Hello

I am just curious about how this all works. I met with a fitness trainer/ nutritionist and she put me on the zone diet. I like the way it works- and so far she had me with the following blocks:

3- breakfast
2- snack
3- lunch
2- snack
2- dinner
1- snack

With my research, and joining a few forums/calculating my weight it says I need 3-4 during dinner.

I am good with breakfast, and snacks. My concern is staying on target for dinner and lunch. People are submitting recipes that say "3 blocks" or "4 blocks" and im just concerned maybe they arent 100% correct. Will following these recipes throw my diet off?

For instance- for lunch today I made a recipe that called for 2 ounces of chicken breast, a whole wheat tortilla- 2 tbspoon of lite caesar, olive oil, some parm, and lettuce. It said it was 3 blocks. To me that seemed like a lot, so I ate only 1/2 of the wrap.

I just feel like I am sort of lost on how to make meals out of the blocking.. and feel uncomfortable following recipes that I am not 100% are acurate. Once I get the hang of it- I am sure it will all work out

My goal is to lose between 15-20 pounds.
Also, I am exercising 3-4 times a week for 30 minutes, trying to start slowly.

For example, my day yesterday I had:

Breakfast- 2 cups of 2% milk, 1 cup of strawberries, 2 ounces of turkey breast, 1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter.

Snack- milk and 1/2 balance bar

Lunch- pepper slices with low fat cream cheese/low fat ranch mix- brocolli and turkey ontop.

Dinner- 3 oz of chicken breast (give or take) cooked in olive oil and chicken stock with some mandarin oranges and strawberries.

ANY guidance would be so super helpful.

Thank you so much!

Whitney

It sounds like you have a good start. I would recommmend that you check your stats against the bodyfat calculator on this site, to verify the number of blocks that you need per day.

As far as your examples go, they are pretty much right on in terms of blocking. It is not necessary to be exact; rather, use the meals that you have tried and fine-tune them to your hormonal carbeurator (never could spell that word!).

An initial observation, you have a lot of fruit in the meals that you listed, and the wrap is an unfavorable carb. Most people who succeed in the zone get at least 1/2 of their carb blocks from veggies, then the balance comes from fruit, dairy, and grain (oats). Aim for no more than 25% of the total carb from your meal coming from unfavorable carb sources.

Hope that helps!

You can fiddle with changing your blocks around to suit your hunger. I eat 11-12 blocks a day, depending how hungry I am. Usually it goes:

Breakfast - 3
Lunch - 3
Snack - 1 or 2
Dinner - 3
Snack - 1

So, if you are finding yourself not getting enough food at dinner, maybe change your 2 block snack to 1 block and add it to your dinner.

I also recommend picking up a Zone book to help you understand the blocks better. Once you understand it, and use it for a while, it really does become natural. But initially, counting grams, cups, ounces, figuring out fat content, and when to add more fat or less fat... it can get pretty confusing.

My favourite "newbie" book was Mastering the Zone. I found it to explain the block system really well.

Some people also just learn differently. In the beginning, I needed to understand and have everything exact in order to teach myself general portion size. Some people start off more general and get more exact later to refine their Zone. Do what feels right for you!

Hi Whitney, Print a copy of this block chart, that should help you out alot. http://www.drsears.com/ArticlePrevi...fault.aspx