I am new to the zone diet. I am following exactly what the book says, even weighing my food and measuring but I am still hungry almost an hour after I eat it gets worse in the afternoon.I dont understand b/c I thought you are supposed to stay satisfied? I want to cont. but am getting frustrated can any one help?

Hey Lizzy, I started 3 days ago too! Im feeling great but I too am feeling a little hungry at times. Ive found that I have a lot of beverages to subside that hunger. I find that drinking a TON of water during the day really helps*
Good luck!!!!

Hi lizzy!


I'll be glad to help. If you'd like to post your meals adn snacks for one day, including amountd for all foods, and timing, I'll be happy to take a look. That would be the place to begin. It would also help of you could post your height, LBM and body fat % (you can easily figure these out using the calculator found in the EATING tab, above).

Thank You so much.
Here is a typical day.
Breakfast 4 egg whites with 1 oz cheese and 12 asparages spears 2 cups cherry tomatoes and 1/2 an apple 6 macadamia nuts.
Lunch 3oz tuna with a 3 teaspoons of lite mayo. 2 red peppers, 1 cup strawberries 1/2 cup blueberries
Snack 1 string cheese tab avacodo and a half an apple.
Dinner 3 oz chicken, 2 cups cooked spinach with 1 teaspoon of olive oil,2 cups strawberrys
Snack 2 egg whites with hummus 1 macadamian nut.
I find myself not satisfies at least 2 hours after In the morning its hard to make it till lunch.

My height is 5", I think these calculations are correct, to be honest I was a little confused.
LBM is 86.4
BODY FAT 21%
Can you please give me any suggestions I really want to stay in the zone but I cant see how this will work long term the way I feel.
Also I am very tired a lot during the day not what I expected.
Thank you.

your brkfst looks good and could be filling, but your dinner doesn't look very filling....(just my opnion, I am no expert) maybe you should try beans with dinner,3/4 c.? they might fill you up more than spinach and strawberries (which I imagine you could still have in smaller amounts with the beans)

Thanks for posting the menu lizzy! I'll take a look andget back to you.

Hi lizzie,

Your meals and snacks are balanced, so you're starting from a good place. One thing I see is that more than half of your carbs in the entire day are from fruit, which is bit too much. It's better to have more carbs from veggies in the Zone, and less from fruit. The hunger you were experiencing last week could have been simply because you hadn't lowered your insulin into the Zone yet (that takes about 4 days of consistently eating meals and snacks). If you're still hungry, here's what I'd suggest. First try substituting veggies for some of the fruit. If that doesn't eliminate the hunger the next step is to drop one C block from each meal. Meals would then contain 3P, 2C, 3F. Keep snacks as they are, 1P, 1C, 1F. If that doesn't help, let us know because there are more ways you can adjust.

The tiredness you feel can be due to the initial release of AA as you begin to burn stored body fat. If this is the cause, the tiredness will subside in a week or two. Also, you can alleiviate it by temporarily increasing your fish oil dose.

Keep in touch! Cheers!

Thank you for getting back to me. Ok a couple of questions if thats okay. I only lost 3/4 of a pound in a week I thought i would loose more. Am I not doing something right.Also if I dont eat within a hour of waking up but more like a hour and a halfwill this really mess me up(its hard to eat right away b/c I have young kids who need me)? I am trying to eat more vegies but I really dont feel full I can go maybe two hours. How is lessening the amount of carbs going to make me fuller it will be less food. I have to admit I am felling frustrated b/c I feel like I am trying really hard to do this and I am not really loosing weight and am hungry a lot Can you please help!!

You're welcome! Sure, questions are fine!

Your hunger shows you aren't quite in the Zone, so don't even focus on the weight loss for now. And, 3/4 pound is good! Yes, waiting 1 1/2 hours to eat after you get up in the morning is too long because it will mess with your insulin levels, making it harder to get into the Zone. Try eating a 1 block snack when you get up (can be as easy as 1/2 cup plain yogurt with 1 tsp of peanut butter and vanilla extract mixed in, that you can mix the night before) and then eat the rest of your breakfast (2 more blocks ) after you get the kids ready.

You can review the details of insulin control and hunger in the Zone book you have, but for now, here's the short version as it applies to the symptoms you have. Hunger which gets worse in the afternoon, along with tiredness, is a sign of too much having excess insulin production from eating too many carbs in relation to protein. To get rid of the hunger, you need to eat a little less carb in relation to protein, as compared to what you eat now. Your current protein requirement is appropriate for your LBM and activity level, so you wouldn't want to change that. Instead, you'd eat one less carb block per meal to have more P in relation to C. Your meals will be 3P, 2C, 3F. Keep snacks the same as they are (1P, 1C, 1F). This is the typical adjustment for your symptoms. Hunger supression with the Zone diet is not the result of how much food you fill your stomach with, but rather the P/C ratio of the foods you eat. It helps a lot to keep a food diary at first, adn note how you feel at 4 hours after meals. You can use it to look back and see which meals work best, and also to decide how to tweak meals to work better for you.