Dr Barry Sears is the creator of “The Zone” diet. He came from a family that had a history of men with early deaths due to heart disease. Dr. Sear’s contention was that he could save his own life, despite overwhelming risk factors, by changing the way that he ate. His hypothesis was that by balancing macronutrients to specific quantities he could control the hormonal responses in the body that could have negative effects on health.
Dr. Sears believes that you can create a parallel environment in your body by avoiding sugar spikes throughout the day and controlling quantities of macronutrients to allow the body to achieve a solid state of homeostasis. The premise of the zone is as follows:
- 40% Carbohydrates
- 30% Protein
- 30% Fat
These precise quantities will be represented in a prescription using a measurement called a zone “Block”. One “Block” is:
- 9 grams Carbohydrates
- 7 grams Protein
- 1.5 grams Fat
Being in the “ZONE” is the optimal place for training and recovery to happen with the quality foods you are consuming daily. You are taking quality foods like meat, veggies, nuts, seeds, some fruits, little starch, some dairy and fat.
You determine the zone you are to be eating in to create a plan for your daily meals. You use a formula based on your activity level and lean body mass which then you can calculate a starting block prescription of how many blocks you should be eating each day.
The formula is as follows:
lean body mass x .7 activity level
7 grams of protein = daily block prescription
EXAMPLE :
-if you are a 200lb male with 10% body fat you have 180lb of lean mass, here is how this formula would work:
180lb (lean body mass) x .7=126 gram per day
7 grams of protein in 1 block=18 blocks/day
The next step is to divide the 18 block into meals no bigger than 5 blocks each throughout the day. This may mean that you are eating more frequently and possibly never to the point to you feel really full. The big point for athletic performance to be optimal isn’t the exact block prescription you choose or whether you eat 40/30/30. The point is that now you have all the tools necessary as a BASELINE to figure out what prescription will put your body in the zone. Being able to measure these variables will help you find the right diet to make your body thrive. Some athletes eat more protein or carbohydrates or fat than the baseline prescription but knowing exactly how much you are eating of a specific macronutrient is a huge advantage to be able to make navigational changes in your diet.
Practice keeping a food log so you can learn how to detail and adapt changes to your meals based on your performance and body. For a sport like CrossFit that has a huge metabolic demand, being able to effectively utilize sugars and fuel sources in the body more effectively directly correlates with performance in WODS. If your score are getting better, if you are getting stronger and faster and recovering better this probably mean that your diet is taking you in the right direction. If progress plateaus or starts trending negative, look to your diet to see if you can improve the chemistry in your body to favor high performance.
Reference:
http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf
http://crossfitimpulse.com/the-zone-diet-explained-edited/
http://wodstar.com/articles/understanding-the-zone-diet/
http://www.zonediet.com/