By my calculations, I'm only supposed to eat 7 blocks a day! I know that Dr. Sears says the minimum that you should eat is 8 blocks, but, that still seems like way too little food for me. That's less than 800 calories!! How important to weight loss is sticking to that number, as long as I eat in 40-30-30 proportion?

I did the Zone a few years ago and lost 50 pounds on it. Back then, I didn't really pay too much attention to the number of blocks that I ate and I ate anywhere from 12 - 16 a day. But, I was much smaller then. I've since been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome with insulin resistance and hypothyroidism and my weight has gotten out of control so I'm zoning again and this time trying to be more precise for quicker weight loss. But, I don't think I can do only 8 blocks a day. What type of results have other people had eating over their 'block quota'??

Thanks!

Hi Elaine,

Good news! Dr. Sears changed the minimum for adults to 11 blocks daily (a number of years ago, you must have an older book). If you put you stats in the Zone Block & Body Fat Calculator (link at right) you'll see that your result will not be below 11 blocks daily.

Another tip, the 40/30/30 proportions are the starting point, the P/C ratio at the middle of the Zone (the Zone is a range of P/C ratios from .6 to 1). Make sure to judge for any hunger at 4 hours after meals, and adjust if necessary (focused hunger = add 1 C block to every meals, unfocused hunger = drop 1 C block from every meal).