Gaining muscle fast...Someone experienced with AS

[playmatesky]

I recently started taking var and I am gaining lbm really fast. I have been having my stats checked by the same woman for 2 and half yrs and she uses a 7 pt caliper pinch test.
I also take gh, t3, albuterol, and some supplements from Beverly International.
I am happy to be gaining muscle but I really need to lose the bf. It was at 15.5 last week. Crazy thing is, I am about to have it checked again (doing it weekly) and I got on the scale to notice I gained even more weight. 7 pds since last week. OMG.
I am eating on a carb cycle with 2 high carb day: Thurs and Sun.
Weights have been primarily 4 days a week, sometimes 5. Cardio has been about 45-60 min. Cardio has been 5 or 6 days a week.
I was thinking of adding more cardio. I dont want to lose muscle and I know the number on the scale should not freak me out but I just went from 125 to 139. OMG! Woah! I am only 5'5 so I am kind of freaked out. I have not been losing fat. Only gaining muscle.
So my thought was to have more of a calorie defeciet. Through some calorie restriction/more cardio. I have shoots in 6 weeks and this is the only reason I would even say more cardio.
If you need more info on numbers, nutrition, or what ever, please ask.

 

[Sassy69]

Um.. var ain't a fat burner .. sure it helps to promote loss of bodyfat and growth of lean muslce mass as you are discovering. What is the change in your bodyfat? I personally don't get too hung up on weight tho if your bodyfat is dropping -- look at the-short-one - isn't that the tightest package you ever saw of 138 lb on a 5'1" person?

When you are building a cycle it is dropdown dead critical to design a cycle for your goals and not expect a whole bunch of different things to happen. Lean muscle mass weighs. If it is increasing, then expect your weight to go up. If you are hung up on the idea of droppign your weight, then get off the var. You can always go after your goal of buildign muscle mass after your photo shoot or whatever - but if your specific goal is to drop bodyfat then I'd say get off the var.

IMO when you are a higher bodyfat -e.g. > 12%, adding in any AAS is goign to come across as makign you larger. It just does. It also is not uncommon for women to experience an increase in water w/ var. Do you know for SURE that ALL you are gaining is muscle mass? Is if more muscle? More fat? More water? How is the bodyfat ratio changing and how is it changing even at your pinch points?

And above all - what is your current diet?

 

[msam76]

Good post sassy.

 

[playmatesky]

Um.. var ain't a fat burner .. sure it helps to promote loss of bodyfat and growth of lean muslce mass as you are discovering. What is the change in your bodyfat? I personally don't get too hung up on weight tho if your bodyfat is dropping -- look at the-short-one - isn't that the tightest package you ever saw of 138 lb on a 5'1" person?

When you are building a cycle it is dropdown dead critical to design a cycle for your goals and not expect a whole bunch of different things to happen. Lean muscle mass weighs. If it is increasing, then expect your weight to go up. If you are hung up on the idea of droppign your weight, then get off the var. You can always go after your goal of buildign muscle mass after your photo shoot or whatever - but if your specific goal is to drop bodyfat then I'd say get off the var.

IMO when you are a higher bodyfat -e.g. > 12%, adding in any AAS is goign to come across as makign you larger. It just does. It also is not uncommon for women to experience an increase in water w/ var. Do you know for SURE that ALL you are gaining is muscle mass? Is if more muscle? More fat? More water? How is the bodyfat ratio changing and how is it changing even at your pinch points?

And above all - what is your current diet?

Thank you Sassy for your help.
Before adding the var I had last had my bf checked in Dec. it was 16.5 and at that time I went into surgery. I was afraid to have it checked after taking 2 months off and not eating as clean as I normally do but it came back at 15.5 %. She said I did not lose fat but I did gain muscle. She also does measurments before the pinch test and is able to break down body fat and muscle. I gained a few pds of muscle. That was my first stat check since surgery. That was a week and a half ago. Tomorrow I am going to be re checked.
I just started taking potassium oratate/phytoduiretic today in case some of it is water. I do gain muscle pretty easy as it is. I dont mine adding muscle but I want to be very cut. And while I see some cuts, it's just not as dramatic as I would like.
I will stop the Var if you think that is what I need to do. But I am just now starting to taper down from 75 mcgs of t3. So I will be on it for 3 more weeks. I hope if I drop the var and I am still on albuterol/ t3 that I wont lose a lot of muscle because of the T3.
I did not get the albuterol until 4 days ago because it did not come as expected so I was doing var/t3/gh without anything for the beta receptors.
I have been on Var since March 10th. I started out with 5mg for 4 days and went up to 10 mg which is where I am now.

Here is my diet:
I have two high carb refeed days.
Thurs + Sun.. On those days I eat 2185 calories 164 gr prot/273 gr carbs/49 gr fat

The other 5 days I eat: 1799 calories 225gr pr/ 90 gr carbs/ 60 gr fat

I burn in between 300-375 in weights say 4 days a week and between 500-650 day in cardio 5 or 6 days a week.


Here is the layout as to how I eat during the 5 low carb days:

M1: Lean Prot + small starchy carb
(was having a low glycemic fruit but I just cut it out today)

M2: Lean Protein+ small starchy carb

M3: Lean Protein+ fibrous carb

M4: Lean Protein+ fibrous carb+ essential fat

M5: Lean Protein+ fibrous carb+ essential fat

I have a ton of food allergies so I cannot eat eggs, whey, dairy, ect. I eat a lot of lean game meats, veggies, brown rice Protein and goat protein but I think I may cut out the shakes at this point.

HIGH CARB DAY NUTRITION:

M1: lean prt+ starchy carb+ fruit or fibrous carb
M2: same as meal one
M3: lean protein+ starchy carb+ fibrous carb
M4: same as meal three
M5: lean prtn+ starchy carb+fibrous carb+ essential fat

Thank for your help.

BTW..I think after having my stats checked again tomorrow we will have a better idea of what is going on.

 

[the-short-one]

sweets - don't let the numbers freak you out. 5'5 and 139 isn't big at all. lolol I'm 5'1 and I weigh more than that with less bodyfat than you. Numbers do nothing but mess with your head.

1. How do your clothes fit?
2. What do you see when you look in the mirror?

those 2 factors coupled with your BF tests should be all you need.

 

[Sassy69]

sweets - don't let the numbers freak you out. 5'5 and 139 isn't big at all. lolol I'm 5'1 and I weigh more than that with less bodyfat than you. Numbers do nothing but mess with your head.

1. How do your clothes fit?
2. What do you see when you look in the mirror?

those 2 factors coupled with your BF tests should be all you need.

It really is important to pay attention to the above things over absolute numbers - if you have numbers (weight, BF) then look at the relative changes.

My concern is about the var -- you can make some pretty aggressive changes in 6 weeks w/ a competition quality regimen. But with the var at a higher bodyfat I don't know what is going to happen or how it will affect your cutting. If your express purpose is to drop bodyfat, then I'm not sure I'd worry about the var so much.

But that aside, I guess continue doign what you are doing and see what changes you make in a week - track your bf and determine what looks like it is fat, water, muscle.

How far are you looking to cut in 6 weeks? Have you done this before and what was your progress in accomplishing the cut if you have done this?

Just to compare - for me I pretty much need to be doing 2 x 1 hr cardio / day + training 6 days/ week and carb rotation to cut below 14%.

 

[the-short-one]

It really is important to pay attention to the above things over absolute numbers - if you have numbers (weight, BF) then look at the relative changes.

My concern is about the var -- you can make some pretty aggressive changes in 6 weeks w/ a competition quality regimen. But with the var at a higher bodyfat I don't know what is going to happen or how it will affect your cutting. If your express purpose is to drop bodyfat, then I'm not sure I'd worry about the var so much.

But that aside, I guess continue doign what you are doing and see what changes you make in a week - track your bf and determine what looks like it is fat, water, muscle.

How far are you looking to cut in 6 weeks? Have you done this before and what was your progress in accomplishing the cut if you have done this?

Just to compare - for me I pretty much need to be doing 2 x 1 hr cardio / day + training 6 days/ week and carb rotation to cut below 14%.

it does seem like a big jump, and I would think that a lot of that is water. A jump like that in muscle mass would cause her to start losing BF mor rapidly. Since she says her BF hasn't changed...so I'm going with water.

 

[playmatesky]

U woman are awesome. I appreciate the information and encouragement. Right now I am the lowest in bodyfat that I ever have been. My clothes still fit the same as when I was 19% bf though.
I have done var in the past but it was way before I knew anything about nutrition and I was a lot younger. I cant say it helped much.
Eating clean majority of the time and making my workouts a priority has got me where I am. I also think Gh has something to do with it. I was not paying attention to any numbers while I was recovering from surgery and when I came back I was scared to have it tested and it was lower than it ever had been. So that was nice.
I think I should have waited till I was like 11 or 12 % bf though to take the var. I am seeing some cuts but I am going to see how my numbers come out and go from there. I am also going to increase cardio at this point and make sure to do 5 days of weights. I think that right there will help.
I just stopped completely having cheats last week. I eat well 90% of the time but I am sure dropping that completely will help as well. Cause I can actually tell the difference in my abs when I eat any no no foods. Ha ha NO NO. Like that?


Short one- what you said is the same exact thing my trainer says. Not to worry about the numbers. U look amazing and your words are very encouraging. Thank you!
Sassy, thank you too. I will keep you posted.

 

[Sassy69]

When you are above 11-12% bf it is kind of irrelevant to be talking about "cuts" if you are trying to "cut" for a photoshoot or something where you are going for a significant degree of leanness to display musculature. This is where I was saying about using var - at higher bf's you will see some increase in size in general but it may appear to be "fat" or whatever - I look like a damn linebacker when I'm not below 12%. Its not that I'm that hyuge but the general lack of definition despite the size is what makes me look that way. Until I am below 12% people really don't even comment on my 'muscle definition'. I hope I'm not sounding harsh at all - but a "cut" is a significant drop in bodyfat that if you aren't at or below 12% it isn't going to be all that impressive if you are trying to portray a muscled, lean physique. And to get down there if your body isn't conditioned to that level already requires a very targeted and consistent regimen - as I said - for me it gets down to doing cardio 2x/day and eating 1000% clean. If I have one cheat I will bloat or get watery and it will set me back 3 days to get back to where I was. LIterally like throwing mud in the engine.

 

[the-short-one]

When you are above 11-12% bf it is kind of irrelevant to be talking about "cuts" if you are trying to "cut" for a photoshoot or something where you are going for a significant degree of leanness to display musculature. This is where I was saying about using var - at higher bf's you will see some increase in size in general but it may appear to be "fat" or whatever - I look like a damn linebacker when I'm not below 12%. Its not that I'm that hyuge but the general lack of definition despite the size is what makes me look that way. Until I am below 12% people really don't even comment on my 'muscle definition'. I hope I'm not sounding harsh at all - but a "cut" is a significant drop in bodyfat that if you aren't at or below 12% it isn't going to be all that impressive if you are trying to portray a muscled, lean physique. And to get down there if your body isn't conditioned to that level already requires a very targeted and consistent regimen - as I said - for me it gets down to doing cardio 2x/day and eating 1000% clean. If I have one cheat I will bloat or get watery and it will set me back 3 days to get back to where I was. LIterally like throwing mud in the engine.

oi. I experienced this first had after competition. I felt like a whale. lolol It took a couple of weeks for me to get back to wher I felt "normal" again.