How can you tell if you are in the Zone?  Your blood will tell.  It is impossible to measure AMPK without a tissue biopsy.  However, a surrogate marker of metabolic efficiency is the absence of insulin resistance.  When AMPK activity is inhibited, insulin resistance begins to rise.  Insulin resistance can be measured by a simple blood test such as HOMA-IR.  If your HOMA-IR is less than one, your metabolism works at peak efficiency.  If HOMA-IR is greater than two, your metabolism has become significantly less efficient, and you can no longer be considered well.  You may not have yet gained significant excess body fat or developed a chronic disease (such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, neurological disease, and many others) associated with insulin resistance, but you are no longer well. More ominously, you are accelerating your rate of aging by increasing the levels of senescent cells in every organ in the body.  This is because the development of insulin precedes fat accumulation, developing a chronic disease, and acceleration of cellular senescence.

Having an elevated level of insulin resistance still doesn’t tell you what part of your diet is out of balance. However, the blood can also provide this information. The following table indicates the ideal ranges of various blood parameters.

You can only be considered to be in the Zone and, therefore, well when your HOMA-IR level and these other blood parameters are in their desired ranges. 

Wellness and chronic disease should be definable conditions. Metabolic Engineering® should be considered a personalized dietary pathway to maintain wellness for as long as possible.