So I have been on test c 200mg/week for sometime (splitted in to M/W/F injections) which puts me at 1100ng/dl bloodwork done on monday before the injection recently I switched to test e and lowered my dose to 160mg/week to get somewhere in ~850ng/dl didn’t do bloodwork yet cuz I’m travelling a bit. My question is this: when I took TC I had no bloat and was kinda hard and even little amount of AI I instantly felt low E symptoms… now I take 160mg and I have bloated up look, I know I’m lean underneath this water weight and my abs and everything is just blurry I know this feeling and I know 100% it’s water retention and no it’s not diet related cuz it’s almost always on point and I get where I want myself to be bf% and body composition wise. I took arimidex this week on monday and today total about 0.75mg feel better but the water retention is just killing me… I have watched videos and read a lot about it and all I got from it it’s hormones stabilizing, but I’m not convinced too much about it. One possibility could be the ester change? Yet they say test c and test e is interchangeable… any help is greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post!
Some stats:
Height 6’1 or 185cm
Weight 215lbs or 98kg
Bf 15-16% max
Diet is 2500cals (200+ grams of P/25% F/rest carbs)
^^which is 500-700cal deficit for me and is always working for me, not now though…
We’re about the same height and weight, although I’m probably a little bit leaner. 2500 calories is like a 1,250 calorie deficit for me and I’m starting my current contest prep at 3,000.
After my contest two weeks ago I went back on my cruise dose of 200mg/wk Test E and blew up like a balloon. Of course my diet was garbage for a week, but I went from 209 lbs to like 235 in a week. It was brutal, but I kept reminding myself it was just water. I started my prep on Sunday and am back down to 211.5 this morning.
About 6 weeks out of my contest I switched from E to P (and added in other drugs later) and noticed a bit of a drying affect.
Ester may have an affect and my experiences are anecdotal at best. I have never tried C.
I think you have more muscle at the same weight and height so your’re good deal leaner. Yeah I heard that P is drier than E/C. Also today I feel less bloated and visually and by feel I lost water and look better… the only thing I did was I overate 1200cals from my maintenance. Also seeing as you look like you know what you’re doing I’d like to ask you, do you cruise or trt? Is 200mg your go to dose or it depends? Lastly, do you take AI’s on cruise or hrt?
Drink more water, eat less sodium. If you’re really worried about bloating then add dandelion root as a natural diuretic. I can tell you with 1,000,000,000% confidence that it’s not caused by switching from test c to e. They are functionally interchangeable and at the end of the day test is test. I would examine diet before looking elsewhere.
Looks can be deceiving .
I cruise, meaning I do not have a doctor prescribed dose.
200mg/wk is my current go to dose and has been for a while.
No, I don’t take an A.I. even while blasting at much higher dosages and with other drugs stacked on top. My favorite accessory drug is EQ, which seems to have an estrogen lowering affect, so this is probably why.
I can’t say whether one aromatizes more than another; I think that would be or dependent on genetics.
What I will say is that I don’t use equivalent dosages. P has a shorter ester than E and at the same dosage has more base hormone; so to keep an approximate base hormone level I use less. If I were to switch from E to P at my cruise dose I would go from 200 mg to 175 mg per week.
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