The Zone Diet

What it is: A popular diet plan by authors Barry Sears, Ph.D. and Bill Lawren, the Zone diet focuses on maintaining a healthy lifestyle through smart eating habits, and also works to fight heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. The authors contend that eating a specific proportion of carbs, fats and proteins will put dieters’ bodies in the zone, a metabolic state at which the body performs at its peak.

How it works: The Zone diet recommends your meals be 30% protein, 30% fat and 40% carbohydrates. The theory behind the diet is that eating this specific ratio will maintain a balance between fat-storing insulin and hormone glucagon (insulin’s opposite), which will help maintain a healthy weight.

What you do: The diet recommends eating a small amount of protein (about the size of your palm) at each meal and as part of every snack. In addition, dieters are told to consume twice as much of the “favorable” carbohydrates than protein, and these include beans, vegetables and most fruits. Lastly, dieters are permitted to eat a small amount of “unfavorable” grains that include brown rice, pasta, dry cereal and fruit juice.

Benefits: Experts give the diet a mixed review, with many saying that there are valuable elements in eating the zone diet protein, fat and carbohydrate ratio. In addition, the diet doesn’t involve calorie counting or elaborate scheduling, so it is easy for most dieters to follow.

The Down Side: There is no scientific evidence to proves Sears’ claims.