I'm starting a diary to help me stay satiated and in the Zone between meals. I don't want to lose any weight so I eat 3X the normal fat requirement. On March 22, 2012 my body fat on Dr. Sear's calculator was 14% (LBM 138, Body fat 22), 16 blocks per day. I upped this to 17 about a week ago to help curb hunger between meals.


Breakfast

egg white & whey protein omelet / pancake - 4P blocks
-with 200g frozen strawberries - 2C blocks

40g barley, 60g tomato paste, a pan full of spinach - 2C blocks

Almond butter and olive oil - 12F blocks

The breakfast kept me in the zone, no hunger.

late morning snack -- Zone bar + 12 macadamia nuts 2P / 2C / 6F blocks

Lunch --

Big salad - 3 oz lettuce, 6 oz avocado, dash of olive oil, 1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 4 oz turkey breast - 4P / 1C / 13F blocks

50g tomato paste, 1/4 cup canned lentil soup, 100g frozen strawberries - 3C

Larry, assuming those 12 F blocks each contain 1.5 g fat, unless you had some more fat you didn't mention that breakfast only has double fat blocks. To achieve Zone balance a minimum of 3 g fat is needed for every 7g protien. The block method assumes the protein source will be low fat and contain about 1.5 g fat to every 7 g protein, about half of the fat needed for Zone balance. The other half of the fat is added in the fat blocks, each fat block containing about 1.5 g fat. When the protein source is virtually fat free, as with your pancake, additional fat must be added to make up for the fat presumed to be in the low fat protein source (aka the "missing fat"). In your breakfast 4 of those 12 fat blocks provide the "missing fat", leaving 8 fat blocks you've added to the meal, or double the fat blocks. To truly be tripling fat blocks you'd need to add another 4 blocks of fat to the meal (containing 1.5 g fat in each block).

Hi Sue -Thanks for checking in on my diary. I really appreciate it. I guess I haven't gotten used to the standard way of notating fat. I find it easier to add the hidden fat to the total fat and compute based on 3g blocks. The protein source at breakfast was zero fat and 4 blocks so to triple I had 12 blocks X 3g fat (total of 36g of fat).

Okay, the lunch above wasn't a big hormonal winner for me. I had some slight twinges of hunger right after eating and about 2 hours later. I thought it was going to be as good as or better than the breakfast because I had less fruit and more fiber at the lunch.

my afternoon 2-block snack was 5 oz of nonfat yogurt (1P block and 1C block), 1/2 apple (1C block), 1P block of egg protein powder. For the fat, I had 8 cashews (6g of fat or 2 blocks) and a little under a tbsp of toasted sesame oil (12g of fat, the additional 4 blocks to get me up to triple fat (6 blocks).

Sue - does it sound like I'm computing the tripling of the fat blocks correctly?

Hi Larry,

As i understand it, triple fat blocks in a 2 bl snack would be 12g fat. Using the Food Block Guide on Drsears.com that would be 6 cashews plus 2 teaspoons sesame oil.

Triple fat blocks in a 4 block meal would be 24g fat rather than the 36g you had for lunch ( that's 6g of fat hidden in the protein source and 18g fat in the 12 added fat blocks; 4 x 1.5g hidden + 12 x 1.5g added fat blocks).

Hi Sue - I guess I've been having 4.5X fat instead of 3X because of the way I was calculating it. It's good to know. I don't know if I can back off too easily without getting very hungry. I think I'll gradually work on it.

I thought of another possible reason for the hunger - I started taking Prozac about the time I started the Zone. Excessive hunger is one of the side effects that Prozac can have. Sometimes the Prozac side effects go away after awhile. I did lose 10 lbs on the Zone while taking Prozac in 2007 (I went from 178 to 168).

Thanks so much.

Larry, if that's it, I hope your symptom lessens with time.

Dinner -

As an experiment, I had the exact same meal that I had for breakfast today to see if it would put me in the Zone again. I didn't feel quite as satisfied as I had this morning but I wasn't really hungry.

Late night snack tonight will be 1/2 Zone bar and I'll try adding what I think is the right amount of fat to get to 3X (3 X 1.5g = 4.5). 9 pistachios.

Zone bar early morning snack with 4 cashews and 6 pistachios. I think this is the correct way to figure the 3X fat.

Zone bar - 2 fat blocks, 6g fat
4 cashews - 2 blocks, 3g fat
6 pistachios - 2 blocks, 3g fat

Total fat blocks = 6
Total fat grams = 12

I'm not going to write down my snacks anymore, just the meals. I will try to have snacks with the correct fat added to make them truly 3X fat. I have a 2 block snack in the early morning, a 2 block snack in the afternoon and a 1 block snack before bed.

Breakfast --

I had the exact same breakfast as yesterday to see if the hormonal response will be the same. It was. I didn't get hungry

I'm going to gradually ease myself into lowering the fat to the correct 3X formula in my meals. When I lowered it a couple of days ago I was always hungry.

Lunch --

I had the exact same breakfast pancake & strawberries meal one more time so I could compare lunch against breakfast and dinner. I got a little hungry about 3 hours later when it was time for my afternoon snack. This meal works slightly better at keeping me in the Zone in the morning, for some reason. On to other recipes...

dinner --

tofurkey & deli turkey (4P blocks)

I boiled 1.5 lbs of cauliflower and mashed it. Added 1 oz hummus, olive oil, tahini, a spoon of yogurt & some Kraft dried Parmesan cheese (2C blocks)

280 grams of raspberries in a little unsweetened almond milk (2C blocks)

The total fat for the meal, including the hidden fat in the protein and the hummus, was 21g, so I came in a little under the 3X fat target of 24 total grams.

I really felt stuffed right after this meal because of the volume of cauliflower. It was a hormonal winner, too. I didn't get hungry at all after.

I'm encouraged that I can lower my fat a little and still feel satisfied.

Larry, try steaming the cauliflower for 8-10 minutes before mashing.
You'll get more nutrients from it, instead of losing them in the water.
That's how I make a darn good imitation of real mashed potatoes with cauliflower.

thanks, John. Most of it was steamed because I just used a little water and the cauliflower filled the whole pot. What a great faux potato dish!!!

Breakfast --

egg white and low fat mozzarella omelet with 120g onion, 1 tomato & a handful of spinach (4P and 1.5C blocks)

5 oz steel cut oats (1C block)
----Dr Sears' food block guide says 1/3 cup = 1 block but I figured out from the carbs in the dry oats that at 4/1 water/oats it's 5 oz.

Raw vegetables - 150g cherry tomatoes, 3 oz lettuce, 90g carrots (1.5C block)

Olive oil & almond butter. The total fat, including the hidden fat in the cheese, was 24g.

4P / 4C / 12F

This meal kept me in the zone very nicely.

I ran before breakfast and had more energy. It could be because of the Zoned-in dinner last night.

Lunch -

4 oz chicken breast (4P blocks)
4 oz avocado (16g fat)
1 tomato (0.5C block)
12 oz frozen green beans (1.5C block)
1/2 cup Dal lentil soup from can (1C block)
strawberries & raspberries in unsweetened almond milk (2C blocks)

I made a mistake and had 5 carb blocks
The total fat including the hidden fat in the chicken was 22g (I'm under the 24G limit for 3X fat again)

No hunger after this meal. I think the missing thing that was causing the hunger was not enough fiber. The last few meals I've been able to lower the fat and still be satisfied.

Dinner -

100g tofurkey (4P blocks)
4 oz avocado
150g cherry tomatoes (0.5C block)
1 lb bag of frozen okra (1C block)
50g tomato paste (1C block)
Parmesan
2 oz carrot (0.5C block)
1/2 apple (1C block)
4 cashews, 6 pistachios

I got hungry 15 minutes after the meal so I had the other half of the apple (1C block)

The total fat, including the hidden fat in the tofurkey, was 24g.

4P / 5C / 12F

I didn't get hungry later.

Larry,

I don't know if you're drinking the same amount of water with every meal, biut possibly the hunger you sometimes feel
about 15 min after someeals could be thirst that you're mistaking for hunger. You might want to try drinking a 16 oz glass of water prior to
meals to see if that helps. 16 oz was the recommended water intake prior to a Zone food meal.

Hi Sue - I'll try that. I don't want to give you TMI but had more fiber yesterday than my system can handle.

My wife just gave me a pep talk and I remembered that when I was on the Zone in 2007 I went from 178 to 168 and I was very, very pleased with how I looked. I'm now 160 lbs which is probably a little underweight for my 6'1" height and frame.

That seems like you are under weight Larry. I quick search shows ideal for 6"1' would be approx.170lbs. Minimum 166lbs.

Thanks, Tech Support. That certainly would explain the hunger, wouldn't it?

Breakfast -

2 cups water before the meal

egg white & whey protein pancake (4P blocks)
200g frozen strawberries (2C blocks)
40g almond butter (24g fat)

pan of cooked spinach mixed with1/2 can water chestnuts, 50g tomato paste, Parmesan (2C blocks)

Total fat for the meal was 24g.

I didn't get hungry until about 3 hours, just in time for lunch. Since I eat 3 snacks and 3 meals a day, it's rare that I ever go longer than 3 hours without eating.

Lunch -

2 cups water before the meal

4 oz crab (4P blocks)
4 oz avocado (16g fat)
15g almond butter (8g fat)

raw vegetables - lettuce, 1 tomato, 1 cucumber (1C block)

1 block each of fresh blueberrries, frozen strawberries and cherries (3C blocks)

Crab has 0 fat so the total fat for the meal was 24g.

I'm experimenting with having more fruit. It didn't work too well. I was quite hungry 2.5 hours later when it was time for my snack. I ate some extra fat with the snack to help quell the hunger.

Dinner -

1 cup water before the meal

7 oz deli ham (4P blocks)
4 oz avocado (16g fat)

sauteed onion & zucchini (2C blocks)

raw carrots (0.5C blocks)

frozen strawberries (1.5C blocks)

The total fat for the meal, including the hidden fat in the ham, was 23g.

The ham was more filling than some other proteins because I needed 7 oz to make 4P blocks (per the food label)

I had a few twinges of hunger in the evening but they quickly passed. I'm eating about 50 fewer fat grams than I was 2 days ago (450 calories) and the occasional hunger between meals is about the same, so that's some progress.

It doesn't seem like drinking water before the meals makes much difference but I'll keep doing it.