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Companion Fuel Protocol · Weeks 1–9 · Jun 15 → Aug 15

Fuel for 1200

Same 9 weeks as the program. Macros and timing only — the foods are your call.
The bar gets the headlines; this is the budget that pays for it. One input below drives every number on the page.

220 is a placeholder — make this YOUR waking weight. Every target below recalculates as you type. Re-enter your weekly average each Sunday and let the numbers drift with you.

Training Day

Mon · Tue · Thu · Fri
3,520kcal
Protein1.0 g per lb · every day, no exceptions
220 g
Fat0.4 g per lb · kept low to make room
90 g
Carbsthe performance lever — fills the rest
460 g

Rest Day

Wed · Sat · Sun
3,190kcal
Proteinsame floor as training days
220 g
Fat0.5 g per lb · a little more for satiety
110 g
Carbsmaintenance fill
330 g
The math, so you own it: training day ≈ BW × 16 kcal · rest day ≈ BW × 14.5 kcal · protein 1.0 g/lb · fat 0.4–0.5 g/lb · carbs fill the remainder. These are starting guesses — the scale trend (Rules, below) is the real authority. Net effect: a small surplus, ~+0.25–0.5 lb per week.

Phase alignment

W1–3
Accumulation. Targets above, as written. Highest training volume of the cycle — appetite will lag the workload for the first week or two. Eat to the number anyway; hunger is not the signal here.
W4–7
Peak. Same targets. Intensity climbs but total work falls, so the surplus does its job quietly. Final calorie adjustment happens by the end of W7 — after that the numbers freeze.
W8
Taper — the trap week. Training volume drops ~50%. Calories do not. Cutting during a taper is how lifters quietly leave 15 lb on the platform. Same numbers, fuller tank.
W9
Meet week. Special protocol below — including two days where you eat training-day numbers without training. That's deliberate.

Day architecture — where the macros land

  1. Pre-session, 60–90 min out: 60–90 g carbs + 30–40 g protein, low fat, low fiber. Nothing that fights the belt at the bottom of a squat.
  2. Post-session, within ~2 h: 90–120 g carbs + ~40 g protein. On training days, most of your carbs should live in this pre/post window.
  3. Protein cadence: spread it over 4–5 feedings (~45–55 g each). Last substantial meal ~2.5–3 h before bed — protects sleep and keeps reflux quiet.
  4. If carbs ever have to be unequal across the week, Mon and Thu win. Squat and deadlift days eat first.
  5. Rest days: protein anchors every meal, carbs cluster around midday, done. No peri-workout window to serve — keep it boring.
  6. Hydration: ~0.6–0.7 oz per lb daily, salt your food on training days. Glycerol scheduling lives in the program doc — Friday only.

The adjustment algorithm — scale beats formula

  1. Weigh Mon · Thu · Sun. Waking, after bathroom, before anything. The weekly average is the only number that gets a vote — single weigh-ins are noise.
  2. Target trend: +0.25 to +0.5 lb per week. That's the lane. In the lane → change nothing.
  3. Flat or dropping two weeks straight → add 200 kcal of carbs to training days. Re-enter your new average up top and carry on.
  4. Gaining faster than +0.75/wk for two weeks → pull 150 kcal of carbs from rest days only. Training days are protected territory.
  5. Numbers freeze at the end of W7. Weeks 8–9 run on locked targets no matter what the scale says. You don't renegotiate fuel during the landing.
  6. Blown day protocol: hit protein, drink water, resume at the next meal. No compensating, no skipped meals, no math. One bad day costs nothing; the correction is what costs.

Non-negotiables

  1. Recomp is paused, not cancelled. Expect the scale to read +2 to +4 lb by Week 9. Inventory: glycogen, water, gut content, maybe one pound of tissue. Most of it doesn't survive a normal week after the meet. Recomp resumes Aug 17 — with a bigger engine to burn through it.
  2. Protein is the floor on chaos days. When a day falls apart — travel, work fire, kid logistics — protein target still gets hit, everything else is forgiven. One non-negotiable survives anything; six don't.
  3. Protect sleep like a third lower day. Alcohol at or near zero for the cycle; caffeine finished by early afternoon. The surplus only converts to strength while you're unconscious.
  4. No new supplements solve under-eating. The stack is covered in the program doc. For nine weeks, the food is the stack.

Week 9 — meet week protocol

Eating into Aug 15

No weigh-in exists. No water cuts, no sodium games, no manipulation of any kind.

Mon
Training-day numbers — it's the primer session.
Tue–Wed
Rest-day numbers. Normal life, big sleep.
Thu–Fri
Training-day numbers, zero training. That's the glycogen top-off — you're filling a tank nothing is draining. Keep fat on the low end, fiber moderate.
All week
Water on the high end, salt food normally. Arrive Saturday full, not bloated.
Sat −3.5 h
Meet breakfast: 100–150 g carbs + 30–40 g protein, low fat, low fiber. Foods you've eaten twenty times.
Sat −75 min
30–50 g easy carbs + fluids + a salty something. Caffeine lands ~45 min before squats.
Between lifts
25–50 g fast carbs after squats and again after bench. Sips throughout. Optional half-dose caffeine before deadlifts — that's the lift that pays the bill.
Nothing new on meet day. Not a food, not a drink, not a supplement, not a timing experiment. Saturday is for expressing nine weeks of boring — not for discovering things.