Usual disclaimer:  I caught a baseball with my face once.  My face lost.
That is as close as I came to being part of the medical profession.

At 03:46 AM 1/18/00 -0700, Dori wrote:

>The Zone diet's magical formula is 60-40-40; 60% of your food intake is
>carbs, 40% protein and 40% fat.  The part that left me confused is the
>specific mathematics.  You don't just look at grams, there's some formula.
>Fat, for example, is more dense than carbs.  To figure it out, you
>practically have to whip out your calculator, and that ain't gonna happen in
>my kitchen; I'm mathematically challenged.

Paleo-people can't type. :-)

The ratio is 40% 30% 30% (carb, protein, fat)

A meal is comprised of food blocks. A single block is 9 grams carb, 7 grams
protein, 1.5 grams fat.  This works out to a 40/30/30 ratio by calorie. (1
gram protein or carb = 4 calories, 1 gram fat = 9)

The zone is severely calorie restricted.  According to Sears, at my size
(215, 28% bodyfat), I should consume 12 "blocks" per day.  This would be:

        108 grams carb          432 calories
        84   grams protein      336 calories
        18   grams fat          162 calories
                                ------------------
                                930 calories !!!

Note that the fat grams do not actually make 30%.  Sears contends that the
protein sources contain hidden fats, which will balance out the ratio.

Folks, when I originally failed my cholesterol test I was also told I was a
diabetic waiting to happen.  As my biological father has had a heart attack
and is diabetic, I took it very seriously.  I was sent to a registered
dietician and put on the standard pyramid type diet (low protein) at
reduced calories, at about 1700 calories per day.  Yes, combined with drugs
and exercise my lipids normalized.  Yes, it kicked in the full celiac
symptoms.  (Don Wiss et al over at the celiac list may have saved my life)
Yes, I lost weight.

But the weight I lost was 17 pounds of muscle and 3 pounds of fat.  I
replaced the lost muscle with fat when chasing a diagnosis for celiac
disease.  With the Kalman's syndrome, I am going through hell trying to
gain back the muscle.

Again the disclaimer - me not MD!

I would not recommend the Zone as a diet.  The calories are restricted to
the point where you can impact your metabolism, and most likely cause
muscle loss in the process.

James at Penn State