Not about losing weight — about whether your body can actually use what you feed it.
Fat loss is simple math: eat less than you burn. This isn't that. This is about how well your body digests, absorbs, tolerates, and recovers from what you put in it — because two people can eat the same meal and one feels energized while the other feels foggy and inflamed. Four levers, worked in order. You hold one to maintain, and work down the list when chemistry is your focus.
Created by Dr. Justus Kauffman · Founder of Auxoma
Not motivation, not discipline, not productivity — your energy. Low energy means chemistry is struggling. High energy means your systems are cooperating. Everything in this pillar is about supporting the chemistry that runs underneath, instead of forcing your body to compensate for it.
Four levers, in order: protein → sugar → whole foods → fasting.
Protein is the building block of every cell — your body is literally built from it, and it's the most satiating thing you can eat. Treat it as the foundation of every meal, not an afterthought. Here's your daily target.
Aggressive is the sweet spot for most active adults 40+. The slider runs to 1.4 g/lb on purpose — you don't have to eat that much, but you should know the top of the range isn't a danger line. Intakes up around there have been studied for a full year with no adverse effects on kidney function, liver function, or blood lipids.†
And the reason to go up there usually isn't more muscle — it's satiety. Protein is the most filling thing you can eat. Get enough of it and the food noise everywhere else gets quiet on its own. That's the real win.
| Age | g / kg | g / lb | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20–39 | 1.2–1.6 | 0.54–0.73 | Maintenance + light activity |
| 40–49 | 1.4–1.8 | 0.64–0.82 | Gradual increase recommended |
| 50+ | 1.6–2.0 | 0.73–0.91 | Preserve muscle & bone |
Both units shown so the two systems line up. The pounds slider goes higher than this table's ceiling — that's the range where you'd push someone deliberately.
Some sugar is good — think fruit. Added sugar is mostly there to keep you coming back for more. For one week, total up how much added sugar you eat. Then taper it down 20% a week. Punch in your weekly total and I'll lay out the ramp.
Drop 20% of your starting total each week for five weeks — steady, not shocking. Zero is the ceiling of the goal; where you land is personal. Then hold it with one of these:
Pick a daily added-sugar number that protects your health first and your happiness second. (Justus runs about 50 g/day.)
Plan a free day — maybe one day a month — where you don't track. Structure around the flexibility instead of guilt.
Cut added sugar entirely. If setting healthy middle-ground limits is a battle for you, clean removal is often the kinder option.
Here's a favorite: the ingredients diet. Don't count foods — count ingredients. A protein bar can hide 20 of them. Every extra ingredient is one more thing your body has to break down, and excess waste means higher resting inflammation. Tally a day and compare it to how many actual foods you ate. It's eye-opening.
Start with your total, then trim it a little each week — set a limit, take blackout days, or reset entirely, same as sugar. Fewer ingredients, less to break down, lower inflammation.
Fasting is the last lever, not the first — reach for it only after protein, sugar, and whole foods are handled. It's a metabolic tool, not a weight-loss hack, and the goal is never to fast as long as possible. Slide through the hours to see what shifts in the body. Read the "who this isn't for" list below before you try anything past an overnight fast.
If any of these apply to you, skip fasting — or only do it under a qualified professional's supervision. This list isn't fine print; it's the most important part of the section.
Everyone else: talk to your doctor before starting, start short, and stop immediately if you feel faint, dizzy, or unwell. Fasting is a tool — the goal is not to use it as much as possible.
Fill this out the same day and time each week and watch the direction of travel. Rate each 0–10. Trending up means the lever's working; flat after about four weeks means it's time to move to the next one on the list.
Maintain by holding one lever steady. Make chemistry your plot and you work the list in order.
Run the scorecard — energy, digestion, recovery. Honest read.
Chemistry your focus? Work protein → sugar → whole foods → fasting.
Otherwise, hold one lever — your protein, sugar, or whole-food line.
Every meal that fuels you is a vote for a body that works.
Trend flat after ~4 weeks? Move to the next lever.
Constant fatigue, afternoon crashes, foggy after meals, slow recovery — that's your chemistry asking for attention, and it rarely fixes with one more supplement. Here's where to keep going:
Join the free Auxoma community for the meal-by-meal coaching — with a low-cost membership when you want the full follow-along. Local to Wichita and want your inputs and inflammation actually assessed? Come see our team.
Fuel it well — now go build.
This guide is educational and not medical or nutritional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Everyone's chemistry is individual; what supports one person can inflame another. Talk with a qualified professional before making significant dietary changes — especially fasting — and stop anything that makes you feel unwell.
† On the 1.4 g/lb ceiling: 1.4 g/lb is roughly 3.1 g/kg. Antonio et al. (2016), Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism — a one-year randomized crossover trial in resistance-trained men consuming ~2.51–3.32 g/kg/day — found no harmful effects on blood lipids or on markers of liver and kidney function, and no increase in fat mass despite higher total intake. Earlier 4-month work from the same group (2.6–3.3 g/kg/day) reached the same conclusion. Note the limits: these were small studies in healthy, resistance-trained adults with normal kidney function, so they don't speak to people with kidney disease. Protein's satiety advantage over carbohydrate and fat is separately well established.
Fasting timeline is approximate and varies with your prior diet, activity, and metabolism; stages reflect the well-established progression from fed state → glycogen depletion (~12 h) → ketosis (~16–24 h) → increased autophagy (24 h+, the process behind Ohsumi's 2016 Nobel Prize) → peak autophagy and elevated growth hormone beyond 48–72 h (growth hormone shown to rise several-fold during a 24-hour fast; Vinales et al., 2022). Contraindication list compiled from NHS, Johns Hopkins, the American Diabetes Association, and Dietitians Australia guidance.