Need Advice/HELP ME

[D-Lum]

Let me give somewhat of a back story but in a quick way.

I started to lean out back in January. Got a trainer, was put on a diet and work out plan.

Ignore the “week 2” part. But I started out at 222lbs.
I ran the cut diet for 4 months. Got down to 192 at my lowest.

Around this point I start tapering up my test dose as I’m already on trt. My doctor monitors it although he doesn’t prescribe it to me. Yes, I’ve been diagnosed with low T but it’s cheaper for me to order the **** myself since insurance doesn’t cover it anyway. Plus I get the freedom of cruise & blast without repercussion.

So anyway, I taper up and get to my 500 dose beginning of May. I have HELL breaking the 200lbs mark. As of a week ago I’m now this…

The weight is there… but after about 8 or so weeks I feel like I should be looking more obvious.

I’m eating 3102 calories at this point. 244p/320c/94f.

That’s what my trainer has me on. He’s an online coach, he’s very helpful, however, i believe for legal reasons he doesn’t touch on any cycle advice. He’s a pro body builder and I really do enjoy his workouts and such.

So, last year I did a cycle like this kinda of shooting from the hip (I know I know) with a VERY small amount of Decca. Like 100mg a week split i think. With 500 test. And REALLY didn’t have any issues aside from Decca giving me some joint pain due to my reaction to the carrier oil I believe.

But this time with this test only cycle, I’m fighting my e2. It was high. Then I took some ai and learned I’m ai sensitive and it got LOW. I’m just recovering from it and going to do bloodwork soon and see where I stand as well as find a compounding pharmacy that could get me a dose at 0.125mg.

Please, give me your feedback and suggestions.

Is roughly 8-10lbs all I should expect or am I really sinking over here and getting nothing out of this?

Thanks for any help/advice offered.

[rusty_hammer]

@D-Lum

He’s a pro body builder and I really do enjoy his workouts and such.

What does your weekly training schedule look like?

@D-Lum

Is roughly 8-10lbs all I should expect or am I really sinking over here and getting nothing out of this

If you want to get bigger you need to eat more.

[D-Lum]

Right now it’s this.

[D-Lum]

Thank you

[mnben87]

@D-Lum

The weight is there… but after about 8 or so weeks I feel like I should be looking more obvious.

IDK, you have made progress in 8 weeks.

I think there are a few things that may make it seem like you aren’t responding how you’d expect.

First is you were on cruise before (I say cruise not TRT since you are self administering, no shame, so am I). What dose do you cruise on? I think one should not expect the same results on 500 mg/wk Test if they are cruising on a decent dose already. Just not as much of a delta in anabolics compared to a natural that hops on 500 mg/wk.

Second is perception. The people that make the effort to post their first cycle results are overwhelmingly people that got great results. Often they were small and under developed to start with (they are getting noob gains and steroid gains combined). They are also often lying about what they took or how long they took it. TBH, your results are in line with what I see happening IRL with guys I know from the gym and myself.

Third, you are only 8 weeks in. Lots of guys report that they start feeling stronger or start seeing results at 5-6 weeks in.

Fourth, the guys who really look like they are juicing are usually on a lot, and for a long period of time. They are taking gear in the grams for 3/4 of the year, then cruising on like 250-500 mg/wk for the rest. They may have good genetics too.

@Isaiah63

Get a better coach. There are a LOT of them who will provide guidance on PEDs.

Depends on if OP is willing to follow the advice IMO. I am not willing to use much more than Test at this point, so that coaches advice wouldn’t be of much use for me. There has also been plenty of posters here that lay out a PED protocol that their BBing coach gave them, and more often than not it is nonsensical. Probably part of that is that BBing coaches are individuals that have had success with BBing. For that, they pretty much require good genetics. With good genetics, lots of stuff will work, even if it is stupid, but since it worked, they have a bias that they know what they are doing.

[rusty_hammer]

I don’t want to come out as harsh on your coach, I’m sure he means well but in my completely subjective opinion, based on the facts you posted, I don’t see that type of programming working for you. It might work for your coach, the elite pro body builder with good genetics. But for someone just starting out, you need to get strong doing the basics. The main compound lifts that will give you the mass and build of someone that looks like they actually lift weights.
How can he possibly expect you to progress when in one workout he has you doing 4 sets of squats, 4 sets of deadlifts, 4 sets of Romanian deadlifts, sumo deadlifts with 45 seconds of rest between sets? Along with a bunch of other shit that will hinder your ability to recover for your next training session.

I could congratulate you for making the progress seen in your pics despite the horrible training routine this guy has you on.

I’m a boring guy and my best advice to you would be to buy and read Starting strength, do the program outlined in the book, add in some curls, dips and chins for good measure and take your cruise dose of Test. Later on you can move on to more advanced programming. I’m certain you will make better progress doing this and not just spin your wheels for the years to come. Just my 2 cents. Good luck with whatever you choose.

[swoops39]

@D-Lum

I have HELL breaking the 200lbs mark

On 500mg of REAL test, you just gotta eat more.

[D-Lum]

I appreciate the input!
Yeah, i spend a good hour and a half in the gym most days just trying to get all knocked out.

[mnben87]

@Isaiah63

I think you missed the point of my post. I said find a good coach that is willing to give advice.

That is fair.

I was coming from different perspective. More so that not every coach needs to provide PED guidance for things like BBing or powerlifting even if the clients are using gear. It certainly can be beneficial for some, and even necessary at some levels. My gut feeling was the OP wasn’t in that category. That things like how he progresses on his lifts would be enough to dictate how aggressive the coach gets with programming.

I shouldn’t make assumptions though.

[mnben87]

@Isaiah63

If we are looking for a coach, we should be ready to follow the plan exactly and let them make adjustments.

I agree here. I’d also say that considering the scope of coaching is important. For someone like me, who isn’t willing to take a wide variety of PEDs or use them in high quantities or for long periods, that having a coach that is a PED guru would probably be a waste of money.

@Isaiah63

The best way to know that you will want to follow your coaches advice is to do extensive research on what protocols they tend to use and how they operate before hiring them.

I knew people that trained with the powerlifting coach I used before I hired him. They got results. You can do this with online research too of course.

Who is your coach? Is it for BBing or something else?

[D-Lum]

Coach is Joey Swoll. Bodybuilding.

[D-Lum]

[D-Lum]

Diet is where I struggle most. I can follow one, but i definitely am better off when following a meal plan.

[rusty_hammer]

@D-Lum

Coach is Joey Swoll.

Please tell me that that’s his real name

[Shooter27]

I’d say make sure your coach aligns with your goals but your lifestyle as well. A while back I purchased coaching/diet from a VERY well known IG bodybuilder/coach and I literally never used it.

First was the training - I told him I like to train in kind of a power-bodybuilding style (get strong on big basics, then supplement with BB work) and had 60-90 minutes in the gym 4-5 days a week. While the training had the big basics, it was all 10+ rep sets, which isn’t a strength protocol. Then the training was a solid 2 - 2.5 hours, 6 days a week.

On top of that was the diet - he wanted me to eat 7 meals a day (mostly fish, I think salmon) and the total calories was something like 4000-4500/day. At the time I weighed about 230 and told him I wanted to lean out to about 220 while keeping my muscle.

At the end of the day I surmised that he basically just took his training/diet and gave it to me.The whole program was geared for someone that had a solid 3-5 hours/day to spend in the gym and on meal prep, which doesn’t fit my life at all, and I told him that up front. So I basically ignored the program and quit after the first month.

TLDR - Find a coach that knows how to construct a program and diet plan that fits within the parameters of your lifestyle, how you like to train, and your goals.