Hi Guys,
I am on TRT, am 41, and lift 3 to 4 times a week with BJJ 4 times a week. I am also doing 2 to 3 low intensity steady state cardio sessions each week.
This is my second blast ever. My first blast was 500mg Test and anavar at the end. It was brutal on my hairline so trying a more conservative approach. I am hoping this blast could be around 20 weeks with 10 weeks representing a recomp.
I started my recomp 2 weeks ago.
Starting Point:
6ft
105kg or 230lbs
19% to 20% BF
TRT at 100mg Test Cyp + HCG
Lifts (lbs):
Squat 315x5
Bench 325x1
Deadlift 440x1
Overhead Press 190x1
Goal (8 weeks from now):
98kg or 215lbs
14% BF and minimum muscle loss
Blast Protocol (per week):
210mg Test Cyp (administered daily… just bumped up trt dose by double)
87.5mg NPP (administered EOD)
Exemestane or Aromasin 6.25mg ever 3 days
2 weeks in:
No loss of strength, maybe even stronger
Weight at 103.2kg or 227.5lbs
Consuming 2,500 calories per day
Questions:
1) My weight hasn’t dropped much, but I can tell on my weight belt I am slimming down. What is realistic amount of weight linked to water retention from increasing the anabolics?
2) I am constantly exhausted. I am waking up multiple times every night, feeling wide awake. Could this be the NPP? My dosage isn’t that high but man its brutal.
3) I am also needing naps once or twice a day. I might be overtrained. Currently deloading. Could this be linked to the blast or calorie deficit?
4) Any advice?
Thank you
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I don’t know if it’s the nandrolone causing your exhaustion and poor sleep. I do know that when I was in a caloric deficit I was thoroughly exhausted, feeling weak and had disturbed sleep. What I did to retain as much muscle as possible was to substantially decrease lifting volume while maintaining intensity. So instead of doing 3-5 sets across, I would do one or two sets across. This allowed me to maintain my current lifts and to recover much faster.
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Also, it looks like you are cutting since your goal is to lose over 17 lb in 8 weeks. My idea of a recomp is maintaining more or less the same weight while changing your body’s muscle to fat ratio. You can do this with more or less any anabolic given the right amount, certainly with NPP. However nandrolone could add some water weight which could be a bit deceiving to the eye. The water will come off after your cycle so do don’t let that discourage you.
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Any idea how much water weight I will take on givent that I weigh 227lbs?
At the moment my weight is almost neutral and I figured that is the additional water weight.
If you are trying to recomp stop looking at the scale. Use the mirror. You shouldn’t be losing/gaining much weight, Just changing the way your physique looks. What do your macros look like? What foods are you eating? Last recomp I did i had pretty low carbs and I was exhausted. Brought them up to match my training output and sleep got better.
Bro just eat less to lose weight, jeez.
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The scale hasnt changed much at all and I am feeling leaner and I have moved down a couple notches on my weight belt.
I am trying to get a rough understanding of how much water weight I have gained on this blast as this matters to me. I need to weigh a certain amount on the days I compete in bjj. If I know just going back to trt levels will get rid of the water weight and I will be ready to compete without further cutting, great. @rusty_hammer mentioned this for good reason.
My macros are 220 to 250g protein, 40g to 50g fats, the rest carbs. Totalling 2,500 calories.
I eat:
3 to 4 proper meals
I also consume a 40g whey isolate shakes post lifting or bjj. So 1 to 2 times a day.
This is giving me a 35g or more protein intake 5 to 6 times a day.
In the past when I have done this withiut increasing anabolics 50% or more of the weight lost was muscle, even with macros at correct levels.
I want to lose mostly fat.
How did you quantify that it was muscle being lost?
How much muscle did you lose?
Were you under 10%BF?
I did inbody scans regularly to assess muscle vs fat.
I lost 55% muscle according to those scans.
Okay so those scans lied to you. Bodyfat Impedance testing can be off as much as 15% in BF% guessing, depending hydration, electrolytes, etc.
If your weren’t under 10%BF, and you didn’t crash diet, you didn’t lose muscle.
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I believe this is physically impossible for the human body unless you are anorexic to begin with and are eating less than 800 calories daily.
The best way to track progress while dieting down is to periodically check your 1 and 5 RMs on the compound lifts (deadlift, squat, bench, overhead press). If the weight on the bar remains the same, you are unlikely losing much muscle mass, even if you get a lower number of reps. It’s the intensity that matters.
For instance, if your 5RM squat is 405lb and after two months into your diet you are still getting over 400lb for 3-5 reps, you have maintained muscle and (hopefully) lost fat.
As for the water weight you keep mentioning, you need to watch your sodium intake which will play a huge part in how much water you hold.
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You’re recomping, right? So this is the goal.
Tough to say how much is water weight, surely some of it is. How do you look in the mirror? Puffy and bloated? That’s water.
Yeah those in body hand things are notoriously in-accurate. You didn’t lose 55% muscle, probably not even 10%
At close to 20% bf I was alresdy a bit puffy 
A couple more questions…
Do you want to recomp, or do you want to lean out, then bulk back? One method is far more effective than the other.
What is your diet plan?
I think I may have misunderstood what it is to recomp.
My goal is to go from 105kg (230lbs) at around 20% bf to 98kg (215lbs) at around 14% bf.
To achieve this goal I was planning to blast for 16 to 20 weeks. This would allow me to be in a calorie deficit (2,500 calories) to drop bodyfat for around 8 to 10 weeks and then have a similar amount of time to go into a small caloric surplus and lean bulk.
Diet wise, I am eating 3 to 4 solid meals of approx 40g to 50g in protein each and having a whey isolate shake equalling 35g of protein 1 or twice a day, post bjj or lifting. Fats are at around 50g with the rest of the calories being carbs.
Long term I want to be 98 to 100kg and relatively lean (12% to 14%).
Thanks for the help @Andrewgen_Receptors .
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Good luck, let us know how it goes
You should focus on your nutrition and training at this time. With those current lifts, there is absolutely NO reason to throw in compounds.