The Zone Diet, Summary

 Weight today: 181.8

Well, the Zone is behind me now. It was pretty difficult for me. I had a hard time being faithful to The Zone. It was VERY effective though. I don’t think I felt any of the “other” effects listed in the book. The Zone book promises more energy, higher performance and all sorts of things like that. In fact, I felt a bit draggy on diet. Still, I enjoyed the amount of weight loss I saw.

So here is the summary:

On The Zone, I lost 12 pounds. I started at 193.8 and finished at 181.8. That makes it the second most effective, right behind The South Diet, on which I lost 12.3 pounds. I know  I would have lost more on The Zone if I had not cheated a couple of times. Still, to me the cheats are important on diet and on The Zone, it was all I could do not to cheat a bit more. I was able to drop down another size in pants. I am wearing a pair of 33 inch waist pants. I haven’t worn “33s” since my sophomore year in high school! (That was 21 years ago).

• So, for “Ease of Understanding” I give The Zone an 6 out if 10. After reading the book there is still some math to do related to percent body fat and amount of protein to consume. Then you have to figure the ratio of carbs and fats and how all that fits together. It was not the easiest to understand and it took some time to figure. I could see it getting easier over time and becoming almost automatic maybe, but it was not an easy adjustment.
• For “Forgiveness of a Cheat” I give The Zone a 10 out of 10. I cheated a bunch on diet and seemed to recover within a day. I lost a great deal of weight even with the cheats.
• For “Ease of Execution” I give it a 4 out of 10. I had a hard time sticking with diet. The food choices were not great and it was hard to get the right mix at every meal, at least for me. It was usually easy to end up with the right mix of 2 of the factors (proteins or carbs, or carbs and fat, or fats and protein, or protein and fat) but it was hard, at times, to end up with the right mix of protein, carbs AND fats. Also, I was pretty hungry throughout and sometimes felt like I was not getting enough daily intake, which I think helped cause the cheats on diet.
• For Results I give it a 10 out of 10. The Zone far exceeded my expectations for what I might lose. In fact, it exceeded the promised weight loss and I even had to try and slow  it down some. From that standpoint, one can’t ask for much more from diet though if not done correctly, one can lose weight too fast. This may seem like an oxymoron, but fast weight loss is not always the best or most healthy option.

So that gives The Zone a 30 out of a possible 40. That is pretty average from a Diets perspective. Great results. Not so easy to execute and stick with. Still, I would happily recommend it to someone looking for a short term fix or something that would give some rapid results. Personally though, not my diet.

Top Diets. Complete Zone Diet review and rankings from dietitian’s perspective.