interesting, ramona! Do you have any idea how much protein you were eating before? I'd be curious to hear your guestimate of grams

For Atkins/PP people, and for anyone with severe insulin resistance, all the evidence suggests that it would be better to replace lowered protein (lowered NO lower than the PP/Zone formula, considering gender, exercise, weight) with good quality fat (metabolically inert), not carbs.

But since Sears really wants you to eat only LC veggies as your carbs, this seems not only a healthy change for you, but like a great lesson for you about your own body, Ramona! It might not work for all of us (I was stalled for over 3 months on the Zone myself before going LC), but it might work for some.

I'm also curious--do you follow the Zone prescription of only 1100 calories a day?

I'd give others a caveat about that: while such a low-calorie diet will often give a person some quick loss, it'll also lower her metabolic rate so that, after reaching goal, she may never be able to return to "normal" levels of calories again. Since I've lived a post-VLCD life of having re-gained weight rapidly on only 2000 calories a day, I can testify that this is no fun in the long run, despite the short-term loss. It's very difficult to stay on a 1200 calorie/day diet forever (one is literally hungry all but about 6 hours per day), and unlikely to provide a person with sufficient micronutrients.