+ 1 Cycle for maintaining muscle while losing weight
Hey all, pretty new here but enjoying the community so far!
I'm a fat guy and am currently working to lose a bunch of weight, started at 308lbs at the end of March, down to 278lbs today. I'm using Reta but counting calories and have been hitting the gym 5-6 times a week since I started and I'm hooked. It helps that I'm a pretty broad / strong guy so the newbie gains have been great.
While I'd love to put on a bunch of lean mass, my big goal right now is protecting the muscle I have while I lose another ~80lbs, and so I'm looking to dip my toes in to things to help my chances. This is the stack I've put together that I'm thinking of going with:
- Reta - Currently on 4mg bumping to 6mg this weekend
- Enclomiphene - 12.5mg per day, adjusting based on levels. The wife and I want kids sometime soon, I like the boost without fucking with my sperm production.
- HGH - 2 IU's per day
- Tadalafil - 5mg per day
Looking for any advice people have, what to expect, anything you think I'm missing? The fertility issue is what's stopping me from other compounds that would probably do a better job protecting against muscle loss, gotta keep the boys working lol.
Appreciate any input anybody has!
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Hahahaha awful advice hahaha
Hahaha agreed.
If your test levels are around 400 right now, enclomiphene is a waste. You will bloat up on it slightly as well. When you lose weight, your natural levels more than likely will increase as well.
The only thing that works (disagree or not) is testosterone itself. I wouldn’t fuck with your endocrine system yet.
Add Lipo C. B12 is a God send
If his test levels are 400 on enclom I think raising it to 25mg would do the trick. I literally have no idea what lipo c is lol
I may be retarded. I didn’t think he was already taking it.
I’m giving the Lipo C a try with my weekly B12, it’s just another vitamin complex with carnitine… I’m using a pharmaceutical company through my fitness coach. Check it out.
https://www.olympiapharmacy.com/product/lipo-mino-mix-c-2/
You were right that I'm not on the enclom yet, getting my blood panel first before pulling the trigger on anything, gonna look into the Lipo C thank you for this!
No problem! If you were in your mid to late 30s I’d say go for it, but I think getting the weight down will be huge with your energy levels and overall sense of well being.
I'll play devil's advocate here regarding the enclomiphene- if your levels are that low, why not TRT? Run some of the fertility protocols alongside such as HCG/HMG to preserve your natural production.
I agree with what others have said, lose the weight before worry about the muscle. As Pete said, training intensity is key. Diet is a close second in my opinion.
Yes he could run TRT levels of Test... BUT... He would need to watch the estrogen levels especially being this much over weight. HCG and Test would be very high estrogen for him.
I've considered TRT with the HCG/HMG combo, is there anything to do about estrogen levels or just monitor and cutting back if they start to climb too much etc, the enclom promises were strong but the feedback here seems to be that's probably not the way to go right now, will report back with bloodwork once its done though
Yeah you need an Ai on hand like anastrozole to knock estrogen down when it climbs up.
Or he could so super low dose of a mild dht
I agree with others who posted earlier.
You said yourself you are a fat guy.
Number one should be to lose the weight. Which can only be achieved in a calorie deficit. Building muscle in a caloric deficit is another story.
Dropping the weight should be the focus. The gym with help you tone up as you drop the fat. But the fat must be priority number one
As per your baby making protocol.
The classic stack for increased male fertility for baby making purposes
Is the following:
HCG
HmG
Clomid
Proviron
Glutathione.
Good luck!
I will look into these thank you! Really focusing on the calorie deficit and weight training right now, just trying to maintain what I've got / recompose on the way down as possible, appreciate your help bro!
You are very welcome. Just trying to look out. Keep plugging. You are on the right track. Just keep it simple.
Also, it does sound simple but things change once your body composition does.
The leaner you are the body tends to act completely different to same stimulus as when one is fat. So dropping the lbs is the most important. Good luck bro.
And if you can't get the old lady pregnant just DM me, I can't miss.
Your stack looks good, remember any SERM will increase your testosterone but most people don't feel the same as if they were on TRT they can help with fertility but they won't help that much with low t symptoms.
At this point you are natty with a slight advantage, I would recommend you test the waters and see how hard you can train, generally if you train every exercise every session to failure you won't recover while cutting and being natty, so weights will go down and so will the reps. Try to see if you can train to failure or 1-2 reps away from failure (to preserve energy for next workout)
I might not give the correct advice here however.
You’re wanting something sustainable long term ie.
I’d personally Focus on loosing the weight first then build the muscle once your leaner.
If your worried about fertility issues you can either stay clear of gear or run hcg with it to keep the balls active.
Wouldnt personally run test too high if your bigger you can run into more sides.
Are you getting bloods done first before you start?
Guys here are great at interpreting bloods and helping you understand each value
Thank you for this! Waiting for new labs to come back will report back with them once they're here, interested to know why the sides are exaggerated at larger sizes, may consider TRT with HCG at the same time to preserve natural production depending on what the bloods look like
We will gladly wait to see your bloods.
my bloods are due Tuesday so results by Friday I recon.
It’s kind of fun for me is looking at bloods and stacking em next to mine to see who’s worse off
I’ll tag ya if I remember so you can see what 200mg test 100mg primo looks like personally for me, not that that means everyone else’s will look the same though I aromatise quite heavily but love a dbol pre workout hence the primo ( trying to see what it can do at low dose)
This. Focus on losing the weight. That is by far the most important thing you can do for your health currently. Muscle loss while losing weight is greatly exaggerated.
Diet and training with intensity is your best friend. Only do as much volume as you can recover from. Track every top set (should only be 1-2 top sets per exercise where you go to failure), try to improve in the 4-10 rep range (a bit higher reps for legs). The smaller the muscle, the more frequency it can handle.
Nice work so far boss. I had a similar path. 305lbs to 230lbs in 6mo with reta and test cyp.
Mostly moving weight 6 days a week and cardio 3 days a week. Tracked macros via MyFitnessPal to stay on track.
My test was at 400 and I felt like trash. I guess 400 for one guy is ok and not for the next. I was also close to pre diabetic and insulin resistant. Get that bloodwork done.
He’s 27. You are a more well aged glass of wine my friend. I started giving my dad B12 and it is a game changer.
Ahh copy, I didn't see his age but I didnt check his profile either.
Glass of wine. . Haha
Maintaining muscle is all about diet, slow too. You losing that much weight that fast is what will cause muscle loss.
What are your natural test levels?
Yeah I'm cutting back on speed of the weight loss here, initial drop was a lot of water weight and was super fast so I'm currently sitting at about 3lbs per week lost since I started, but I know in the long term that's too aggressive and will amplify the muscle loss
My test was around 400 ng/dL last time I got it checked but was about a year ago, I'm getting another blood panel tomorrow, not pulling trigger on boosting test levels until I know where I stand right now, trying not to be too dumb about things