Hi Guys,
I’m 28, 180cm (5’11) and 85kg (188lbs), BF 14%, training for 10 years naturally.
I’ve started TRT January this year due to low T with my GP here in Germany, dosage 160mg/week (80mg on Monday/Thursday). I’ve noticed little difference in the gym (a little bit of strength gain), but otherwise feel a lot better.
Now it’s time for my annual cut and I thought what the hell, my endogenous production is already surpressed so why not try out my first cycle/blast. I’ve started 4 weeks ago with 125e3d, increased to 250e5d 2 weeks ago and plan on increasing to 250e4d (437,5/w) for the next 12 weeks starting next week. I pyramided up because I wanted to test how I feel with higher levels at first - still feel good and no sides at 250e5d (I use Arimidex 0,25mg e3d, will increase to 0,25mg e2d when switching to 250e4d).
I’ve stagnated the past 5 years training naturally - I’ve always been bulking to about 190 - BF 15% and then cutting to 175lbs at 10% for the summer. What can I expect now with the first cycle? Starting point is the same - I feel like I haven’t lost any muscle in my past natural cuts anyway (but also added almost zero during my bulk), so just preserving muscle and ending up at 175 at 10% wouldn’t be a success for me…
The past 3 weeks I’ve already noticed it is significantly more difficult to lose weight this year being on test, normally in my cuts I lose about 2 pounds/per week pretty steadily for 6-8weeks and I’m there. This year with the exact same calories I’ve lost only 2 pounds in three weeks (so only on third of the normal amount)… So I hope that’s because I’m gaining also a bit of muscle - so far it’s hard to tell… Metabolism should be the same or faster now that I’m on test…
I’m thinking about 2 options now: Now further lower the calories to speed up the cut and try to finish it (for me that’s when I’m at about 10% with a visible 8-pack and veins on my abs) within 6 weeks, then I could start mildly bulking the remaining 6 weeks of the cycle.
Or option 2 would be to stay with my current calories (about 2600 on training days and 1800 on non-training days, I train 5 days a week) and hope to build a bit of muscle while cutting with only a small deficit for 12 weeks - what would you recommend?