I’ve been on TRT for 6 years. I’ve ran a few cycles at 250mg test a week a few times for 6-8 weeks.
I have some Anavar, want to run a cycle with my test. Some questions and info:
46 Y.O. 5-11, 175 pounds approx 13% body fat.
I’ve been training consistently for 8 years.
I’m currently in a very modest calorie deficit, started this “fat loss phase” 1 week ago.
Goals: Ultimately my goal would be to put on a few more pounds of muscle and also burn some fat. If I could get down to 8-10% body fat while putting on even 3-5 pounds of muscle that would be incredible.
How many MG of 'Var would you recommend daily? (I have 50mg tabs)
How much test weekly?
Can I expect a significant body recomp if I run anavar with the test for 8 weeks?
What are some realistic expectations?
I see things like this fairly often on T-Nation. It makes me wonder, “To what end?” There are very few people gifted with the genetics to maintain 10% body fat year round. Plus most people would find it difficult to build any muscle once they get below 10%.
IMO, 13% body fat is on the low end for being able to build muscle.
I don’t know how accurate your “13%” body fat is, but for discussion’s sake let’s say it means that you have major muscle group separation throughout your body. In other words, you look like you lift weights and likely turn heads at the beach. I would want to optimize everything to gain muscle and get stronger.
I’m deleting my old answer - in hindsight, it isn’t the direction I’d recommend.
Push test to 250/wk as you’ve done before.
If you’re not losing 1lb per week, reduce calories from fats, then from carbs.
Hold on to the anavar for when you’re deeper into your cut and strength is suffering.
Assuming that 5’11 and 175lbs at 13% is accurate, you honestly need to gain some muscle.
*You wanting to lose fat at “13%” makes me think you are actually worse off than you think.
You should have 6 abs, 4 discernable heads on your quads, nearing brachialis separation, etc.
I always use the Anavar as a “pre workout” 10 and 20 mg works great. Let them dissolve under your tongue and you are ready to rock and roll.
Never ran more than 210 mg / week. So 30 mg daily. Ofc on non training days i split them up AM & PM
I always use it with 250mg Test, because with anything lower can give me a hard time getting a boner. Maybe thats just me… But once i have it daaaamn boy, then its like granite.
Sorry but this is not gonna happen. Once you get under 10% you can only hope to preserve muscle with anabolics.
Recomp is not achieved by drugs. It’s achieved by diet/macros.
You can run the 50mg daily but split it into 2x25. Take 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 prior to training.
For test you could keep your TRT dose or raise it a bit. My sweet spot is 300mg/wk.
My experience would place Anavar near the end of the list of best AAS to add muscle. My default mass builders were Deca (200mg/wk) and Dianabol (20mg/day) . It seems today Tbol is the better choice over Dianabol, but I have no experience with Tbol. (My AAS cycle testosterone base was 200mg/wk testosterone cypionate.)
Many people will disagree with my choice of Dianabol because it is often considered a “wet” AAS. Where that is true, I found that simple dietary sodium restraint made it where I could compete in reasonably sharp definition taking Dianabol, though it is far from ideal.
I still think you’d do fine to add muscle running 250mg test as a long term “mild blast” so long as you dial in your nutrition.
Whatever your maintenance calories are, add 250cals per day of carbs. You should be seeing about .5 lbs scale weight increase weekly if you are eating 250cals surplus.
Gear is great for adding muscle, but it needs the right building blocks to make that happen… they cannot do their job without the materials to build. Meaning you need to focus on nutrition.
I assume your training is reasonably sufficient considering your leanness and muscles, though id still plug one of my favorite training programs… Trained By Jordan Peters (google it, book is titled “Training Principles By Jordan Peters and Corinne Ingman”).
I think you’d have a hard time not adding size if you used this program.
You can do a recomp without any Var at all. That’s gonna be based on your diet, not the drugs. At least not these drugs. You could try throwing in thermos or appetite suppressant if you wanted to make a difference. More than likely you would have an easier time Slowly gaining muscle rather than trying to do a recomp
That makes the most sense to me.
Don’t allow yourself to get so fat that a recomp seems like a good choice. IMO, keep yourself lean enough that you have major muscle group separation. Look like a bodybuilder all year long. I liked to get no fatter than what I would guess was 15% body fat.
