20 y/o back in the gym looking to make some gains

[Medina4600]

At 18 i started attending the gym regularly to lose weight i was 220 and dropped down to 170 over the course of 6-8 months following a very strict only protein diet very limited carbs less then 25g per day and intense cardio(HIIT), the problem came when i wanted to add muscle it was extremely difficult. Im now 20 and added all the weight again as fat:/, I've started the gym again and have more strength.my question is should i try and add muscle first this time and then cut to avoid what happen the first time. Im 215lbs 5'11" and most of my fat is in my abdominal area. Im currently supplementing with pre-workout, creatine, test-booster,(oral which claims to boost free levels of testosterone )and protein. Which brings me to my next question is the test-booster dangerous (AEN APE) is the test I'm taking?? I read an awesome post by Marcus about how you should avoid any steroid use till the age of 25 so thats not even on my mind. Thanks for your time and any advice will be appreciated.

[Back In Black]

Your test booster is only harmful to your wallet. They are notorious for being a waste of money.

Nothing will help you improve as much as a great diet and training regime.

Please read the stickies in the nutrition forum and start a thread there with your plan.

[Psaletta]

^^^ agreed with black. Great job on the weight loss bud. Now that you have dropped that excess fat go over to the nutrition section as stated and let the guys help you map out a muscle building diet. Carbs are needed in your diet to put on that muscle. And drop the test booster. It's garbage. Spend your money on food and maybe some creatine Good luck!

[ma_fighter]

First, let me say welcome to the board mate!

Then I would suggest dropping all the supps you're doing for the time being. Perhaps with the exception of the protein.

I would also suggest loosing weight before adding muscles.


I think your problem is that your general relationship to food and nutrition is just plain wrong. If you ate like you're supposed to you wouldnt have gained the fat back.

Did you gain all that weight because you havent eaten a stict low carb diet, and done HIIT your entire life?
Is that the reason why? Of course it isnt!
The cause is something else, so deal with the cause instead of applying a band-aid in the form of some diet or other.


The thing with any kind of "diet" is that you jump on it, reach your goals (hopefully) and then you go back to eating the way you have always eaten. Which is what got you fat in the first place!

What you should do is PERMANENT changes in the way you eat!

Begin with setting up a pretty strict mealplan to start out loosing weight, then see what foods you simply cannot be without. And then step by step start formulating a new way of life, a new way of eating, something you can live with for the rest of your days. But that still is clean enough for you to maintain a healthy bodyweight.

*Make sure you get enough protein each day, evenly distributed across the day. If that means a protein shake, thats fine. But drop the other supps

*Make sure your daily kcal intake is somewhere between 500-1000kcal below maintenance on average. This will result in a weightloss of about 0.5-1kg per week (1.1-2-2 lbs)

*Keep going to the gym, hit the weights to maintain as much musclemass as possible.

*Set up a realistic, healthy goal. 215-180lbs in 30 weeks for instance.

*Hit the nutrition forum every single day for the first weeks, learn and adjust your diet along the way.



I've been where you are, and I know the struggles that lie ahead.
I've lost weight and gained it back countless times, until I decided to really find out what was the cause of me being fat in the first place, then adressing that cause.

Then I found the forums here, and got tons and tons of help and good advice. Which all in all helped me loose close to 40kgs (I think thats about 88 lbs) almost exclusively through changing my diet. I hardly trained at all for big parts.

But this kind of thread really belongs in the nutrition section, not in the AAS section mate

Good luck!
/Maf