In a three-dimensional off-lattice model, the method of Shakhnovich and Gutin for minimizing the Hamiltonian is applied to the design of a protein-model chain. The effect of the number of hydrophobic and hydrophilic monomer types on the designability ora protein-model chain is investigated. The simulation results reveal that the number of hydrophobic monomer types is a much more important factor than that of the polar monomer types in the design of a protein-model chain.