Sustanon/Deca cycle done. pct done. now losing muscle. Help!!!!

[ymalleb]

I really need some help here.............

1st cycle ran, 42 years young, 6' 219 lbs.

I ran sustanon at 500mg a week, deca at 400mg, 15 weeks total. stopped the deca 2 weeks early, ran hcg at the end of my cycle. I shot for a recomp, took in 3140 calories a day, my weight shot up to 227 lbs and started around 220. 7 lbs doesnt sound like much, but after all of the fat loss i looked like i gained 20-25 lbs of muscle. Muscles were thick, round and was questioned by many if i was "on". I call it a VERY successful cycle. Pct went great, clomid, nolva, and some mucuna pruriens. Now im 6 weeks and some change past my last pin and im losing weight by the day. I upped my calories to 3500 a day, 300+ grams of protein and still intense in the gym. Still repping 315 on bench, strength has stayed but muscle is falling off.

im only down 8 lbs at the moment, but the mirror says its 20+.....ive lost so much thickness and "roundness", my traps were up to my ears, they have faded to nothing. i feel like im back to me but even smaller.........

my questions are........maybe i not have enough natural test to recover and retain muscle because of my age? ... maybe seek trt?
is this normal with steroids? i have read a ton of threads with people losing gains, but i chalked it up to them not having the knowledge of proper pct?
or will some of this muscle naturally come back in time? maybe this is a "lag" period and i will thicken back up?

sex drive is back, balls are as big as ever, i feel great?????? is this the steroid game? if so, i think im done playing this game.

 

[ymalleb]

i just want to hear from a few experienced users about their cycles/inbetween cycle time.........i just cant believe how dramatic these changes have been...

i expected to lose some muscle, but this is nuts!

 

[mixedup]

It could be your mind bro I mean the scale only says 8lbs and some of that is probally water.

The fullness you lost is most likely glycogen especially if your strength stayed.

 

[mixedup]

If you have on cycle and current pics we could tell you how much different you actually look

 

[ymalleb]

No pics and regret it now. Others have noticed the regression. Its an obvious weight loss and i nailed pct/diet/training. Maybe its a lag stage for a few weeks and maybe some thickness will return.

 

[booneman77]

I don't think it's a "lag stage"... That's not a real thing.

Most likely it's the loss of glycogen and water that was filling your muscles. On cycle you can hold supraphisiological amounts but once you're done then you go back to normal.

Also, as mixedup said, the scale won't lie. Unless you gained a ton of fat and lost a ton of muscle you didn't lose 20+ lb of lbm in a couple weeks. That's silly.

 

[ymalleb]

Theres no period between coming off hcg/clomid/nolva and being on your natural test that your levels could possibly drop, hence muscle loss/fat gains until your natural levels stabilize? I thought that was a "lag" period.

Once without the help of clomid/nolva and lets say you have low t, wouldnt you go through what im going through?

Im probably not making any sense being im not explaining this correctly. I need a blood test, i swear i must have low T cuz im not able to keep this new muscle.

 

[booneman77]

Theres no period between coming off hcg/clomid/nolva and being on your natural test that your levels could possibly drop, hence muscle loss/fat gains until your natural levels stabilize? I thought that was a "lag" period.

Once without the help of clomid/nolva and lets say you have low t, wouldnt you go through what im going through?

Im probably not making any sense being im not explaining this correctly. I need a blood test, i swear i must have low T cuz im not able to keep this new muscle.

The problem is not that it's not possible to have low test at this time (that's very likely the case), it's the fact that your test will NEVER be on-cycle high post pct and thus you'll never get that pump/size/fullness back. So it's not a lag because it's permanent ha.

The biggest thing is that almost no matter what, you will lose some amount of the weight gained on cycle. It's physiologically impossible for your body to keep things at that level naturally. You will lose glycogen and thus water and thus weight. The wetter the compound, the more water weight you will lose.

 

[ymalleb]

After several cycles, lets say a few yrs of cycling, do you eventually retain some good size? Im trying to find a purpose to keep cycling cuz i enjoyed the 1st one so much. Point is, why continue to cycle to just be disappointed after pct.

I guess what im saying is, am i better off natty for slow steady gains or will cycling win in the long run?

 

[booneman77]

After several cycles, lets say a few yrs of cycling, do you eventually retain some good size? Im trying to find a purpose to keep cycling cuz i enjoyed the 1st one so much. Point is, why continue to cycle to just be disappointed after pct.

I guess what im saying is, am i better off natty for slow steady gains or will cycling win in the long run?

You're thinking about this all wrong. Cycling will give you more gains than natural, but it's a 4 steps forward., 1 step back process. You won't retain 100% but done correctly (proper pct, diet, training, etc) you can keep most of what you gain which will still be faaarrrrr more than naturally possible.

If you're disappointed after your cycle it's because of one of two reasons:
A) your pct/diet/training sucked or
B) your expectations and understanding of how things work were simply unrealistic

Obviously natural will allow for much slower, but 100% keep able gains, but there is a limit to what you can achieve and obviously the timeframe is limited as well. It really comes down to what you want and expect from your body and what you're willing to do to get there.

 

[ymalleb]

Ok, understood. I still say i nailed diet/pct/training, i came out of this a totally different person. It was obvious among my peers that i was on something. I guess i was expecting to retain more, hell maybe it is mental after the water/glycogen loss, but i still say i really flattened out.

Strength is still there, but i cant rep 315 as many reps as when i was on. So i lost reps.

Thx for all of your responses. I think i will keep reading/researching, i want to run more cycles.

 

[booneman77]

Ok, understood. I still say i nailed diet/pct/training, i came out of this a totally different person. It was obvious among my peers that i was on something. I guess i was expecting to retain more, hell maybe it is mental after the water/glycogen loss, but i still say i really flattened out.

Strength is still there, but i cant rep 315 as many reps as when i was on. So i lost reps.

Thx for all of your responses. I think i will keep reading/researching, i want to run more cycles.

All of those things you lost are pretty standard when coming off. You went from a god back to a mortal so you can't except to stay the same ha.