AAS and high bodyfat %

Skarpyona

Member
There are certain clichés and recurring themes in the world of bodybuilding and PEDs.
"I just ate chicken rice and broccoli to get big"
"First cycle should be 500mg of test, now shut the fuck up"
"Cardio kills gainz"

But one that always had me raising eyebrows was "newbies shouldn't run AAS at high bodyfat percentage" as well as "blasting on a cut is a waste".

Now for anyone who is remotely experienced and has a good underlying knowledge of AAS and their mechanism of action, this will be pointing out the obvious and claiming the sky is in fact, blue.

This is not directed at you. My regaling is directed towards the kid who is looking to dip their toes in the world of PEDs, specifically the stubborn ones who have been told to perform 10 sets of fork-put-downs before even thinking about AAS but wants to anyways. I'm going to delve into my experience doing the opposite of what conventional knowledge tells you to.

Background

I've been dabbling with PEDs on and off for close to 10 years, with a relatively long hiatus of 5 years due to an accident and life getting in the way. Prior to my accident I was sitting in at a reasonable 225lbs at 13% BF with intermediate level (by my standards) lifts

At the beginning of my experiment, I was a portly 25% bf sitting in at 245lbs. Gross.
Progress was tracked daily, with dietary, exercise, and weight journals being meticulously kept. A body fat caliper and several measurements in different areas were taken to verify and validate body fat.

Over the 6 months of this experiment, I would make changes in diet every 8 weeks. I began with 3000 calories, which was my calculated TDEE given the manual labor and being on my feet for 10 hours a day entrails. I would later drop down to 2500 cals after my 8 week block was up, to finally finish on 2k cals on the last stretch of my journey.

AAS followed the same suite.
I began with 500 of testosterone and 300mg of Masteron E for 8 weeks, to switch to 250 test e + 200 of tren e, to finish with 250 test and 200 primo.


Synopsis

The first 8 weeks were rather uneventful. In the time frame I adhered to a high protein, low carb diet, aiming for 225-250g of protein, sub 60g carb, and moderate amount of fats. I would also do intermittent fasting which made for meals to be rather... Voluminous.
I would perform 30-60 minutes of LISS, 4-6 times per week, followed by your typical PPL split.
Visual recomposition was starting to take place at week 6. Calipers confirmed 21-22% bf at the end of this stage at 243lbs. Heart rate and BP stayed in range of 125-130 over 75-80.

The tren debacle.

Hands down, there is nothing quite as potent, powerful, and frightening like tren. I've commented on my use here in another post and if you remember, my coming off of the compound was due to the health ramifications it brought on. I tapped out after 4 weeks, due to my blood pressure skyrocketing up to 150 over 100. If it wasn't for that factor, I would have endured the remaining 4 weeks.
In that short time frame, bodyweight was down 239lbs but more impressively, bodyfat was 17-18%. Workouts never stalled, the working volume kept increasing, and I felt g o o d.

Primobolan, blood work, cruise

With tren sides still in my system, I wanted to make sure the next compound I would play with would be more docile on my health and it's markers. What better than everyone's poster child for "healthy steroid" like primo? With 200mg weekly of primo plus 250 test, I would continue on the same program I have concocted with 2 modifications: switching to 3 full body workouts per week due to time constraints, and an additional 500 calorie restriction. Progress was less dramatic, but still apparent and weight was still coming off. At the end of this block, I dabbled with some anavar for 2 weeks to see what the hype was about, to settle on a cruising dosage of 150 test with 80mg of primobolan. Weight at the end of this block was 231 with a recorded BF of 15-16%.

Conclusion


My health markers came back in an unsurprising fashion. HDL and LDL were skewered, due to a 3 week block between orals and the blood test, but triglycerides were perfect, hemocrit, RBC were elevated but within range. I also discovered I have hypothyroidism which is hereditary in my case. Fun.

Today, I weigh 226lbs, and am continuing to cut and lose bodyfat, but on a much more reasonable doses.

Whether I was blasting or on a more reasonable cruising dosage, cutting progress was more or less the same and not AAS dependant. Diet, CICO, and cardio made much more of an impact than the hormones. This conclusion could have been easily reached without having to subject myself to it.
"Skarpyona, you fat fucking pinecone. If you knew this already, why put yourself through it?"

I am a stubborn ape and it's something I wanted to try for the sheer sake of finding out for myself and seeing what exactly would happen in my case.

So does AAS help? Yes, with an asterisk. If I had to make a recommendation based on what I learned, it's that a cruising dose is all you need to help maintain muscle mass on a cut. To a beginner, this would absolutely be wasted given the fact if you're new and overweight, you do not have any foundation or underlying knowledge of how to exercise, diet, and how to properly use and control the hormones you are injecting. I glossed over a fair amount of material, but controlling estrogen and the elevated levels of aromatisation high bodyfat brings on is just one of a multitude of health problems you can have.

Would I do this again? Absolutely not. It was interesting, but as stated before, by myself, and others, diet, cardio, and will power will take you further than drugs ever will.
 
Nice post, very long and informative in a way, but you’re case isn’t the typical of the fattys that come on here wanting to run AAS, they’re fattys for life, by choice from poor eating habits, or bad genetics, and those people shouldn’t run AAS without a solid understanding of PEDs, and good workout ethic, which lets face it, if you’re a fatty, chances are you have very little experience in that regard, so while you may have done great becoming a non fatty again, most fattys who try and do what you did without your knowledge and experience are just gonna end up fatter, and with a shutdown hpta.
 
Nice post, very long and informative in a way, but you’re case isn’t the typical of the fattys that come on here wanting to run AAS, they’re fattys for life, by choice from poor eating habits, or bad genetics, and those people shouldn’t run AAS without a solid understanding of PEDs, and good workout ethic, which lets face it, if you’re a fatty, chances are you have very little experience in that regard, so while you may have done great becoming a non fatty again, most fattys who try and do what you did without your knowledge and experience are just gonna end up fatter, and with a shutdown hpta.
100% agreed with you. I was hesitant posting this, and reread it several times wondering how I could have bettered conveyed the message I was looking at driving, and you summed it up nicely.

I could have driven home the point of dealing with side effects more. I didn't mention it at first but my first 8 weeks were plagued with high estrogen sides. I went from being lean and not aromatising to needing 12.5mg of Aromasin daily. Having your dick stop working is never fun, if it's because you're a dumb fat shit, you absolutely deserve it.

If I was to play devil's advocate, I still stand by a TRT dosage could be beneficial. Chances are, a fatty is plagued by low testosterone, and it could be the catalyst necessary they need to boot their ass in high gear. Ultimately it would likely be wasted, because anyone with a modicum of training and dieting experience would be able to overcome a temporary setback (being a fatty) versus the perpetual victim types who want the magic cure to lose weight and get yoked.

It's an inconvenient truth, and I believe that the gatekeeping done in this hobby is a necessary evil. I rather hurt some feelings telling someone they're a stupid fat lazy dumb shit than see them embark in something that will give them health repercussions.

Harm reduction and what have you.
 
Well done good sir and hopefully this clears the air regarding AAS use by those who have a higher % of body fat. I myself is a bit on the heavy side 205lbs at 5’8 and fat runs in my family as both my brothers are stocky and so was my dad. I did notice some fat loss on cycle however so that actually depends on how my body handles food and gear and training.
 
Generally speaking, if someone doesn't have the self discipline to be lean and active before starting AAS usage, they won't magically gain self discipline after starting. All the drugs in the world won't beat a food addiction.

Further, you're more likely to have estro sides while overweight, and it can be discouraging when you don't even notice changes in the physique from AAS use because you have too much bodyfat.

Not to mention the inherently unhealthy lifestyle required to be fat, and the additional strain on the cardiovascular system. All in all, it's typically a bad idea to use AAS while overweight.

But I'm glad you made it work. Good post and nice work man. Although, your situation is quite different, since you were lean before, and simply had to get back in shape, rather than chasing something you had never accomplished.
 
Guys, I know we love to simply pretend that high bodyfat somehow makes AAS use stupid and pointless but the world of powerlifting and oly lifting begs to differ.

Plenty of very large, very strong, high BF% folks use AAS and other PEDs to great effect.

Are they healthy? Frequently no. But they frequently weren't "healthy" when lifting natty either (see also: Dave Tate et al).

Are there examples of power/strength athletes whoa re lean and using steroids? Of course, but that doesn't make bodyfat some sort of magic kryptonite that prevents AAS from functioning.

As @Skarpyona mention, the way we refer to this based a lot less in fact and has more to do with gatekeeping, harm reduction, and a very narrow focus on the BB side of the house.
 
Guys, I know we love to simply pretend that high bodyfat somehow makes AAS use stupid and pointless but the world of powerlifting and oly lifting begs to differ.

Plenty of very large, very strong, high BF% folks use AAS and other PEDs to great effect.

Are they healthy? Frequently no. But they frequently weren't "healthy" when lifting natty either (see also: Dave Tate et al).

Are there examples of power/strength athletes whoa re lean and using steroids? Of course, but that doesn't make bodyfat some sort of magic kryptonite that prevents AAS from functioning.

As @Skarpyona mention, the way we refer to this based a lot less in fact and has more to do with gatekeeping, harm reduction, and a very narrow focus on the BB side of the house.
Totally agree, but elite athletes are not fat forum goers.
 
Guys, I know we love to simply pretend that high bodyfat somehow makes AAS use stupid and pointless but the world of powerlifting and oly lifting begs to differ.

Plenty of very large, very strong, high BF% folks use AAS and other PEDs to great effect.

Are they healthy? Frequently no. But they frequently weren't "healthy" when lifting natty either (see also: Dave Tate et al).

Are there examples of power/strength athletes whoa re lean and using steroids? Of course, but that doesn't make bodyfat some sort of magic kryptonite that prevents AAS from functioning.

As @Skarpyona mention, the way we refer to this based a lot less in fact and has more to do with gatekeeping, harm reduction, and a very narrow focus on the BB side of the house.
One of the worst offenders was Lee Priest. He'd shred down to nothing, and blow the fuck up off season
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I'm not against high bf % people using gear per say. As you mentioned @grey , powerlifters are a perfect example of heavier dudes running shit. It's a trade off at the end of the day. Rich Piana once said, and I'm paraphrasing, "your heart doesn't discriminate. 300lbs of fat or 300lbs of muscle is just as much strain". Once you hit a certain size, you're accepting that your longevity and long term health could be compromised.

It's just a bit of a catch 22. Fatties don't know how to exercise and diet. If they did, they wouldn't be fatties. My situation was very much so the exception and not the rule. All of the headache, troubleshooting, and misery of cutting I endured could have been circumvented if I simply wouldn't have gotten fat in the first place. Live and learn, I suppose.
 
Guys, I know we love to simply pretend that high bodyfat somehow makes AAS use stupid and pointless but the world of powerlifting and oly lifting begs to differ.

Plenty of very large, very strong, high BF% folks use AAS and other PEDs to great effect.

Are they healthy? Frequently no. But they frequently weren't "healthy" when lifting natty either (see also: Dave Tate et al).

Are there examples of power/strength athletes whoa re lean and using steroids? Of course, but that doesn't make bodyfat some sort of magic kryptonite that prevents AAS from functioning.

As @Skarpyona mention, the way we refer to this based a lot less in fact and has more to do with gatekeeping, harm reduction, and a very narrow focus on the BB side of the house.

Not to mention, it's hard to tell wether someone is talking shit about previous experience or not.

Proof is in the pudding and when a guy just wante to run gear to look a bit better, it can be a red flag for sure.
 
Totally agree, but elite athletes are not fat forum goers.
Exactly that. A heavy bulk on the off season is one thing. Never being in any shape your whole life besides 'round'(technically a shape) is another story altogether.

I was a long time forum lurker. Even when bodybuilding took a backseat, I'd lurk because it's fun and nice to be in the loop. I'm hoping this post reaches one of those lurkers down the line
 
One of the worst offenders was Lee Priest. He'd shred down to nothing, and blow the fuck up off season
View attachment 150611

I'm not against high bf % people using gear per say. As you mentioned @grey , powerlifters are a perfect example of heavier dudes running shit. It's a trade off at the end of the day. Rich Piana once said, and I'm paraphrasing, "your heart doesn't discriminate. 300lbs of fat or 300lbs of muscle is just as much strain". Once you hit a certain size, you're accepting that your longevity and long term health could be compromised.

It's just a bit of a catch 22. Fatties don't know how to exercise and diet. If they did, they wouldn't be fatties. My situation was very much so the exception and not the rule. All of the headache, troubleshooting, and misery of cutting I endured could have been circumvented if I simply wouldn't have gotten fat in the first place. Live and learn, I suppose.
Even though it's all weight, a super jacked dude who is lean will weigh less than the same super jacked dude at 30% bodyfat using his giant belly to assist his lifts.
 
Exactly that. A heavy bulk on the off season is one thing. Never being in any shape your whole life besides 'round'(technically a shape) is another story altogether.

I was a long time forum lurker. Even when bodybuilding took a backseat, I'd lurk because it's fun and nice to be in the loop. I'm hoping this post reaches one of those lurkers down the line
Welcome to the dark side man!
 
One of the worst offenders was Lee Priest. He'd shred down to nothing, and blow the fuck up off season
View attachment 150611

I'm not against high bf % people using gear per say. As you mentioned @grey , powerlifters are a perfect example of heavier dudes running shit. It's a trade off at the end of the day. Rich Piana once said, and I'm paraphrasing, "your heart doesn't discriminate. 300lbs of fat or 300lbs of muscle is just as much strain". Once you hit a certain size, you're accepting that your longevity and long term health could be compromised.

It's just a bit of a catch 22. Fatties don't know how to exercise and diet. If they did, they wouldn't be fatties. My situation was very much so the exception and not the rule. All of the headache, troubleshooting, and misery of cutting I endured could have been circumvented if I simply wouldn't have gotten fat in the first place. Live and learn, I suppose.
I’ve seen this photo many times of Lee - is this real ??
 
I was a chonker first cycle. Had 4 years off any kind of weights...except 12oz curls.. if anything the AAS accelerated the fat removal, sure i had to use a bit more arimidex than the avarage person but i fucking made it work. Anadrol is my no.1 "secret" for recomp.
Drinking was in my blood too as I'm half Irish. Got roped into drinking Irish whiskey with my brothers at a campsite in the near the NASCAR track in NH this past weekend. Still went to the gym today even 24 hours after I drank nearly the whole damn bottle LOL.
 
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