Injection days, training days, food rhythm, and what to feel by Week 4.
Phase 1 is not where fat loss lives. Phase 1 is where you teach the body to tolerate the intervention. The GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist throttles gastric emptying within the first 72 hours; appetite drops because the stomach stays full longer, not because the brain has flipped a satiety switch yet. The practitioner corpus is consistent on the failure mode: people who fail this protocol fail in Weeks 1-4, not later. They fail by under-eating protein, skipping training, dehydrating, or stacking too many compounds before the gut adapts. The schedule below is calibrated to keep all of that from happening.
What the compounds are doing this month
The dual GLP-1/GIP agonist is slowing gastric emptying, suppressing glucagon, amplifying glucose-dependent insulin release, and acting directly on hypothalamic appetite centers. The metabolic homeostasis effects — chronic inflammation suppression, vascular function improvement, integrated insulin-sensitization — layer in over weeks, but the dominant Week 1-4 effect is gastric and appetitive. This is also where the documented adverse events cluster: nausea, delayed gastric emptying, and in non-diabetic patients running aggressive caloric deficits, a small but real risk of euglycemic or starvation ketoacidosis. The cases reported in the literature share a stereotyped trigger — under-eating plus ketogenic restriction plus dehydration stacked on top of the GLP-1 effect. Phase 1 nutrition is not optional and Phase 1 is not the place to also be in ketosis.
AOD-9604 is the lipolytic adjunct — a synthetic fragment of the C-terminus of human growth hormone, engineered to stimulate lipolysis without the growth-promoting effects of full-length GH. Daily subcutaneous, abdominal, into adipose tissue. Site rotation matters from day one; lipodystrophy and reduced absorption from repeated single-site injections show up fast in the practitioner corpus.
MOTS-c enters in Week 2, not Week 1. The substrate is explicit on induction discipline — stack one signaling peptide at a time. MOTS-c is mitochondrially-encoded, acts as an exercise mimetic, triggers fatty acid oxidation and AMPK activation, and channels energy toward fat burn rather than glycogen. Starting dose is 5 mg three times weekly, with capacity to increase to 10 mg based on response and tolerance. This compound is what makes the resistance training translate — without mitochondrial support, you're burning glycogen during sessions, not fat between them.
The Phase 1 stack — Weeks 1-4
| Compound | Dose | Route | Frequency | Evidence Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg Weeks 1-2, titrate to 5 mg Weeks 3-4 | SubQ, abdomen 2"+ from navel, alternate L/R | Once weekly, fixed day | 🔵 Clinical | Titration is non-negotiable — jumping straight to 5 mg multiplies GI adverse events |
| AOD-9604 | 300 mcg | SubQ, abdominal, clockwise rotation around navel | Daily, AM fasted | 🟢 Expert | One syringe per injection. Strict site rotation prevents lipodystrophy and absorption loss |
| MOTS-c | 5 mg (introduce Week 2) | SubQ, abdominal — separate quadrant from AOD | 3× weekly (Mon/Wed/Fri) | 🟢 Expert | Hold until Week 2. Do not stack on Tirzepatide induction |
| BPC-157 | 500 mcg | SubQ, abdominal | Twice daily | 🟢 Expert | Protects GI mucosa during peak GLP-1 gastroparesis window |
| Protein floor | 0.5–0.55 g/kg per meal | Oral | 4 meals/day | 🔵 Clinical | Evenly spread MPS stimulus is the muscle-preservation lever during GLP-1 deficit |
The weekly rhythm
Sunday — Tirzepatide injection day. Pick the day and never move it. Inject in the evening; the peak gastric slowdown lands 24-36 hours out, so Monday is the hardest day of the week. Plan accordingly — light food day, no high-intensity training.
Monday — Light recovery. Walk 30-45 minutes. AOD-9604 in the AM, fasted. No MOTS-c yet during Week 1; introduce on this day starting Week 2. Hydration target: 3.5 L plus electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium). The ketoacidosis cases in the literature cluster on patients whose intake collapsed during peak nausea — eat protein even when appetite is gone.
Tuesday / Thursday — Resistance training, full-body, to controlled failure. This is the muscle-preservation lever. Practitioner and clinical consensus converge: 2-3 full-body sessions per week, pushed close to failure with good form, hold lean mass through a GLP-1-driven deficit. Adults over 60 shift to 3-4 sessions weekly with 2-3 sets per exercise. AOD-9604 lands 60 minutes pre-training.
Wednesday — MOTS-c day. Separate abdominal site from AOD. The corpus is firm: never mix peptides in one syringe, never share injection sites between two compounds the same day. Pick a quadrant for AOD, the opposite quadrant for MOTS-c.
Friday — Second resistance session plus MOTS-c. Heaviest session of the week, since you're farthest from the Tirzepatide peak.
Saturday — Optional zone-2 cardio, 45-60 minutes, fasted if tolerated. This is where MOTS-c-conditioned mitochondria do the most work.
Daily injection map — the abdominal clock
The substrate converges on a clockwise rotation around the navel, staying at least 2 inches out, lower abdomen preferred for systemic compounds. Treat the abdomen as a clock face. AOD goes at 12, 3, 6, 9 across the four-day rotation. MOTS-c, once active, goes 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30 — offset positions on its own three-day rhythm. Tirzepatide takes a fresh site each week, far from active rotation zones. Avoid scar tissue. Never reuse a syringe.
Reconstitution math from the corpus: Units = (Dose ÷ Concentration) × 100. For 500 mcg from a 5 mg vial reconstituted with 2 mL BAC water, concentration is 2,500 mcg/mL, and you draw 20 units on a U-100 insulin syringe.
What you should feel by Week 4
- Week 1: Appetite collapse within 48 hours of the first Tirzepatide injection. Mild-to-moderate nausea, especially Day 2-3 post-injection. Food preference shifts away from fat and refined carbohydrate — described consistently across the corpus.
- Week 2: Adaptation. Nausea decreases as the gut adjusts. AOD-9604 site tenderness may appear if rotation is sloppy — fix the rotation before it persists. First MOTS-c injection produces no acute sensation; that's normal.
- Week 3: Energy lift from MOTS-c surfaces during training sessions. Strength holds despite caloric deficit when the protein floor is held. Tirzepatide moves to 5 mg.
- Week 4: Visible compositional change — waist circumference down 1-2 inches is typical, scale down 4-8 lb. The mirror reads leaner than the scale because lipolysis is selective for visceral and abdominal depots.
What's NOT happening yet
- You are not fat-adapted. The mitochondrial machinery for sustained fat oxidation builds in Phase 2, once MOTS-c reaches steady state and the Phase 2 compounds enter.
- You are not at maintenance metabolism. Resting metabolic rate drops in lockstep with weight; resistance training slows that drop, doesn't prevent it. This is why a rebuild phase exists.
- Strength is not increasing. Hold it. Phase 1 is preservation, not progression. New PRs in Phase 1 mean you're under-eating somewhere else or the GLP-1 effect is incomplete.
- The scale is lying for the first week. Water shifts from reduced food intake produce a 3-4 lb drop in Week 1 that is not fat. Weeks 2-4 readings are the real signal.
- The skin has not caught up. Loose-skin worry at Week 4 is premature — collagen remodeling lags fat loss by 8-12 weeks minimum.
The corpus describes this rhythm in patient after patient — track your weight, waist, training loads, and protein totals weekly, and adjust the schedule before you adjust the doses.