The Zone Diet

bsil · Post by **bsil** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:14 am

Hi-
I have not posted in awhile, but am still a loyal user of my bipap and Swift II. I spent the day in the E.R. yesterday for what I thought were episodes of chest pain. After an exercise stress test, negative cardiac enzymes and a CT of the chest to Rule out Pulmonary embolism, I was given good news and allowed to go home.
However, the cardiologist discussed the need to lose weight.

I've been researching the Zone Diet and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with it.

Barb

oceanpearl · Post by **oceanpearl** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:35 am

[quote="bsil"]Hi-
I have not posted in awhile, but am still a loyal user of my bipap and Swift II. I spent the day in the E.R. yesterday for what I thought were episodes of chest pain. After an exercise stress test, negative cardiac enzymes and a CT of the chest to Rule out Pulmonary embolism, I was given good news and allowed to go home.
However, the cardiologist discussed the need to lose weight.

I've been researching the Zone Diet and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with it.

Barb

Gerald · Post by **Gerald** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:17 pm

Barb.....

I've read the Zone books and found them to be very helpful.....although not in the way one might guess.

For me, the value of The Zone was an understanding of which foods caused my pancreas to overwork. When I eat a food with a high glycemic index, that food causes a rapid rise in my blood sugar.....followed by desperate efforts by my pancreas to secrete enough insulin to knock that sugar down. The pancreas converts that excess sugar into additional body mass......and that means more poiunds when standing on the scale.

There's really no magic way to get rid of extra weight. One simply eats less....and burns more stored energy......in order to lose weight.

The value of reading The Zone is to learn which foods burn more slowly (convert to sugar more slowly) so that one can avoid "highs" and "lows" in one's blood sugar level. What the author meant by the term "The Zone" is simply keeping one's insulin levels relatively constant....without spikes up or down....eating foods that keep the insulin levels within a "zone" of moderation.

If we eat high glycemic foods often, we wear out our pancreas......and finally the insulin stops....or the insulin no longer controls our sugar. At that point, we become diabetic.

The Zone helps one eat "smarter"........and that means better health.

I hope this helps.

Gerald

roster · Post by **roster** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:53 pm

Gerald wrote:..... What the author meant by the term "The Zone" is simply keeping one's insulin levels relatively constant....without spikes up or down....eating foods that keep the insulin levels within a "zone" of moderation..

Gerald

Gerald said it all.

I am a Zone devotee (but not fanatic).

In an ironic way "The Zone" damaged my health. I was able to greatly reduce my sleepiness by adhering to its principles. This allowed my osa to stay undiagnosed for several more years.

I recommend the Zone as a way of eating, not as a diet.

Hurricane · Post by **Hurricane** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:05 pm

[quote="bsil"]Hi-
I have not posted in awhile, but am still a loyal user of my bipap and Swift II. I spent the day in the E.R. yesterday for what I thought were episodes of chest pain. After an exercise stress test, negative cardiac enzymes and a CT of the chest to Rule out Pulmonary embolism, I was given good news and allowed to go home.
However, the cardiologist discussed the need to lose weight.

I've been researching the Zone Diet and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with it.

Barb

bsil · Post by **bsil** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:53 pm

Thanks all for your responses.

Oceanpearl: Congrats on your 27lb weight loss! I'll have to check into Sugar Busters. I too am convinced that the enemy here are carbs.

I think I am a...OK, I'll admit it...I'm a carbaholic! I love pasta, desserts and BREAD! My excess weight is from my food choices.

Gerald: Thanks for your wonderful synopsis of the Zone theory. My fasting bloodsugar runs around 107. Could be better.

Rooster: Dr. Sears addresses taking Fish Oil Capsules. Do you take them and do you think that it helped your weight loss or just is heart healthy?

Thanks,
Barb

drummergirl410 · Post by **drummergirl410** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:37 pm

I'm trying to modify my lifestyle in order to be more healthy/loose weigjt. My endocronologist recomended avioiding sugary foods, eating lean meat, fruits and veggies. He also said to severely limit or avoid bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. I'm aldo going to start exercising more soon but the sumer heat and my asthma won't alow for a lot of outdoor activities just yet. I'm avioding sweets and regular sodas also. I do agree that it's a matter of being consientious and limiting portions as well.

amandalee · Post by **amandalee** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:03 pm

I'm just as guilty as anyone else of "dieting" for awhile and then giving up on it, and so I've learned that losing weight and keeping it off comes from making healthy lifestyle changes.

I don't know much about the Zone, but if it can help people change their eating habits to ones that are more healthy and balanced, then it should be ok.

Auricula · Post by **Auricula** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:43 pm

Cardiac problems, imminent and threatened, are a good motivator to lose weight. In the year I've been on CPAP I not only failed to lose weight (despite my internist saying that it would be easy) but put on some additional pounds. I have not been able to count on consistently good sleep and adequate daytime energy. Although I am impressed with forum members who successfully manage their therapy, I have not found the time to get into this and was just coasting until a recent ECHO cardiogram showed a substantially more calcified aortic valve since my last test.

Now that I have the fear of possible valve surgery, dieting has become terribly important and I've lost 20 pounds since May. I agree that controlling carbs is important and find that it is best to avoid sugar in any form. I have given up white rice and pasta and limit breads to whole grain/seed and make a sandwich with a half slice of bread and the amount of meat or tuna that I would normally use. Even though our drought has ruined the cantaloupe crop locally I am eating other melons and summer fruits and they taste so much more delicious than they did when I ate sweet carbs.

I see a doctor who works on energy fields and she said this regarding my belly fat: When toxins build up in the midsection this can block the energy flow to the heart and lungs. We have discussed my reduced lung capacity, which predated my OSA diagnosis and has become worse in the past year, and she feels that by losing weight and detoxing I should be able to breathe more deeply again. My aortic stenosis cannot be reversed but I wish I could be on a plateau instead of having further calcification occur quickly. I would love to avoid valve replacement until they are able to do minimally invasive surgery. I read somewhere (don't know if it was here) that our goal should be for blood running like red wine and not red ketchup and I am on a statin drug and take CoQ10 in hopes of reducing cholesterol.

oceanpearl, could you describe the breathing exercises you do? I have not been successful in finding a program for this.

bsil, I am glad that your evaluation did not reveal any problems and hope that you will be successful in dieting.
Auricula

roster · Post by **roster** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:42 pm

bsil wrote:...................
Rooster: Dr. Sears addresses taking Fish Oil Capsules. Do you take them and do you think that it helped your weight loss or just is heart healthy?

Thanks,
Barb

I took Dr. Sears expensive fish oil caps for a long time. To be frank, I have serious doubts that they do any good at all.

Recently I heard a heart doctor on a radio talk show. He said the scientific evidence that fish oil will help heart health (I can alliterate tonight!) is very sparse.

For a healthy heart he recommends eating a variety of wholesome foods, exercising, being kind and having close relationships with spouse, relatives and friends.

Even if he is wrong and you die young, you had a good life!

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:02 pm

I just take a roll of Duct Tape and mark off a area of the table two foot deep by four foot wide, in front of my chair. Any food I find fits inside that box, is in my Zone, and I eat it. Jim

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:08 pm

Goofproof wrote:I just take a roll of Duct Tape and mark off a area of the table two foot deep by four foot wide, in front of my chair. Any food I find fits inside that box, is in my Zone, and I eat it. Jim

yeah but you can't reach that "zone" cause you are too far away from it

Daddysaur · Post by **Daddysaur** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:12 pm

The Duct tape diet.... that would be an improvement over the SEEfood diet I am on. But I could do some damage with that much table to work with.

Elle · Post by **Elle** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:24 am

I've lost 115 lbs in the last year and a half....mostly from trying to recognize the difference between hunger and anxiety and also from weight watchers online. If you go to the site and read the message boards you will get some really useful tips. You have to register to post questions but it is free unless you decide to join and get all the tools they give you to make tracking food easier.

I honeslty haven't felt like overeating the entire time. It has been very easy and I think it is because I just started with the intention of "giving" myself healthy food instead of "depriving" myself of junk and my brain felt rewarded. (I have a pea brain). Then after eating protein several times a day (boiled egg, bit of cottage cheese, chunks of chicken) i noticed i didnt have cravings at all. Apparently protein does that???

I have heard the GI diet (glycemic index) is a good one too. Good luck with it.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:42 am

Hi
Several years ago my sister gave me 2 books on diets, one was zone & the other I believe was atkins. I felt Dr.Sears book on the zone diet made more since. I started doing it half hearted. I started losing weight. I was enjoying the foods I ate (good food). It was simple like taking off half the bun. I always ate larger portions then suggested, & still lost weight. I believe I lost 27lbs in about 3or4months, & that was not following it completely. Then my wife who was not on the diet got sick. & I ended up stopping the diet.
I have just recently been thinking about starting again, just yesterday I went to DR.Sears forum. I will start again.
You might want to check out the forum. I take fish oil, & flaxseed oil, but I buy mine at sam`s club. The doc`s at veterans had me on statins & screwed up my muscles. Good luck on the diet,

The Zone Diet

The Zone Diet

Re: The Zone Diet

Re: The Zone Diet

Heart disease and diet

Mask