Zone & Paleo: Too broad?

When sifting through the good, the bad, and the ugly diet regimes out there, a couple of things must be kept in mind before you dive into a particular regime. For one your diet must be balanced to some degree. Diets that are characterized by eating one or two foods are not effective and can be quite counter-productive. Secondly you must enjoy the foods you are dieting with or else you're going to hate the process and subsequently fail in reaching you goal. Lastly, find a diet that scientifically based taking into account the fields of physiology and biochemistry.

With all that being said, we've identified the zone/paleo regime as being pretty effective. But can this diet be given as a "blanket program" to help the masses achieve their goals. I believe it can, but to a certain extent. I believe a program should be adjusted to fit the individual and his/her goals. For example, someone who is trying to bulk up wouldn't eat he same foods in the same amounts as someone who is trying to lean out, just because they are both following the zone/paleo diet.

For example, lets take a 25 year old male who is trying to lean up. For this person we would want to keep the carb intake to a minimum as to keep fat anabolism to a minimum. Malonyl CoA is an inhibitor of the fat trafficing pathway the carnitine shuttle, and is triggered by the anabolic response from insulin secretion. For this reason and many more, a low carb diet would help control insulin secretion. Also we would want to increase this individual's fat intake as to stimulate fat breakdown and utilization in the body. Scientific studies have shown that a high fat diet fed to mice, lead to the increased expression of proteins associated with B-oxidation (fat breakdown in the mitochondria.

These are just examples of individualized manipulations, which I believe are a crucial aspect of effective dieting when the goals become more difficult to attain.

If you really want to dial in your physique and performance don't be afraid to make minor adjustments. Playing with your diet to achieve the correct cellular environment will make a world of difference, as its true that little changes can go a long ways.