Why 40-30-30

As we reported in the description of the Block, the Zone Diet is a diet where each meal must be made up from 40% of Carbohydrates, 30% of Proteins and 30% of Fats.

These percentages show how much energy must be recovered from each Macronutrient for each Meal and therefore, since,

• 1 mini block of Carbohydrates contains 9 grams of Carbohydrates and develops 4Kcal of energy
• 1 mini block of Protein contains 7 grams of Proteins and develops 4Kcal of energy
• 1 mini block of Fat contains 3 grams of Fats and develops 9 Kcal of energy

With some simple calculations, we find out that each block develops an energy equal to 91Kcal splitted as follows:

• 36Kcal from the Carbohydrates (4Kcal x 9gr)
• 28Kcal from the Proteins (4Kcal x 7gr)
• 27Kcal from the Fats (9Kcal x 3gr)

Summarizing in tabular form:

Mini-block	Macro-nutrient grams per Mini-block	KCal developed per gram	Tot. Kcal	% on the Meal
Carbohydrate	9 gr.	4 Kcal per gr.	36 Kcal	40%
Protein	7 gr.	4 Kcal per gr.	28 Kcal	30%
Fat	3 gr.	9 Kcal per gr.	27 Kcal	30%

Exactly the 40-30-30 of the Zone Diet.

An example to go in depth: the first column shows the detail of a block:

Meal	Mini-block Protein	Mini-block Carbohydrate	Mini-block Fat
Chicken: 27gr.	0,9	0	0,1
Pasta: 12gr.	0,1	1	0
Oil: 3gr.	0	0	1
Meal Total Block	1	1	1,1

Perfectly in the ZONE!!