Twelve metabolic protocols.
Generic advice fails because everyone's starting position is different. We wrote a citation-backed starter protocol for each of the twelve metabolic patterns we see most often. Browse them below — or let the assessment route you to yours.
12
Archetypes
4
Fixes per protocol
$0
No email wall
Twelve starting positions
Filter by what is actually constraining you, or search in your own words. Open any card to preview the four fixes before you commit to reading it.
Showing 12 of 12 archetypes
- Sleep & stress01
The Stressed Sleeper
High stress + poor sleep dominate. Fix infrastructure first.
Sleep deficit and elevated cortisol are doing more metabolic damage than your diet. Until you address them, every dietary intervention is fighting uphill.
- Food & dieting02
The UPF Saturated
Ultra-processed food dominates your day. The single biggest lever.
Ultra-processed food is the dietary variable with the strongest evidence base for driving overeating. Removing it produces ~500 kcal/day spontaneous reduction without calorie counting.
- Muscle & movement03
The Sedentary Snacker
Low movement + frequent grazing. Your muscle is doing nothing.
Low total daily energy expenditure plus constant low-grade insulin from grazing creates a perfect metabolic-syndrome storm. The lever is muscle.
- Food & dieting04
The Diet Hopper
Multiple cycles. Your TDEE calculator is lying to you.
Repeat dieting produces measurable, persistent metabolic adaptation. Generic calorie targets undershoot for you. Approach this differently than first-timers.
- Hormones & labs05
The Hormonally Disrupted
PCOS / thyroid / metabolic syndrome. Treat the upstream, not just the calories.
PCOS and thyroid disorders are upstream of weight — fixing them requires addressing insulin resistance, inflammation, and hormonal cascades, not just calorie targets.
- Hormones & labs06
The Perimenopause Shift
Female + 40+ + new metabolic issues. Prioritize muscle and bone.
Perimenopause produces 5–10 years of hormonal turbulence and central fat redistribution. Strategies that worked in your 30s won't work the same.
- Medication07
The Post-GLP-1 Plateau
Recently stopped a GLP-1. The rebound is structural — here's how to blunt it.
Two-thirds of weight is regained at 1 year post-discontinuation without intervention. The protocol prevents rebound and preserves lean mass.
- Hormones & labs08
The Insulin Resistant
Reversible — but only with sustained intervention, not symptom management.
Insulin resistance is reversible. The Newcastle and DiRECT trials showed T2D remission in 46% with structured weight loss. The protocol is mechanistic, not symptomatic.
- Sleep & stress09
The Stress Eater
Stress + UPF + frequent eating. Behavioural intervention precedes dietary.
Cortisol-driven preference for hyperpalatable food is amplified by sleep deficit and UPF availability. Behaviour-change framework matters more than macros.
- Muscle & movement10
The Carb Cycling Athlete
Very active + multiple diets tried. Underfueling is the more likely problem.
Very active adults who've cycled through multiple diets often underfuel during high training. RED-S risk is real. Adequate fueling beats deficit for most.
- Muscle & movement11
The Aging Lifter
45+ and active. Anabolic resistance, recovery slowing — adjust the system.
Adults 45+ have anabolic resistance — need higher protein per meal to trigger muscle protein synthesis. Recovery is slower; adjust accordingly.
- Muscle & movement12
The Skinny-Fat Sedentary
Low movement + low UPF but no muscle. The lever is muscle, not deficit.
Eat reasonably but don't train. Body composition is the issue, not weight. Building muscle solves more than another deficit.
Same rubric, twelve times over
Every protocol is written to the same structure, so you can compare them honestly and see exactly where the evidence is strong and where it thins out.
Start from the pattern, not the diet
Each archetype describes a combination we see repeatedly — sleep debt plus stress, ultra-processed food dominance, four diet cycles and a stalled metabolism. The protocol is written for that combination.
Anchor every claim to a study
The mechanism section of each protocol cites the trials and reviews it rests on. If a claim has weak evidence behind it, we say so instead of rounding it up.
Four fixes, not forty
Every protocol names the four highest-leverage changes for that profile. Long lists are how people quit in week two — the point is the shortest list that still moves the markers.
Make it measurable
Each one ends with a short tracking set, so after eight weeks you have evidence about your own body rather than a feeling about whether it worked.
Choosing a protocol
Questions people ask first
Read the subtitles first — most people recognise themselves within two or three. The archetypes were built from the patterns that show up most often in metabolic assessments, so they are deliberately overlapping rather than mutually exclusive categories.
If two or three feel true at once, that is normal and it is exactly what the assessment resolves: it weighs the combination of your answers rather than matching a single keyword, and tells you which pattern to work on first.
Take the free assessmentScan the twelve subtitles
One sentence each. Shortlist anything that sounds like your last two years.
Read the mechanism section
If the physiology described matches your experience, you are in the right place.
Take the assessment if it is close
Two minutes, free, and it handles the overlaps properly.
Start with one protocol
Running two at once produces a plan nobody can actually follow.
Timelines shown are typical orders of appearance, not promises. Individual response varies with starting point, adherence, medication, age and sex.
Not sure which one is yours?
The Metabolic Assessment reads the combination of your answers — including the cases where two patterns overlap — and tells you which protocol to run first.
Educational only, not medical advice. These protocols do not diagnose, treat or cure any condition. Consult your physician before major dietary changes or altering prescribed medication. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Individual results vary; no outcome is guaranteed.