Here are my macros. I’m not new to the gym, but I have been out for about two years. One day is not completely filled out because I ate some food that family made and was unable to accurately log the macros for it.
Training is a four day upper/lower split with light cardio and abdominal training on off days. I’m following Jeff Nippard’s fundamentals book because it’s been the most helpful to me in the past.
My diet, in regard to micros and macros has always been good. I moved to a sedentary job, enrolled in intense schooling, and experienced sympathy weight gain while the wife was pregnant.
While I may be overweight now, I’ve never purposefully been a lard and life is getting to the point again that the gym won’t interfere with everything else.
3,000 calories is my maintenance level. I believe my carbohydrate intake is adequate. I’ve followed the carnivore diet before, as well as a standard keto diet. Even at healthy weights, I feel absolutely miserable without carbohydrates, and they are a necessary part of anyone’s diet.
I’m suggesting you cut the fat and shift those calories to protein to hit 220 per day and the rest as carbs.
hope you start a log. I’d like to follow along.
to answer your question
if I were you I would not start with 500mg of test c until I had visible abs in any light without flexing. (the abs part is not what is important here, it’s the lean part)
I agree that testosterone usage is not optimal right now. However, considering I have excess fat to burn for calories and the potential for newbie gains because I’m detrained, I would hypothesize that cutting at a slight deficit or even maintaining for a recomp is reasonable in my situation. Additionally, I understand the need to properly adjust my AI usage (if necessary) due to the increased aromatization resulting from high body fat.
Ultimately, I will be running this cycle. I may regret it, or I may not.
Just because it’s not optimal doesn’t mean I won’t run it. I understand the risks but I’ve accepted that and believe the benefits outweigh the potential consequences.
You should get into your previous best natural level, and only then experiment with AAS.
What does this mean?
So, you are around 200lbs bodyweight. Give us an idea of how strong you are. I cannot imagine a 200lb man not being able to 1 rep max bench press 300lbs and 1 rep max squat 400lbs before using AAS. Are you strong enough to at least accomplish these reasonable weights now? If not, how much can you bench press and squat?
If your leg press is the typical incline leg press common in many gyms, a 1 rep max of 350lbs of plates is pretty weak. I always recommend that all leg press training should be a minimum of 10 reps.
Note: With an incline leg press at 45% makes 350lbs have a vertical vector of a little less than 250lbs.
I’m making the prediction that OP is much fatter than he his now after this cycle.
OP please log this for us. Prove me wrong.
It here to shit on you but I’ve voiced my opinion as did many others and you obviously think you know better.
A lot of my clients come to me over-fat and under-muscled, we cut the calories and train hard (to failure) and make gains in muscle and strength WHILE losing fat with no drugs. Making gains in a deficit, especially as a beginner is very much doable with sensible, hard training and a calorie deficit. I like @throwawayfitness calories and macro guidelines he gave you, that’s very much in line with what I would give to a client.
I think you’re selling yourself short and putting your health at risk by jumping on drugs. Just generally shows a lack of patience and discipline. To be honest, I find that decision stupid.
One more note about training, I’d rather trade some volume to keep Intensity high than the other way around. In a deficit, your recovery ability is lower, so pull back the volume, but don’t stop Training to failure and don’t stop trying to add weight to the bar or reps every session.
No, but I receive labs very frequently because I have two blood disorders. Yes, I am hypogonadal. My doctor wanted to put me on TRT as a potential treatment option for both conditions, but due to my age, he opted for a more conventional approach. I ran it by my him and while he doesn’t support it, the only downside in my case would be the potential need for therapeutic phlebotomy as I have mild thrombocytopenia.
There have been many untrue things said in this topic, but I wanted to highlight this particular one, as there are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids but no essential carbohydrates.
What’s with the trend of people posting questions, then arguing against any advice and telling us how they already figured it out? Is it strictly validation seeking?
