Zone Diet

[Guest guest]

I was recently reading an article (sorry, no reference) about the US swim teams

in the 1996 Olympics.

Apparently, the US swim team coach credited much of their successes (8 gold

medals) to the Zone Diet,

which most of the swimmers were on. The article went on to detail how effective

the diet was in

increasing muscle mass and heightening energy levels, even though calories

consumed were much less

than one would expect. , the multi-gold medal winner, stated that

the Zone diet aided

her in developing her ultra-muscular physique. I've read a lot of material

related to the zone, a lot of

pros and cons.

Most of the cons state that although his general recommendations are sound, his

prescribed

calories are far too low to allow for muscle mass gain. Three days ago I

figured out my zone diet prescription,

based on being 195 pounds with 12% bodyfat and an activity level of 0.9 (very

active, greater than

2.5 hours per week of training). My daily caloric consumption was computed to

be around 2100 calories

per day. That seemed like a very low number to me. So, I tried eating zone

meals for the last 3 days, sticking

to my prescription. I was somewhat impressed by the lack of hunger hours after

eating a Zone meal.

Furthermore, I did notice an increase in overall energy while on the Zone. I

wake up at 4 a.m. every

day for work, and usually notice a profound " lull " in the day around mid-late

afternoon. I'm usually

very tired and very sluggish. If I sit down, my eyes close. However, after

about a day and a half of fine

tuning my Zone meals, that lull went away, and by evening, I still had quite a

bit of energy. Placebo effect?

I'm not too sure, due to the fact that I was quite skeptical about the low

caloric content of the diet.

I'd appreciate any comments anyone might have regarding the effectiveness of the

zone.

Ken Manning

Scranton, PA