Gainz come from eating more food. I think there is a strange misconception parroted on this forum. Some people think that you take supplements or even steroids and there are magic gains from thin air and will even suggest you waste your money on these things and do nothing. This is demonstrably false. PED and supps are effective tools to help you progress faster but if you are stagnant, (training the same program with the same weight and same reps over and over) not eating more, not progressively overloading in the gym etc you can expect minimal or no gains. MAYBE if your taking aas you will see some glycogen and water retention and think you are gaining muscle but no. This is also why there are a host of guys in the sub 200lb range who have run all these cycles. Unless you are 5'1
Being on AAS or PH or SARMS and weighing 160lbs means something is wrong. 100% certain you are not eating nearly enough.
Some guys are in a state of perpetual ("im in recomp").....To me this is, for the most part, a waste of energy.
The goal in recomp is to gain some muscle while losing some fat right? But the human machine doesnt work that way. Sure you may see some recomposition if you run some gear but the results will be meager at best. What is needed is an off season where you spend all your energy eating and growing and an on season where you trim back the fat. On and off used to mean steroid cycles but these days most bodybuilders and even gym rats dont ever come off. Or minimally. Which is why you see these pics of bloated looking bodybuilders off season. They are running massive amounts of wet AAS and eating a ton of carbs etc. What they are not doing.....is nothing and hoping for a recomp. I promise you that.
Its not rocket science and we dont need to rethink the wheel.
If you want to grow......EAT MORE and progressively increase weight and reps.
If you want to get leaner....Eat less, reduce carbs add cardio.
What am I suggesting against? DOing nothing and expecting something. Taking a PED or supp isnt doing something..
Change effects change.
There are multiple guys in my gym, my training partner and even myself who I have seen gain between 10-15lbs in 8 weeks.
Im at week 12 and Im up 19lbs. I have muscle memory of course so mine is a bit more drastic but I see multiple, trained athletes growing steadily. Bodybuilding is done at the dinner table.
Lets assume for a second that these forever recomping folks have everything possible lined up and are going to be taking the most extreme drug and supplement stack one possibly could. People are still going to be off in their expectations. Allow me to explain.
1. The most extreme example of cutting I can think of would be a contest prep national level or IFBB pro. Under this scenario they give themselves 12-16 weeks to achieve ONE SINGULAR GOAL. So 24 hours a day are devoted to fatloss. Pharma is used in abundance. So one goal with max usage and they still need 12-16 weeks.
2. Off-season pro: Depending on contest schedule anywhere from 3 months to 9 months(this assumes one show for the year say the O with a 12 week prep and no time off in-between.) Pharma is used and our subject is training, eating and sleeping for a living. The ONE SINGULAR GOAL add ten lbs stage weight. ONE GOAL and this pro with worlds best genetics is still going to use 3-9 months to attempt to achieve.
So we have the best of the best using 12-16 weeks for fat-loss and 3-9 months to gain ten lbs of actual muscle. And then we have Jimmy the gym goer who wants to achieve both goals inside of 8 weeks because they are going to take fill in the blank. Unrealistic plain and simple.
So let's say Jimmy nails the recomp and half the day he is tapping stored fat and the other half the day he is rebuilding and adding tissue. If you take the above 16 week cut and take half the hours of the day away from fatloss you will now need 32 weeks to achieve the same level of leanness in theory and a whopping 18 months for the ten lb gain.
You can recomp but as Brundel has pointed out it is NOT an efficient use of time and usually results in nadda. I know I have wasted years doing it lol. Now if you nail it you still better be PATIENT AS ALL F**K lol.
IF I gain 5lbs of actual tissue with 12 weeks of Androgin I would consider that a HUGE success.