Guess I'll take this time to post my whole story. It might resonate with someone one day or someone might google it and can relate.
Or just ignore it if you don't care or read on and laugh at my misfortunes.
I guess I started lifting around 19. So its been 13 years which is even more sad. It was just a curl bar type stuff so i really don't count it. Bi's, tri's, and traps.
At 20, I bought a bench and home gym in college. During this time I started messing with NO explode and shit like that. At first it was great, I started filling out really nice. Even when I was called skinny in hs, I still never saw my abs. Not once in my life! Always felt skinny fat, but I was hitting what I remember thinking was a second puberty. My mommy told me I was filling into my man body.
By 21, we started binge drinking at the local brewery 3-4xs a week. Stopped training completely and my diet just blew! Mostly pizza and cheesesteaks. I would starve myself all day hungover and then binge eat. Apparently I had a problem with moderation. I do remember an older buddy saying to me a few years earlier, "wait to u see how fat u get after u turn 21". Well, it didnt help that the brewery we all went to served the most caloric dense beer u could possibly consume. THIS WASNT MILLER LITE.
At 22 I was having stretch marks and straight up moon face. Rest of my body was normal, but looking back at pictures, i looked pretty odd. Only held it in my stomach and face. Prob gained about 30 lbs. I remember going to a dermatologist about the stretch marks and the woman laughed at me. Fuck her.

What nobody realized at the time is that I fucked up my hormones pretty bad with my lifestyle. She was basically like "you're fat get out of here" lol. Kinda proves that hormones are not fully understood or taught and that's similar today.
So for the next couple years 22-24, I decided to get back in the gym. I read a book by Vince Delmonte or whatever his name is and implemented an actual plan for the first time. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best plan bc it was designed for hard gainers, but I digress. At least I was motivated and had a plan!
My diet was still absolute shit during this time and while i was lifting, I didn't know a thing about diet or do much cardio. So needless to say, didn't get the best results.
Everything changed by 25. I finally learned about diet and did way more cardio. Dropped 32lbs.
Breakfast would be egg whites, low fat cheese, on wheat. Half grapefruit and strawberry slender tea which was banging.
I learned about protein shakes and started drinking them in between meals so i would have 5 smaller meals a day.
I used a fat burner and eventually clen when I got down to a certain point.
The one thing I noticed is I could not get down under 187 even on clen. It was 1..8..7 on this mutherfukin gut!
That was as low as I could go without dangerously cutting my calories. Well why? Something still wasn't right but I just felt maybe that was as low as I could go and I still had belly fat. My body would not lose the belly fat!
Next few years, I looked good and didn't worry about it. Was getting laid, but now the quality of the cooter was going up!
It wasn't until my late 20s I started looking into hormones and lurking on this site. IT FINALLY CLICKED. I had a hormone imbalance. it all made sense! I went and got blood work and low and behold that was it.
Now at this point, I could've went to an endocrinologist, but my fear of needles and distrust for doctors led to a $2-$300 supplement addiction. (cause u can trust the supplement companies lmao) But I did start taking a great test boaster that lowered estro and it made a huge difference, but it only worked for 2 cycles. (Bottles) Then they changed it or something.
This all cumulated after I turned 30. My dick stopped working!!! my fuckin dick! Now I don't know if I can attribute this to my estro problems, the supplements I was taking, or if it was a mental thing bc of the tough break up I was going through. (Which ended when i found a BBC pic in her phone btw! If you don't know what BBC is, google it! lol)
I figured the only solution was to man up, do a cycle and a good pct should fix things. I was right. I followed Aust's planning and executing your first cycle and the problem was resolved. STEROIDS SAVED MY DICK. I owe steroids everything. lol I learned more about hormones and correcting problems then I could anywhere else. The endo is still on the list now as I came around on that, but some people around here could have degrees in this shit. And I would like to be able to gain muscle and definition while correcting issues. Which most doctors won't care about.
end rant