Protocol 002
Food is an input, not entertainment.
Every meal is a decision about the next twelve hours of hormones, energy, and sleep quality, whether you make that decision on purpose or let hunger and convenience make it for you. Calories and macros are locked below. Fasting-window start time and supplement stack are still being confirmed, flagged, not hidden.
Protein target set at 1g per lb of current bodyweight (150g at ~150lb), the non-negotiable floor before fat and carbs fill the rest. Calories are a maintenance estimate for longevity, not aesthetics; adjust after a few weeks of tracked weight trend, not by feel.
What's actually running
Every rule carries the honest strength of its evidence. What the grades mean
- 01
Protein first, every meal.Associated
1g per lb bodyweight, so 150g. Protein driving muscle protein synthesis and satiety is well supported in humans. The specific 1g per lb figure sits at or slightly above the top of the evidence-based range, which is usually given as 1.6 to 2.2g per kg. It is a defensible round number, not a measured optimum. - 02
Animal-based baseline.Mechanistic
Meat, eggs, and whole food as the default. Honest grade, and this is the weakest-evidenced rule on the site: there is no human trial showing an animal-based diet beats a comparable whole-food diet on hard outcomes. The seed oil case in particular is mechanistic and contested, not demonstrated. This is running because it works for adherence and satiety here, which is a real reason, just not the one usually given for it. - 03
Eating window closes at 6:00 PM.Associated
Same anchor as the sleep protocol, four clear hours before bed. Time-restricted eating trials mostly show benefits that track the calorie reduction it causes rather than the timing itself. The sleep-side rationale (lower overnight heart rate, better sleep quality) is the stronger half of the case. - 04
No caffeine after 12:00 PM.Established
Half-life around 6 hours. This is a sleep rule wearing a diet costume, and the two protocols share the line on purpose. Controlled trials back it directly. - 05
Electrolytes, not just water.Mechanistic
Sodium, potassium, magnesium. Genuinely established for high sweat loss and heavy training. For a normally active person in a temperate week, the case is mechanistic rather than demonstrated, and the popular version of this advice is far more confident than the data. - 06
No convenience food as the default.Associated
If a meal wasn't planned, hunger picked it, and hunger has bad taste. This one is stronger than most diet advice: a controlled inpatient feeding trial found people ate substantially more and gained weight on ultra-processed food versus a matched unprocessed diet, with food freely available in both arms. - 07
Track it, every day.Associated
Same rule as sleep. What isn't logged isn't a protocol, it's a mood. Self-monitoring improving adherence is reasonably supported; whether it improves outcomes on its own is less clear.
Note what the grades do to this page. The macros and the caffeine cutoff hold up. The animal-based framing, which is the part that reads most like an identity, is the weakest-evidenced thing here. That is worth knowing about your own protocol rather than defending.
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