The Zone

The Celebrity Followers: Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Demi Moore

The Idea
Biochemist Barry Sears came up with the Zone diet as a programme of healthy eating based on a 40:30:30 ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in your daily meals. According to Sears, ‘The Zone’ is a state your body reaches when it has a perfect hormone balance. He theorised that excess insulin in the body can make us fat, as it controls our blood sugar levels and therefore our hunger and the conversion of glucose into fat. If we could keep our blood sugar levels (and therefore our insulin levels) steady, Sears reckoned our bodies would burn fat more efficiently – so he introduced the carb, protein and fat ratio.