First cycle - too fat?

Pharma / TRT
1

Cheers for having a read and giving some advice if it’s there.

Background
I’m early 30’s, 6’2, 320lb and 29%BF. I was lean in my early 20’s, hovering between 10-15%BF at 250lb then I got married, had kids and got fat. I’ve never done a cycle before although I was tempted in my 20’s.
I started this journey about 12 months ago at 360lb’s. I’ve got around 12 years of training experience, I was in a sports development programme from 15 where we started weights training.

What I want to achieve
I’m on a mission to get back to that 10-15%BF range at 250lb.

Training
I currently train 6 days a week, cardio first thing in the morning and weights later in the day

Monday - Back (volume)
Tuesday - Legs
Wednesday - Triceps and core
Thursday - Shoulders
Friday - Back (heavy)
Saturday - biceps and core

All days except Monday start with heavy compounds and then move to more volume work. Monday is all volume and no deadlifts (I’m fucked for squats the next day if I do deadlifts Monday)

I also do around 30 minutes of cardio on my training days and have an active rest day on Sunday (take my son swimming etc)

You’ll notice there’s no chest training, I sit at a desk all day and have managed to get rounded shoulders. Physio reckons I should stay of the chest exercises until I sort it. He’s also given me some posture tips that I’m implementing. I’m open to criticism here, if you think I can still hit chest without making it worse then I’m all ears.

Diet
I’ve got a nutritionist and track all my macros etc. I’m eating the following,

Breakfast -

Half a meal prepped Breakfast Burrito and a protein shake

443 calories
53g protein
16g fat
25c

Morning Tea

Second half of meal prepped Breakfast Burrito
324 calories
29g protein
16g fat
25c

Lunch

Chicken breast, Kumara (sweet potato), 2 cups vegetables

850 calories
63g protein
12g fat
85g carbs

Afternoon tea (post training)

Protein shake with water
Banana

240 calories
25g protein
1g fat
34g carbs

Dinner

Protein (chicken, steak, pork, salmon, cod), two cups veges, cup of carbs (rice, potato, Sweet potato)

Around 1000 calories
65g protein
12g fat
136g carbs

Before bed

2 pieces of fruit and a casein protein shake

300 calories
26g protein
2g fat
51g carbs

No alcohol or sugary drinks, I drink a fuck tonne of Coke no sugar though.

Supps

In the morning I take the following,

5g creatine (2 x 2.5g ON caps)
Men’s Multi
Fish oil cap
Protein powder (ON casein and whey, see diet)
L-Carnetine 3g
2 x Vit C chewable (my sons at daycare and always brings colds and shit home :joy:)
Apple cider vinegar chewables

Pre workout I take 2x scoops or Redcon 1 big noise (non stim, I lift in the afternoon / early evening and stims keep me up all night)

Before bed I take a magnesium supp.

Sleep
I’ve got sleep apnea which I have a mask for. Sleeps pretty clean, get around 8-9 hours a night

Bloods
Recently got some bloods done:
I’m right above the line of being testosterone deficient 13 nmol/L
Serum cortisol 216 nmol/L
TSH 1.2 mIU/L
ALT was high. 64 U/L
Urate was high. 48 mmol/L
Cholesterol was high 6.1 mmol/L
Triglycerides was high 4.0 mmol/L
Progesterone <1 nmol/L
Oestradiol 158 pmol/L

Everything else was normal ranges

**What I want to do **
I’m looking to speed this weight loss process up a bit and enhance my recovery. I’ve been having a look around and thought the following 12 week cycle would help me get to where I wanna be

Test E - 250mg a week total pinned twice. (Weeks 1-4)
Test E - 300mg a week total pinned twice
(Weeks 5-8)
Test E - 350mg a week total pinned twice
(Weeks 9-12)

Reason for increasing doses is that I’ve never done a cycle before, if I’m getting good results I’ll stay at a dose, if I’m not I’ll jump up. If sides start fucking me up I’ll drop back down

Anavar - 40mg a day. 12 weeks (oral)

I want to run Primo as well but there’s tonnes of conflicting info about when to run in the cycle and at what dosages. Any insight would be very much appreciated.

PCT
Start 3 weeks after last pin of test

HCG - 500iu (4 weeks)
Clomid / Nolva (4 weeks)

So there it is team. I’m open to any and all advice / criticisms / questions.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

2

What are the lab ranges? If your testosterone is below range, think about TRT.

AAS won’t speed up the weight loss. You have enough fat on you to lose weight and preserve muscle without resorting to AAS.

The anavar and primo would be a waste. Save them for when you really need them. And that’s after you have been consistently training for a couple years and have your diet on point.

It seems you’re dedicated and doing everything right. Keep it up. Slow and steady wins the race.

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3

Don’t take any drugs. Your body fat is way too high. Steroids do not burn fat.
Don’t use low test as an excuse. Get you fat down and your test will come up. You’re asking for a whole host of issues if you start taking drugs.
Learn how to eat, train and do cardio.
Lose 100lbs and get healthy.

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This is not accurate.

As others have said, you need to lose the weight first. Fucking up your endocrine system on a hail mary fat loss plan is a terrible call.

Your hormones arent the problem, your eating habits are. Fix them first. Make this a lifestyle, then reassess gear usage.

As it is now, you’re trying to slap a turbocharger on a clapped out '92 civic that hasnt been driven in nearly a decade. Best case scenario is you get a car that might not blow up and its still not that fast.

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You do understand that at 320lbs, 29% body fat is 71% lean weight, or 227lbs of non-fat weight. You are very strong, or maybe the 29% body fat is actually a little too low.

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Yes, he’s a lot fatter than that.

His FFMI would be 29.

Chris Bumstead’s FFMI was about 29 when on stage last year.

1000011961

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He is over 50% if LBM is 200lbs which i doubt. Thinking pushing 60%
That is not good and in no way should anything but ozempic be used here.

8

I dont think ozempic is a good call here tbh. It’s just going to mask the problem for the next year or two while he loses the weight.

Then he’s going to come back hungry and with no skills having been learned, no lifestyle choices having been changed, and no idea why he’s unable to stop his rebound hunger.

Ozempic is only a good tool to use if the right lifestyle choices are already being made, and they can be sustained when the weight has been lost… OP took a year to lose 40lbs and has already looked to steroids to solve his eating problem. Only 3 more years at this pace and he will actually be an acceptable weight.

Dude needs a serious wakeup call like a heart attack or becoming someone’s prison girlfriend if he’s going to fix the issues that brought him here (his eating)

I have big doubts about this too. Just like I doubt his claim that he used to be 250 at 10-15% bodyfat.
I’ve been guilty of this in the past too. I had 0 abs and thought I was like 13% bodyfat based on some internet picture lol.

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I def agree but semaglutide would at least help get the weight off with minimal risk of sides. If he takes test he is gonna be fighting estrogen and high blood pressure. These could have serious consequences.

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Cheers guys, I got all the BF stuff done with callipers at the local gym so it could be way off . I’ve got a pretty big Polynesian frame, I’m as wide as a fridge at my shoulder but I definitely didn’t look like Chris Bumstead even when I was real fit :joy::joy:

Looks like the consensus is to keep grinding away with the diet and exercise without any enhancements which I’m on on board with.

Have you guys got any tips on those two fronts? Or ways to enhance my recovery from workouts? I think I’ve got the sleep dialled in but I’m still exhausted and sluggish every morning

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You just gotta keep going. When your out of shape you def “feel” it more.
Why not start a log on here so we can help you on your journey?

If your waking tired your sleep is not dialed in. Do you have sleep apnea or any othe conditions?

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Yeah man definitely, I’ll have a look around the forum for the log section.

Sleep apnea - I do indeed, ive been diagnosed and have a sleep mask though

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I’d never normally say this, but the veggies you’re eating alongside your meals are making me pause… the meals themselves are already large, adding 2 cups of veggies alongside it is frankly a lot of volume.
It reads like you are stuffing yourself to full during your Lunch and Dinner. Are you?

I’m asking because if you are, there is some work that needs to be done on your relationship with food. This is the core reason why most people get too fat in the first place. It’s not because food is tasty, it’s because food is a coping mechanism for the real problem.

If the shoe fits (it probably does), maybe check out The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto. I don’t believe a better book exists to address these issues.
*I used to eat as a cope too. My hunger levels dropped significantly when I de-coupled my emotions from my hunger.

You’re better off supplementing Vitamin D3 for this instead.
Vitamin C doesn’t do much - if anything, and you’re already eating fruit like crazy. Unless you’re fighting off scurvy, then you don’t need to supplement this.

My sleep apnea got better when I leaned out.
The mask still helps, I think, but my apneas reduced a lot. Neck is still 17.5" so I’ll just have to deal.

I checked, and your macro counts are a bit off from what you said they are. I can post the details if you want but this is already a long response.

Daily totals: 2,999cal (my calculations)
P: 179g (subpar)
F: 59g (great!)
C: 356g

I’d be pushing more protein and lowering carbs. I think if you chase whole food sources for all your food intake (red meat for proteins and fat, rice and potatoes for carbs), you’d be more satiated and feel healthier. You shouldn’t need to supplement 4 protein shakes to hit 179g protein daily… sounds like 100g of that is coming from protein shakes.

Food is more filling than liquid. Stop drinking your food.

Look, i’m not going to shit on you for turning to TRT to keep you on target, but it does very little - if anything - to help you lose weight. It really only shines when it comes to retaining muscle in a deficit, which you are nowhere near lean enough to be concerned about.
TRT is a lifelong decision though.

But cycling is a shit tool for this.

And that money would be better used on higher quality food sources, primarily protein.

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Did you have defined abs at 250lb?