Mastering the Zone: The Next Step in Achieving SuperHealth and Permanent Fat Loss

"Mastering the Zone gives the shortened explanation of the Zone diet. The purpose of the book is not to explain the details of the science behind diet (which is covered in The Zone), the purpose is to introduce a brief overview and then provide an abundance of recipes and food examples that fit within the confines of the diet. Sears accomplished both, and also adds a Q&A to address any issues one might having trying to follow the diet.

Many reviewers of this book have spent their time rating the diet which I have deliberately avoided. My review is based on the content of the book, and thus this book rates well independent of whether you find this diet a success or not.
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~ Written on 2008-04-18

"Hello everyone. Early this year i was on the Zone for 6 months, and i followed it perfectly. I did lose body fat, but i also noticed i lost my muscle. Even though i lifted weights 3 times/week, i was LOSING muscle. So i decided to actually calculate how many calories i was eating per day. It came out to 1,500. No wonder i was losing muscle! According to the American College of Sports Medicine, men should not dip below 1,800 calories in a day or else their lean body mass won't be sustained. So in essence, i lost fat and muscle. Girls weren't looking at me and saying "ooh, look at that hot guy over there with a flat tummy and no muscle." Let's face it. Women like to see some mass on a guy. Since June, i've done a lot of research into nutrition and now i am burning solely fat, no lean body tissue at all. I've increased my daily calories to 2,100, kept up with weight-training, and added 5 days/week of cardio. At first i was worried that with all that cardio, i'd lose muscle, but i'm not. As long as the calorie deficit isn't exaggerated and you lift weights, it's unlikely you will lose muscle when you add a good amount of cardio.
So even though the Zone claims to be a non-calorie counting method of dieting, that's deceitful in my mind because you ARE reducing your calories--way too much.
When you reduce calories excessively and for prolonged periods, you're going to get hungry. And i was hungry all the time. In addition, your body starts to hold onto the fat it has because it thinks you're starving. After 2 months of the Zone, my fat loss pretty much stopped because my metabolism had slowed down.
There is one positive thing to say about the Zone: it encourages you to drink plenty of water and to eat only healthy foods. Just not enough of it. If a book recommends anything less than 1,800 calories for men and 1,200 calories for women, don't buy it. You'll lose muscle and your fat loss will halt after a couple of months and you'll be hungry and not keep up with the plan.
Who has the best bodies out there? Fitness models and bodybuilders. They have single digit bodyfat. You know how they do it? They stay within recommended caloric limits by the American College of Sports Medicine, they lift weights, and they do cardio(and lots of it!) The Zone showed me what healthy foods are, but that's about all it did. For long-term results, stay away. "
~ Written on 2008-01-01

"I'm giving this book a 4 star review. It recieves 4 stars by merit of the diet's effect on me personally. Your mileage may vary. I have been following this diet mostly to the T. I have dropped 15 pounds in the last month and I feel absolutely excellent. I'm not sure whether all of the theory that this diet is based on is completely sound. The focus on hormones and stuff seems a bit pseudo-science-ish to me, but much of it is also sound. For me I think the big thing was getting more protein and having my blood sugar levels more stable. As far as that goes this diet is excellent. I notice I have lots of energy and not in a manic psychological sense, which tells me that it's legit energy... there if you need it but you can chill if you don't. My muscles are also staying quite hard despite not having added weight training to my exercise regimen until this week... an effect strangely lacking in other diets I've tried that were so calorie restrictive.

However keep in mind that everyone's individual chemistry is different. I've always intuitively felt that I needed more protein and fat for a successful diet, and I am the type of person who did not respond well at all to the typically dietary guidelines that the food pyramid recommends. Your milease may vary."
~ Written on 2007-07-21

"I went from 209 pounds to 151 pounds with the principles of this book. Once you understand how insulin works against you to store fat,and learn the right amount of protein and carbs your body needs to maintain your ideal weight, you can begin your journey to eat in the zone and lose weight.It has been my eating guidelines for almost 10 years. It is well worth the trouble to learn to treat food as a drug."
~ Written on 2006-04-24

"Having tried and failed at Atkins and other diets, I was highly skeptical about the Zone diet. I've always been more of a believer of "calories-in-calories-out," not giving much thought to insulin and the body's hormonal response to food. The great thing about the Zone is the fact that I now have control over my eating. I still can't believe it. No longer do I have cravings and feel hungry 18 hours a day. Usually, after about 3 days of dieting using the traditional high carb low fat method, I was always starving, and the thought of food consumed my life. After 3 days of being in the Zone, I have to push myself to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day! This is coming from a guy who weighed over 300 pounds when he first started. Is Dr. Sears correct in his teachings about carbohydrates and their effect on insulin? I tend to think so, given my body's response. But even if he's wrong, so what? I'm now consuming about 1,500 calories per day without hunger. So even if you subscribe to the old calorie beliefs, as I had, you're still consuming far less than before once in the Zone. Bottom line: if you're tired of feeling hungry and deprived while trying to lose weight, get into the Zone."
~ Written on 2006-04-17