Zone diet - for permanent weight control.

by Ted Cookingham

I started on the Zone diet over a year ago, and am still on it. The basic idea is that a diet consisting of the correct proportions of proteins, fat and carbohydrates will put your body into "the zone".

This makes fat loss and weight management easier and when combined with exercise it still promotes performance increases.

The diet discourages using grains and starches, and while I'm not sure I quite believe the claims about insulin levels etc., I did find that it works.

It is a restricted-calorie diet, so as always, as long as you eat less than you use, you will keep burning fat. I was able to lose a good pound or so of fat a week on this diet.

At first I lost more, but I realized the recommended food intake on the Zone tends to be very low. I figured out that eating as recommended, I was about a thousand kilocalories under my daily consumption and soon found myself feeling weak, headaches and all.

I added a few blocks to my daily allowance and things got better, still maintaining a steady weight loss.

The zone is not meant to be a short-term diet. It will work as one, but the idea is to make a permanent change. It is sustainable, and although it does initially take some work to get used to figuring out how much protein, carbohydrates and fat you're getting at each meal, it gets much easier with time.

A big benefit, in my opinion, is that it really encourages you to cook your own meals from decent raw ingredients, which in itself forces you to think more about what you eat and makes you eat healthier.

In summary, I don't quite buy all the hype about insulin control that comes with the Zone, but I have found it to be a balanced diet that promotes healthy eating and becomes quite simple to follow with a little practice.