43. First Cycle. Thinking of calling it quits halfway thru.

[HurricaneAl]

I am 43 yrs old and I am currently on a Sus 250 test 10 week cycle. I am 6 weeks in and thinking of quitting at this point.I feel great and all and have gained ten pounds of lean muscle. Have no bloat which is good. I like where I am at but just would like to lose a little more belly fat. My problem is that because my business is so demanding and I work so much that I just can't put in the time to have a clean quality diet. My diet is horrible. I eat when I can and usually it is on the run. Business comes first so my cycle gets put off. The last two weeks I haven't seen any improvements in muscle or strength nor have I lost any. I still workout as planned but its just my diet. I feel my facial skin being very oily now and my testicles have started to reduce in size and minor (very minor) acne just starting to surface.

Since I can't get my diet together and I am very satisfied with my gains and my shape so far other than I would like to start more cardio to work on losing more belly fat, and i just started to notice a shutdown, is it ok to quit now, before a complete shutdown, and start my PCT?

[redz]

You will likely lose all your gains very quickly when you pct. Not being dedicated to train and eat right is a recipe for disaster, you may even end up further behind than when you started.

[HurricaneAl]

You will likely lose all your gains very quickly when you pct. Not being dedicated to train and eat right is a recipe for disaster, you may even end up further behind than when you started.

I went from from 175 to 185. I am 5'8. I get compliments because my gains have been in my upper body. everyone ask..."are you working out? you look buff" to be honest my diet has been like crap since day one but I still consume 160 -200 grams of protein a day because I supplement with protein supps. Its just my regular food diet that stinks. i don't have a big appetite and have to force myself to eat but i still get my protein in. Thank goodness for supps. If I continue just as is and go through PCT will there any chance I keep my gains?

[chi]

there is no excuse for a poor diet. Make your meals at night and package them in tupper ware for the next day. Sounds like a lot of excuses to me to be honest. Sorry dude.

[motoxposse]

if you cant get your workouts in with good rest and diet your probably wasting your money,i say come off the gear slowly cut back your mgs each week for a month or so and pct. my reasoning is this your 40 your test is probably naturaly lower if you come off cold turkey your test will crash and you will most likely lose your gains, this is usually how i end a cycle because i to am 43 and on trt

[HurricaneAl]

My training is not the issue or the protein. I keep to my training schedule. I get enough protein through supplementation. Its the "other" calories from regular foods that I can't manage. It's a struggle to eat when I have little or no appetite especiall trying to up my calories. I gained 10 pounds doing what I'm doing now. I just hope that if I stop now and start PCT i will be able to keep some or most of the little ten pounds I gained but most importantly I hope to be able to fully recover. Use this as a learning experience for my next cycle sometime down the road.

[Times Roman]

There is no physiological reason you cannot cut a cycle short and start pct. if your environment does not permit the focus you need to do a cycle, then you should wait. A half-assed cycle still brings on all the sides and only minimal benefits.

Good luck!
---Roman

[JohnnyVegas]

Bake ten pounds of chicken, cook brown rice and a bunch of broccoli every Sunday.

Get some egg whites for a quick breakfast. Take Tupperware with three chicken breasts (lunch and two snacks), rice and broccoli (both for lunch). Fish and asparagus for dinner. Protein shake before bed. Done. Oh yeah, and almonds three times a day (two snacks and before bed).

I know this isn't the advice you talked about, but it is the only way I have discovered to not spend hours a day cooking. It is what most of the guys here do. If nothing else, maybe you will be able to get it together next time.

[Strongarm5791]

I have this problem also, but I am 53. My diet is not quite horrible, but for those who don't know what its like to try and hold down a demanding job, keep the wife and kids happy, train hard to make gains, and diet correctly, I will attempt to explain my experiences.
It's just HARD! I do better in my diet than horrible, but when the job demands a lunch visit with a client, and you try and talk them out of a "Greasy Spoon" place, you do the best you can to find the least amount of grease while you are there. My wife works also, and after her long day, sometimes she picks up dinner on the way home....and KFC is not exactly what I need. So, I have to cook, or just suck it up and eat what she purchased to keep from hurting her feelings, or making her feel bad for buying crap. Yes, some of us have to make special efforts in order to keep on a good diet, and I do my best. So, do your best at sticking with it. Just remember, if you want the body that will "make 'em notice", persistence and patience is the key. Steroids help out, but they are unforgiving when it comes to diet. Re-energize your mind into sticking with it as much as possible, and some results you will achieve, and keep. Not everyone can keep the pro bodybuilder attitude, emotion, and aggressiveness, and hold down a family and a sixty hour work week.
Good luck....

[HurricaneAl]

Bake ten pounds of chicken, cook brown rice and a bunch of broccoli every Sunday.

Get some egg whites for a quick breakfast. Take Tupperware with three chicken breasts (lunch and two snacks), rice and broccoli (both for lunch). Fish and asparagus for dinner. Protein shake before bed. Done. Oh yeah, and almonds three times a day (two snacks and before bed).

I know this isn't the advice you talked about, but it is the only way I have discovered to not spend hours a day cooking. It is what most of the guys here do. If nothing else, maybe you will be able to get it together next time.

This is the way it should be done! I commend you for following a good diet plan and this should be a good model for anyone on cycle. Geez....if only I had the time to do it this way.

[HurricaneAl]

I have this problem also, but I am 53. My diet is not quite horrible, but for those who don't know what its like to try and hold down a demanding job, keep the wife and kids happy, train hard to make gains, and diet correctly, I will attempt to explain my experiences.
It's just HARD! I do better in my diet than horrible, but when the job demands a lunch visit with a client, and you try and talk them out of a "Greasy Spoon" place, you do the best you can to find the least amount of grease while you are there. My wife works also, and after her long day, sometimes she picks up dinner on the way home....and KFC is not exactly what I need. So, I have to cook, or just suck it up and eat what she purchased to keep from hurting her feelings, or making her feel bad for buying crap. Yes, some of us have to make special efforts in order to keep on a good diet, and I do my best. So, do your best at sticking with it. Just remember, if you want the body that will "make 'em notice", persistence and patience is the key. Steroids help out, but they are unforgiving when it comes to diet. Re-energize your mind into sticking with it as much as possible, and some results you will achieve, and keep. Not everyone can keep the pro bodybuilder attitude, emotion, and aggressiveness, and hold down a family and a sixty hour work week.
Good luck....

You hit it right on the mark! I thought I was alone in this. I couldn't have said it better myself and this is why this forum is so great. I guess this is a learning experience for me to be better prepared before I decide to do a cycle or for anyone else for that matter. It's not just having your diet, training, and PCT regimen in check first before you start a cycle but also like Times Roman said, your enviroment must permit the focus. I think that "enviroment must permit the focus" is just as important as the other elements but so often not thought of and not often taken into consideration.

I will plan my next cycle by getting my Diet, Training, And PCT in order first but just as important when my "enviroment permits the focus" I then am ready to run a successful cycle.

[Strongarm5791]

One thing that might help, is that because the diet is not quite on the money, the gains you will receive will NOT be maximum gain you could have seen. Then there is FAT and Cholesterol. Johnny Vegas hit it on the mark when he said cook a lot at home, and bring what you can. I make every attempt to do so.
One thing is I try not to stress out about not being able to hit every meal on the money. Stress is not good, and raises my blood pressure, especially on Test.
I don't have huge expectations what I am are trying to look like, but just concentrate on the day by day routine, do what I can, and then make an attempt to do it again, tomorrow. Then in six to 8 weeks, evaluate it, taper off the gear, do my post cycle recovery, and continue to workout, but with more reps and not as hard as I did when I was gearing up. I do more cardio and less weight per lift, just do more reps until failure, or do breakdowns, but change the weight down.
Good Luck as we are all counting for you to make good gains....
Good Luck!

[ConArmas]

Thanks for sharing this. Your honesty benefits all of us.

[Far from massive]

If you don't have the time to devote to diet and excersice then you definately should go ahead and cut the cycle short. Your PCT will be easier and you shrinkage will be far less, I assume you have no HCG on hand this is a bad idea, shrinkage is just now starting ( as you said) and will continue so by cutting short the cycle now you will keep from having a hard time recovering the testicles.

After you have been off a matter of months go ahead and get a male hormone panel done and see where your testosterone baseline is. At your age its likely that you have marginal test scores ( this would help explain the great gains on a half assed diet cycle ) so you may be a good canidate for TRT. TRT will give you good gains even with a marginal diet if you have low T since it will speed up your metabolism and help you process fats the way you used to. A cycle will likely only cause temporary gains, that is without everything else in place you will probably loose most of what you got.

[Doctapeppa]

Sorry, but you asked for it:

You have a very poor attitude and are headed towards poor health this way. You don't have to cycle to eat right and it seems that you are giving up on eating right altogether. Not having time to eat healthy is one of the worst excuses in the book. Also, it sounds like your cycle was destined for failure from the get-go due to poor planning..no hcg? no planned pct?

Your first post on here should have been "I work a lot of hours at a hectic job. Is it possible to still eat healthy? How?"

You think all of us here are unemployed and sit around at home eating all day?

Don't mean to offend, just hoping to wake you up and maybe make you realize it's doable no matter what.

[HurricaneAl]

I know I asked for it. My enviroment is tough when trying to eat healthy and I realized its better to wait till I get all my Ps and Qs together so I cut my cycle short to correct some things. A mistake I made, I admit, to start a cycle and run it half assed. Glad I shared my experience because I got some great feedback. Thanks everyone for helping me learn from my mistake.

Now. here is my PCT experience. Gained 10 lbs of muscle on the 6 weeks of cycle. I am three weeks into PCT and maintaining 6-7 pounds. I actually feel better now than I did on cycle. My strength actually has increased even though muscle size tapered a bit. Water weight maybe? I feel like my muscles are harder and I feel stronger now and lifting more weight than I did on cycle. Anyone else have PCT go for them like this? I wasn't expecting to be more energetic and stronger having better workouts now than I did on cycle.

My testicle size is coming back to normal. Not quite there yet.
My acne has been clearing up.
My strength and workout intensity has gotten better.

My PCT is Clomid 50mg daily. Recycle by Purus Labs (OTC PCT test booster). Kre-alkalyn creatine.
And of course still consuming my body weight in protein.

My diet has gotten better. My wife has been eating clean which has helped me out a great deal. We follow the Caveman diet. If you can kill it and cook it, pick it and eat it, then that's the only thing you should be eating. Don't eat anything that wasn't available to cavemen. Nothing processed.

Feeling the way I do I doubt I'll be going on cycle anytime soon. Maybe stick with a natural OTC test booster in a few months and see how I feel. So to speak, I'm going to ride this wave for as long as I can I guess.

Is it normal occurrance for ssomeone to do better on PCT than on cycle?

[Cravenmorehead]

Why not just stay on HRT and forget the PCT......?. How do you know what cavemen ate????..........depending on where they lived they might have lived primarily on berries or something. Read " The China Study" for some insight on animal fats and heart disease.