I always drop my calories by a 1000 and i maintain ALL of my real muscle gains. All the rest i lose(about 1/3 of my lbm gains even with 6-OXO after a few weeks) is water and glycogen loss.
You want my opinion???
Most gains peoplethink they lose are just losing glycogen and water.
In fact my vert first cycle was a very high dose 5 week 1-test and then atthe end 4-AD cycle added in, mynuts were markedly shrunk and post cycle for 5-6 weeks i maintained 2/3 of my lbm gains even with a drastic drop in calories NO ECA STACK and NO 6-OXO. I went back on another cycle so i cant tell you what the long term loss would have been since i wasn't totally recovered since there was no 6-OXO but now that i take 6-OXO its not a worry like that anymore. Now im not so wreckless but i think the key to maintaining gains is getting adequate protein, reducing volume but still giving it your all, and trying to eat a modest amount of calories, and eating every 3 hours, and making sure your getting in plenty of flax and fat and plenty of zinc AND VITAIMIN C. Glutmaine may also help since this is a highly catabolic time but IM NOT SURE.
6-OXO and eca stack are highly recommended and are a must in certain cases.