Set a refeed protocol on a cut

Six weeks into the cut and the deficit is starting to bite. You don't want to break the plan, you want to build a planned break into it — refeeds on a cycle, scheduled, predictable. You tell the agent the frequency and the macro bump, and the plan grows the protocol on top.

What the agent needs to hear

Behind your sentence, the agent works backwards to three pieces: the frequency (« every 14 days », « once a week », « Saturday only »), the macro adjustment (calories, carbs, sometimes fat — what to bump and by how much), and the start anchor (default: today; optional « starting next Monday »).

The protocol attaches to your active diet plan — no need to name it. The agent shows a preview card with the next two or three scheduled refeed dates and the macro adjustment for each, then waits for a nod before saving.

Frequency, adjustment, and what the protocol does

Frequency takes three shapes. Cyclical (« every N days ») is the most common — the protocol counts days and fires on the cycle. Weekday-anchored (« Saturday only ») locks to a day of the week regardless of the plan’s cycle length. Training-anchored (« after heavy leg days ») needs explicit naming of the session pattern, since the agent can’t guess which days are heavy.

Adjustment defaults to carbs only, the most common refeed shape on a cut. « +500 kcal » bumps carbs by ~125 g; specify the macro explicitly to override (« +500 calories from fat », « double protein, hold everything else »). Adjustments are absolute, not percentages, unless you say so.

What the protocol changes in your week

Once set, the protocol does three things. The next scheduled refeed appears in your weekly view so you can plan around it — shopping, social meals, the long Saturday lunch all line up cleanly.

Adherence scoring treats refeed days correctly: eating above the cut target on a refeed day is on-plan, not off-plan, since the system reads the protocol and applies the bumped targets just for that day. The weekly review then surfaces refeed compliance as a separate column from regular-day compliance, since they’re structurally different days.

Without the protocol set, every refeed reads as an off-plan day, which corrupts both your adherence percentage and the cut’s narrative — the plan looks like a string of breakdowns when it’s actually working as designed.

When the agent gets it wrong

The preview card carries two or three scheduled dates and the macro math for each — read those before nodding. Three failure modes worth catching: the frequency parsed wrong (« every 14 days, not every 14 weeks »), the adjustment off by an order of magnitude (« +500 kcal, not +5,000 — typo on the card »), or the protocol attached to the wrong plan (you have a maintenance and a cut saved; the protocol should be on the cut, not the maintenance).

Each one is a single sentence to fix — name the difference and the agent re-renders.

What makes the protocol worth setting

Three things decide whether this refeed protocol helps the cut: the frequency matches how depleted you actually get (a refeed every 7 days for a mild cut is overkill; every 21 days for an aggressive cut is too thin), the macro adjustment is honest (a 500 kcal carb refeed that turns into a 2,000 kcal junk-food bender isn’t a refeed, it’s a binge — set the adjustment you’ll actually hit), and the start anchor lines up with your cut start (a protocol set at week 6 of a 12-week cut leaves the front half unprotected; a protocol set retroactively to week 1 may not apply to past weeks). Scheduled refeeds make a longer cut sustainable in a way ad-hoc breaks can’t.