block count of olive oil

[Anton Emery]

I have a question on the block count of Olive Oil, perhaps i am not just seeing the answer. Enter the Zone says 1 fat block equals 1.5 grams of fat. If one tablespoon of Olive has 13.3 grams of fat then one tablespoon should equal 8.86 fat blocks. 13.3/1.5 = 8.86 www.formulazone.com says one tablespoon of Olive Oil has 4.4 blocks from fat. Is my math just totally wrong, or am i missing something?


Anton

[Patrick Donnelly]

1.5g is a "fat half-block." The additional half of the block is assumed to come from a moderately lean protein source (eg. chicken), at least on the 1x fat baseline Zone. If you're one of the guys who requires 3-4 time the normal number of fat blocks (to make up for high activity levels), you've got to double up on half-blocks for each of the additional fat blocks, since you won't be eating 3-4 times the protein to get the other half-block.

[Anton Emery]

Patrick,

I am not sure i quite understand your answer. so then 4.4 blocks for one tablespoon of Olive Oil would be correct?


anton

[Garrett Smith]

Anton,
There are two ways to do fat in the Zone. The Zone numbers are calculated so that one (truly whole) block of fat is 3 grams, or 27 total calories, 30% of fat intake.

One is the "ASSume" method, where you assume that every block of "lowfat" protein contains 1.5 grams of fat, and thus make the actual counting of fat blocks at 1.5 grams of fat per block.

The other method is the anal/OCD method, where you count all fat from all sources and tally your blocks up as 3 grams of fat per block from all sources.

I prefer the second method, and I don't Zone anymore. The second method becomes much easier when doing the "Athlete's Zone", where the fat intake is ramped up in multiples.