I previously had been in the Zone for about 4 1/2 years, somehow I managed to get out of it midway through college, and have wanted to get back to it ever since...

My SO & I decided that in the New Year we would start eating Zone friendly meals, and for the last few days I've been doing fine...However, my SO has not been doing as great.

For breakfast I made the Apple Spice Oatmeal from the Zone Meals in Seconds book, and he did great...We ate around 12:30pm, and he said he was fine up until about 4:30pm when he had his snack.

After he had his snack which was 3 Kalamata Olives, Lowfat String Cheese, and Grapes he said he felt hungry about 2 hours later.

So he ate some Chili (4oz. Chicken, Kidney Beans, Black Olives, and Rotel[tomatoes w/ green chiles] and some chili powder all mixed together topped with 3/4-1oz of lowfat shredded cheese) but then he said he was only good for a couple of hours before he was hungry. He then had to wait to eat his next meal until he got home from work because he didn't bring anymore food with him, so he was starving and not feeling very great by the time he was able to eat...

Then today, we had breakfast (for him 6 egg whites w/ a little olive oil mixed in, mandarin oranges and grapes and 3 slices turkey bacon) and he was good again from 12:30pm until about 4:30pm.

He had his snack (4 olives, string cheese, and 2 small clementines) and was good for a couple hours again until he ate his meal around 6:30pm which was not overly Zone friendly, but I had similar food and did fine with it - (Half a Whole Wheat Pita Bread, 4oz Diced White Meat Chicken Breast, Olive Oil Mayo, Unsweet Applesauce, and some Pineapple Chunks)

He was hungry about 2 hours after that...He ended up having one of Dr. Sears' Zone Snack Bar (the 1 block) around 8:30pm, and then had Dr. Sears' Zone Shake around 10pm...

I feel like his meals should be carrying him for more hours. He said he just hasn't felt totally satisfied except for our breakfasts and his first snack...

Is he not getting enough somehow, or does he need to up the protein, or lower the carbs, or...?

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated! <img src='desktopmodules/ntforums/images/emoticons/smile.gif' height='20' width='20' border='0' title='Smile' align='absmiddle'>

Mandarin oranges are pretty high glycemically as are Clementines, pineapples and grapes. You might want to try having more vegetable based carb choices as opposed to fruits for a day and see if that helps. Or, steel cut oats for the breakfast carb. Try limiting fruit choices to low glycemic ones (berries, etc).

What were the portions on the chili? Do you two eat veggies at all? I'm sure some of the other, more experienced Zoners here (Sue and Cran!) will have some great advice for you. It takes some fine tuning. My meals are different now than when I started in November. You guys will nail it.

Sounds like you are dialed in, but he isn't quite there yet?

First, check the bodyfat calculator to make sure he is getting enough blocks. He needs to make sure to enter in the right activity factor, as well, as that will make a difference.

Then, take a good look at meal timing. Some people just can't go longer than 4 hours without needing something to eat, and sometimes a snack doesn't stretch much longer than 2 hours. I am one of those people, my biggest struggle over the years has been meal timing. Make sure he is eating BEFORE he is getting hungry, that may help with the problems later in the day.

Keep a good food journal, and encourage him to do the same. We are all individuals, and a food journal will help him dial in to meals that work and meals that don't.

Let us know how it is going!

Jennifer, in addition to the good advice you've already gotten, don't expect your SO to feel totally in the Zone with only a day or two of Zone meals. It takes some people's systems longer than others to adjust to dietary changes. Some individulas take a couple weeks.

Sue,

I guess I never really had to deal with much adjustment...

I just am not sure that his feelings are normal?

Shaky, Lightheadedness, Starving Hunger...

Will these go away?

Has he checked his stats to make sure he is eating the correct number of blocks? Is he working out, and if so, is he eating a pre-workout snack?

He may be more carb sensitive than you are, and from the rundown of the meals that you posted on your previous post, he may need to cut down on the amount of unfavorable carbs and fruits, perhaps eat more veggies. He might benefit from dropping a block of carb from his plan, but since you both haven't been at this for very long, maybe just change the carbs to more favorable veggies, less fruit and grain, and then see if that makes a difference.

I am assuming the symptoms are hypoglycemia and from what you have said, it sounds like poor meal satiety, so again--I would say he is probably carb sensitive.

Hi Jennifer,

They're not what I would call normal feelings; they're hypoglycemic symptoms caused by blood sugar spikes that stimulate excess insulin production. As Wendy mentioned, too much fruit. Switch a lot of the fruit to veggies for him, and give him more time. Also make sure he is eating his entire protein requirement daily (you only mentioned 8 blocks that day; yesterday, I assume). Studies done years ago showed that it takes 4 days of consistently eating Zone meals and snacks to lower insulin into the Zone. The symptoms (shaky, light headed and starving) will go away when he lowers insulin into the Zone and continues to eat in the Zone. His symptoms show that he’ll do better if he drops 1 C block from each meal (the traditional adjustment recommended by Dr. Sears for shaky light headed hunger). For a 4 block meal try 4P 3C, 4F and make sure two or more of the three C blocks are from favorable veggies. Keep snacks the same, and as with his meals, try to include some veggies in the snacks so he's getting less blood sugar stimulation.

Thanks for the insight everyone!

I think we will try to move him more over to veggie-oriented eating rather than the fruits. I will, of course, try that as well just to see if there is any effect

Also...Sue, I actually didn't include his whole days worth of food for the days that I listed, so it is minus several.

If he still isn't feeling good by next week, I think we will try to drop the one carb block and see if that helps.

Several years ago he previously tried the Atkins diet, and really enjoyed it....I cringed when he said you could just have chunks of cheddar cheeses, pepperonis, and bacon! Oy that's so much fat! I'm hoping that he'll end up liking the Zone and will feel better shortly!

Again, Thank you! <img src='desktopmodules/ntforums/images/emoticons/smile.gif' height='20' width='20' border='0' title='Smile' align='absmiddle'>

Thanks for the additional info, and good luck to him! :-)

Sounds like a plan, Jennifer!

BTW, did he feel good on Atkins? Might be a helpful piece of information, knowing this may tell more about how sensitive he is to carbs.

Jennifer, let us know how it goes. As Sue brought up, dropping a carb block can make all of the difference. In fact, I am prone to reactive hypoglycemia and this did the trick!

Cat,

I believe he felt pretty good on Atkins, and said that he wasn't ever really hungry very much. I remember him saying that if he felt slightly hungry he could go eat just a little small bit of food (piece of cheese and a few pepperonis) and he would be good for a little while.

I will ask him though to be sure tonight when I get home about how he felt...If he felt like he had a good amount of energy, and such. I agree that it would probably be good to know, and may give a clue to if he is carb sensitive or not.

Wendy - I will keep you updated, how long did it take you after dropping the carb block to notice a difference? Was it almost immediate, or did it take a slight adjustment period? Thanks!

Jen, thanks for the reply on that. Yep, I do think that his answer will hold some important clues and give us more insight. I am really leaning towards this being a carb sensitivy, but I am also thinking that he may just need to put together 4 straight days of "clean" zone-favorable eating, then see what happens. Lots of veggies, maybe 1 serving of fruit per day, go easy on the legumes and grains (meaning oats).

Jennifer, it took about 3 days for me, mostly because of my fat choices. Once I started using healthier fats (monos like olives, nuts, and avocado) I felt better right away. I also made the switch, like Cran mentions, to mostly veggies which was tough at first...for about a day. I do still have fruit, but again, only low-glycemic fruits and generally only in the meal after a work out and just a block's worth.

I've only had one hypoglycemic event since and it was because I had no fuel in me for a very intense workout. Otherwise, I've felt 100% better and the weight is coming off.