I've been trying to follow the block guide that is posted elsewhere on this site to put together a 3 block dinner and I am getting confused. I *plan* on using 4.5 oz of cod as the protein source and make a sauce out of 1/2 cup diced canned tomatoes, some dried herbs and some capers. I'll have that over about 4 cups of frozen cut broccoli that I plan to saute in 1 tsp of olive oil and some garlic and eat a spinach salad with cucumber and more tomato to try to round out the carbs. When I used a recipe calculator on another site the broccoli was throwing things way out of proportion because its math is showing that 1 cup of broccoli has 4.8 grams of carb and 4.4 grams of protein. This is confusing me because the block guide says 3 cups cooked broccoli is 1 block of carbs and that the protein content from any of the listed carbs (on the block guide) has been removed due to limited bioavailability. So basically my question is, which number I should rely on?

Thanks!

To do the Zone, rely on the info from Zone Labs.

Mary,

If you are calculating blocks, then use the food block guide on this site.

The protein is not counted (as you suggested) due to limited bioavailability.

The difference in the carb content is likely due to fiber content. 1 cup of broccoli has about 4g of carb, and 2 g of fiber, so the net carb (the amount of carb that has a glycemic impact) is just 2g per cup--that is why it takes 4 cups of broccoli to equal 1 carb block.

Hope that makes sense!

Thanks Sue and Cranberrycat for the quick responses! Great, OK, that is what I was thinking. I suspect that the other "calculator" is just basically going by the nutrition information on the back of a standard bag of frozen broccoli in coming up with its numbers.

YW!

I am not sure if it is clear, but I did not see it addressed.
If you are using packaged frozen broccoli, then use the Nutrition for Carbs and Fiber on the package.
But sill don't count the protein.
In terms of fresh broccoli, which has no package,
then you can use the Food Guide, which is about 4 cups pre-cooked to 1 carb block.

Thanks John. Yes, I have been using the nutrition information on the package to determine net carbs (total carbs - fiber), but have just been disregarding the protein amount shown in determining how much protein to add to the meal. Similar to what you found with the frozen spinach in one of your other posts (but not quite as extreme!) it takes quite a bit of broccoli to get to two blocks of carb, so I have cut down the broccoli component to one carb and added in one carb (per the label) of some white beans and then rounded things out with a salad to make a three carb meal.

I think that, if i recall properly, that Black Beans are one of the few, if not only bean/legume listed as favorable?
1/4 cup = 1 favorable Carb block.

Garbanzo beans and kidney beans are also favorable. IDK about white beans, probably not.

Thanks guys. I know they're not "favorable". Unfortunately, all I had on had were white beans. Long story but I live in a metropolitan area without a car so I am reliant on grocery delivery for my groceries. Often times the shoppers will "substitute" items that they think are comparable if they can't find the item requested (basically I think this is more often then not a college kid being lazy based on what the delivery person tells me). Anyway, what I got that week was white beans so I did the best I could with what I had on hand. Without being able to get to a grocery store to pick out all of my groceries by hand I try my best to "zone", knowing that it's not really an exact science and we each have to do what works for us.

You are right it is not exact. None, or very few of us are exactly at a perfect 30-40-30 balance of PCF nutrients.
You do what you can and fine tune to your bodies needs. My wife, even though I've had success with Zone, she struggled to lose and maintain for years. It is also a mindset as well as an eating plan. She finally decided, with my urging, to consciously decide to severely limit Gluten, as well as all wheat, and in addition eat mostly grain-less, also limiting most legumes (beans), and adding a little additional fat. She has finally easily lost the weight, and for the first time hit, stayed, and maintaining her goal weight! So, its a matter of eating what's available and fine tuning to your own needs.

That is awesome John...tell her congratulations for me! In my case I wasn't really looking to lose weight as I was already pretty much at my "ideal" weight (though I do seem to have managed to lose those extra pesky few that were keeping me from my goal, which, being a woman was of course a few pounds less than the calculated "ideal"!). I really started to try to follow zone (to the extent that I can) because I realized I just wasn't eating a balanced diet. It wasn't unhealthy...just a lot of vegetation and really didn't contain nearly enough protein. At least by making a cognizant effort to do my best to eat within the "zone" I have been able to get much more protein into my diet and have seen the results in my ability to maintain my stamina through my workouts and by actually starting to build some more muscle tone.

Mary, I am not a perfect Zone angel, either! I totally agree with John and his comments.

I was also listening to one of our doctors talk about weight loss today. She was commenting on various diets, and how some people take everthing to the extreme. But, she said that most people will eventually fail because they have set the standards too high. Making the diet work for you and taking some things with a "grain of salt" is actually a very good way to approach it, because it will then become a more comfortable lifestyle change, and more likely something to stick with.