I am just trying to understand why the zone is working so much better for me than my husband. I have never had so much energy and feel amazing. My husband has not felt the same benefits, he is enjoying the food we are eating and is losing weight but is losing slower than myself. We are eating the same types of foods with the obvious difference being the block quantities as per the body fat calculator. The only other difference is that my husband is a coffee lover (with milk, no sugar about 4 per day) and doesn't like water. I love water and drink minimal coffee(none to 2 per day). Why are our experiences so different?. Any suggestions that could help my husband get in the zone would be great.

Louise, Congrats to you and your husband. No two people will respond exactly the same way to the same foods. Rhe caffeine in regular coffee can elevate insulin levels, so it can hamper Zone results. Dr. Sears' advice is usually to switch to decaf. You haven't mentioned fish oil and ployphenols. If your husband is overweight he'd require a minum of 8 capses Omega Rx daily. The Zone is all about lowering cellular inflammation. Tweaking food choices can also help improve results. Best would be to eat the most favorable Zone foods with plenty of veggies and minimum of fruit. Berries are the best voice of fruits for the Zone.

Thanks Sue, i think your right. Can he take flaxseed oil instead (i have heard other people talk about this) even the odourless fish oil give him a reflux reaction. As for ployphenols, i have no idea but will research them (There are many things i am reading in these forums that i do not understand, we are only new and follow the basic block system eating mostly fresh whole foods).
I have advised him that i think he needs to have more salads at lunch meals and keep fruit at breakfast meals.
It all depends how busy we are. We own a fruit shop so nice and easy to make a salad (if we aren't to busy) otherwise its tinned tuna, some fruit and almonds. As for the coffee he will have to work on that one!.
Should he play with reducing some of his blocks to a level where he feels comfortable?
Also can you explain how lean body mass works as mine seems to have shot up hugely since my baseline measurements in Aug11, increasing my blocks from 11 to 13?
My weight is also a strange phenomenon as i weigh 10kg heavier than 2 years ago but my measurements are as they were 10kg lighter, is this also to do with lean body mass?

Hi Louise,

Flaxseed oil is a short chain omega3 which the body has to convert to long chain, which yields only a small amount not very effective.

Some ways to reduce the reflux is to take a clean fish oil, keep it refrigerated and take it with food. The longer you take it your body get's used to it and the reflux should go away.

You work in a "polyphenol factory" a simple explanation is polyphenols are what give fruit and veggies their color. The more color the better, variety is the spice of live. Polyphenols fight free radicals in the body.

You need protein to maintain your lean body mass. Your weight can stay the same but your body shape can change in the Zone you are loosing fat not muscle.

I hope that helps.

Hi Louise,

Taking Omega Rx together with Sea Health Plus could be the answer to eliminating your husband's reflux problems with fish oil. This specific combinaltion eleminates any GI difficulties with fish oil. He should not go below the number of blocks daily that the Body Fat Calculator recommends (http://www.zonediet.com/tools/body-...lculator).

Lean Body Mass (LBM) refers to the weight of everything in the body excepr for body fat. Changes in LBM over time reflect changes in the amount of muscle you have. The significant change in you block recommendation since August could be due to retained fluid from your previous way of eating skewing your initial LBM and body fat calculator results. Also, it may be closer to only a 1 block difference if you were to calculate it by hand using the tables found in Zone books (there's rounding involved with the calculator). Dr. Sears recommends taking a baseline calculator result after you've been eating Zone meals for 2 weeks. By that point you will have lost any retained fluid caused by your previous diet. Your increased weight on the scale even though your measurements remain the same, would usually be due to gains in LBM, though 10kg (over 20 pounds) would be a very large gain in muslce mass. My guess is that 2 years ago you were probably retaining fluid, which would have infalted your actual measurements, and you may also may have had slightly less LBM By now you probably have lost the fluid with the Zone, but possibly have more body fat than you used to, and probably also a little more LBM. Keeping in mind that a pound of LBM takes up less space than a pound of body fat, all these things put together could account for what you have described.

Thankyou to both of you you have been extremely helpful, its nice to know there is help at hand. Regards Louise.