The Zone Diet Guide: What You Can Eat, 40/30/30 Macros Explained

If youve ever browsed the diet or nutrition aisle at the grocery store, youve seen the many shelves of protein bars, and branded diet shakes designed to help you lose weight.

There are Atkins diet products, South Beach diet shakes, and Dunkan diet crisps, to name a few.

Another popular line of diet products is for the Zone Diet. You may find Zone Diet bars, shakes, and even branded pasta, cereals, and more.

So, what is the Zone Diet all about? Should you try it?

This guide will discuss what the Zone Diet entails, the pros and cons, and what you can and cannot eat.

We will cover: 

• What Is the Zone Diet?

• How to Do the Zone Diet

• Foods You Can You Eat On the Zone Diet

• Foods You Cannot Eat On the Zone Diet

• Pros and Cons of the Zone Diet

Lets jump in!

What Is the Zone Diet?

The Zone Diet is a popular diet that involves balancing macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) in a precise way.

There is a 40/30/30 macro ratio for this diet, which means that you partition your daily caloric intake into the three macronutrients as follows:

• 40% of your daily caloric intake from carbohydrates 

• 30% of your daily caloric intake from protein

• 30% of your daily caloric intake from fat

The Zone Diet was created in the 1990s by Dr. Barry Sears.

He believes that the balance of 40/30/30 macros is the ideal macronutrient ratio to optimize your hormones, which, in turn, helps your body and mind to function at peak efficiency, stave off aging, and reduce the risk of diseases.

How to Do the Zone Diet

Based on the 40 30 30 macros, following the diet involves consuming 40% of your daily caloric intake from carbohydrates, 30% of your daily caloric intake from protein, and 30% of your daily caloric intake from fat.

Each person gets a certain number of Zone blocks per day depending on your weight, height, and waist and hip measurements.

Your Zone block number can be calculated here.

Most women end up eating about 11 Zone blocks per day, whereas the average number of Zone blocks for men is 14.

Each Zone block is a trifecta of a protein block (which contains 7 grams of protein), a carbohydrate block (which contains 9 grams of carbs), and a fat block (which contains 1.5 grams of fat). 

Your Zone Diet meal plan stipulates that meals should contain 3-5 Zone blocks and snacks should contain at least one Zone block, but you should spread your blocks out evenly throughout the day.

Essentially, in addition to striving for this overall daily total with your Zone Diet macros, this diet also mandates that each meal and snack should follow this same 40 30 30 macro ratio, using these Zone blocks.

In other words, you shouldnt eat a low-fat breakfast thats nearly all carbohydrate-rich foods like oatmeal with toast on the side. Rather, each time you eat anything, the meal or snack should have as close as possible to the 40/30/30 macros.

A particular emphasis is placed on ensuring your protein intake is spread out evenly throughout the day. Every meal or snack should contain roughly the same amount of protein.

This amount is determined by dividing your protein needs by the number of meals and snacks you eat per day.

Just as the Zone Diet aims to balance your macros, it also tries to balance your caloric and nutrient intake over the course of the day.

You are to eat three meals a day and two snacks in between. These meals and snacks should be as evenly spaced out as possible.

For example, if you wake up at 6:00 AM, you might eat breakfast at 7:00 AM, snack at 10:00 AM, lunch at 1:00 PM, snack at 3:00 PM, and dinner at 8:00 PM. Bedtime would be 10:00 PM.

Foods You Can You Eat On the Zone Diet

The Zone Diet is fairly specific about what you can eat.

Not only do you need each meal or snack to have the correct macros, but there are also specific foods from each food group to eat and avoid.

Lets look at what you can eat on the Zone Diet:

Fruits and Vegetables

Rather than permitting a free range of carbohydrate-rich foods, the Zone Diet has very specific stipulations for the carbs you can eat.

Carbohydrate sources should be fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, prioritizing leafy green vegetables.

Examples of permissible carbohydrates to fulfill the 40% of the 40/30/30 macros include spinach, kale, arugula, collard greens, lettuce, and watercress.

Raw vegetables such as peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, and Brussels sprouts are encouraged.

You can also eat certain cooked vegetables such as eggplant, onions, mushrooms, and stewed cabbage.

Starchy vegetables are not allowed, nor are sugary fruits.

The fruits you can eat include berries, melons, apples, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, and pears.

Lean Proteins

Dr. Sears is a proponent of eating lean proteins rather than proteins that contain saturated fats or processed fats.

Examples of protein-rich foods you can eat include skinless chicken breast, turkey breast, egg whites (not egg yolks), fish, lean pork, tofu, tempeh, low-fat cottage cheese, and low-fat Greek yogurt.

Healthy Fats

Dr. Sears reports that every Zone Diet-compliant meal must include healthy fats because fat enables your body to absorb certain nutrients (like vitamins A, D, E, and K) in your food and is required to produce certain key hormones for health.

However, the quality of fats in the Zone Diet is key. Only”good fats are compliant.

Per Dr. Sears definition of good fats, this includes olive oil and olives, tahini, canola oil, avocado, macadamia nuts, almond butter, peanut butter, macadamia nuts, cashews, etc.

There are also branded, packaged Zone Diet-approved foods like bars and shakes. However, these are considered processed foods and are less ideal than consuming whole, natural foods like lean proteins, vegetables, and nuts.

Foods You Cannot Eat On the Zone Diet

In addition to having the specific 40/30/30 macro ratio, there are certain foods you cannot eat on the Zone Diet, even if they fit within your macronutrient allotments.

Dr. Sears believes that certain foods inhibit the optimal functioning and health of the body, and thus they must be eliminated from the diet.

Foods you cannot eat on the Zone Diet include the following:

Carbohydrates: All Grains and Starchy Foods

All refined grains are prohibited on the Zone Diet, as are most starchy vegetables and certain fruits.

Examples of grains you cant eat on the Zone Diet include any type of bread, pasta, cracker, rice, cereal, porridge, tortillas, and rice cakes. Certain whole grains are permitted but should be minimized as much as possible, which is one of the critiques of the diet. 

Any type of cookie, cake, pie, baked goods, candy, ice cream, pudding, or pastry is also not allowed.

Starchy vegetables that are prohibited on the Zone Diet include potatoes, sweet potatoes, any form of winter squash (butternut, acorn, etc.), pumpkin, pineapple, corn, and all beans and lentils.

Banned fruits include bananas, grapes, cherries, papaya, mango, all dried fruits, and all fruit juices.

Proteins and Fats: Animal-Based Foods High In Saturated Fats

Foods high in processed and saturated fats are to be avoided, particularly animal-based proteins high in saturated fat.

Dr. Sears believes these foods increase inflammation and contribute to insulin resistance.

Examples include fatty red meat like veal and fatty beef or lamb, organ meats, bacon, sausage, bologna, processed meats like hot dogs, salami, pepperoni, egg yolks, vegetable shortening, hard cheeses, butter, cream, and other forms of full-fat dairy.

Pros and Cons of the Zone Diet

Benefits of the Zone Diet include its emphasis on balance, its focus on nutrient-dense foods, the exclusion of many processed foods and saturated fats (which are linked to adverse health conditions), and the flexibility of the diet in terms of what you can eat.

Although the Zone Diet isnt a weight loss diet per se (its geared towards overall health), it can promote weight loss by controlling caloric intake and balancing macronutrients.

The primary downside of the Zone Diet is that its quite difficult to track your macros so precisely, and even though theres an emphasis on vegetables, the Zone Diet excludes many healthy sources of fiber, like ample whole grains, beans, lentils, and certain fruits.

Additionally, theres a relative lack of evidence for the efficacy of the Zone Diet in terms of its claims of optimizing hormones, preventing aging, and reducing the risk of diseases.

However, due to the emphasis on consuming low glycemic foods, its reasonable to conclude that this diet should optimize certain hormones such as insulin and leptin.

The Zone Diet may improve insulin sensitivity by keeping blood sugar levels stable and moderate rather than peaking and crashing.

Finally, while the Zone Diet can be tricky to adopt initially due to the reliance on Zone blocks and precisely balancing macronutrients, most people find they quickly get used to building meal plans that comply with their blocks.

If the Zone Diet sounds like something that would support your health goals, give it a shot! If not, we also have guides for other healthy, popular diets for you to look at.