I've been following this diet since October 26th and have lost 4 pounds, which is terrific for me because I usually lose weight very slowly :D . I'd like to lose about 21 more pounds. I've been noticing that I rarely eat both snacks, so I'm not getting 11 blocks of protein :( . I'm a 5' tall, now 126 pound woman with a small frame, age 58. Is 9-10 blocks enough? I don't need a snack between breakfast and lunch when I'm drinking enough water. I have a 2-hour commute home from work and leave at 6, so I usually have a snack on the way home, then dinner about 8 when I get there. I'm just not hungry enough to have another snack before bedtime. Is this necessary? Andrea

If you are eating dinner at 8pm, I would not worry about the late night snack. Given your frame, if you are losing consistently on 10 blocks and are not hungry or fatigued- go with it. If you are losing LBM, however, add that block at some other point in the day.

An easier to stomach snack that I have when not hungry is low fat milk. I believe 1 cup of 1% milk is 1 C 1 P 1 F. If I ate a ton of broccoli stir-fry for supper, I usually am still full at bedtime, but a glass of milk is a nice way to end the evening, and I know I will stay in the Zone when sleeping. :) Ronica

Milk would be nice--but I'm lactose intolerant. :( Andrea

Sorry! :oops: I can relate--my husband is, too. After over 10 years of it, though, he has actually had better luck with the Zone. He had read that if he were to consume a small amount of yogurt that has lots of bacteria (we use kefir), the bacteria would work to break down small amounts of lactose. These bacteria have already digested most of the lactose in the yogurt. He's tried it recently, and been able to tolerate a very small amount of cheese, especially feta (which I guess has low lactose due to the way it's made or something). He was _really_ intolerant before, but we wonder how much of that could have been GI distress due to overdoing the carbs, etc. Since these experiments, he has actually been able to eat a tiny bit of cheese. I don't know if you are interested in trying it, but he has had good luck with it. (And this is someone who would bloat from eating one bite of milk chocolate in the past.) :) Ronica

Thanks for the information. It's true that people with lactose intolerance can often eat yogurt and some cheeses--feta and farmer cheese are supposedly easier to digest. I find that I can tolerate small amounts of yogurt; the problem is that once I start, I have difficulty keeping it to small amounts, and before I know it, it's becoming part of my regular diet and then I [i:ad2782a836]don't[/i:ad2782a836] tolerate it. :lol: I can eat small amounts of cheese if I don't do it too often, but I actually feel better in general when I get my protein from other sources. I'm glad that your husband is doing well with it though. :D Andrea

no way can I drink milk, but I have no problem at all with cheese. It has less lactose and we tend to eat it in smaller amounts....can you imagine a big bowl of cereal with milk? That's a lot of milk.

Hello everyone. My sister suffers from the same thing and she takes Lactate Ultra (she has also tried an off brand and it also works well) before every meal and it seem to help alot. She is able to tolerate about any milk product whereas before she wouldn't even think of it. I don't know if any of you have tried something like this or not. Just thought I would try to help.

I haven't tried that particular product but have tried others, including Lactate milk, but no go for me! I'd gotten so used to it that it wasn't really a major issue for me anymore until I started zoning. I used to use Rice Dream as a milk substitute when cooking and in smoothies, but the carb count is too high. One 8-oz glass of it would be about 3 blocks of carb, plus 2g of fat. I could still use it in smaller quantities as unfavorable carbs, but I haven't been. Because I'm allergic to eggs and yeast, I used to have a smoothie for breakfast--a glass of rice milk, some rice protein powder, and 1/2 a papaya. That would throw me way out of the zone, even if I substituted a different fruit. Oh well, I'm losing weight and feeling good, so it's worth the trouble! :D