First Cycle: Would a 500 calorie surplus be adequate for my goals?

[AlexLifter]

Before I begin, I'd just like to clarify that I am in fact 26 years old. Someone raised to my attention the fact that my profile says I'm 18 for some reason. I've tried to change my profile settings but I'm unable to access the "My Profile" tab.

Okay, so I'm running my first twelve week cycle of Testosterone Enanthate at 500 mg p/w. I'm currently 6"0, 193 lbs and 8% body fat with 5.5 years of training behind me.

I've turned to gear as I've found it near impossible to break into the 200 lb marks whilst maintaining a single digit body fat so my goals for this cycle would be to gain around 15 - 25 lbs during the cycle and remain over 200 lbs after PCT. So my questions are:

1. Would a 500 calorie surplus over my TDEE be adequate for my goals?

2. How should my macros look throughout the cycle? I'm thinking P/C/F at 50/30/20. If it's easier to just direct me towards a sticky, please do.

[Back In Black]

500cal surplus at the outset wouldn't be a 500cal surplus at the end. Your TDEE will change every time you gain weight. I like to eat about a 300cal surplus at the start and then I normally around 100cals every couple of weeks or so.

You can take your protein a little higher on cycle than off but I wouldn't get caught up in a macro split too much. I'd have your protein 250-300g. With regard to fats and carbs it depends how you react to them. I like to keep fats relatively low and carbs high. Fats at around 50-60g for me and the remainder made up with carbs.

As for your desired weight gain on cycle there's no point gaining 25lbs IMO. If you do a lot of it will be fat and water. No reason you can't gain 10-15 quality lbs going into pct, during which you will need to add cals to try and retain your gains. Some fat gain during PCT is almost inevitable I'm afraid.