Daily Log to 2019 Show Season

[Mac11wildcat]

Ok, I thought I was crazy bringing mine down that low the last couple weeks of my last cut. And I don’t have nearly as much LBM as you. But I guess it’s not unheard of. I just feel like my metabolism has been shot ever since then. I tried going up to 4,000 calories after gradually bring cals up over 3 months and that’s when I had to drop down about 100g carbs from too much water retention. Hopefully I can work my cals up though. Just on week 3 of my blast. I’m really intrigued to see how you move wirh this prep.

Think about what it took to lose the fat. You need to add cals slower than that to reverse diet without adverse effects. Very difficult to execute. I wouldn’t recommend drastic cuts for most people. More frequent mini-cuts would be better for most people due to the difficulty of reversing effectively.

 

[TheH0517]

Think about what it took to lose the fat. You need to add cals slower than that to reverse diet without adverse effects. Very difficult to execute. I wouldn’t recommend drastic cuts for most people. More frequent mini-cuts would be better for most people due to the difficulty of reversing effectively.

I hear ya. It wasn’t the discipline that was difficult, but the thought that I was adding too slowly. There’s the camp that says reverse dieting is pointless. I say that’s wrong. But I guess I met it in the middle when I started my true “bulk” and bumped calories up in one go. Learned that they were, in fact, wrong. I now strongly feel once your past that 2-4 week rebound phase, the increase in calories should only fluctuate with weight plateaus.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

What’s the reasoning behind it being pointless?

Who doesn’t want to stay nearly as lean as their dieted physique will eating more...

 

[TheH0517]

What’s the reasoning behind it being pointless?

Who doesn’t want to stay nearly as lean as their dieted physique will eating more...

Idk. I’ve never agreed with it. I guess their thinking is that when you finish your diet, your maintenance calories are 500-1000 calories above your current intake. Therefore, you might as well jump straight up to maintenance. According to what I’ve heard, they think there’s absolutely no difference in slowly increasing calories to 3,500 or jumping from 2,000 to 3,500.

The issue is that, while you may be in a slight deficit, you’re body has adapted to only utilizing 2,000 calories. And you really have no idea where your maintance calories sit. So it’s a guessing game and can really cause some unwanted results.

That’s my logic and experience (although limited to 3 years).

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Your maintenance, assuming you’ve been on the last step of your diet for 4-6 weeks, IS your current intake.

If what’s said above is true, why aren’t people walking around shredded AF 2-3 months after their diets?

It’s a thing, it works, it’s how some pros stay so lean in offseason despite taking in enough cals to grow at their already insane level of muscle.

 

[Jankauskas]

Your maintenance, assuming you’ve been on the last step of your diet for 4-6 weeks, IS your current intake.

If what’s said above is true, why aren’t people walking around shredded AF 2-3 months after their diets?

It’s a thing, it works, it’s how some pros stay so lean in offseason despite taking in enough cals to grow at their already insane level of muscle.

I agree that your maintenance is your current intake if you are not gaining weight.

However, this is your current intake on a blast, and when the gear leaves your system, the nutrient partitioning just isn’t the same.

If you are ingesting 800 grams of carbs on a blast and you were to come off gear indefinitely, you would just get fat and lose muscle, assuming you are above your genetic limit.

As for he pros staying lean.... Yeah I don’t believe they ever come off high doses, at least not the ones whose income depends on their bodies...

 

[Mac11wildcat]

I agree that your maintenance is your current intake if you are not gaining weight.

However, this is your current intake on a blast, and when the gear leaves your system, the nutrient partitioning just isn’t the same.

If you are ingesting 800 grams of carbs on a blast and you were to come off gear indefinitely, you would just get fat and lose muscle, assuming you are above your genetic limit.

As for he pros staying lean.... Yeah I don’t believe they ever come off high doses, at least not the ones whose income depends on their bodies...

Not debating this at all. It’s more complex than how simply I put it. But if this is the case, guys should be even MORE careful in reverse dieting. Not less. They shouldn’t increase cals at all initially as their maitnenace would drop when the gear does.

It doesn’t justify willy-nilly adding 1000cals.

As far as pros and gear use; yes they do. They absolutely come down and cruise. Some come completely off. Once they’re Olympia size, the stage shape is one prep blast away. I’ve seen Phil guest pose in the early offseason; definitely not on a ton of drugs. The Olympia competitor that did my offseason comes completely off.

 

[TheH0517]

Your maintenance, assuming you’ve been on the last step of your diet for 4-6 weeks, IS your current intake.

If what’s said above is true, why aren’t people walking around shredded AF 2-3 months after their diets?

It’s a thing, it works, it’s how some pros stay so lean in offseason despite taking in enough cals to grow at their already insane level of muscle.

It almost hurts my ego to think 1,800 calories would be maintenance lol

I don’t believe the theory that reverse dieting is bogus. It’s just difficult to imagine that 1,800 calories could be my maintenance when 3-4 months ago, 3,800 calories was maintanence.

The best cut I ever had was my first attempt, when I had little research and no PED experience. I think reading 1,000 different techniques (some that have worked for others and some that are just sales ploys) has made it difficult to sift through what really works FOR ME. And I got my leanest ever on ~2,400-2,600 calories. I guess I need to just revert back to that time and get back to MY basics.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

The body is incredible at adaptation. That’s why fat loss stalls. When fat loss stalls, whether you like it or not, you’re at a new maintenance caloric intake vs expenditure. Something has to shift.

 

[TheH0517]

The body is incredible at adaptation. That’s why fat loss stalls. When fat loss stalls, whether you like it or not, you’re at a new maintenance caloric intake vs expenditure. Something has to shift.

Only makes sense. I’ll be staying up to date to see how you go about your prep. I appreciate the insight man.

 

[Jankauskas]

Not debating this at all. It’s more complex than how simply I put it. But if this is the case, guys should be even MORE careful in reverse dieting. Not less. They shouldn’t increase cals at all initially as their maitnenace would drop when the gear does.

It doesn’t justify willy-nilly adding 1000cals.

As far as pros and gear use; yes they do. They absolutely come down and cruise. Some come completely off. Once they’re Olympia size, the stage shape is one prep blast away. I’ve seen Phil guest pose in the early offseason; definitely not on a ton of drugs. The Olympia competitor that did my offseason comes completely off.

The info I have on reverse dieting, generally, and considering gear is still on the system for a while, I would increase kcals by 400 in the first week, because it’s when the body needs it the most, and from there, about 200 kcals a week. That’s what I do with myself, but it’s different for everyone. I still lost 3 or 4 pounds after the first couple of weeks of increasing, but that’s my metabolism, but yeah you are right, people should be very careful when increasing kcals after a diet.

As for the pros, I’m not getting into debates about this because I’m not a pro and I don’t know any, and even if I did I wouldn’t believe them (trust issues). In the end no one really knows what they do except for them, but it’s my belief that if they indeed cruise, it’s only for a couple of months a year, between shows and between offseason and prep, and they don’t cruise on 200 mg of test a week either...

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Been away for a week or so.

Update:
Sitting at 216ish during the day, 210ish fresh out of bed. Two weeks in to not pinning as I come down to 250/week until prep starts. Have dropped a bit of water I think. Definitely my best spot to start prep to date. The couple lbs down is partially water (judging from my look), partially me fucking up some meals getting crushed with OT the last two weeks.

Been checking my bg biweekly, good to see no impact from gH.

My cycle ended up being:
3iu gH/day throughout

Week 1-10
700mg Test Cyp
500mg Deca (NPP kickstart)
25-50mg dbol to week 4 but quit due to apetite loss

Week 11–16
700mg Test Cyp
350mg Deca
Alternating two weeks of 350mg Tren with inj SDrol at 15mg max (next time this’ll be 20).

As we get closer to prep starting I’ll keep you guys up to date on what the prep cycle is looking like. Don’t expect anything exotic, but it will definitely be heavier than an offseason cycle. Odds are it’ll be more of a cocktail as I’ve done before than with any big dominant dosages. I do think given my condition I’ll be able to hve 4 solid weeks of growing at the front end; “wetter” compounds, still tons of cals, et.

Have a few supps onboard to help address the minor bloodwork issues from on-cycle, plan to retest 2 weeks prior to prep starting to confirm where we’re at.

Thanks for following along guys, more to come.

 

[Jankauskas]

Been away for a week or so.

Update:
Sitting at 216ish during the day, 210ish fresh out of bed. Two weeks in to not pinning as I come down to 250/week until prep starts. Have dropped a bit of water I think. Definitely my best spot to start prep to date. The couple lbs down is partially water (judging from my look), partially me fucking up some meals getting crushed with OT the last two weeks.

Been checking my bg biweekly, good to see no impact from gH.

My cycle ended up being:
3iu gH/day throughout

Week 1-10
700mg Test Cyp
500mg Deca (NPP kickstart)
25-50mg dbol to week 4 but quit due to apetite loss

Week 11–16
700mg Test Cyp
350mg Deca
Alternating two weeks of 350mg Tren with inj SDrol at 15mg max (next time this’ll be 20).

As we get closer to prep starting I’ll keep you guys up to date on what the prep cycle is looking like. Don’t expect anything exotic, but it will definitely be heavier than an offseason cycle. Odds are it’ll be more of a cocktail as I’ve done before than with any big dominant dosages. I do think given my condition I’ll be able to hve 4 solid weeks of growing at the front end; “wetter” compounds, still tons of cals, et.

Have a few supps onboard to help address the minor bloodwork issues from on-cycle, plan to retest 2 weeks prior to prep starting to confirm where we’re at.

Thanks for following along guys, more to come.

Looking very lean now that the water dropped. Did you keep your kcals the same after all?

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Looking very lean now that the water dropped. Did you keep your kcals the same after all?

Yeah but as I said I fucked up pretty good last week with all these long ass meetings and OT killing my schedule.

In a perfect world, yes. I want to ride my cals high even if it means a lb or two of fat as 1000cals goes a lot further in prep than the tiny bit I might gain now that my caloric needs drop a bit with less MPS/partitioning.

 

[TideGear]

Been away for a week or so.

Update:
Sitting at 216ish during the day, 210ish fresh out of bed. Two weeks in to not pinning as I come down to 250/week until prep starts. Have dropped a bit of water I think. Definitely my best spot to start prep to date. The couple lbs down is partially water (judging from my look), partially me fucking up some meals getting crushed with OT the last two weeks.

Been checking my bg biweekly, good to see no impact from gH.

My cycle ended up being:
3iu gH/day throughout

Week 1-10
700mg Test Cyp
500mg Deca (NPP kickstart)
25-50mg dbol to week 4 but quit due to apetite loss

Week 11–16
700mg Test Cyp
350mg Deca
Alternating two weeks of 350mg Tren with inj SDrol at 15mg max (next time this’ll be 20).

As we get closer to prep starting I’ll keep you guys up to date on what the prep cycle is looking like. Don’t expect anything exotic, but it will definitely be heavier than an offseason cycle. Odds are it’ll be more of a cocktail as I’ve done before than with any big dominant dosages. I do think given my condition I’ll be able to hve 4 solid weeks of growing at the front end; “wetter” compounds, still tons of cals, et.

Have a few supps onboard to help address the minor bloodwork issues from on-cycle, plan to retest 2 weeks prior to prep starting to confirm where we’re at.

Thanks for following along guys, more to come.

Looking good man. Did you notice an increase in BP this cycle?

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Looking good man. Did you notice an increase in BP this cycle?

I did not, but I also haven’t checked for a few weeks. I’m sure my rbc/hematocrit is up again, but that’s never fucked with my BP oddly. It’s always been pretty stable and headaches and such are never an issue for me. TBH i tried to test it again yesterday in CVS but the cuff was too small.

 

[TideGear]

I did not, but I also haven’t checked for a few weeks. I’m sure my rbc/hematocrit is up again, but that’s never fucked with my BP oddly. It’s always been pretty stable and headaches and such are never an issue for me. TBH i tried to test it again yesterday in CVS but the cuff was too small.

Lol. I usually read under 120 on the high number and lately I've been closer to 140 with an increased rhr. I'm not overly concerned but I don't like it either. Current cycle is 500 test and 500 npp.

 

[Jankauskas]

I want to ride my cals high even if it means a lb or two of fat as 1000cals goes a lot further in prep than the tiny bit I might gain now that my caloric needs drop a bit with less MPS/partitioning.

That’s actually a great point of view. Definitely something for me to try in the future.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Lol. I usually read under 120 on the high number and lately I've been closer to 140 with an increased rhr. I'm not overly concerned but I don't like it either. Current cycle is 500 test and 500 npp.

Give blood recently? And is the 140 an average reading?

If you’ve given blood, add in a bit of cardio and see if it helps. BP is a good marker but it can be skewed by so many things that aren’t drug related.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

That’s actually a great point of view. Definitely something for me to try in the future.

The way I see it, every cal I’m adjusted to now saves me cals deep in prep. If i can stay 500 higher now, I’m 500 higher later, and that can mean feeling and performing better, an extra 3-4 weeks of increased restriction without killing myself, etc. You can always tell on stage when someone overdieted.