Wanted to get input from those that have done this.
I’m cutting weight for a powerlifting meet three weeks from now. As of right now, I’m at 232 and want to compete at 220, with a 24 hour weigh in. Currently running 400mg Test Prop / 400mg Tren Ace a week. I’ll be throwing in 60mg of Winny a day in the last week and a half, since I have some sitting around.
There’s two pieces here:
Dropping some body fat while maintaining lean mass. I’m already quite lean, but I could stand to shave a % or two of body fat. I’ve never done this while on AAS before. My maintenance diet is about 250/250/100 (carb/pro/fat) all from clean sources and whole food (no protein powder to artificially bump up total protein numbers). To cut weight I generally keep it simple and just move towards 200/250/50 (training days) and 50/250/50 (off days). I’d expect that would work fine while on AAS too, and that being on will just mean I hold more LBM than I would naturally, and probably drop fat faster than I would naturally. Does that sound right? Any other considerations here.
Water cut. I feel like there’s two new variables here: aromitizing steroid dosages, AI dosage. I’d think that if estradiol is at 20 pg/nl, there’s no reason to change dosage for either of those. I’d just do a water load/sodium and carb depletion water cut as normal, with nothing special. Any gotchas here?
Are you taking any aromatase inhibitors like adex? Even though the compounds you are taking are relatively low for bloating/ water retention, an AI will also help dry you out.
[quote]Beyond Beyond wrote:
Are you taking any aromatase inhibitors like adex? Even though the compounds you are taking are relatively low for bloating/ water retention, an AI will also help dry you out.[/quote]
I haven’t been leaning on AIs since at the test dosage my estradiol is sitting right around 20 pg/nl. I figure I could crash it to drop some water, but it seems like that would also prevent regaining water weight for the competition day. Also, since it’s at 20 pg/nl, it’s at the same value as I was naturally so it shouldn’t affect water weight much from natty levels. Not sure if that’s misguided though.
Looks like a good plan. When I cut weight for fights years ago, I would usually do something very similar, cutting 5-6 pounds of water - and this was for a same-day weigh in, usually 3-4 hours before the fight. I was able to rehydrate and refuel with no issues. While I’ve never done a 12 pound water cut, with 24 hours in between you could easily get back to normal before the meet.
I know you’re not planning on cutting that much, just saying. Your approach is basically the same I used, although I wasn’t counting macros - I would just adjust my portion size until I was slowly dropping weight. Three weeks out you could probably cut most of that in actual weight, leaving a minimal water cut at the end.