My program › Food plan
Your food plan
Three plans, one rule. Your setup picked one; read the other two so you know what changes when your goal does.
The program
This part is for people who have the program.
Bought it? Open it with the email you used at checkout. Have a code from a welcome email, or from Dr. Allred? Type it here.
Not yet? The setup, the challenges and your protein number are free. The program is $50, once. What is in it.
Your numbers
– g protein a day, – g at each of 3 meals, – steps, 7+ hours of sleep. Plan: –.
Plan A: Fat loss
You chose fat loss, so this page replaces calorie guesswork with four numbers, a weekly rhythm, and honest expectations. No banned foods. No named diet. The research is blunt about this: the diet's name is marketing; what produces fat loss is eating fewer calories than you burn while protecting your muscle [67] [68]. That is what this plan does, on purpose, moderately, in a way you can keep.
Your four numbers
| # | Number | Your target |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calories | Your current weight (lb) × 11, or your estimated daily burn minus 300, whichever is lower. The setup picks for you. The floor is 1,200 without your physician supervising. |
| 2 | Protein | 0.7 to 1.0 g per pound of ideal body weight. Losing weight and lifting puts you at 1.0. Split 25 to 45 g per meal. |
| 3 | Steps | At least 7,000 a day, set above your current normal. |
| 4 | Sleep | 7+ hours. Part of the diet, not a wellness footnote: short sleep raises hunger and shifts what you lose toward muscle [94]. |
Why lifting is non-negotiable in this plan
When you lose weight without lifting, a meaningful share of what leaves is muscle, and after 40 it does not come back easily [12]. Lifting three times a week prevented about 94% of that loss in older adults [15]. Your workouts exist to make sure the weight you lose is fat.
The scale, used correctly
Weigh daily, judge weekly [92]. Your weight bounces 1 to 3 pounds day to day from water, salt and hormones. Single days mean nothing. The weekly average is the only number that gets to make decisions. Premenstrual water gain, up to a couple of pounds, arrives on schedule and leaves on schedule. It is not fat. Log your food honestly; the plan only steers if the numbers are real.
The pace, and how to steer
Target pace: losing 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per week (for a 180-lb woman, about 1 to 2 lb a week) [18].
- Going too slow? Weekly average dropped less than 0.5% a week for 3 straight weeks with honest logging → subtract 100 to 150 calories, or add 1,500 daily steps. One lever, not both.
- Going too fast? More than 1.5% a week → add 100 to 150 calories back. Fast losses cost muscle and bone [19].
The 12 weeks, honestly
Most people lose 5 to 10% of their body weight in one 12-week cycle at a muscle-protecting pace. Anyone promising much more is selling something. Week 7 is maintenance practice, on purpose. Calories come back up to your estimate for one week. This is not a metabolic trick; it is rehearsal for the skill that decides everything: eating at maintenance. After week 12 you choose: another 12-week round (after two weeks at maintenance first), or Maintenance for good.
What this plan will never ask of you
No food is banned. Carbs are not the enemy; neither is fat; the enemy is losing muscle and rebounding. If a way of eating helps you hit your calories and protein with foods you will still enjoy next year, low-carb, Mediterranean, ordinary groceries, it is approved.
Plan B: Hold steady and rebuild
You are at a weight you can live with, and you want the muscle back. Eat at about your estimate. Protein at your number; if you are lifting, the middle to top of your range. Half the plate plants. The scale should hold within a few pounds; the numbers to watch are your lifts, your waist, and the sit-to-stand count. Weigh weekly. If the weekly average drifts up 3 pounds and stays there two weeks, run the fat-loss plan for a cycle.
If you are on a GLP-1 medicine and holding weight on a maintenance dose, this is your plan: three planned protein meals a day, water scheduled, lifting kept, and the medicine's quiet appetite treated as a reason to plan meals, not skip them [25].
Plan C: Rebuild
After a joint replacement, an injury, or a long stretch of being unwell, the job is muscle, not the scale. Protein at the top of your range, 1.0 g per pound of ideal weight, split across four meals. Calories at your estimate or a little above; this is not the time for a deficit. Lifting as soon as your surgeon or therapist clears it, and until then, walking and the protein habit.
- Around surgery: protein at every meal in the weeks before and after supports wound healing and gets you through rehab stronger. Your surgical team's instructions win over anything here.
- Constipation with pain medicine after surgery: fiber to 25 g, water, walking, and psyllium if needed [89].
- Do not crash-diet before a joint replacement. If weight is a concern before surgery, slow loss with protein and lifting, coordinated with the surgical team.
- If you were told you need to lose weight before surgery, the fat-loss plan at a slow pace with lifting is the version to run, not a very-low-calorie plan.
The numbers on this page were set by Dr. Allred. Every claim follows the program's rule: published research only, cited on the science page.