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The term, "the Zone," is Sears' term to describe proper hormone balance — insulin levels in the body being neither too high nor too low — as vital to using stored bodyfat for energy, causing one to lose excess weight. The diet centers around a "40:30:30" ratio of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, respectively. The formula is considered controversial, but studies over the past several years (including non-scientific study by Scientific American Frontiers) has shown to achieve weight loss quickly.
Research, Sears explains, points to an important hormonal paradox which "low-fat" advocates were unaware of, namely that low-fat carbohydrates increase the production of the hormone insulin, causing the body to store more fat. He points to a known fact about cattle ranching: that the best way to fatten cattle is to feed them lots of low-fat grain. Sears and others have pointed out the irony that human diets for the last twenty years have been full of low-fat carbohydrates—and people are more obese, they claim, as a result.
In addition to this, fat consumption is essential for burning fat. Healthy ( monounsaturated) fats cause the production of important "command hormone" glucogen which direct other hormones in their use of stored fat in the body. Low-fat diets actually stimulate fat storage, according to Sears, because fat-storing insulin levels are allowed to run out of control.
The low-carbohydrate diet is fast becoming popular, with the Atkins diet and others, but Sears claims that these miss the point — that they ignore the importance of maintaining a hormonal balance, and how the balance between carbs, proteins, and fat influences the interconnected mechanisms hormones production and digestion.