Welcome to Grapple Shred 4.0. The goal of this call is simple — clarity for week one. Get a couple of basic things set up properly and you'll be absolutely fine. The rest of this page is the playbook.
Watch the video, then use the notes as your reference for the first two weeks.
The three pillars
- Health-focused fat loss. A healthy human is a high-performing human. If your nutrition supports your health, it naturally supports fat loss and training.
- Performance-focused fat loss. You're not just eating less — you're eating to train hard and recover.
- Sustainable fat loss. The point is to get off the dieting hamster wheel for good. We're building habits you can hold onto when this programme ends.
The Range Method — the most important concept on this page
Your tracker gives you a daily target. But your real working range is between that target and your maintenance — the calorie number that holds your bodyweight. Anything between those two numbers is still progress.
Find your maintenance:
- Men: bodyweight (kg) × 24 × 1.3
- Women: bodyweight (kg) × 22 × 1.3
Example: an 88 kg male → 88 × 24 × 1.3 = ~2,750 kcal maintenance. If his daily target is 1,800, anything from 1,800 to 2,750 still drives fat loss — just at a slower rate on the higher end.
The weekly pool: take your daily target × 7. That's your weekly calorie budget. You can distribute it across the week however suits real life — provided you're sensibly close to target most days.
The popped-tyre rule
If you're driving and you run over a glass bottle and pop one tyre, you don't get out and stab the other three. So why, when you go 200 kcal over target, do you write the day off and binge?
Going slightly over isn't a failure — it's a tuesday. Eat at maintenance and stay in control. That's exactly what the range is for.
Hierarchy of importance
- Weekly calories
- Daily calories
- Daily protein
- Carbs & fats — preference. Lower training day? Have a bit more fat, fewer carbs. The total is what counts.
Reduced-calorie diets cause weight loss regardless of the macronutrient they emphasise. You do not need to go keto or ultra-low-carb. Hit calories and protein. The rest is preference.
The eight-week structure
- Weeks 1-2: settling in. Build habits, learn the tracker, get your routine in.
- Weeks 3-4: we cut the calories slightly.
- Weeks 5-6: we cut them again — the deepest deficit.
- Weeks 7-8: reverse diet — we slowly bring calories back up.
You're only really dieting for six weeks. Realistic loss rate is 0.3–0.7% of bodyweight per week. Different for everyone — heavier people lose more, lighter people lose less.
"Fat loss should be like a bank robbery — get in, get the cash, get out."
The week itself — 6 deficit days + 1 refeed
Six days at your daily target, one refeed day close to maintenance. Put the refeed on either a weekend day or your hardest training day.
The wrong way to do this: hammer the deficit Mon-Thu, then blow it all out at the weekend. That's how people stay stuck for years. (Eating just 20 kcal over maintenance every day puts a stone on per year. It adds up quietly.)
Setting up tracking — do this today
- Open MyFitnessPal. Drop in your calorie and macro targets from the tracker. Start logging everything that goes in your mouth — sauces, drinks, snacks. Everything.
- Track at minimum 3 days. The more data you give me, the sharper my coaching gets. Ideally every day.
- Avoid the AI photo trackers. Take a photo of a sandwich with a tear of bread underneath it — the AI doesn't see what's hidden. Log it manually.
- Use MyFitnessPal as a planning tool, not just a logging tool. Plan tomorrow's meals tonight. You'll know exactly what you're eating before you wake up — no 5 pm panic, no Just Eat orders.
- Use the Shred Kick-Off Guide in the Core Guides. It covers meal structures (3 meals + 2 snacks, 3 + 1, 4 meals, etc.). Pick what fits your life.
Non-negotiables
Week one won't be perfect — that's fine. But these are the things to lock in:
- Sleep: bed by 10-11 pm. 7 hours minimum. Sleep is the superpower.
- Water: 1 litre before midday. 2+ litres total. Hydrate early — it changes your day.
- Steps: 10,000/day. Low-intensity movement adds up. If you can't hit it every day, make it up across the week.
- Plan & track your food. 5 minutes the night before saves 50 minutes of decision fatigue.
- Stress management. Walk. Disconnect. Time with people you love. Lower cortisol → better hunger control, better sleep, better fat loss.
Environment — friction is your friend
Make tempting foods hard to reach. Open biscuits at hip-height every time you flick the kettle on = three biscuits a brew = a stone of fat a year. Put them on a high shelf or just don't buy them.
Make good foods easy to reach. Fresh fruit out on the counter. Pre-cooked protein at eye-level in the fridge. The default move should be the right one.
Set up your home, your work, your social environment to support your goals. If your kitchen, fridge and office are working against you, this is twice as hard.
Supplements — basics only
- Fish oils
- Creatine
- Vitamin D
- Multivitamin
- Electrolytes (if you sweat a lot)
- Whey protein
Don't get fixated on this stuff. It's the icing — the cake is calories, protein, sleep, steps.
Alcohol, fizzy drinks, processed food
- Faster results? Don't drink.
- Going to drink anyway? Clear spirits, low-sugar mixers.
- Fizzy drinks: swap full-sugar for zero. There's no reason for a 200 kcal Coke when Coke Zero exists.
- Processed food: limit, don't remove. You're allowed a treat — just don't make it three a day.
- Watch the calorie bombs. High fat + high carb = burgers, pizza, ice cream. Read the labels.
Trust the trend, not the day
The scale will jump for a hundred reasons that aren't fat — water, salt, hormones, stress, that big meal last night. Weigh daily, but track the weekly average. That's the real number.
Never miss twice
One bad meal doesn't mean a bad day. One bad day doesn't mean a bad week. Just don't let it become two. The next meal is always the reset.
Consistency of averages is everything. Nutrition is what you do most of the time, not all of the time.
What to do in the next 48 hours
- Set up MyFitnessPal with your calorie and macro targets.
- Open the Shred Tracker. Get familiar with where to log everything.
- Read the Shred Kick-Off Guide in Core Guides — especially the meal structures section.
- Plan tomorrow's meals tonight. Even rough — just have a plan.
- Lock in the non-negotiables: bed time, water before midday, step target.
You have me. You have the group chat. You have weekly check-ins, two short lecture videos a week, and a Q&A. Use them. Abuse them. That's what they're here for.