Hello, new to the forums but have been 'Zoning' for a while. My husband chose this way of eating to keep his sugar in check as he is hypoglycemic. My main reason is to lose weight. (I have lost 11 lbs :D ) but have 35-ish to get to where I wanna be. I have kinda piddled with it for a while and am now ready to get serious. I am tired of being tired and not fitting into my clothes. Also we are going on a trip at the end of April to Hawaii :D and I want to feel good about myself. I currently have a Gazelle, a treadmill, and a Total Gym. The main reason for posting is understanding the excercise/fat burning part of the Zone. I have the first book and it says to walk 1 hr each for 6 days a week. Can I break it up into 1/2 hour sessions? How fast do I need to be walking for maximum benefit? Any suggestions/ideas are greatly appreciated. Jenny

Welcome to the Forum i reccomend unless you are absoloutly too busy to walk the whole thing also i think you could do it for just 30 minutes i think thats what my book says.

I have just joined today, have been on the zone diet for one month tomorrow. I walk on my treadmill for 30 min. 3 times a week. I feel good but am getting a bit grumpy with those around me!![color=orange:d0e4d8029b][/color:d0e4d8029b]

Walking for burning fat Actuallly, pace depends entirely on how you feel. After 20 minutes of gradual walking, your body starts to warm up. After 45 minutes, your body starts throwing off heat and you peel off layers. It's stopping and starting that breaks up the fat-burning benefits. If you push the pace or run (sprint) immediately, you train your body to burn sugar instead of fat. While the Zone adjusts your hormonal balance by food intake, exercise affects the hormonal balance of your body too. Ideally, you want your eating plan and your nutrition to work together for the same purpose. For a typical person, the "hormonal pie" works out to 4 parts food and 1 part exercise. (You "feed" several times per day, but typically exercise only once.) If you get the exercise component working against the food component, then you only get 3 out of 5 parts benefiting you. On the other hand, walking easily but steadily amplifies the benefits of the Zone. Charlie, distance walker

I always thought pace was governed by: walk too fast to sing but still able to talk.

I bought a Polar heart rate monitor. It is really cool. It looks like a watch, and came with an elastic strap to go directy underneath the breast. I put in my stats (birthdate, height, weight, male/female) and it figures my "target" heart zone. This is where I will be burning fat the most efficiently. My target is 117-153. When I am below 117, it beeps at me to up the pace a little. If I go over 153 it beeps at me to slow down. It is really cool. It also keeps me entertained while I walk. When I am done, it tells me how many minutes I exercised, what my average heart rate was, how many minutes I was "in the zone" and approx how many calories I burnt. It is really cool. It was around $100.00, but I think it is worth it.