hey TestEinstein, i appreciate your help and was wondering what you think might be a better dosage/time for this cycle? Im wondering if its smarter to do a higher dosage but then sacrifice the amount of time ill be using each compound or rather to use a smaller dosage and do a longer cycle? I'm trying to decide which would give me the fullest gains
Ex. Test E 500mg/ wk 2-11
Deca 400 mg/ 1-10
or
lower dose for both and go to week 12/13 like you recommended earlier?
hope to hear back soon and thanks again my man!
I was pondering this for awhile after you posted the question. This is what I'm thinking. Conventional wisdowm states that the longer you hold the mass before you cycle off the longer you will keep it after the cycle ends. However more gear for a shorter period will probably give you slightly more mass but with a greater loss after. The body is more likely to keep muscle that is gained slowly. Either way, you won't keep the water gain.
Say you gain 15 lbs from 400/300 for 13 weeks total and keep 80%, that's a 12 lb net gain.
If you gain 20 lbs from 500/400 for 11 weeks total and keep a little less, say 70%, that's a 14 lb net gain.
So the real question is if the net gain is about the same which will shut you down more and which will have more side effects. The longer cycle is likely to shut you down more just because there will be a longer period with no endogenous LH secretion signaling...but the HCG, assuming it's legit and not denatured somehow, will help offset that. Raw side effects will be higher with the higher dose (this mean estrogen-related fat gain/gyno risk and MPB hair loss, if you're prone to it). As-needed nolva will clear up the estrogenic risk, and this isn't a highly androgenic cycle, so hair loss shouldn't be a problem.
Overall point is that they should be relatively the same. Most people will tell you to favor the 500/400 for 11 beause there is a larger body of evidence, but I personally like to go with a lower dose of something first so that you can increase it incrementally in later cycles. An example of that philosophy of progressive cycling is something like this:
Cycle 1: 400mg TestE for 10 wks.
Cycle 2: 500mg TestE/400mg Deca for 10-12 weeks
Cycle 3: 500mg TestE 10 weeks + 400mg Deca/10 weeks + 30 mg dbol/4 weeks
Cycle 4: 500mg TestE 12 weeks + 50mg anadrol ED wks 1-4
etc etc etc. So for me starting with the lower doese is preferable for future cycle planning, because I have more cycles to work with before I need large doeses (and side effects) to accrue significant gains.
I don't know what your long term goals are but I think you'd be fine with either cycle. As lean as you are it will look like a lot. However, I do hope you understand that your diet will have to be changing radically and it will be almost impossible to GAIN muscle naturally after the conclusion of a cycle, as opposed to now, when your body has not had exogeneous levels of angrogens to stimulate growth. If it was me I would exhaust those natural avenues first (and this is not to say you have not been working hard, but it is an important concept).
Hope all that helps.
