears claims that diets specifically designed as "low carb" miss the point. According to him, they ignore the importance of moderation and balance: hormonal balance, as well as the influence of dietary balance on digestion and hormone production. A reasonable argument could be made that the typical American follows a "high carb" diet, and that the Zone diet is simply a moderate one.