The EAU Weight-Loss Protocol:
Lose weight &
Optimize long-term health
Achieve sustainable weight loss under clinical guidance, combining targeted health interventions with optional GLP-1/GIP therapy.
Count on:
-
1:1 consultations with our medical and expert team
-
Advanced testing: Bloodwork, DXA body scan & more
-
Pharmaceutical treatment: GLP-1/GIP therapy
-
A high-impact behavioral framework on:
nutrition, movement, supplementation & more
Human evolution
Why weight loss fails universally
Many treat weight loss like a diet. By doing so, long-term success will always remain out of reach.
Unguided caloric restriction triggers an ancient survival mechanism.
Throughout our 300,000-year history, weight loss didn't mean fitting into smaller clothes—it meant impending starvation.
To survive, the human body evolved to aggressively conserve energy and fight fat loss.
To achieve permanent results, we must outsmart these key defensive mechanisms:
Metabolic Adaptation
Your brain downregulates energy expenditure—subconsciously reducing daily movement (NEAT) and slowing your resting metabolic rate (RMR) to conserve up to hundreds of calories.
Obesity Echo
Fat cells shrink rather than disappear, launching a hormonal counterattack: dropping leptin (fullness signal), which triggers a spike in ghrelin (hunger signal)
to drive relentless food noise and cravings.
Lean Muscle Loss
Without adequate protein intake and resistance training, aggressive weight loss forces your body to break down lean mass, including muscle tissue, which burns ~3x more calories than fat at rest, needlessly lowering your daily energy burn.
A clinical protocol designed for
Weight Control. For life.
A complete 6-month protocol guided by Nathan Gutz and Dr. Maria Luís Marques.
Maximum
impact
Potent actions only.
Focusing on the 20% of levers that deliver 80% of your results.
Just
science
Built on what science consistently proves, making your efforts
pay off.
Health-driven
Weight loss as a result of optimizing long-term health.
Life
proof
Breaking the cycle of dieting and regain. Restoring the freedom to enjoy life confidently.
Schedule your intake to discover the entire protocol:
Based on clinical trial results
A protocol that enables patients to lose
an average of 22.8 kg over 72 weeks.
An urgent reason to take action
Beyond weight: The unhealthy impact
For the past 50 years, our environment has been shaped by sedentary careers and
highly accessible, calorie-dense food.
We are paying a metabolic price for this convenience:
a breeding ground for over 200 chronic conditions, quietly driven by excess body weight, inflammatory visceral fat, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease (MASLD).
Each of these factors accelerates biological aging and significantly increases your risk for the four major chronic diseases responsible for roughly 80% of all deaths:
Cardiovascular disease
Metabolic dysfunction: e.g. type 2 diabetes
Neurodegenerative diseases:
e.g. Alzheimer’s
Cancer
If you want to proactively protect your long-term health, prevent disease, and slow down aging,
optimizing your metabolic health must be your top priority.
Our core belief
Everyone deserves a healthy weight
and its life-changing impact on both quality and quantity of life.
Pharmaceutical Support
Understanding GLP-1/GIP
Even when the theory of effective weight loss is fully understood, a substantial number of individuals experience survival signals that can be so overwhelming that mental willpower alone isn't enough.
This is where modern pharmaceutical interventions have proven to be a game-changer.
GLP-1 (and dual-action GLP-1/GIP) medications mimic natural hormones to support weight management through three core mechanisms:
-
Appetite Regulation: Regulates brain signals related to appetite and food cravings, making it easier to withstand calorie-dense food.
-
Digestion: Slows the rate at which the stomach empties, prolonging satisfaction after eating.
-
Metabolic Optimization: Improves how your body processes sugars, handles fat storage, and manages internal inflammation.
These medications are typically used to jumpstart a sustainable lifestyle change.
A tool, not the entire plan
The overseen risks of GLP-1/GIP
GLP-1(/GIP) medications are powerful tools for weight management, but they require structured clinical oversight to be safe and effective long-term.
Without comprehensive guidance, standalone therapy presents significant health risks:
1. The Rebound Effect
Research indicates on average individuals regain roughly 67%[7,8] of lost weight within a single year after stopping the medication, and health markers easily bounce back to harmful baseline levels[8].
2. Severe Muscle Depletion
Up to 40% of weight lost on GLP-1 therapy comes from lean mass including muscle mass rather than fat if behavioral interventions are neglected[5,9]. Muscle mass drives your resting metabolic rate (RMR), and maintaining strength is essential for long-term vitality. Rebuilding muscle is far harder than preserving it.
3. Consequences of aggressive Caloric Deficits
Because appetite drops dramatically, patients risk severely under-nourishing their bodies, leading to:
-
Nutritional Deficiencies: Resulting in chronic fatigue, hair loss, and weakened immunity.
-
Skin & Structural Changes: Rapid loss of muscle and fat can cause skin sagging and a hollowed facial appearance.
-
Digestive Distress: Fast dosage increases often trigger severe nausea, vomiting, reflux, and extreme constipation.
-
Dehydration: Side-effect-driven fluid loss places unnecessary strain on the kidneys.
Top: Healthy thigh
High Muscle Volume
Optimal Bone Density
Low Intramuscular Fat
Bottom: Sarcopenic thigh
Low Muscle Volume
Suboptimal Bone Density
High Intramuscular Fat
Nathan Gutz on overcomplication of health:
"Most patients are genuinely surprised when they realize how
few targeted moves sustainable weight loss actually takes."
Phase 01
ADVANCED TESTING
We can't improve what we don't measure. That's why we gather a wealth of data as a foundation to make high-impact decisions for health optimization and weight loss.
DXA Full Body Composition Scan
Using the industry-leading full body composition scan, we do a deep investigation of your body composition. While the depth of insights from this 10-minute scan is immense, we pay extremely close attention to:
-
Visceral Fat: Unlike subcutaneous fat (under the skin), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) wraps around your internal organs, releasing harmful inflammatory chemicals. High levels of visceral fat are dangerous, as this specific area is an independent predictor of premature mortality[10].
-
Lean Muscle Mass: We reveal whether you are under muscled or adequately muscled, as well if you’re symmetrically muscled. Incredibly important indicators that dictate long-term health[11,12,13].
Advanced BLood Panels
We analyze a broad variety of blood biomarkers, to reveal your current health risk profile and even early abnormalities that can compromise your quality of life over time.
This includes:
-
Advanced lipid profiles, highlighting critical, often overlooked metrics like ApoB and Lp(a).
-
Metabolic health biomarkers including key ratios to identify current or oncoming metabolic dysfunction.
-
Essential biomarkers for vitamin and mineral levels, organ function, and more.
Phase 02
FINDINGS & STRATEGY
With a complete picture of your body composition and key blood biomarkers, we build your personalized, high-impact plan.
Results
YOUR BODY MANUAL
A revealing and comprehensive breakdown of your current physical state and a forecast on where your shortcomings potentially lead you with respect to long-term health.
In this report, we decode over 50 crucial biomarkers and clinical data points. Every insight is backed by scientific evidence, explaining why each marker was prioritized and how it reflects your current healthspan.
Where relevant, your metrics are contextualized against population averages and benchmarked against optimal target ranges—where human physiology functions at its best. A typically neglected part of medicine.
What follows is an unmistakable framework designed to optimize, preserve or protect to make the key metrics that dictate long-term health green.
Action plan
THE FRAMEWORK
Using Your Body Manual and its comprehensive health insights as a foundation, it’s time to address any suboptimal areas with targeted interventions.
GLP-1 / GIP Support
When clinically indicated, we utilize pharmaceutical support to regulate the hormonal drives behind appetite and caloric intake. As you progress, dosages and protocols are continuously fine-tuned based on your experience, feedback, and objective data.
Movement & Exercise
While nutrition governs your energy intake, movement and exercise control your energy expenditure:
-
Low-Intensity Steady State Movement increases total calorie burn while optimizing foundational health biomarkers.
-
Resistance Training improves body composition, builds strength, and protects lean muscle mass during weight loss.
This combination can be tailored to your personal preferences, as long as it aligns with our goal to improve your body composition, strength, and long-term health.
Nutrition
While many equate weight loss with rigid dieting characterized by strict rules and restrictions, we prefer a solution built around real-world flexibility.
While a diet can serve as a powerful short-term tool, long-term sustainability often falls short.
Instead, we view nutrition as a flexible, customizable approach guided by key principles. As long as these principles are applied with a clear understanding, we have complete freedom to tailor your nutrition to your personal preferences.
We are here to help you integrate this into your daily life, with full freedom to keep enjoying the food you love.
Supplementation
Whenever there is a clear indication for a supplement, we’ll be the first to recommend it. A targeted recommendation is essential and helps effectively address any specific deficiencies.
FAQ
I have tried literally everything. Why should this work?
If you have been struggling with your weight for years, tried a multitude of diets, and perhaps even started working out without lasting results, we want you to know: you are not an exception.
With the EAU Weight Loss Protocol, we take everything related to weight control into consideration. We dive deep into your personal situation and challenges, and analyze over 50 data points from your DEXA scan and blood work to come up with targeted pharmaceutical therapy and lifestyle interventions.
More importantly, we equip you with all of our strategies, because we know that long-term sustainability requires knowledge and this is where the real art lies.
Is GLP-1 or GIP medication mandatory in your protocol?
No, absolutely not. Anyone can achieve permanent fat loss without medication, even if you have struggled with traditional diets for years.
Medication is never a requirement; it is simply a tool. For many people, GLP-1 or GIP is a helpful boost that clears away "food noise" and cravings, making healthy choices easier to maintain. Because we provide close medical supervision and a clear exit plan to step off the medication, it is a safe and temporary aid—not a lifelong necessity.
Ultimately, our main goal is simple: helping you lose dangerous visceral fat and keep it off for good. Whether we reach that target with or without pharmacological support is a decision we make together.
What is metabolic health, and why does it matter?
In simple terms, metabolic health means your body can efficiently process and utilize the energy you consume without causing internal damage. It is not just about being thin or having a stable weight; it is about how well your cells manage glucose, insulin, and lipids (fats).
Think of your metabolism as your body’s engine. When you are metabolically healthy, your blood sugar stays stable, your body is highly sensitive to insulin, and systemic inflammation is low.
From a longevity standpoint, poor metabolic health—such as insulin resistance—is the ultimate driver of chronic diseases.
References
-
Fothergill, E., Guo, J., Howard, L., Kerns, G. L., Knuth, N. D., Brychta, R., Chen, K. Y., Skarulis, M. C., Walter, M., Walter, P. J., & Hall, K. D. (2016). Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after "The Biggest Loser" competition. Obesity, 24(8), 1612–1619. doi:10.1002/oby.21538. (Evidence for: metabolic adaptation, where severe calorie restriction triggers a persistent downregulation of resting metabolic rate [RMR] and total daily energy expenditure that lasts years after initial weight loss).
-
Spalding, K. L., Arner, E., Westermark, P. O., Bernard, S., Buchholz, B. A., Bergmann, O., Blomqvist, L., Hoffstedt, J., Näslund, E., Britton, T., Concha, H., Hassan, M., Rydén, M., Frisén, J., & Arner, P. (2008). Dynamics of fat cell turnover in humans. Nature, 453(7196), 783–787. doi:10.1038/nature06902. (Evidence for: fat cell dynamics; total adipocyte number remains constant throughout adulthood even after marked weight loss, confirming that fat cells shrink in volume rather than disappear).
-
Hinte, L. C., Castellano-Castillo, D., Ghosh, A., Melrose, K., Gasser, E., Insua-Rodríguez, J., & von Meyenn, F. (2024). Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss. Nature, 636(8042), 457–465. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08165-7. (Evidence for: the 'obesity echo' and cellular memory; adipose tissue retains persistent transcriptional and epigenetic alterations after weight loss, priming fat cells for accelerated rebound weight gain).
-
Sumithran, P., Prendergast, L. A., Delbridge, E., Purcell, K., Shulkes, A., Kriketos, A., & Proietto, J. (2011). Long-term persistence of hormonal adaptations to weight loss. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), 365(17), 1597–1604. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1105816. (Evidence for: the long-term hormonal counterattack following weight loss; persistent suppression of satiety signals like leptin combined with sustained elevations in hunger signals like ghrelin driving food noise and cravings).
-
Wilding, J. P. H., Batterham, R. L., Calanna, S., Van Gaal, L. F., McGowan, B. M., Rosenstock, J., Tran, M. T. D., Wharton, S., Yokote, K., Zeuthen, N., & Kushner, R. F. (2021). Impact of semaglutide on body composition in adults with overweight or obesity: Exploratory analysis of the STEP 1 study. Journal of the Endocrine Society, 5(Suppl 1), A16–A17. doi:10.1210/jendso/bvab048.030. (Evidence for: lean mass loss during weight reduction; demonstrating that up to ~40% of unmitigated weight loss can consist of lean body mass if adequate protein intake and resistance training are omitted).
-
Cava, E., Yeat, N. C., & Mittendorfer, B. (2017). Preserving healthy muscle during weight loss. Advances in Nutrition, 8(3), 511–519. doi:10.3945/an.116.014506. (Evidence for: lean body mass depletion; proving that up to 40% of weight lost during energy restriction consists of skeletal muscle tissue unless counteracted by specific lifestyle interventions).
-
Aronne, L. J., Horn, D. B., le Roux, C. W., et al. (2025). Tirzepatide as compared with semaglutide for the treatment of obesity. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), 393(1), 26–36. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2416394. (Evidence for: clinical efficacy outcomes in the SURMOUNT-5 head-to-head trial, demonstrating an average weight reduction of 22.8 kg [20.2%] over 72 weeks).
-
Hall, K. D., & Kahan, S. (2018). Maintenance of lost weight and long-term management of obesity. Gastroenterology, 154(1), 218–227. doi:10.1016/j.mcna.2017.08.012. (Evidence for: long-term weight regain patterns; showing that roughly two-thirds [~67%] of lost weight is typically regained within one year following unguided or short-term interventions due to physiological adaptation).
-
Wilding, J. P. H., Batterham, R. L., Davies, M., Van Gaal, L. F., Kandler, K., Konakli, K., Lingvay, I., McGowan, B. M., Oral, T. K., Rosenstock, J., Wadden, T. A., Wharton, S., Yokote, K., & Kushner, R. F. (2022). Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: The STEP 1 trial extension. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, 24(8), 1553–1564. doi:10.1111/dom.14725. (Evidence for: the rapid reversal of cardiometabolic improvements and regain of two-thirds of lost weight upon treatment withdrawal without structured, long-term maintenance strategies).
-
Kuk, J. L., Katzmarzyk, P. T., Nichaman, M. Z., Church, T. S., Blair, S. N., & Ross, R. (2006). Visceral fat is an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in men. Obesity, 14(2), 336–341. doi:10.1038/oby.2006.43. (Evidence for: visceral adiposity health risks; establishing high levels of visceral adipose tissue as a key independent predictor of early all-cause mortality).
-
Wolfe, R. R. (2006). The underappreciated role of muscle in health and disease. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 84(3), 475–482. doi:10.1093/ajcn/84.3.475. (Evidence for: the vital metabolic role of muscle mass in overall long-term health, disease prevention, and metabolic regulation).
-
Srikanthan, P., & Karlamangla, A. S. (2014). Muscle mass index as an independent predictor of longevity in older adults. The American Journal of Medicine, 127(6), 547–550. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2014.02.007. (Evidence for: muscle mass as an independent predictor of longevity; establishing a direct inverse correlation between muscle mass index and all-cause mortality in older adults).
-
Cruz-Jentoft, A. J., Bahat, G., Bauer, J., Boirie, Y., Bruyère, O., Cederholm, T., Cooper, C., Landi, F., Rolland, Y., Sayer, A. A., et al. (2019). Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis. Age and Ageing, 48(1), 16–31. doi:10.1093/ageing/afy169. (Evidence for: sarcopenia definition and the direct connection between loss of muscle mass, loss of strength, and increased mortality).
-
Moreland, B., & Kakara, R. (2023). Unintentional fall-related deaths among persons aged ≥65 years — United States, 2018–2021. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 72(35), 938–943. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7235a1. (Evidence for: accidental falls being the #1 cause of unintentional injury-related deaths in adults aged 65 and older).
-
Abrahamsen, B., van Staa, T., Ariely, R., Olson, M., & Cooper, C. (2009). Excess mortality following hip fracture: a systematic epidemiological review. Osteoporosis International, 20(10), 1633–1650. doi:10.1007/s00198-009-0920-3. (Evidence for: significant excess mortality and premature death risk following fall-induced hip fractures in individuals aged 65 and older).