A personal recomposition protocol — less fat, more muscle, and a scale that barely moves

Who this is for

This page is for the adult close to the right weight and nowhere near the right shape. You are maybe 5–8 kg from where you would like to be, but a plain diet makes you smaller and softer, and a plain bulk puts it back on the waist first. Recomposition is the slower, more precise plan: lose fat and add muscle in the same twelve weeks, with the scale demoted to a secondary measure.

A recomposition protocol fits best when most of these are true:

• You are within roughly 10 kg of your target weight; further than that, fat loss first is faster and kinder.
• Body fat is mid-range — roughly 15–25 % for men, 25–35 % for women — where both directions still have room.
• You lift at least three times a week, or will for the length of the cycle, on a programme that progresses.
• You can hold protein at 2 g per kilo of target weight and eat near maintenance without feeling you are doing nothing.
• You will measure your waist, not just your weight, and you will take the photos.

It is not the page for someone who wants it done in four weeks — recomposition is twelve weeks at minimum, and the mirror lags the tape. The hard stops are the same as everywhere: pregnancy, breastfeeding, under 18, active or recent cancer, and the compound-specific exclusions in the safety gate.

What a protocol for this goal usually contains

Recomposition protocols are usually a pairing: a mild appetite or visceral-fat compound on one side, a recovery or growth signal on the other, with the training and protein doing the real work between them. No doses — those are written for you after your labs.

Compounds that are usually in the conversation

• Tirzepatide at the lowest effective dose — enough to take the edge off appetite so a slight deficit is easy, not enough to make eating protein a chore.
• Tesamorelin — when the fat you want gone is around the trunk; studied for visceral fat, dosed fasted at night, measured with a tape rather than a scale.
• CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin — the nightly growth signal that carries the muscle side: sleep depth first, recovery second, composition last.
• MOTS-c — for the researcher who trains hard and wants the zone-2 and insulin-sensitivity side amplified.

Training

• Three to four resistance sessions a week with progression logged; without a strength signal this is just a slow diet.
• Compound lifts first, hard sets in the 6–12 range, the last set one to two reps from failure. Volume held steady.
• Two 30–45-minute zone-2 sessions and 8,000–10,000 daily steps — the fat-loss side at no cost to recovery.

Nutrition

• Calories at maintenance to a small deficit — roughly 10 % below, never 25 %. The compound makes that feel like nothing.
• Protein at 2 g per kilo of target weight, every day, four feedings — the biggest predictor of which way the still scale is hiding.
• Carbohydrate around training and cut elsewhere; alcohol counted honestly — the most common reason a recomposition looks like it is not working.

Sleep and recovery

• Seven and a half hours as a floor; the nightly pen is timed to the first deep-sleep cycles.
• Last meal two to three hours before bed, for sleep and for the fasted timing the night compound needs.
• A planned deload around weeks 4–5 and 9; recovery markers, not willpower, set the pace.

Clinic and lab levers

• Baseline labs: HbA1c, fasting glucose and insulin, lipids, liver enzymes, thyroid (TSH, free T4), IGF-1, lipase, a full blood count and cystatin C.
• IGF-1 and fasting glucose repeated at week 6; the full panel at week 12.
• Waist at the navel every Saturday, weight weekly, photos fortnightly in the same light — the waist and photos are the outcome.
• A physician copy for your own doctor, with the slowed-gastric-emptying note for anyone on daily medication.

What you'll feel — and when

Typical ranges from research settings and the researchers we write for — not promises. Most recomposition "failures" are measurement failures: daily weigh-ins, quitting in week 5 with a waist already 2 cm down.

How we build it for you

Here the intake matters most, because the right pairing depends on which side — fat or muscle — has further to go, and on what your labs say.

1. Intake. Fifteen minutes of honest answers in the Research Protocol Builder. Labs are optional here — upload later and we revise.
2. Safety gate and baseline labs. The exclusion list first (pregnancy, active cancer, under 18, the compound-specific red flags), then the baseline panel your plan needs — kidney function as cystatin C, never creatinine alone.
3. Human review. A writer drafts from your intake and labs; a reviewer checks every dose, lab threshold and interaction. Typically within 24 hours.
4. Three documents. A short results version for your phone, the full clinical document with the week-by-week schedule and lab plan, and a physician copy for your own doctor.
5. A free coach call on WhatsApp to walk it through and read your labs against the plan.
6. Check-ins at week 2, mid-cycle and the end. Mid-cycle labs decide whether the dose holds, steps or stops.

We write the budget option first — the fewest pens that can honestly move the goal — and you upgrade at a check-in once the labs have earned it.

What it costs

The personal research protocol is €399, follow-up included: intake, human review, the three documents, the coach call, the check-ins and any revision when new labs arrive. No subscription.

Pens are not included: we do not sell, supply, source or ship any compound. The protocol lists the pens it assumes (300 clicks each). A recomposition cycle usually pairs a nightly pen with a second compound — two pens, confirmed by your coach on the first call.

Got an invite code or gift code from a coach? Enter it at the start of the intake and the protocol is on us — we are by invitation only, and the codes are how the invitation travels.