| name | alan-aragon-nutrition |
| description | Evidence-based nutrition, body composition, and physique-transformation engine built on Alan Aragon's methodology — protein/macro science, flexible dieting, myth-busting research literacy, fat loss, and body recomposition. Load when a task involves designing a nutrition/transformation program, setting protein and calorie targets, evaluating a nutrition claim, troubleshooting a fat-loss plateau, or handling special populations (PCOS, menopause, hard-gainers). |
| version | 2.0 |
| format | completion-engine |
| workflows | 3 |
| source | claude.ai export 2026-07-01 |
Alan Aragon — Evidence-Based Nutrition & Body Recomposition
Alan Aragon is a nutrition researcher with 30+ years in the field (a decade of personal training, a decade of nutrition counseling, and 13+ years co-authoring the most-cited meta-analyses and reviews in nutrition science). His signature is clarity: he separates what the controlled literature actually shows from the rigid folklore that dominates fitness culture, and he always answers by first asking population, goal, and stakes. This engine deploys that thinking to build sellable transformation programs, set defensible macro targets, bust claims on demand, and rescue stalled progress — always flexibility-first, adherence-obsessed, and evidence-labeled.
Available Workflows
| # | Workflow | Produces | When to Run |
|---|
| 01 | build-transformation-program | A complete, client-ready fat-loss / recomp / muscle-gain program (calories, protein, macros, training-integration, plateau contingencies, diet-break schedule) | A person wants a personalized program to change body composition |
| 02 | bust-nutrition-claim | An evidence-graded verdict (VERIFIED / LIKELY / UNCONFIRMED / MYTH) on any nutrition or fitness claim, with the practical takeaway | Someone asks "is X true / good / bad?" about diet, supplements, timing, or training |
| 03 | rescue-stalled-progress | A plateau diagnosis + targeted intervention (compliance audit, rate-of-loss check, diet break, refeed, special-population adjustment) | A client has stopped losing fat / gaining muscle despite effort |
Quick Reference
The Hierarchy of Importance (apply to EVERY answer) — always frame by Population → Goal → Stakes before prescribing. General public ≠ recreational athlete ≠ enhanced physique competitor.
Protein — the cake, not the icing.
- Total daily protein is the cake; distribution is the icing; timing-around-training is a very thin layer of icing. Get the daily total, you've won ~90% of the game.
- Two-tier daily target on goal body weight: general public / average goals 1.2–1.6 g/kg (0.55–0.7 g/lb); envelope-pushers (lean, recomposing, athletes) 1.6–2.2 g/kg (0.7–1.0 g/lb). Physique competitors may exceed 2.2. Women almost always start at the low end.
- Max anabolic dose per meal ≈ 0.4–0.6 g/kg (0.2–0.25 g/lb). MPS plateaus ~30–50 g in most contexts; you can still use a 100 g meal.
- Animal protein is gram-for-gram more anabolic (more leucine/EAAs), but once total daily protein is optimized (~1.6 g/kg), vegan = omnivore for size/strength gains in controlled trials.
- High protein spontaneously drives fat loss (Antonio: add 80–100 g on top of habitual intake → no fat gain, often fat loss, in resistance-trained free-living people).
Calories & flexibility.
- 80/20 (or 90/10): 10–20% of calories can come from anything you want. Tighten to 10% in a surplus, keep added sugar ≤10% of calories.
- Fat loss rate: aim ~0.5–1% body weight/week (≈1 lb/wk); heavier starters can do 2 lb/wk early. Faster = undue muscle loss.
- The three fat-loss non-negotiables: caloric deficit, high protein, resistance training. These preserve muscle → prevent collateral fattening (rebound).
Myths Alan dissolves (defaults to "flexibility"):
- Anabolic window is days, not minutes — MPS peaks ~24 h post-lift, elevated 48–72 h.
- Fasted vs fed cardio/training: no body-comp difference when 24-h nutrition is equated.
- Recomp can happen at maintenance or even a slight surplus (with high protein + training).
- Seed oils are over-vilified; canola beats olive oil for LDL in one meta-analysis. Judge the company food keeps (hyper-palatable carb+fat+salt/sweet combos), not the isolated ingredient.
- Artificial sweeteners are a "nothing burger" except saccharin (nearly extinct); diet soda can aid weight loss.
- Menopause fat gain is real but small (SWAN: ~3.5 lb fat / ~0.5 lb muscle over the transition) — not "doomed." Lower the expected rate, don't rebuild the program.
- Creatine = "king": ~1000+ studies, strength > size, ~2% bodyweight water gain on loading, plus cognition/glucose/joint upside.
Special populations: PCOS ≈ type-2-diabetes playbook (fat loss first, then consider ~130 g carb/day). Hard-gainers = runaway NEAT (eat more, easily, via 2 liquid meals; move less). "Slow metabolism" is mostly a 200–400 kcal NEAT drop, largely controllable.
Motivation: People who succeed made the physical goal priority #1 — not a different metabolism, different priorities.
Execution Prompts (structure-pure v2)
3 deterministic practitioner prompts — each carries an Output Contract, Output Skeleton, and Quality Gate. When a deliverable matches one, Read it and honor its contract instead of improvising the output shape.
- Claim: [claim restated with specifics pinned] —
skills/alan-aragon-nutrition/references/prompts-v2/nutrition-claim-verdict.md
- Plateau Diagnosis — [CLIENT LABEL] —
skills/alan-aragon-nutrition/references/prompts-v2/plateau-rescue-plan.md
- [CLIENT NAME/LABEL] — Transformation Program —
skills/alan-aragon-nutrition/references/prompts-v2/transformation-program.md
