Deflating after PH cycle?

[mystic97z]

i'm 30, about 6'3 .....I used trionedine stacked with epistane for 10 weeks while cutting. been doing this each spring for past 3-4 years
I cut from around 225 lbs to 195 lbs, to give you an idea at 195 I had abs when I hunched over and flexed, but not while just standing. So at 195 i'm fairly lean but not like show lean or anything. my build is tall and skinny.

History:
I bulk most of the year and cut in the spring. I've been training for 5.5 years, started at 145 lbs, and as you read i'm fairly lean at 195 so I feel like i've made pretty good gains, but i still look like a tall skinny guy! My progress seems to be coming in the form of muscle DENSITY and not volume....so i'm getting harder but not really BIGGER...

so basically during those 10 weeks while cutting i looked great, and the week or two after I got off i looked great!

post cycle:
At the end of my cut I was eating 1800 calories....
it's been about 5 weeks since my cut, i've raised my calories to 3100 .....
i'm maintaining 196-197 lbs on these calories.

this tells me:
1) my weight was inflated while using the ph's <----- i'm aware of this, i gain 15-20 lbs while using it while NOT dieting.

so i'm a bit confused, each year at the end of my cut, i'm consistently a tiny bit leaner, yet still around 8 lbs heavier.
for example, last year I cut to 189 and had NO abs, this year i looked the same as last year at around 200 lbs , so a gain of about 11 lbs.

what do you guys think about this, are these ph's inflating me while i'm on them, making me look good while cutting while increasing strength but gains are going away post cycle?
OR
Do you think my progress IS being helped? keep in mine i gain about 8 pounds of lean tissue each year , continuously up through 5 years of training...

reason i'm asking, fitness is my life, my wife competes, we are going to olympia, what i'm saying is i'm not a 'recreational lifter'
I want to start making more progress, i still look tall and skinny. Looking for advice.

 

[mountainman33]

I'm confused. Is it that you think you're adding lean mass on 1800 calories, and cut 30 lbs. during your cuts? It's kind of a convoluted post here.

 

[mystic97z]

No, i'm saying over the course of 1 year i'm still gaining mass. I cut every year for a may vacation. So for example in 2014 at the end of my cut I weighed 189 lbs, this year at the end of my cut I weighed 195, however THIS year I was quite a bit leaner. So I was leaner but still 6 lbs heavier.

so that's why i'm saying i AM making progress each year.
as far as the 1800 calories....I was saying that the last weeks of my cut I was eating 1800 calories (down from 4000 or so at start)
and NOW i'm consistently eating 3100 5 weeks later but am maintaining 197 lbs.

^^ this tells me that over the 5 weeks post cycle, I was still continuing to lose weight while consuming a considerably more amount of food. Even with eating MORE food, but only 2 lbs heaver I don't look nearly as good as I did at the end of my cut.

 

[Nitro41]

Steroids aid in fullness by glycogen and water retention. You hear about "all day pumps" while on.

Rich Piana said in one of his videos (just adding this because it may be relevant, I havnt researched his quote) "when on gear your blood volume increases 10-20%" which results in bigger fuller muscles, and more vascularity.

I can attest to part of that, while doing cable side delt raises I looked in the mirror and actually said HOLY $HITE. Never seen veins blowing up out of my shoulders like that before.....gotta love Tren haha