Roadmap

This is a structured, 9-step introduction to bioenergetics, based on the work of Ray Peat and related researchers. It exists for one purpose: to give someone who knows nothing about this a working frame for how the body produces energy, how stress and diet interact with that, and how to evaluate claims and adjust their own approach going forward, not just a list of things to buy.

How to use this page: work through the phases in order, top to bottom. Each step builds on the ones before it. Don't skip to supplements or thyroid dosing before Phase 1 is in place; nothing in Phase 2 or 3 will make sense, or work as intended, without the foundation. Expect the whole path to take weeks to months, not days. This isn't a race.

This wiki does not serve a replacement for primary sources, view it as supplemental. Ray's own books, newsletters, and articles are the actual source material; everything here is secondary synthesis and should be checked against them, especially before making any significant change involving hormones or thyroid.

Phase 1 · Foundation

Understand the theory, then find out where you currently stand. Complete both steps before touching your diet.

01 · Basics: The core model: what metabolism is, the two metabolic states (oxidative vs. glycolytic), key hormones, and why stress lowers metabolic rate. Start here regardless of prior knowledge; everything downstream assumes you understand this.

02 · Self-diagnosis & markers: Establish a baseline before changing anything: temperature, pulse, symptoms, and (optionally) blood work. You need to know where you're starting from to tell later whether anything is actually working.

Phase 2 · Practice

Diet first, then everything else. Diet and lifestyle are the foundations the later steps are built on; supplements and thyroid dosing are not shortcuts around them.

03 · Diet: Food as metabolic fuel: ratios, macros, meal frequency, and the foundational foods. Builds directly on Steps 01–02.

04 · Gut health: Digestion, endotoxin, and gut repair: this extends past diet on its own, since a compromised gut limits what any diet change can do and drives thyroid and hormone problems independently.

05 · Substances: An overview of the supplement and substance categories: hormones, vitamins, minerals, pharmaceuticals. A gateway to the reference pages, not a shopping list; most of this is unnecessary if diet and lifestyle (Phase 1–2) are solid.

06 · Activities: Lifestyle and activities that support metabolic health beyond diet: light, breathing, movement, social contact. Cheap and reversible; try this before reaching for thyroid dosing.

07 · Supplementing T3/T4: Thyroid supplementation: risks, protocols for T3, T4, and NDTs. Only after exhausting dietary and lifestyle interventions, and only with self-tracking (Step 02) already in place to monitor the effect.

08 · Bodybuilding & Weight loss: Training principles, recovery, and body composition from a bioenergetic perspective, for those specifically interested in it.

Phase 3 · Environment

Practical, mostly one-time changes to your physical environment. Lower priority than Phases 1–2, and can be done in parallel with Phase 2 rather than strictly after it.

09 · Buy list & Life quality improvers: Practical purchases: red light, incandescent bulbs, air quality, non-toxic cookware, and other quality-of-life items, organized by what problem each one addresses.

Two narrower body-system topics live as standalone reference pages rather than numbered steps, since they're single-topic lookups rather than pillars of the introduction: Dental hygiene and (folded into Step 09) non-toxic Cookware.

Continuing on your own

The point of this roadmap is to get you to a place where you can read Peat's own writing directly, evaluate it, and adjust course yourself, not to keep you dependent on a wiki summary. Once you've worked through Phase 1 and are underway with Phase 2:

Go to the primary sources. Peat's articles, his books, and his newsletters contain far more nuance and context than any summary, including this one, can capture. Where this wiki cites him, the citation is a starting point for reading the original, not a substitute for it.
Use Tools and Resources. It lists this wiki's own tools (tracking, the Buteyko timer, the thyroid calculator) as well as external tools, other people's introductory guides, and interview/article search engines, several of which are useful once you have a specific question you're trying to answer.
Read with a specific question in mind. Peat wrote in response to questions and in specific contexts; his articles and emails make more sense once you already have a real question of your own (a symptom, a lab result, a conflicting claim you've read elsewhere) to read them against, rather than reading them cover to cover with no framework yet.
Verify against your own results. Track your own temperature, pulse, and symptoms (Step 02) before and after any change. Peat himself repeatedly emphasized experimental verification and personal observation over deferring to authority; treat your own tracked data as evidence, not just how you feel about a claim.
Use the reference pages as a dictionary, not a curriculum. The substance, hormone, and topic pages on this wiki (browse via Substances, Hormones, etc.) are meant to be looked up as questions come up, not read start to finish.