Zone Diet Review (UPDATED 2024): Don't Buy Before You Read This!

What is it?

Zone Diet is a weight loss diet that claims you’ll be able to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week.  It emphasizes eating carbohydrates, fats, and protein in a balanced amount to help the body naturally lose weight.

The diet claims that by mixing the right amount of these nutrients that you’ll reduce inflammation, control blood sugar, and reduce the risk for obesity. It’s also claimed to help people function at peak levels. Our review experts analyze countless diets and have found that the most effective is the 18Shake Diet. It combines an appetite suppressing meal replacement shake and a fat burning diet pill. Both have been rated highly by customers and review experts alike. For more information about the 18Shake Diet, click on the link here.

Zone Diet Ingredients and Side Effects

You can eat any foods you want as long as they’re within your limits for carbohydrates and fats. The basic rules of the diet are as follows:

• 3 meals and 2 snacks a day to suppress appetite and prevent the likelihood of overeating.

• 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat for each meal. This has to be balanced. You’re unable to eat meals that are either lacking or have too much of each macronutrient.

• Men: 1,500 calories daily.

• Women: 1,200 calories daily.

• Exercise: Recommend and advised at a “moderate level”. This includes 5 to 10 minutes of strength training and 30 minutes of aerobic exercises such as brisk walking a day.

It’s also advised to not eat rye, barley, and wheat, making it easy to be gluten-free.

Optional tools are offered by the official website and book including recipes, a food journal, and tips on how to eat out.

Our review experts have crafted a list of the highest rated weight loss diets.

The main issues with this diet have to do with two key things:

• Severe caloric restriction.

• Unproven claim that eating this specific macronutrient mixture of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fats is any better for metabolism than other blends.

According to Harvard.edu:

“Sedentary people of both genders will keep their weight stable by taking in about 13 calories per pound of body weight each day”

Active people are advised to take around 16 to 18 calories per pound daily.

So even a small 140 pound woman would need 1,820 calories per day, and a man weighing 180 pounds would require 2,340 calories daily. On the Zone Diet men are limited to only 1,500 calories and women 1,200 calories. This can be extremely low and may cause side effects such as:

• Headaches, mood swings, and irritability.

• Low blood sugar, difficulty concentrating, and fatigue.

This diet simply isn’t well-rounded enough to help provide enough calories for the average person looking to safely lose weight. Nutritionists recommend an average of a 200 to 500 calorie deficit in order to achieve healthy weight loss.

Other difficulties were mentioned by Web MD who adds:

“the plan’s calorie restrictions and healthy food choices, rather than any intricate food balancing, may be at the heart of any weight loss”

This shows that this plan would only work due to limiting calories, not by any special properties of mixing what they claim to be the right balance of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

While limiting calories is important for weight loss, this specific limitation is not based in any legitimate science.

View the list of the best weight loss diets featured in this link.

Zone Diet Quality of Ingredients

There are no specified foods while on this diet, but there are recipes offered that provides meals which are balanced in their macronutrient quantities.

A very telling clinical study by the U.S Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine revealed:

“there are scientific contradictions in the Zone Diet hypothesis that cast unquestionable doubt on its potential efficacy”

This study showed how the diet makes claims that don’t make any sense. They also go on to say:

“little scientific support for the connections made between diet, endocrinology and eicosanoid metabolism”

Therefore the main idea behind this diet in balancing macronutrients has not been proven effective for weight loss. This shows how ineffective and low quality the Zone Diet truly is.

Yet another study in the scientific journal known as “Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes” revealed that it does not lead to significant weight loss when used for a year or longer.

There’s another clinical review featured in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition which said that the diet:

“casts strong doubt”

This was in reference to any health benefits suggested by the Zone Diet. All the available legitimate science reveals how this diet has not been proven to be an effective weight loss solution.

Discover which weight loss diets were featured in the top rated list via this link.

The Price and Quality of Zone Diet

The price you pay depends on the quality of foods you choose and where one purchases the official book. The book currently retails on Amazon.com for $1.77 for a used copy.

Other additional books which further explain the diet and provide tips and recipes are also available.

While at one point extremely popular, the Zone Diet is not as common as it once was. This is likely due to the clinical studies which have shown that this diet does not work as intended.

The diet does say it can help with 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss per week, but this may be far more extreme when one is limiting calories to such as low level. This can then lead to side effects and is not a healthy way to lose weight.

It may promote weight loss via extreme caloric deprivation, but this is not a healthy way to diet. To learn about which diets were favorited in the top rated list, click the link here.

Business of Zone Diet

The Zone Diet has sold more than 2 million copies to date. It was created by a biochemist named Barry Sears. He claims to have created this it in the hopes of finding a diet that would prevent premature heart attacks.

Since publishing the Zone Diet book in 1995, there has yet to be any studies confirming this diet to be both safe and effective.

An official website dedicated to the Zone Diet exists. It provides free resources for followers who need extra support. Within the site it’s described as:

“not a fad diet, but a life-long dietary program based on strong science to reduce diet-induced inflammation”

While it may reduce the risk of inflammation, they fail to cite any evidence to prove that it it’s healthy to severely restrict calories and eating the specific mixture of macronutrients. All the available legitimate scientific reviews have shown that this diet is not based in science, and that it’s potentially harmful and difficult to sustain.

Customer Opinions of Zone Diet

Featured below are select customer reviews:

“there’s too many rules for anyone with a busy schedule”

“it’s all over the place and it’s a VERY restrictive calorie diet”

“not enough calories even for a sedentary person”

“for anyone with even a bit of common sense this diet would be quite useless”

The most common complaint from even those who liked the diet is that the information is difficult to understand, and that that the book contradicts itself often.

Other issues are from those who felt that they couldn’t function normally under such a calorie restricted diet. People felt fatigued and unable to focus on anything but the next meal. Side effects are commonly experienced as well with symptoms related to a lack of calories.

Users have often had to give up and try another diet due to the severe restrictions of calories. For a comprehensive list showcasing the best weight loss diets, click on the link provided here.

Conclusion – Does Zone Diet Work?

This diet provides another version of a caloric restrictive diet that makes additional unproven claims for weight loss. Studies into this diet have shown it to be ineffective, and users often mention it’s difficult to follow. Some were unable to function normally due to the caloric limits. This can be potentially dangerous and in fact certain customers experienced headaches, fatigue, low energy, mood swings, and irritability.

In researching many kinds of weight loss diets our review experts have found that the most effective is the 18Shake Diet. It offers a meal replacement made to suppress appetite for hours and a fat burning diet pill made with natural plant extracts. The benefit of this combination can be seen via customer reviews and testimonials. Users mention that it’s an effective solution for real weight loss, and that it can improve overall health.

The 18Shake Diet is backed by a GMP certified seal of approval. This ensures routine quality and a safe environment for each ingredient. There’s also no stimulants, colors, preservatives, fillers, binders, or caffeine. For more information on the 18Shake Diet, follow the link cited here.