Rating: 
Summary: Most accessible of the Zone books
Review: (ATTN Liz from England who posted on 7/11/02: the answer is 11 blocks minimum because otherwise you will be too hungry [approx. 100 calories per block].)If you haven't read any Zone books, this is a good place to start. The first book (Enter) The Zone, lays out the author's history and a lot of biochemical explanations for trying to manage your insulin levels by restricting your carbohydrate intake. It contains a set of recipes and food lists. If you're not a science type, you'll find Mastering the Zone more accessible than the first. The book uses a more commonsense approach to the diet, and the food lists are updated and corrected. It does get a little tedious hearing the phrase "just like your Grandmother told you" over and over again, but all diet books involve a certain degree of preaching. The bigger question, perhaps, is which low-carb diet is best for you? Contemporary choices include Atkins New Diet Revolution, Sugar Busters!, Protein Power, Carbohydrate Addicts' Diet, Potatoes Not Prozac, Glucose Revolution... I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Of these, Atkins is undoubtedly the best known and most controversial. An Atkins dieter, unlike a Zone dieter, pays little attention to counting blocks (grams) of protein and fat, and instead adheres to simple rules about carbohydrates. You should definitely take multi-vitamins on an Atkins diet, but the success of the other low-carb programs casts some doubt on the fine attention to ratios demanded by the Zone diet. In his book on aging, Sears argues that the Zone diet, because it is a calorie-restricted diet, has a good chance of extending your life. I guess I won't know for another 40 years .If you have a good budget for books, it makes sense to get a few of these titles (most are available in inexpensive paperback format). Some also might be more appropriate than the Zone for people with special needs. For example, if you have struggled with alcohol, you should look into Potatoes Not Prozac, a diet developed originally for recovering alcoholics to help keep their beta endorphin levels balanced. Author Kathleen DesMaisons generalized the diet for everyone she defines as "sugar sensitive" (I think this includes us chocoholics). If you are a bodybuilder, take a look at Protein Power, which has special rules for maximizing growth hormone levels. (For many years, the Eades, authors of Protein Power, and Sears shared the same ideas, but there have been splits on various points that might sound trivial but make a big differences to the respective authors.) If you like your diet books simple, positive, and reassuring, Sugar Busters! is a good choice. It also has some dynamite-sounding New Orleans recipes. As they say on the Internet, "hope this helps"! And "Just Do It."
Rating: 
Summary: I don't understand why people find this hard to follow?
Review: I bought Mastering the Zone and never read Entering the Zone. I found it completely easy to read and user friendly. I read it one Friday night and applied it the next day. It's super simple. It explains blocks and in the back of the book, shows the quantity you can have of certain foods per block. It's even talks about adjusting the diet to meet your personal requirements. Here's my sample menu. This is for 13 blocks of protein: Breakfast:
Smoothie
1 c. yogurt
1 c. milk
1 c. strawberries
1 c. raspberries
2 envelopes of splenda
1 oz low fat cheese
12 almonds or 24 peanuts Lunch:
4 oz Chicken
4 c. salad
1 T. ranch
3 c. mushrooms
1/2 c. grapes
1/2 c. pineapple Snack
1oz cheese
1/2 apple
3 olives Dinner
5oz fish
2 c. green beans
2 c. salad
1 T. ranch
1/2 apple
1 c. strawberries Snack:
1oz beef
1/2 c. grapes
3 almonds Not too shabby, huh? The above is only 1600 calories, which is what my hubby is on. I'm on 9 blocks, which is 1000 calories and still TONS of food, since I have a lot to lose and want to do it quicker. If you want to feel GREAT, eat great and look great, I highly recommend this book and this diet as your lifetime way of eating.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs a professional narrator!
Review: This is a 5 star book to be sure; eye-opening information useful for anyone, which is all the more reason to have a professional voice person do the reading for the audio book (Sears reads it himself). I don't know which is worse; the poor articulation, "A nutrishally fayerible issullin resposs iss possble," or the sloberry, amplified sinus and mouth noises. Yuck... Definitely get the book--but pass on the audio version!
Rating:
Summary: The basics for following Sears' Zone diet
Review: According to Barry Sears, the foundation of good health is to eat foods that keep the amount of insulin in one's bloodstream within a wholesome, healthful zone -- not too much insulin and not too little. He says that the way to stay in this zone is to keep protein and carbohydrate in the right ratio to each other in one's diet, every meal or snack, every day. The key to this is to calculate one's lean body mass, and then eat just enough protein to maintain that amount of lean body mass. Then, one adjusts the amount of carbohydrate in one's diet so that there is roughly a 4 to 3 ratio of carbohydrate to protein. Finally, one adds enough fat to make up about 30 percent of all food calories. That's all there is to it. This book explains the medical reasons for the Zone diet. It also tells you how to calculate your lean body mass, whether you're a man or a woman. And it gives more than 200 pages of recipes for meals which follow the Zone diet. There's good advice about food shopping and eating out, too. Also there are six pages of medical references in support of the Zone diet, as well as a useful index.
Rating:
Summary: In the Zone is the Place to Be
Review: A friend recommended this book to me because of the great results he'd had following it. I bicycle quite a bit, and had been on a very high complex carb, very low fat, protein--what's that? diet for several years. My "healthy" diet gave me low cholesterol (154), but I had extremely high triglycerides (382), low HDL (30), low LDL (48). In short, this shows impending heart disease. Doctor's advice? Exercise. Well, I was already doing that. I cut out even more fat. I was constantly hungry, had headaches, and rarely felt terribly well. After following the Zone diet for just two days, I felt great and was never hungry, in fact had trouble eating all the food sometimes. I've never felt better in my life. I've been on it almost two weeks now, and have lost over 3 pounds, all from my waist, that I'd never been able to lose before no matter how much I biked. I have far more energy for bicycling than I previously had, and my physical condition has greatly improved. I require less sleep and am less tired than I was before. I know my next blood test will be next to perfect. I'm on the Zone for life. It's simple, the basic principles to follow are summarized in five sentences. I've never really "dieted" before, just modified my food choices and behavior. Unfortunately, I'd been doing it all wrong. Now I know what's right, thankfully not too late.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting
Review: I have been doing a lot of on-line researching and reading of these reviews regarding the Zone "diet" plan. I have only spent a couple weeks in and out of the Zone (I love pasta, so I'm getting the rest of it out of the house so I can do a real "sample" after it and the temptation is gone). But during the day, at work and school, I've never felt better. It's at night I crash after eating my pasta and very little protien. I don't know how much of the cravings for food at that point is psychological, which the Zone books never mention. They say that you control your hormones, you control your cravings. It's not as simple as that...there are lots of people who are body dismorphic and eat for reasons other than their brain pinging them because they're hungry. Perhaps I'll make my millions writing a follow-up book, but I digress... However, after reading every review for "Enter the Zone" (which I believe is just the same as "Mastering the Zone", the latter of which I did buy, which I believe has more practical advice on how to make things work than the theory in "Enter...") I am fairly convinced that all but two of the negative reviews are from people who either didn't read the book, didn't get what was written, or they were simply stating that they didn't want to live this way. Two reviews make me wonder. One speaks to the shoddiness of his research reporting -- which I agree upon, but maybe it's glossed because the reading public can't handle reading that boring stuff. The other is about the Zone being a low-calorie diet and that being the only reason you lose weight on it, makes me wonder. It wasn't the "a calorie is a calorie is a calorie" review...sure, a calorie is a calorie, but insulin, different macronutrients and so forth are not the same, so I disagree with that reviewer. But the idea that this only works as a low-calorie diet...I'm not sure....I am eating more bulk with not a lot less calories than I was before. So I'm still willing to give it a shot. Basically, this is a nutritional plan for a lifelong change that includes food in moderation. I also don't see in the Zone books that they are so facist that they don't recognize that "stuff happens" and people will get off the Zone with some meals, but you can always go back with the next. Unfortunately people are too often "all or nothing" fanatics who don't realize that we aren't perfect machines and sometimes our psyche requires something our body doesn't. They look at the Zone and think that if you're not fanatical, it won't happen at all. After thinking about it, the Zone is really rather stress-free and forgiving...it's really how much discipline to be conscious about your food and activity that should be watched out for. You mess up, you can always be conscious the next meal. And with time comes the habit, in my opinion. I will remain skeptical, but that's me. I can't be otherwise until I've given it a shot. I used to be 350# grossly obese, and after a year of getting more active and eating in moderation before, I came down to 225#. I still have oversized love handles, and I want to tighten that up and lose the rest of the pounds, but the last year or so has been stressful and I have only been hovering and gained a couple pounds back. So we'll see if the Zone leaves me with more energy I had before and convinces ME to be more conscious of my food choice. I would recommend, finally, not to buy more than one of the books (probably "Mastering") as they all appear to be saying the same thing. It's just not money conscious. Or if you do, buy them used. Barry Sears has turned into a marketing empire, and I think the message gets lost somewhere in there. Most of the information is on his website, as well, so buy one book and just look at the website.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely hard to understand!
Review: I understand why it works because I am very familiar with other low carb diets and I understand the insulin and all the other stuff, but what confuses me big time is the thing about zone blocks and measurements. That totally throws it all off for me. If I could only understand it. It sounds like a great diet and I'm sure it is, but it's too complicated to understand for most people...
Rating:
Summary: Not too shabby!
Review: The Zone Diet is the first "diet" I've ever tried, and so far--two weeks into it--I'm very happy! Lost weight, actually don't feel like I'm starving, even though I only eat about 1200 calories a day on my block plan. Only one downside on this book, the recipes can be pretty bland and sometimes diet-y tasting. If you try them, you will really want to add more spices to make the food taste good. HOWEVER, for great Zone recipes, you can go to the official Zone website at Zoneperfect.com, and they have several hundred ones for free that Zone dieters have sent in. MUCH tastier.
Rating:
Summary: It works
Review: The Zone works! What more can I say. I went from 325 lbs to 182 lbs in one year.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC WEIGHT LOSS
Review: I HAVE LOST 52 POUNDS BY FOLLOWING THIS BOOK. I WAS DIAGNOSED WTIH LUPUS IN NOVEMBER OF LAST YEAR. MY DOCTOR RECOMMENDED I BUY THIS BOOK AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN SORRY. I FEEL BETTER AND AM NOT EATING ALL THE BAD THINGS I WAS EATING BEFORE. IF YOU HAVE A HEALTH PROBLEM AND NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU.
|
