My second Anavar cycle

[fit'in'romania]

Hi everyone, I'm Anna from Romania and I started my second Anavar Cycle today. But first, some personal history:

I'm 24, 5ft7, 136 pounds, BF= 18%, been training for the past 7 years and i've been more than scrupulous foe the last 2 years.

My first cycle was 5 mg of var for 4 weeks during july this year, and I managed to gain about 13 pounds of muscle, most of which stayd on. Before starting the cycle, I weighed 125 pounds, at the end I was 138 pounds. What was amazing indeed during the first cycle was the strength gains, I managed to double my weights on most exercises, with the most impressive gain in bicep curls: from 11 pounds DB, to 22 . Yeey for me! Other than that, I was on a low fat- high protein diet, at about 2300 kcal a day, 55 % protein, 35% carbs and 10% fat. Protein came from veal, fish and hydrolized collagen, carbs came from oatmeal, integral organic rice, non-starchy veggies. Fat came from CLA supplements and flaxseed, as well as fish oil caps.
No period delays or anything, no acne, no side-effects. All in all, a good experience.

Since july, i switched to a ketogenic diet, which helped me erase all cellulite from my bum. Lucky me, I do not have fat deposits on my legs, thighs or belly, but rather an uniform layer of fat all over my body.

Right now, my diet is like this: 1800 kcal a day, 55 % fat, 40% protein, 5% carbs.

Protein sources: veal, pork, turkey, fish - i don t eat chicken because of estroges contained in the chicken meat

Fat sources: oils, sour cream, raw almonds, flaxseed

Carbs sources: raw spinach, green salad, almonds& nuts, all raw

My training goes like this: I take one Pilates class a day, every day except Sunday . I weight-train 3 times a week and now I will start cardio routine on 3 days a week, separately from weightlifting.

My new cycle: 5 mg of anavar on 6 days a week, 10 on the day I train my legs - it's the most intense workout i do, and love to see the weight adding up. cycle duration: 6 weeks.

Target: keeping my lean body mass at the same level as it is now, while decreasing my BF to 15%. I am not a Fitness competitor, just a fitness enthuziast , so I don t really need to lower my BF more than 14-15%.

Why I decided to use AAS? At 16, I weighed 198 pounds. It was the moment I decided my body will never be anything but beautiful. So i managed to lower my weight in a healthy manner, with diet and training, but I reached my plateau. Now, I want more, maybe even be good looking enough to compete , who knows?

 

[Bikini Mod]

You gave A LOT of good info. Gives a great starting point. Welcome ANNA! You are very close to my motherland. Magyar holgy vagyok! (sorry don't have keyboard/program to make proper characters)

From your workout schedule I will say this: YOU ARE OVERTRAINING - PERIOD. and from your diet (though VERY GOOD in many aspects) you are not giving your body enough comp carbs to grow.

Combine overtraining with not enough comp carbs for fuel you WILL halt progress in the *building lean mass* department and no amount of anabolic agent will make up for this.

Honestly, IMO you can achieve same result (for the goal that you have) without anavar. You have obviously put a great deal of time into your training and diet but you have not yet reached your genetic potential by any stretch.

There are some proponents of a ketogenic diet but I am not one of them. I tried it and yes, you do lose weight, but IMHO you lose too much muscle and water and not enough bodyfat making the results temporary - HORRIBLE for building/maintaining lean mass. The macro-breakdown for your current diet will not lend itself to a good result IMHO. You should have 40% protein, 30% carb, 30% fat. You've got good fats in there girl, you just have to shift it around a bit to more carbs/less fat and as for the protein there are different schools of thought. Some say as much as 2G of protein per pound of BODYWEIGHT, others say as little as 1G of protein per pound of bodyweight. It's up to you. I found that the key to manipulating bf is cycling carbs/cardio.

But since you have decided to use anabolice please know that longer cycle low dose is the way to go in regards to building quality mass longterm. Did you take 5mg every day or EOD (every other day)?

Please let me know your thoughts.

And again, WELCOME! Good to see you here!

 

[LadyRaptor]

yeah girl...your diet is very similar to what my coach had me on....I KNOW WHAT WORKS FOR ME, and of course, everyone is different....shift those fats HIGHER, lower the carbs a bit (even carb cycle if you like... 4xlow 1 or 2xhigher) but the fats will shed off the weight....the roller coaster of carb cycling will keep your muscles full and looking good.

Uh...plilates every day? You like it that much? I've got BLASTING abs baby...and they are from... straight leg lifts, ab-wheel, KettleBell renegade rows...ARE UNREAL FOR YOUR CORE AND ABS) and that is ALL...not one "sit-up" in my routine.

YOU ARE IN ROMANIA...you should be a KETTLEBELL GODDESS!!! Screw pilates.. or only do pilates ONE DAY per week...your other training will make up for it!

 

[Bikini Mod]

Yup, lotsa different ways to approach the same goal: something I learned in the few years that I competed. We never did things the same way twice and made adjustments along the way.

Ultimately YOU have to decide what works for YOUR BODY BEST!

And I agree wholeheartedly with the corestrengthening and all over body strengthening movements that can and do supplement classic weight-lifting workouts!

 

[fit'in'romania]

Hi there Bikinimom, and thank you kindly for your warm welcome

The reason I have decided to use AAS is here: I have lost a lot of weight, my RMR is quite low due to this fact, plus I have some issues with my thyroid gland- from time to time, my T4 levels drop below the minimum, but I have not yet managed to discover the link between my diet and this.

Overtraining- you may have a point here, I've been a bit paranoid monitoring the signs but i haven't found any real signs of overtraining: i sleep 8 hours a night, occasionally take an afternoonish nap, I eat 5-6 meals a day at regular hours and so on

Carbs: I have some personal issues with carbs: for some reasons, whenever I introduce them in my diet, I find it difficult to keep on track with my calories and I have noticed a tendency towards overeating. This seems to be easier to control while on a ketogenic diet, where I eat about 25 g of complex carbs a day, plus an additional 30 g of dietary fiber. Why have I chosen this diet? not for the primary weight loss goal, but for the fact that somehow, I feel much better, much more energetic throughout the day. My personal issue with carbs is that whenever they get back on my diet, cellulite pops in on my bum. And I personally hate cellulite.

My first cycle was 5 mg a day, every day. My mistake was a typical one, though: after the cycle I went on holiday, and I wasn't so diet-conscious as I used to be for 5 days. The result wasn't horrible, but not good either.

Current situation: I'm planning to stay on cycle for 6 weeks, without increasing the dose. I don t believe in excesses, especially with AAS. I have read a massive amount of information on AAs before deciding to start the cycles, and I know about sides and benefits. I am careful with all the signs, I monitor my voice changes and so on, I weigh every meal and monitor all food intake. I am considering cutting the Pilates workouts, although I really love the flexibility benefits, as well as the stability I get after a Pilates routine.

One question: I take the Anavar first thing in the morning, than eat after about 10 minutes. With the same meal I take my multivitamins, joint support supplement, about 2 g of Vitamin C, yohimbine HCL 2.5 mg . Would it be a better idea to take half the var in the morning, half prior to workout?(i go to the gym in the afternoon for weight lifting)
Again, I'm experimenting with my diet, I'll slowly shift towards a higher amount of carbs with a cumulative increase in workouts intensity. I am not narrow minded, I have tried both ways and I will addapt my diet to my body's needs.

Now, back to study for my exams, catch up with you guys later! And, by the way, it feels great to be here!

 

[Bikini Mod]

Hi there Bikinimom, and thank you kindly for your warm welcome

The reason I have decided to use anabolic androgenic steroids is here: I have lost a lot of weight, my RMR is quite low due to this fact, plus I have some issues with my thyroid gland- from time to time, my T4 levels drop below the minimum, but I have not yet managed to discover the link between my diet and this.

Overtraining- you may have a point here, I've been a bit paranoid monitoring the signs but i haven't found any real signs of overtraining: i sleep 8 hours a night, occasionally take an afternoonish nap, I eat 5-6 meals a day at regular hours and so on

Carbs: I have some personal issues with carbs: for some reasons, whenever I introduce them in my diet, I find it difficult to keep on track with my calories and I have noticed a tendency towards overeating. This seems to be easier to control while on a ketogenic diet, where I eat about 25 g of complex carbs a day, plus an additional 30 g of dietary fiber. Why have I chosen this diet? not for the primary weight loss goal, but for the fact that somehow, I feel much better, much more energetic throughout the day. My personal issue with carbs is that whenever they get back on my diet, cellulite pops in on my bum. And I personally hate cellulite.

My first cycle was 5 mg a day, every day. My mistake was a typical one, though: after the cycle I went on holiday, and I wasn't so diet-conscious as I used to be for 5 days. The result wasn't horrible, but not good either.

Current situation: I'm planning to stay on cycle for 6 weeks, without increasing the dose. I don t believe in excesses, especially with anabolic androgenic steroids. I have read a massive amount of information on anabolic androgenic steroids before deciding to start the cycles, and I know about sides and benefits. I am careful with all the signs, I monitor my voice changes and so on, I weigh every meal and monitor all food intake. I am considering cutting the Pilates workouts, although I really love the flexibility benefits, as well as the stability I get after a Pilates routine.

One question: I take the Anavar first thing in the morning, than eat after about 10 minutes. With the same meal I take my multivitamins, joint support supplement, about 2 g of Vitamin C, yohimbine HCL 2.5 mg . Would it be a better idea to take half the Anavar - oxandrolone - in the morning, half prior to workout?(i go to the gym in the afternoon for weight lifting)
Again, I'm experimenting with my diet, I'll slowly shift towards a higher amount of carbs with a cumulative increase in workouts intensity. I am not narrow minded, I have tried both ways and I will addapt my diet to my body's needs.

Now, back to study for my exams, catch up with you guys later! And, by the way, it feels great to be here!

I have heard that because anavar is water based it is better to take half dose AM and half dose PM (sort of like vitamin C). I don't really think there is any correlation between when you take an anabolic agent (as in the time of day) and strength in your workout. I think that may be largely placebo effect.

I understand about the whole *carb issue*, but not all carbs behave the same in our bodies. Meaning we don't all react the same and often times we may find that our "reactions" are again, anecdotal and not necessarily a true physical reaction. The mind is a very powerful organ. Try to find one source of complex carbohydrate that your body doesn't seem sensitive to: either oatmeal, brown rice, yam. Believe me when I tell you that you NEED comp carbs in order to develop your strength and mass. As your lean mass goes up so will your metabolism/fat burning capabilities and your bodyfat will go down. I promise you. That is not magic. It is simple science!

I don't recommend giving up pilates altogether as I think it is a good thing to have such strength and flexibility but your body needs TOTAL DAYS OF REST, as in NO WORKOUT in order to allow your body to recover. Even when I was training heaviest I would have at least 1/2 days off per week! More training is counterproductive. Try to structure the weight training/pilates/cardio in such a way that you have at least 2 days off per week from the gym. Your body needs this rest.

Now back to your studies!

 

[fit'in'romania]

I have heard that because anavar is water based it is better to take half dose AM and half dose PM (sort of like vitamin C). I don't really think there is any correlation between when you take an anabolic agent (as in the time of day) and strength in your workout. I think that may be largely placebo effect.

I understand about the whole *carb issue*, but not all carbs behave the same in our bodies. Meaning we don't all react the same and often times we may find that our "reactions" are again, anecdotal and not necessarily a true physical reaction. The mind is a very powerful organ. Try to find one source of complex carbohydrate that your body doesn't seem sensitive to: either oatmeal, brown rice, yam. Believe me when I tell you that you NEED comp carbs in order to develop your strength and mass. As your lean mass goes up so will your metabolism/fat burning capabilities and your bodyfat will go down. I promise you. That is not magic. It is simple science!

I don't recommend giving up pilates altogether as I think it is a good thing to have such strength and flexibility but your body needs TOTAL DAYS OF REST, as in NO WORKOUT in order to allow your body to recover. Even when I was training heaviest I would have at least 1/2 days off per week! More training is counterproductive. Try to structure the weight training/pilates/cardio in such a way that you have days off from the gym. Your body needs this rest.

Now back to your studies!

I hear you with complex carbs, and i'll take your advice. I'll fight my carb-addiction. Believe me, I can binge on oatmeal or boiled spinach, so trust me I'm crazy

The problem with getting half the week off training is delicate: I work in a gym and teach groups every day. Sometimes I can just talk them throughout their routine, sometimes I need to get my butt on and workout with them. Plus, I am so bad at doing cardio mornings, on an empty stomach and I fear that if I do cardio right after weight training I will start a catabolic process I so desperately try to avoid. But I'm determined to make a sacrifice and stick to the plan, so feel free to throw in any advice on workout, diet and rest, I'm more than open and willing to make everything work.

Now, back to dealing with obesity lol, certification exams

 

[Tatyana]

I'm sorry, I couldn't read anything after SOUR CREAM, YUM.

I am so freaking jonesing for perogies, they are going to be the first thing I eat after this comp. And a new Eastern European shop has opened in my neighbourhood so I don't have to eat my rubbish ones.

I will take a closer read of this later

HELLO and Welcome Anna

 

[fit'in'romania]

Hi Tatyana, and thanks for the welcome. Again, feels great to be here and openly discuss training issues.

Good luck with precomp preparation!

 

[Bikini Mod]

You know, as I was eating my breakfast of yummy soup my Old Grump (hubby) prepared last night I was thinking about Ms Romania ( ) being a student and remembered back to a time when I was competitive how we all got to the point of being "CARB DUMB" when we got to a certain point in our dieting for competition.

You know, the brain NEEDS food too, not just your muscles. How can a student have proper brain function if they do not take in enough complex carbohydrates necessary for optimal thought processes?

... just some more "food" for thought.