Anonymous as always. Use the video for the colour — the notes below are your reference.
"Tips for dealing with training when you've got a cold or flu?"
Use the neck check:
- Above the neck — runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, mild head cold. You're usually fine to train. Drop to 50-60% intensity, keep it short, keep it technical. If you're rolling, be considerate — don't spread it round the gym. Light movement can actually help.
- Below the neck — chest, hacking cough, body aches, fever, gut's gone. Stop. Not soft, smart. Training through a fever is how a 3-day cold becomes a 2-week chest infection.
Missing 3-4 days does nothing to your physique. You won't lose gains. You won't undo the Shred. If you feel like you've fallen behind — you haven't.
If you're out for a few days, consider moving up to maintenance calories at the lower end — pushing the deficit while sick can prolong the illness. Maintenance formula:
- Male: bodyweight (kg) × 24 × 1.1 (lower activity multiplier while sick)
- Female: bodyweight (kg) × 22 × 1.1
Worked example: a 65 kg female → 65 × 22 × 1.1 ≈ 1,570 kcal.
Keep protein high. That's the priority. And if you're contagious, stay off the mats out of respect for everyone else.
"Tips for training in this heat?"
I actually love training in the heat — but the main thing is hydration starts the day before, not the session. You can't pull water late in your warm-up and expect to be ready.
Electrolytes become non-negotiable in this weather. You don't need to buy the expensive stuff — salt in your water works. But you're sweating out sodium and topping up with plain water alone often doesn't do the job. Proper electrolytes (sodium + potassium + magnesium) help.
If you're on a GLP-1, this is bigger than it sounds. Appetite suppression comes with reduced thirst — you can be dehydrated and not feel thirsty. Don't wait for the signal; drink to a schedule.
Practical:
- Pick your time — early morning or evening if you can
- Pre-cool — cold shower or cold drink before the session
- Expect performance to drop in the heat. That's physiology, not weakness.
- More hydration breaks — like the World Cup. Use the breaks.
- If you're absolutely cooking, tap. No shame.
Warning signs to stop immediately: dizziness, pounding headache, nausea.
"How accurate is MyFitnessPal? I put fillet steak in and it came up as 45 g of fat — that can't be right."
Correct — that's nonsense. MFP is a user-generated database, which means most entries are submitted by random people. The verified ones (green tick) are fine. The unverified ones can be wildly wrong.
45 g of fat for a fillet is someone confusing fillet steak with a fattier cut. A lean fillet is one of the leanest steaks — a realistic portion is 8-15 g of fat.
The rules:
- For single whole foods (meat, rice, oats, fruit) — verify against the packet or trusted source
- For packaged stuff — scan the barcode, that'll usually pull verified data
- Be suspicious of any entry that looks off
- Weigh in grams, not cups or "1 portion"
Bottom line: MFP is a decent tool when you stick to verified entries and barcodes. Double-check anything that looks mad. For plain whole foods, trust your own research over the database.
"Is there a way to turn off active calories in MyFitnessPal?"
Yes — do this. Your calorie target is already set including your training, so you don't want MFP adding "earned" calories back on top.
In MFP: Settings → Steps / Connected Apps → disable negative calorie adjustments. The exact wording shifts between versions, but it's in that area. The Tracking Guide / Kick-Off Guide covers it with screenshots too.
Once it's off, your daily target stays the same regardless of what your watch logs.
"Tips for making carbs more interesting? Plain potato and rice are a chore. Oats give me heartburn."
Chicken, rice and broccoli will break anybody's soul. Fix in two parts.
Heartburn from oats — stop forcing them. If they don't agree with you, swap out. Options:
- Cream of rice
- Rice flakes
- Fruit with a bit of honey in the morning
Variety — all Shred-friendly:
- Sweet potatoes
- Butternut squash
- Couscous
- Gnocchi
- Sourdough
- Bagels
- Noodles, pasta
Seasoning fixes most of it. A boiled potato is grim — spray it with a touch of oil, hit it with paprika and garlic, you've got a side worth eating. Sushi or jasmine rice with a bit of soy, chilli or herbs soaks up the flavour beautifully.
Frozen fruit counts — mango, pineapple, berries, banana. Frozen berries on top of Greek yoghurt is basically a dessert.
"Fun carbs" are allowed if they fit your numbers. Bowl of cereal at night. Rice cakes with honey. Sweets pre-training. Carbs are carbs to your body — fit them in the budget and enjoy them. Put your nicest carbs around training and in the evening — something to look forward to after a hard roll. They also help you sleep.
"Outside of Reta, BPC, TB — any other peptides must-have or up-and-coming for getting jacked and grappling?"
Legal disclaimer: I can't recommend peptides. I can only talk about what I've used and observed.
Foundation first. Get the 90% done: sleep, lifting, protein, sensible deficit. Peptides are the last 10%. Skip the foundation and no peptide will save you.
Things I rate, in roughly this order:
- Creatine. Yeah, technically a supplement, not a peptide — but it's always the right answer. (See the next question.)
- BPC-157 & TB-500. You already mentioned these — gold standard for soft-tissue repair and recovery.
- GH secretagogues — Ipamorelin, CJC-1295, Tesamorelin. (Tesamorelin was originally developed for AIDS patients for body-fat loss.) Realistic benefit: recovery, sleep quality, soft tissue — which indirectly protects training and helps you stay lean while holding muscle. Not a shortcut to getting jacked.
- MOTS-c. Amazing for grappling specifically — deeper gas tank in hard rounds. When I use it sometimes I feel like the gas tank is unlimited. Promising, not proven yet.
- GHK-Cu. Really like it — recovery, skin, soft tissue.
What I'd swerve:
- MK-677 — more of a SARM than a peptide. Personal preference, not for me.
- Melanotan-2 — tried it (injection, not nasal). Turned me a different colour and had some memorable side effects. Would I recommend it for getting jacked and grappling? No.
HGH: if you're using growth hormone, you also need testosterone alongside it. Don't walk into one without understanding the other.
"How much creatine per day?"
Keep it simple. 5 g a day. Every day. Forever.
- Plain creatine monohydrate. None of the fancy "advanced" versions.
- Take it any time — with food, without, doesn't matter.
- Take it on rest days too.
- You don't need to cycle it.
- Some people run 10 g — that's fine too. Anywhere in 5-10 g is sound.