Anyone else currently on Zone Diet?

akdartsmy

I am not new to counting macros, but am relatively new to the Zone Diet. I would love to "friend" people who are also doing the Zone Diet whose diaries are set to public. Thanks in advance!

ErisDyscordia

I am just starting The Zone diet this week. I would love to discuss it some, it can be somewhat confusing!

focused4health

Doesnt look like any hits. Unpopular? How are you going on it?

kf5nd

I did The Zone Diet around 1998, and it worked well enough, but I drifted away from it. It requires intricate planning, unfortunately. The tough part is every snack, every meal, has to properly proportioned.

Fast forward to 2014, I'm BMI 25, but I got some bad news in my latest A1C test, the gold standard blood sugar test. I got back a pre-diabetic result. I asked my sister, a doctor, what my carb target should be, she said, "100 grams a day". I thought, "hmmm, that sounds very Zone-ish". In fact, the Zone carb target for me is 15 blocks, 135 grams Carb per day. So, I'm going to give The Zone another try.

I think it will be easier this time because of better food labeling, and because of MFP. I found out if you go to the Goal setting control in MFP you can set the ratio of Carb : Protein : Fat to 40 : 30 : 30, which is what The Zone is. The desktop app gives you detailed grams info for each meal as you enter foods, but the phone app does not, so you have to tally your meals manually if you are not at your desk.

I just wrote down how many grams and Calories of Carb, Prot, and Fat I need for each meal, and stuck a note in my wallet. Using the note and MFP on the phone, I can get my meals balanced. Snacks are easy because I pre-plan and pre-pack them.

I have been eating 1400 Cal per day and it has been fine this week. I am again surprised how little food I can get by on, but as any Zoner will tell you, if you get the balance wrong, you will be hungry, and you have to take your snacks as if they were meds, on the clock, even if you're not hungry.

I have opened my diary to the public.

Peter
KF5ND

kf5nd

Here's a question... should I eat the same amount of food, even on exercise days? The online body fat calculator online, which gives you your food budget, includes your activity level, but if you don't exercise every day, should you hold back on rest days, and eat more on exercise days? If so, how much do you borrow into the exercise days? (I'm going to try to not borrow, and see how I feel).

kf5nd

10 days back on The Zone, and down 2.7 lbs. A good start. It always starts out well, but then after you reach your goals, complacency and back-sliding set in. Too much at stake this time, though.

islandgirl76_

Starting a Zone-like program on Monday with a local group!

kf5nd

About a month on the Zone, down about 6 lbs. MFP on my phone make it much easier to manage the 40:30:30 mix of carb:protein:fat this time around, as opposed to when I did this in the 1990s with the Zone's "blocks" system. This time I'm just using universal units of mass, grams, and MFP uses grams.

I should be done by the end of 2014.

beccabeccac

I started doing the zone (loosely) within the past month and a half. I'm pretty good with breakfasts, and lunches (if I plan ahead) but I'm not as precise at dinner, I just watch that I'm not overdoing my carbs and getting enough protein. I've found that with exercise (I track using a fitbit) I don't always feel like I need to eat my "earned" calories.