8eiou · health · plan

The Plan — H2 2026

Body-composition & training pillar (v5.0). The other pillars — lipids, supplements — finalise after the July bloods + DEXA.

The lens

Stay healthy, maintain muscle, extend lifespan — while minimising operational effort. Every call is judged as evidence-weighted healthspan per unit of ongoing effort. Effort means daily-touch work (powders, prep, gym hours), not pill count.

The decision: a two-phase sequence

The ultimate goal is lean gain. The method — chosen for the individual, not the population — is cut first, then grind up:

Phase 1 (now, H2 2026): cut to a lean base

• Drop ~4–5 kg of fat while holding ~48 kg lean and current lifts → ~62 kg at ~18.5% BF (BMI ~21 — normal, not skinny), VAT down.
• Rebuild the detrained aerobic engine (2.4 km: 12–13 min → ~10:30).

Phase 2 (2027+): grind muscle up

• From the leaner base (better partitioning), run the muscle build properly — the part never yet run at spec: high protein, real volume, patience for ~1–2 kg in year one.

Why cut-first (honestly)

• Partitioning: leaner → a later surplus adds more muscle per kg, with room to bulk.
• Adherence: a successful cut is a win I can actually land (proven 2016) — momentum every past attempt lacked. Adherence beats theoretical optimality.
• Individual ≠ population: "eat protein, gain weight" is advice I already over-do yet stay behind on (ACTN3 XX, IGF-1 17th pct, ALMI ~15th pct — a genuine slow-responder profile). Caveat: I never ran the build at spec, so that's on my inputs too, not only genetics.

This is a values bet, not an evidence-forced optimum (a muscle-first block is the higher-insurance play). It's chosen with eyes open — and it's falsifiable: lifts hold + fat down + run improves = paid; lifts/lean fall = abort, pivot muscle-first.

Guardrails

• Protein ≥1.8 g/kg (120–145 g/day) — a deficit needs more than the 1.6 g/kg surplus number. The linchpin of the whole cut.
• Cut ~0.5% BW/week (~1.5 kg/mo) — slow enough to spare lean, fast enough to finish in ~3–4 months (not linger).
• Hard-stop the cut if top-set lifts or grip drop — DEXA can't detect a 1–2 kg lean loss; the lifts are the real tripwire.
• 62 kg is a hard floor — if lean can't be defended, sit at 64–65 kg.
• The "win" is strength-held-while-leaner, not scale-down.

Training (6×/week — near the top of the mortality curve, don't add volume)

• 3× strength — hold the lifts (DL 1.5× · squat 1.25× · bench 1× BW). The preservation signal.
• 3× stairclimb — 2 easy amortised (+10 kg vest, bone bonus) + 1 hard: accumulate 6–10 min at 160–170 (threshold-to-VO2max; not anaerobic/redline), no vest, ramped in after a few weeks of consistent easy volume (documented plaque → progress gradually).

KPIs