"The Zone" Diet by Barry Sears ??

In article said:

Hello,

I've just read a book named "The Zone" by Dr. Barry Sears which claims a lot of success especially
with world class athletes including the Stanford Swim Team.

I'm not an expert on nutrition and I don't play one on TV but it seems to make a lot of sense and
appears to be more balanced than the other high carb or high protein/fat diets.

Basically it calls for getting 40% of calories from carbs, 30 % from protein, and 30% from fat.
Of course, it also wants you to get mostly the good types of all of these macronutrients and not
the bad.

I'd be interested to hear any comments positive or negative about this diet. I'm not on this diet
at this point (actually, I've never dieted but it would probably help me a lot if I did) but am
considering moving my eating habits more in this direction.

Any thoughts?

As Lyle McDonald pointed out in a recent thread, using percentages is not a good approach. Protein
requirements for endurance athletes are about .6-0.8gm/lb body weight.

Split the rest between carbs and dietary fat. It probably isn't necessary to eat a high carb/low fat
diet, a 4:3 ratio may work just fine for some people.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

Donovan Rebbechi said:

Quoted message said:

Any thoughts?

None whatsoever in his case.

"Doug Gilliam" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello,

I've just read a book named "The Zone" by Dr. Barry Sears which claims a

lot

Quoted message said:

of success especially with world class athletes including the Stanford

Swim

Quoted message said:

Team.

I have it from a good source at Stanford that his claims of assisting the team are
exaggerated.

Quoted message said:

I'm not an expert on nutrition and I don't play one on TV but it seems to make a lot of sense and
appears to be more balanced than the other high

carb

Quoted message said:

or high protein/fat diets.

False. He plays with the research, misquoting and misanalyzing some of it (I know some
of the authors of papers Sears claims supports his ideas. Also, his anecdotal evidence
is a joke.

Quoted message said:

Basically it calls for getting 40% of calories from carbs, 30 % from protein, and 30% from fat.
Of course, it also wants you to get mostly the good types of all of these macronutrients and not
the bad.

Percentages are just a mask. He also uses the "blocks" to mask the fact that the diet is just
that, a diet as in energy intake reduction.

Quoted message said:

I'd be interested to hear any comments positive or negative about this

diet.

Quoted message said:

I'm not on this diet at this point (actually, I've never dieted but it

would

Quoted message said:

probably help me a lot if I did) but am considering moving my eating

habits

Quoted message said:

more in this direction.

Any thoughts?

You might well lose weight, but I would not recommend it for someone wishing to train or
even be a recreational athlete.

Quoted message said:

Regards,

Doug Gilliam

Get car batteries and tools from Sears. Not diets.