I am a little taken back by the large portion size. I thought this was a diet in which we eat less. I am a CrossFitter and have heard that the dose of food was so little that people feel hungary for the first 2 weeks. I started this morning and I was amazed with the amount of food I was supposed to consume. Just did not seem right and I did not eat it all. I must be misinterpreting the information somewhere.

I am recommended to eat 19 blocks a day. Yes I did the calculations a # of times and put an activity level of .8 active because I do CrossFit 4-5 times a week.

My 5 block protein portion amounted to this mountain of fish.
1.5 oz of halibut x 5 blocks = 7.5 oz of halibut

Are the portions listed in the book and website measured in 3 block portions and not one block?

5 blocks of carbs looked like this
4 cups of raw spinach
2 cups of cooked cauliflower
1/3 cup oatmeal
2/3 of a pear 2 servings

5 cups fat
1.5 tsp avecado
1 tsp. olive oil and balsamic vinegrette

I think I choked down a 4 block meal and was stuffed.

Jeff

You eat less calories in the zone, but sometimes the actual volume of food can be daunting.

In your example, I would recommend switching things out, you could replace a protein/carb block by drinking a glass of milk. You could replace a block of carb by adding a block or 2 of legumes.

You mentioned "5 cups fat" in your post, and I am assuming that is a typo. But, the real challenge is with the reduction in volume of the carbs, and hopefully I have given you some ideas on how to accomplish that.

BTW, I LOVE halibut and could easily eat that much of it! Although, I should not in the Zone!

Jeff, also, you don't have to eat 5 block meals, as long as you eat your entire block requirement in balanced blocks of P, C and F spread throughout the day. In other words, you can eat 3 block meals and 2 or 3 block snacks (obviously you'd eat more than 2 snacks a day with this version), or 4 block meals and more 2 block snacks, etc.

Thanks for your reply and helpful information. I can understand the volume in the carb department but the protein is still shocking. My wife is a science teacher and I asked her to bring home one of her scales to double check our food scale. The portion of halibut was way bigger than the palm of my hand not counting my fingers.

You're welcome. Jeff, the fact that you're making a 5 block meal makes it look like a lot. The rest of the 5 block meal will also look like a lot of food. It's still only 1.5 oz of raw fish per block of protein. BTW, that's about 4 cups of cooked spinach to a block. Four cups of raw spinach is a mere 1/5 carb block, not even enough to bother counting (20 cups of raw spinach = 1 C block).

Jeff, this is probably not written anywhere, but you really can't apply the palm system to fish/seafood, due to amount of protein per block of protein. It is generally going to be a bit larger portion than poultry or red meats.