A Week in the Zone: A Quick Course in the Healthiest Diet for You (Paperback)

by Barry Sears (Author), Deborah Kotz (Author) "For generations, every male on my father's side of my family suffered from a similar fate: a premature heart attack that cut their life short..." (more)
Key Phrases: unfavorable carbohydrates, hormonal carburetor, turkey bacon strips, Zone Food Pyramid, Zone Food Blocks, Harvard Medical School (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"I've never had the progress with my clients that I've had since they've started doing the Zone. They're less hungry, less fatigued, and more productive. I've seen it work." -- Fitness consultant Teresa Olsen, in People magazine

"The hottest diet in Hollywood." -- -- Woman's World

"With clearly distilled science and a detailed eating plan for peak performance, The Zone could do for insulin awareness what the Pritikin diet did for low-fat eating." -- New York Times --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Description

A national bestseller for more than three years in hardcover, The Zone has introduced millions of people worldwide to a breakthrough approach to dieting based on Novel Prize–winning scientific research. Treating food as the most powerful drug available, The Zone plan shows how food, when used unwisely, can be toxic. Used wisely however, it will take anyone into the Zone, a state of exceptional health familiar to champion athletes.

Now the benefits of Barry Sears߲evolutionary program can be experienced in just one week! With A Week in the Zone, everyone can start on the path to permanent weight loss and learn how to burn body fat, and keep it off – without deprivation or hunger.

They'llalso discover how the Zone helps to both increase energy and fight heart disease, diabetes, PMS, chronic fatigue, depression, and cancer.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (June 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060741902
• ISBN-13: 978-0060741907
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,462 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

619 of 624 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost 11 pounds in a month on the Zone without starving!, September 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A Week in the Zone (Mass Market Paperback)

In brief: the Zone diet works. Please note:

1) This is *not* a crash diet.

2) This is *not* a starvation diet.

3) You get to eat *normal* food. On the down side, you *do* have to give up certain dishes (pasta, rice, and breads, for example)... but on the other hand you get to eat plenty of chicken, beef, turkey, cheese, eggs, bacon, tuna, salmon, cod, as well as plenty of vegetables and fruits. (And for you veggies out there, you can do the Zone diet, too. Just substitute soy protein for the meats and fishes, and take your vitamins, and you're in the club!)

4) The Zone diet is easy to follow. Sears' book is filled with sample recipes for meals, but really, you don't need to follow them. Just flip to the end of the book where he lists all the recommended Zone foods and combine them to make up your own recipes.

Here's how the diet works. There are three categories of foods that you need to eat at every meal: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats (all listed in the back of the book). If you're a man, pick 4 choices (called "blocks") from each category. If you're a woman, pick 3 choices (or "blocks") from each category. Then combine them anyway you choose.

Example: guys, for breakfast, three strips of turkey bacon equals 1 protein block. One egg also equals 1 protein block. So have two eggs for breakfast with three strips of turkey bacon and that's 3 blocks right there. Now add one ounce of low fat cheese (1 protein block) and you've met your protein requirement for that meal.

Now add an apple (2 carbo blocks) and an orange (2 carbo blocks) to your bacon and eggs breakfast and you've met your carbo requirement for that meal.

For fats, just add a 1 1/3 teaspoon of sesame oil to your eggs while you're cooking them, and now you've got 4 fat blocks.

And that's it. You're in the Zone!

You can prepare all your meals that way. Don't feel you have to follow Sears' recipes to the letter and end up scouring your supermarket for obscure items like cilantro, dried tarragon, and shallots (say what?). So long as you only eat what's in the food lists and don't eat the *bad* foods, you'll do fine.

5) Be sure to drink plenty of water. This is crucial for the diet to succeed. If you need a break from tap water (or Evian, for that matter), you can have decaf. Just don't add more than a teaspoon of sugar to your decaf, or better yet use a substitute. Sugars are the one of the *bad* carbo blocks that you need to keep to a minimum.

Also, though it doesn't say so in the book, you are allowed to *occasionally* have a diet drink like Coke or Pepsi so long as it's sugar *and* caffeine free. (I got this last part from Sears' web site, in case you're wondering.)

So while decaf and the occasional diet drink are OK, you should still make sure that most of your liquid intake comes from water. And lots of it.

5) Once you're on the diet, there *will* be a few times each day where you're feeling a little hungry. But a little hungry is one thing and famished is something else... and I've said, on the Zone diet, you don't walk around feeling like you're starving.

For me, the rumble-in-my-tummy feeling usually kicks in about an hour before each meal. If lunch is at 12:00 P.M., my stomach will start grumbling around 11:00 A.M. Late afternoon, my stomach will start grumbling again, but the Zone diet allows me one late afternoon snack each day, so that tides me over till dinnertime. Then, before bedtime, my stomach grumbles one last time, but since the diet also allows me one light bedtime snack (say, a small piece of fruit and a slice of cheese), that tides me over until the next morning.

But for the most part, I don't walk around feeling hungry. In fact, after my first few days on the diet I already lost my cravings for fatty foods like potato chips and pretzels. So since I don't miss what I can't eat, that's what keeps me "in the Zone".

Bottom line: the Zone diet is highly recommended to anyone interested in losing a few pounds without going stark-raving nuts. At the same time, it's balanced enough that you can remain on it painlessly even after you've reached your "ideal weight". How many other diets can claim that? I plan to stay on it until I've lost at least another ten pounds. After that, who knows?

446 of 452 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first how-to Zone book for everyone, March 25, 2000

By	Kenneth Stuart (Northern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Week in the Zone (Mass Market Paperback)

Finally, Barry Sears has gotten around to writing a "how-to" book on the Zone Diet. All of the previous books were somewhat technical, and aimed at medical professionals or personal trainers.

This book, his first paperback, is written in a clear, concise and easy to understand style. By the end of the first 20 pages, you will have a good idea of what the Zone Diet is about, its benefits and how it works.

Then, the rest of the book gives Sears' simplest yet version of the diet (for example, instead of "40-30-30" the new restatement uses "1-2-3").

The Zone Diet, by the way, is primarily a health diet, although it is also effective for weight loss. The idea is to keep your blood sugar and hormone levels as even as possible, by balancing what you eat in each meal. The result is a number of health benefits, especially in the areas of diabetes (demonstrated by a clinical study) and heart disease (Sears started the research due to the high mortality in his own family tree), but also in other areas like allergies, joint pain, headaches, stomach acid, and many others, all of which are aggravated by our modern unnatural eating habits.

Unlike almost all other eating plans, this diet is based on an investigation of how food affects our bodies' mechanisms, and the result is simply better functioning.

85 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It All Makes Sense Now!, March 31, 2000

By	"lynzva" (Manassas, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Week in the Zone (Mass Market Paperback)

I have wanted to be in "The Zone" for a long time and already own Mastering the Zone (very confusing) and the Daoust's 40-30-30 book. I was still unsure and not 100% clear on how exactly it worked. This book makes it all so very simple! It has a shopping list, which is a huge help, and it's small enough to fit in your purse/bag. It also dispels the myths of high protein diets, and why they just aren't healthy for you. I would highly recommend it! This book ties up all the loose ends!