Lena Osei had been through four programmes before this one, and could recite the pattern: intense start, early result, quiet collapse around month five.
Protein and total intake are the two levers that matter most in older adults, and both point in the opposite direction to most public messaging about eating.
The elimination phase is time-limited and supervised, because a restricted diet held indefinitely creates a second problem while solving the first.
We build for the fifth month, because that’s when enthusiasm is gone and the habit has to carry it.
Illustrative composite
Phase one changes two things and nothing else. Most participants find this insulting for about three weeks and survivable thereafter.
Eleven months in, she is past month five for the first time.
