*Disclaimer: This is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis of all the facets of this diet. It is an overview focusing on lifestyle changes required. As with any diet change, we strongly recommend you speak to qualified professionals, including your doctor, regarding your health and wellness.
The Zone “diet” is interesting because at its most basic level it is less about what you eat and more about controlling portions to a firm ratio. The Zone prescribes specific amounts of food at 5 “meals” throughout the day. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.
All of these meals are rigidly prescribed to keep the macronutrients within very specific percentages. 30% protein, 30% fat, 40% carbohydrates. There is little guidance (at least at the basic level) for what foods you use to get your percentages, just that you stick to them.
One thing I think is great about the Zone diet is that it requires very precise weighing and measuring of all of your food, at least at the beginning until you begin to actually understand what a portion of chicken or potatoes looks like. This is very eye opening for people who have never actually looked at portions before. 4 or 5 ounces chicken or steak, which is a portion for most people, is far smaller than a portion you will be served in a restaurant. After doing the zone for a very short time I realized that the average steak I ordered in a restaurant was actually 2-3 meals worth of steak.
All of the precision, while beneficial for learning portion size and control, makes travel and eating out nearly impossible. At least until you get a solid idea of what your meal should look like (Hint: it’s less meat and potatoes and far more veggies than we are used to.)
This all requires you to do food prep ahead of time so you can grab your precisely weighed and measured meals in the morning and head to work. That is unless you want to keep a scale and measuring cups at your desk and explain to everyone what you are doing as the look on in horror.
The entire structure is based on a concept of blocks of macronutrients. You get so many blocks of protein, fat, and carbs with every meal. This can be a bit confusing for some people which adds to the difficulty of adopting this method of eating.