Fuel Protocol

Greg Glassman, founder of functional fitness, wrote the best nutrition prescription ever in one sentence: "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar."

The MetFix version adds one more rule: no seed oils (canola, soybean, corn, vegetable oil). That's it. That's the whole protocol.

Everything else — Zone, Paleo, Keto, Carnivore — is a variation of this same idea. They all eliminate processed food, reduce sugar, and prioritize real, whole foods. The name doesn't matter. The food quality does.

When you eat sugar or highly processed carbohydrates (bread, chips, soda, candy), your blood glucose spikes. Your pancreas fires insulin to deal with it. Insulin tells your body to store fat and stop burning it.

Do this repeatedly — which most teens do, because the food system is designed to make you — and you become metabolically inflexible. You're stuck burning carbs all the time. When you run out of carbs, you crash. You get brain fog, low energy, mood swings, and cravings for more sugar.

The functional fitness research puts it clearly: "A diet rich in refined carbohydrates is the direct cause of hyperinsulinemia and fat deposition. This metabolic derangement progresses to insulin resistance, reduced glucose tolerance, leptin resistance, increased stress, and loss of sleep."

That's not a disease description. That's a description of how most teenagers feel every day.

Protein (every meal): Eggs, ground beef, chicken thighs, canned tuna, salmon, steak, pork. Protein builds muscle, keeps you full, and doesn't spike insulin.

Vegetables (most of your plate): Broccoli, spinach, peppers, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, asparagus. These provide vitamins, minerals, and fiber with minimal impact on blood sugar. Prioritize above-ground, non-starchy vegetables. Sweet potato and carrots are fine in small amounts around training.

Good fats (eat freely): Butter, olive oil, avocado, nuts, full-fat dairy, egg yolks, beef tallow, coconut oil. Fat keeps you full, fuels your brain, and does not spike insulin. Saturated fat from real food is not the enemy — decades of research have confirmed this. The enemy is polyunsaturated seed oils, not animal fat.

Starch (strategic use only): Sweet potato or white rice in small amounts immediately after your hardest workouts only — when your muscles are depleted and actually need glucose replenishment. This is the exception, not the rule. Most of your energy should come from protein and fat, not starch.

What to eliminate: Soda, juice, candy, chips, bread, pasta, cereal, fast food, anything with seed oils (canola, soybean, corn, vegetable oil — check every label). These foods spike insulin, promote fat storage, damage your mitochondria, and create the energy crashes and brain fog most teens accept as normal. They are not normal. They are the result of eating the wrong food.

Here's something most adults don't know: teenagers have naturally higher growth hormone levels than any other age group. Growth hormone is your body's primary muscle-building, fat-burning signal. Eating real food and training hard amplifies this effect dramatically.

You don't need protein powder. You don't need pre-workout. You need eggs, meat, sleep, and hard work. The supplements industry makes billions selling teenagers things they don't need. Save your money. Eat real food.

Track Your Progress

Log workouts, meals, and sleep in the ATP app.