This is a good book to start the Zone with. The Zone has been great at helping me lose fat. I felt like I was going to die the first week because I thought I wasn't getting enough calories or sugar. But then I got used to it, and I got rid of the sugar addiction. I work out a lot and adding extra fat (as is suggested for athletes) helped too. The recipes are pretty good. Lots of one pot meals. The only draw back is that they require about an hour to make start to finish because of all the vegetable chopping. Also, I cut whatever liquid they call for in half, otherwise the sauces are not thick enough.