The Zone Diet may sound like just one in a long line of yo-yo diets, but it is rather quite different from them. While others focus on lowering certain substances in your body, this one is all about balance. Still, many people aren't aware of why it's effective. Those who follow the plan lose weight, have an increased level of energy, and feel healthier in general.
The Basic Concept Of The Zone Diet
This diet focuses on monosaturated fats, low-fat protein, and low glycemic index carbohydrates. This allows your body to balance out its hormones while suppressing your appetite so your body takes in less calories to get the needed amount of nutrients. It consists of foods that have moderate levels of proteins, fats, and carbs in a specific ratio -- one gram of fat, two grams of protein, and three grams of carbs. This isn't an imaginary formula pulled from the air either. The Harvard Medical School recommends this exact ratio as an effective treatment for diabetes and weight issues.
What Does It Control?
The Zone Diet controls and balances three main hormones. Glucagon is responsible for the amount of carbs released by your body and when. The main purpose of this is to control your blood sugars. When these get out of balance, everything falls out of its pattern leading to poor physical health and mental processes.
Insulin
When our body has too much or too little insulin, the effects can be devastating. It helps to control blood sugar levels, and is responsible for storing the excess carbs and fat that we intake on a daily basis. In short, with too much insulin and excess nutrients in our body, it is responsible for making up fat. Finally, insulin speeds up the silent inflammation in our bodies.
Eicosanoids are the controlling hormones in our body. They are the main factor when controlling silent inflammation. They also control the balance and actions of many of the hormonal systems.
How This Benefits Our Body
Barry Sears, PhD, creator of this weight loss program, based the entire program on the idea that insulin and other hormones converts and stores the energy our body doesn't use as fat. He believes that maintaining the balance between the glucagons and insulin in your body will help to prevent this from occurring. For him, its all about consuming the right portion size and content. In other words, you should eat food to control your hormones rather than for energy.
Rather than forcing you to count calories or eat special foods, this meal plan only requires you to eat meals that are balanced differently than many others. In fact, this diet includes more fats, carbohydrates, and proteins than most other diets. Now that you know how the Zone Diet works, why not give it a try?