The Zone

Scotty · 04-14-2003, 08:31 PM

Has anyone tried The Zone method as a way to help lose weight? I have the book and have read it and would like to give it a bash, but it seems fairly hard to get to grips with. I think I probably need to get to know a good bit more about the properties of food and how they work with each other.

Anyway, just wanted to know if anyone out there has tried and and what results they have had.

The Zone has been highly recommended by a friend (but does not have PCOS) and they told me it is quite hard getting your head round it.

Thanks!

Tammygrrl · 04-14-2003, 09:45 PM

hi, i just started the zone today from information i snagged off the internet (www.zoneperfect.com) and it was pretty easy for me...simple enough to follow. i got really hungry by dinner time and i coughslippedcough. lol i'd suggest going to the mini blocks sections...that's what clinched it for me.

i was going to check out atkins after my husbands cousin lost 9 lbs in a week but it seems so restrictive...almost too restrictive. anytime i'm restricted i fail...ie diets and budgets.

i don't know if i'll lose weight on it, or if i'll get regular periods or if i'll lower my sugar...but i didn't have to take a nap today!!!! that in itself is worth following it.

hopefully tomorrow, come dinnertime i won't be famished and i won't have two helpings of dinner.

ps...the zone also seems like something i can fix for my whole family w/o having to fix a dinner for me and one for my hubby and one for the kids.

good luck with it (i'm wishing myself luck...lol)

Scotty · 04-15-2003, 07:11 AM

Thanks for replying. I will go to the website and have a look. It would be worth the try and I like the look of it for the same reasons as you - you do not have to cook "special" meals for yourself. I just don't have time for that at the moment. It also involved eating "real" food and none of these shakes or other things to get you to lose weight.

On a personal note - a my mum-in-law tried Atkins and it didn't last too long! Her face became really drawn and she would have what I would call a grey complexion. She just didn't look well on it at all. I also have a friend who is a nutritionist and she does not recommend it at all, but did recommend the Zone.

Wishing you the very best of luck. Keep in touch - it would be good to here how you get on.

STINA · 04-15-2003, 04:56 PM

Hello fellow Scottish cyster.

Just wondering whats involved in the zone diet????
I tried the atkins and I didnt last that long on it either, i love my toast in the mornings and any other time of day. Plus I tend to eat a lot of potatoes and pasta, i have cut down but it was so hard and I just kept craving.
I hope the zone diet works well for you!

Stina

Scotty · 04-15-2003, 07:36 PM

As a very basic rule, the Zone works on a complete "balance" of food, ie, it aims to ensure your proteins (meats, etc.) and carbohydrates (sugars, etc.) are eaten in equal quantities and, I can't exactly remember the percentages (I don't have the book to hand, bought it a little while ago with good intentions, but still haven't gotten round to starting with it!!), but as an example, say your daily diet would be made up of 45% protein, 45% carbs and 5% fat intake. The theory behind this is that your body can deal with a balance of the different types of foods, rather than fighting to break down lots and lots of protein/carbs/fats. But there are also good carbohydrates and bad carbs, such as potatoes - they are pretty bad (lets face it - potatoes are/were at one time used to fatten cattle!! well it works on me too!!!!) and of course foods high in sugar are bad carbs. As your body changes any carb you eat into sugar, thus stimulating insulin production (insulin turns sugar to fat (your power/energy source) to be stored by the body. Then cycle begins, with PCOS you produce too much insulin as it is and thus store more fat! hence you put on weight and can't lose it either...and put on weight, can't lose it......and so on..

Well, that's sort of scraping the top of the iceberg with the scientific theory stuff (hope you haven't fallen asleep yet!) and thats why the Zone is supposed to be good for PCOS as it helps with the insulin production/storing fat thing.

You can get the book out of most book shops if your interested, I got mines at Borders Books in Edinburgh (Craigpark/The Fort). I think I paid about £14.99, so its not too expensive and Amazon or somewhere online may have it cheaper.

Hopefully I didn't bore you to death! :o

I can see it being this time next year before I get a chance to start it, but will try as much as possible to be more "balanced" in what I eat.

STINA · 04-15-2003, 08:24 PM

Thanks Scotty.

Next time im in the town I will have a look and see if I can see it if I dont see it here first up the centre. I'm willing to try anything to see if it will help me lose the lbs or stones that I so need to do. LOL,!!!!!!!
The atkins I just found was too restricting. Ive got to have another D&C next month and was told to try and lose 2 stone by then but so far Im only half way there. Its so hard and its taken me all my strenght to get this far and also Im grieving at the moment with having a m/c last week so Ive been bad with the comfort foods.
Im actually thinking that I might go to the library tomorrow and see if I can see anything on it.
If I do try it and it works, miracles can happen I'll keep you posted.

Scotty · 04-16-2003, 11:49 AM

Hi Stina,

Firstly I hope you don't mind me saying I am so sorry that you have had to go through a m/c. I know you must be feeling completely exhausted emotionally and physically and its a hard slog to come through it, but you will. I know you will always remember but the pain will ease eventually, however, unfortunately that takes a lot of time. They kept telling me (for five weeks) when I was pregnant with my DD that I was going to miscarry because my HCG levels started off very low. They told me that the sac had formed and there was probably just a piece of "tissue" which had developed causing the sack to form. Their way to trying to avoid saying your going to lose your baby I think. So I know what it was like living for five weeks thinking your going to miscarry and feeling all the emotion that goes with.

Its hard enough losing weight without the added pressure of emotional stress (also, I was told when I had IVF that stress can act as a trigger to PCOS, ie, if you've managed to get some control over it previously and lost weight, it can all go back on later if your not prepared.

I managed a couple of years ago (before I knew I had PCOS) when we were first finding out that conceiving a baby was not going to be easy. I had reached a point of enough is enough, I have to do something about my weight. I remember I was shopping in Glasgow and was eating lunch with DH and I saw my reflection and thought, God you look so manly and unfeminine (I think this is a made up this word!!). I was wearing mostly jeans (a mans pair cause it was the only size I could get to fit at the time) and a guys sweater. At that time though it was easier to get it together as my work situation was boring but safe and not too badly paid! I bought the Rosemary Conely Hip & Thigh Diet book read it and was really interested. I never went to the classes. The key for me was I didn't stick to the diet rigidly. I stuck to the 4% fat rule and never eat anything that contained over 4g of fat in any 100g. Sometimes I would stretch it to 5g. I also would allow myself a treat every night, be it a glass of wine or 3 jaffa cakes. I ate pretty healthily lots of veg and probably by just pure luck, I wasn't eating high amounts of carbs which unknowingly at the time probably aided my weight loss. I also began to exercise and enjoy it, I was doing 2 or 3 step classes and 2 toning classes/week but I enjoyed going. I managed to lose 4 stone, but it was hard and took me 1.5-2 years. With the exercise I was doing and what I was eating a normal person (the consultant at the IVF clinic reckoned) I should have lost a lot more weight than I did. I started at 14st and got down to 10st. I am now back up to 13 stone and I'm only 5ft 2" which makes me look small and dumpy.

Then rumours started at work that the job I had was becoming obselete within the next 3 years (I was a typist) and we found out for sure about not being able to have children (probs on both sides) and it would be a 3 year wait to have a got at NHS funded IVF. So I decided to leave my job and retrain in something else and nursing came up as you receive a bursary whilst training so we reckoned we could manage and it would provide us with opportunities. I didn't realise how much of a comfort zone I was in at work - I didn't need to think too much to do the job and it was therefore not stressful at all, but boring as well! I didn't bank on the nursing being so stressful, I totally freaked out at first thinking what have I done I can't do this. The placements were pretty awful as the nurses are under so much pressure they don't have time for you and your just and added pain. I understand this now, but at the time it felt very personal and I was completely ignored. That on top of knowing I may never have a baby, well, I've never felt so lonely and out of place. I stopped eating properly for a while and was some days not eating at all and obviously that triggered things off again and I'm getting back towards my original weight again.

I am in my last year now and, of course, have had a little girl in between and now I have to start back in a couple of weeks and put my DD into nursery full time until the end of January next year (I feel sick at the thought). I know in the long run it will be worth it but right now I just wish I could run away! or win the lottery or something!

This is why I don't think I could embark and a slightly complicated (until you get to grips with it) eating plan, which if it is as successful as I've been told, I would need to stay on for the rest of my life. I just know I don't have the energy yet and I would give up too quickly. However, maybe if I get into some sort of routine sooner rather than later I will start.

Sorry for this being so long drawn out!

I wish you the very best of luck and hope this works really well for you (youll be in that thong bikini before you know it!!! (remember not to lose the weight too fast as your body can't cope with that either and will begin to store fat as it thinks you are starving - probably why I put on weight when I wasn't even eating!).

Of course, then you'll lose the weight, have a body like a catwalk model and be feeling on top of the world, then what happens.......you get pregnant and end up with a big tummy and stretch marks!!! Sods Law!!

Keep me posted and I'll be thinking about you and keeping my fingers very firmly crossed for you in the future.

Aggs · 04-17-2003, 03:19 PM

Hello ladies

I also recently bought the Zone book and I am ashamed to say that I have yet to read it fully. I agree that it seems to be far more manageable and less restrictive than Atkins, and I hope to have a go at it once I am back home (working in Birmingham until Easter).

Just to throw something else into the mix, my sisters have been using another eating plan and had great success on it. It is called the Montignac Method, and the book for it is called:

Eat Yourself Slim by Michel Montignac (available at most bookshops and Amazon) He is a Frenchman and has written a few different books - one about eating out, and another just for women, but I think that the original Eat Yourself Slim is meant to be the best as it has had a few editions.

It is basically a lower carb method, but it does allow you to have toast and low sugar jam or porridge (or other carbs) for breakfast. The rest of the time it seems similar to a basic food combining diet - no carbs with proteins.

You can eat as much as you want of the right foods, as long as you are satisfied, and you can even have the odd glass of red wine and some chocolate as long as it is the dark kind. My sister has lost a few stone on it, looks very well, is never hungry and does not miss her old way of eating at all.

As with all of these things, it has to become a way of life, and I thought it worth mentioning.

(Note for STINA - I am so sorry to hear of your loss, I know how much this child was wanted. I will be thinking of you and praying for you. HUGE hugs from Aggs xxoo)