I have always heard and understood the GENERAL ideas behind a Paleo/Zone diet, but have never really applied them too consistently. I recently picked up "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" and have really liked what I've heard so far.

Does anyone on here have experience with strict or semi-strict Paleo and/or Zone dieting? Recommendations? Results?

The zone diet is superior in scientific theory. The study of carb depletion and ketosis is well documented and supported.

Zone is a low calorie weight loss diet.

For example, this site has a Zone block calculator:

Block Calculator

It will give you a recommendation on the amount of protein to consume in a day. Multiply by 4 to get calories from protein to consume in a day. Since that is supposed to be 30% of one's daily calories, divide by 0.30 to get total calories to consume in a day.

For example, that calculator suggests for a 150 pound person with 15% body fat who exercises an hour every day to consume 127g of protein per day. This is 508 calories from protein. For this to be 30% of calories, total calories must be 1693 per day.

Never done either of those in a strict sense.

but I Like the paleo diet for many reasons: the emphasis on whole, unprocessed foods, the good protein and veggie intake, etc... All the 'obvious' reasons for anyone who's done a little nutrition research.

I'm not sure about the zone diet. I looked around the "Crossfit" forums a little while ago, and pretty much whoever does Crossfit follows the zone diet, well that's what they recommend anyway, and it's very low carb. Don't get me wrong, they all look amazing, the crossfit people, but i'm doing a diploma of sport at the moment and my lecturer(s) keep saying how carbs are brain food and low carb diets are not great. So I don't really know. I guess I should try it and get my own opinion.

How is the zone diet very low carb? Isn't it 40/30/30?

When considering its low recommended calorie intake, it is low carb (and low fat) in comparison to a typical diet (including a calorically neutral diet). Although it is not likely to be low enough in carbs to be ketogenic.

Well it is nowhere near ketogenic.

I don't really think you should call it a "low carb" diet. It's not. If it's too low in calories (I don't know much about it), then it can be called low calorie. But a 40% carb ratio is fairly average. I get what you're saying, but it's sort of misleading if you put it that way. If you're basing it on the fact that it's low calorie, than it's just low everything, not carbs.

Zone block recommendations seem to keep protein constant at typical or slightly higher levels (compared to typical diets or orthodox recommendations). But where typical diets or orthodox recommendations tend to have about 3 to 4 times as many calories from carbs as protein, and 2 to 3 times as many calories from fat as protein, the Zone diet lowers the carb calories to 1+1/3 times as many calories as protein, and fat calories to 1 times as many calories as protein.

This is not necessarily a bad thing for someone trying to lose body fat -- one still needs to consume sufficient protein even when decreasing total calorie intake, so carbs and fats are the obvious targets for reduction while keep protein intake constant. But the diet's fat loss effectiveness likely has a lot more to do with its low calorie nature than its 40-30-30 ratios.

40% carbs isn't low at all. it might be according to the established view, where 60-70% should be normal, and I think 40 and below is low carb.. which is bull..

woh ok sorry, i clearly didn't look enough into the diet myself, ignore my other comment. I just went and had a look at the Crossfit website again and it's HIGH-GI carbs they HATE and they say to eat no sugar.