I'm in the middle of my third week on the Zone. Until today, everything has gone smoothly, some weight loss, no feeling of hunger, etc. I've been on a pretty regular eating schedule, with breakfast 6:45 - 7:00 A.M., lunch around noon, and the other meal and snacks at their proper time. As I said, no problems.

Last night, for varying reasons, I was up very late, and wound up sleeping until 11:00. I got up and had my usual four-block breakfast at 11:30. By 1:30, two hours after breakfast, I was having hunger pains for the first time since starting the Zone. I decided that the twelve hours or so between my late-night snack and breakfast meant that the four blocks I had consumed then wasn't enough, so decided to have lunch early (well, "early" in terms of the time since breakfast). It probably was a wise idea, as while I was preparing lunch, I found myself getting lightheaded and even a bit dizzy. About a half hour after eating (four blocks of shrimp salad and fruit), I was feeling better again.

So, I was wondering: how do you handle eating when your sleep schedule gets thrown off by four hours or more? Do you just try to pick up the schedule from there (as obviously didn't work for me)? Do you have a larger breakfast to compensate? Or, as I was just thinking, when it became clear the previous night that you were going to have your schedule disrupted, would it make more sense to have an "early morning snack" two or three hours after your late-night one, and count that as the first block of the coming day? All I know is that I certainly don't want to go through this experience again, and doubt it was very good for my body to boot. I know that the mantra is that "you're only four to six hours away from being back in the Zone," but it seems to me that compensation is needed when you find that you're getting up twelve hours after your late-night snack instead of just eight.

You should maintain the basics. Eat your meals and snacks even if you're not hungry. This means a meal every 4 to 6 hours or 2 to 2 1/2 hours after snacking. Eating on this schedule helps maintain insulin levels.

James, I apologize~~I remember reading your post, and I thought I had responded. However, I do not see my response here. Sorry that it took so long for you to get an answer!

I suppose if you can "predict" that you aren't going to be eating for the next 12 hours, that you should probably have another snack right before bed (not sure exactly what your timing was on the night before).

If you choose to eat a larger meal when you get up, I think you could probably get along by adding an extra block, but too many blocks at one sitting will kick you OOZ as well.

[quote]
Posted By Tech Support on 04 Jun 2012 11:02 AM
You should maintain the basics. Eat your meals and snacks even if you're not hungry. This means a meal every 4 to 6 hours or 2 to 2 1/2 hours after snacking. Eating on this schedule helps maintain insulin levels.
[/quote]

I hope you realize that did nothing to answer my question at all.

Sorry if I sounded annoyed there, but that seemed to me very much a "boilerplate" answer that didn't really take into account the question I raised. "Eating on this schedule" is optimal, but what if, by the time you get up, you're already off the schedule (i.e. it's been about twelve hours since your last snack) and then, when you try to pick up where you left off with a standard size breakfast, find yourself not only hungry, not only "unfocused," but feeling like passing out a couple of hours later. Is it better to eat lunch right away (which is, actually, after I'd normally be having it on regular days), or should I have just "toughed it out," feeling faint or worse, until the requisite four-to-six-hour time period was over. Speaking as a layperson, I would guess that feeling as I did was an indication that my insulin levels were already screwed-up. Or would it be better, as I suggested above, that, as soon as it became clear to me that I wasn't going to get to sleep until ultra-late, to have a "early morning snack" two or three hours after my late-night one, and then slide the schedule for the rest of the day after I woke up (in other words, instead of breakfast/lunch/late-afternoon snack/dinner/late-night snack, have "early morning" snack/breakfast after arising several hours later than usual/lunch in midafternoon/dinner at usual time/late-night snack)?

James,

When you're hunger or have the symptoms you mentioned, eat a one or two block snack rather than toughing it out.

Thanks!