Weeks 1-4 execution — the daily and weekly rhythm

Injection timing, training split, and the compliance reality.

You have the Phase 1 stack reconstituted in the fridge. You have the syringes, the alcohol pads, the insulin needles in 31-gauge half-inch. The mechanism is locked in. None of that matters if the rhythm collapses by day 9 — and the practitioner corpus is blunt about this: the cutting protocols that work are not the ones with the most aggressive compounds. They are the ones the user actually executes for 28 consecutive days without missing the fasted morning window or rotating sticks into the same square inch of belly fat until it scars.

This chapter is the operating manual for the first four weeks. It assumes you are running the Phase 1 cutting stack established in Module 3: 5-Amino-1MQ oral, AOD-9604 SubQ, and MOTS-c SubQ, layered on a 14–16 hour fasted morning window with fasted training 3–4 days per week.

What's actually happening cellularly in weeks 1-4

The fasted morning window does the heavy lifting. By hour 12-14 of no caloric intake, insulin is at the low-normal range, glucagon is elevated, and hormone-sensitive lipase plus adipose triglyceride lipase are upregulated — the two enzymes that govern whether stored triglyceride actually leaves the adipocyte. This is the substrate state in which your injected and oral compounds become useful. Inject AOD-9604 into a fed, insulin-spiked body and you are pushing a fat-mobilization signal into an environment biased toward storage. Inject it at hour 14 of a fast and you are stacking lipolytic signals on top of an already lipolytic hormonal background.

5-Amino-1MQ is the upstream lever here. It blocks NNMT (nicotinamide N-methyltransferase), which is the enzyme that wastes NAD+ inside adipocytes. NNMT is overexpressed in obesity and dysregulated metabolism, and inhibiting it does two things at once: it raises intracellular NAD+ (fueling sirtuin and mitochondrial activity) and it promotes lipolysis at the adipocyte directly. The practitioner corpus describes using it specifically before a fasted morning workout — that is the window where the AMPK/SIRT1 axis is already primed and the NNMT block compounds the effect.

MOTS-c is the mitochondrial conductor. Encoded in mitochondrial DNA, it activates the AMPK pathway and shifts the cell toward burning fat for ATP rather than storing it. The corpus is explicit on dose: 5–10 mg per week total, split across 2–3 weekly injections. Higher and you do not get more — you get diminishing returns and likely paradoxical fatigue if your baseline mitochondrial inflammation is unaddressed.

The Phase 1 stack — daily schedule

Three rules govern the syringe work, all substrate-cited:

1. One compound per syringe. Do not mix peptides in the same barrel unless a protocol specifically directs it (TB-500 + GHK-Cu is the named accepted combo; AOD, MOTS-c, and Phase 2 layers are not on that list). Each gets its own stick.
2. Lower abdomen, two inches from the navel, alternating left and right. Avoid scar tissue and stretch marks. The substrate describes a clockwise rotation pattern around the navel, staying at least two inches out. Mark a grid on paper if you need to — within four weeks of twice-weekly injections you will run out of clean tissue if you do not track it.
3. Never re-use a syringe. One syringe per injection. The corpus is unambiguous: re-use causes contamination, dull needles that damage tissue, and increased lipodystrophy risk.

The weekly rhythm — training and injection grid

The substrate consistently pairs cutting protocols with fasted morning sessions, with the rationale that fasted training raises post-workout fat oxidation even after the fast is broken. Here is the practitioner-consensus skeleton:

Break the fast post-training with protein-forward food — the corpus is consistent that protein intake during a cutting phase is the lever for lean mass preservation. Aggressive caloric deficits without adequate protein cost you muscle and stall the protocol.

What you should feel — week-by-week

• Week 1: Mild appetite suppression by day 3–4 (5-Amino-1MQ effect). Possible transient fatigue on MOTS-c days as the mitochondria recalibrate. Injection sites should be quiet — minor redness for an hour is normal; persistent redness means you are repeat-sticking the same spot.
• Week 2: Fasted training feels easier. The "hangry wall" that hits most people at hour 12 of a fast softens — this is the NAD+/AMPK background shifting. Scale weight may not move yet. Belt notches sometimes do.
• Week 3: Visible recomposition starts in stubborn-fat areas (lower abdomen, flanks, suprailiac). AOD-9604's lipolytic action concentrates locally at the injection site, which is partly why abdominal injection in a cut is the substrate-preferred default.
• Week 4: Energy on fasted mornings is high and stable. Cravings for refined carbohydrate noticeably reduced. This is the window where most users get cocky and add a fourth compound. Do not. Phase 2 enters in Module 8.

What's NOT happening yet

• No dramatic scale drop in week 1. If the scale moves 6 pounds in 7 days, that is water and glycogen — expected, not the protocol working.
• No GH-pulse benefits yet. AOD-9604 is the fragment of GH that handles fat metabolism without the IGF-1 / glucose-disposal effects of full GH. If a GH-axis compound (CJC, Ipamorelin, Tesamorelin) is in your Phase 2, you do not feel it yet because it is not in the stack.
• No metabolic adaptation hedge. Four weeks is not long enough to stall a cut on adaptation alone. If progress stops in week 3, the failure point is compliance — missed fasts, hidden calories, under-trained sessions — not the compounds.
• No reason to bump MOTS-c above 10 mg/week. The corpus is firm: 5–10 mg weekly total is the dose. Stacking more does not accelerate fat loss; it raises the probability of paradoxical fatigue.
• No need for stimulant fat-burners on top. 5-Amino-1MQ is described in the corpus as providing "clean energy" — adding ephedrine, yohimbine, or high-dose caffeine stacks on top is how the cortisol axis gets wrecked in week 3.

The compliance reality is this: 28 days of fasted mornings, six oral doses per week, three injection days, strict site rotation, protein-anchored refeeds. Miss two fasted windows in week 1 and the metabolic background you are trying to build never stabilizes. The compound stack is not what is being tested here. The rhythm is.

The practitioner corpus describes this rhythm working in users who execute it. Track your sites, your fasts, and your weekly weight trend. Adjust in Module 9, not before.