Customer Reviews

Mastering The Zone

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I much preferred reading Enter the Zone. Mastering the Zone was okay. Contained much of the same information that I had already read in Dr. Sear's previous book. If you've read Enter the Zone, I wouldn't bother reading this one.

I have been doing the Zone diet (sometimes more, sometimes less) for a year and a half now. I feel much better than I used to, and more alert. But I also began to notice that sometimes I felt better than other times with meals that were supposed to put me in the 'Zone'. In Sears' "Mastering the Zone", he discusses keeping track of which meals work for you (by gauging your hormonal reaction to them), but I find this approach a little hit-and-miss. And so I started looking around for some other ideas. This is when I found "Eat Right For Your Type" by Dr. D'Adamo, who bases his diet regimen on blood type. He has lists of foods that are beneficial, neutral and foods to avoid for each blood type. Recently I have been using those food lists to plan my zone meals, and have been consistently acheiving the high level of physical performance and mental acuity that I was looking for (even though I have had to eliminate wheat products from my diet). It is a whole lot of work to plan meals, but it is completely worth it to me!

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.

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.

I recently bought this book for some new and innovative way to loose the extra baby weight that I had gained during pregnancy. I have used South Beach diet in the past and loved it. This program using "blocks" to measure food portions, much too complicated to follow. The portions given throughout receipes are always per two servings. If you divide everything by two it just doesn't work out according to their "blocks" approach. I bought the book, read the first few pages and lost interest. I'm back on South Beach and once again my weight is just melting away !

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!

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...

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.

The Zone works! What more can I say. I went from 325 lbs to 182 lbs in one year.

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.