Steroids for Fat Loss

The world is all about instant gratification lately. It’s so sought after that as I’m writing this article this program is guessing the words that I’m going to use next and listing them in a light gray font just in case I’m too fucking stupid to spell them and need some help. Do you know what a program like that does for people? It makes them lazy and stoopider (oops, spell check!)

So why would fat loss be any different right? Surely there must be some “special supplements” to help me get my fat ass in gear! Are there steroids for fat loss? Well my friends, yes and no, and I’ll explain to you in this article just how exactly anabolic steroids work while dieting to lose body fat.

Before I begin getting more in depth with how steroids can help recomp and transform you while using them in conjunction with a good workout program and diet, let me first talk about basic hormones and hormone levels here.

You see, it’s easy to tell someone to get off their ass and just get to the gym, but when their natural hormone production is all fucked up then it’s easier said than done. When you’re speaking to men with low testosterone and elevated estrogen (or women with low testosterone, progesterone, and/or estrogen) these people feel like absolute dog shit regardless!

There are definitely diminishing returns with work output and dietary measures when someone has fucked up hormones, and OTC supplements aren’t the answer! Hormone replacement therapy is the right answer and the solution that cuts right through the bullshit. When hormones are in check then fat loss occurs naturally and in the proper rate, combined with a diet and workout program that is geared towards losing body fat.

And usually when someone first gets their hormones straightened out then there is almost always some muscle growth that happens simultaneously with the fat loss. Pretty nice huh?

“But wait a second JD, that infomercial that was on at 3 am promised me that if I took “Total male 3000″ that my testosterone level would increase, and my penis would grow enough to bang my fat trailer park wife again!”

“Those are infomercials and advertisements directed towards desperate losers who will believe anything they hear that gives them just a glimmer of hope. The type of men that buy into the advertisements on testosterone boosting supplements are usually the same kind of men who would choose to watch 70’s VHS porn tapes over conducting a simple internet search for something more modern” -JD 

The truth is, is that testosterone boosting supplements are like the pet rock of the supplement business. For those of you that are younger, the “pet rock” was nothing more than a rock that came in a stupid cardboard box and was marketed as a toy and sold in toy stores back in 1975. The person who put the pet rock idea into action became a millionaire… by selling… FUCKING ROCKS!

Well, the pet rock guy must have moved on to supplements because now there are pills that do nothing but give men false hope. You’d probably get more benefit from eating the pet rock over taking testosterone boosting pills!

So, if you bought into the hype of testosterone boosting pills in the past and basically got bent over and fucked, if only you found this article sooner! Because I don’t lie about what works and what doesn’t!

STEROIDS FOR FAT LOSS

Now, where do anabolic steroids come into play with fat loss? Well, it’s not EXACTLY THAT SIMPLE, as most steroids will actually do very little to help you lose body fat. There are only a few that can actually assist in direct lipolysis (Anavar, Winstrol, Trenbolone), but what steroids do is they promote better protein synthesis in the muscles and help preserve muscle while being in a caloric deficit.

So rather than losing weight and simple becoming a smaller version of yourself, you actually transform your look altogether and this can make you appear even more muscular and more defined. When muscles actually have volume and pop to them, they can provide the illusion that you’re leaner than you really are.

Likewise, when you are dieting down, using anabolic steroids can provide the illusion that you are bigger than you really are!

The first time I went on a serious fat loss diet I was preparing for my first bodybuilding competition. I began my diet around 225 lbs and I ended up getting down to 193 lbs, but I used no steroids to prepare for that competition. Don’t get me wrong, I looked pretty good, but I later realized that I had become more of a smaller version of what I was before the diet rather than recomped and transformed.

This served to be a huge learning experience for me, but it also served to help me later on down the road because I still put diet and hardcore training as the most important part of any routine, not performance enhancement!

Now, granted my diet wasn’t as well put together back then as it is now, but if I was using steroids during that diet then I would have definitely looked harder and more muscular as opposed to flat and depleted. When it comes to fat loss itself, there really isn’t a big difference in the ability to lose fat between doing it naturally and doing it while on cycle. However, THERE IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN DEVELOPMENT AND APPEARANCE!

What I mean by that, is that you could stand two people together side by side, where one is natural and the other on cycle, and that natural guy/girl probably won’t get looked at twice! The difference in the look is just THAT DIFFERENT!

Again, there could be no difference in body fat between someone enhanced and someone natural, but the appearance between the two of them could be night and day!

So, when you really break it all down, most steroids have very little effect on direct fat burning. Even the few that are supposed to have a direct effect on fat loss were never that prevalent just on their own without dieting down and doing my cardio. If you’re looking for more of a direct effect on fat burning, then you’re basically looking at anything that ramps up your heart rate or frees up bound fat cells.

THESE AREN’T STEROIDS, THEY’RE THERMOGENICS

Thermogenics are products that speed up your heart rate to help ramp up your body’s metabolism and/or temperature. Some are safer than other, but all of them are stimulants. These products come in all varieties, everything from Adderall to nicotine, to ephedrine to Clenbuterol. Hell, even cigarettes can speed up your heart rate and probably enhance fat loss! (Please, do not start smoking after reading my article!)

I’ve found that there is a fine line between using thermogenics for results and potentially causing heart damage. I think when used sparingly in shorter duration they’re not terrible for you, but I can’t say that they’re good for you. But one thing is for sure… they help get results.

I feel like the stronger benefit to a good thermogenic would be the appetite suppression they cause rather than any direct fat-loss activity. Any stimulant that I could think of blunts the appetite. NOW, this is good to a certain degree and after that it can be detrimental because you’re simply not eating enough to preserve muscle mass while dieting. I don’t know about you, but I’m trying to be jacked and ripped up, not looking like I just escaped a concentration camp in Auschwitz.

Have you ever seen someone when they get on Adderall? At first, they lose the weight and everyone is telling them they look great, but shortly after that they start looking like dog shit that’s been ran over by a lawnmower. This is because they’re simply not eating enough to even sustain muscle mass while dieting. So, there’s a fine line between appetite suppression and taking things too far here, but I’d say that most people do not fall into that category. Most people just can’t stop eating, so oftentimes an appetite suppressant/stimulant is a good addition to a fat loss protocol.

STEROIDS ARE NUTRIENT PARTITIONING AND ENHANCE PROTEIN METABOLISM

Basically, that this means is that you go further on less. Your muscles take up more on less calories and this helps with the recomp effect and maintaining muscle mass while dieting down. I like to use the analogy of a more quality, higher octane fuel in your tank versus shittier gasoline. Without getting too scientific here, you just go further on less. Sometimes people only think of fat loss in terms of weight loss on a scale, but you can’t always go by that.

I’ve had numerous training clients tell me that they’re only down a few more pounds from a couple weeks prior, but their clothes are falling off them and they’re on the tightest belt notch they have on their belts. This is a good thing because it shows that they’re actually changing their body composition rather than just wasting away each week while losing any sort of muscle mass that could enhance their overall look as they continue to drop fat.

Sometimes with bodybuilding you have to think beyond just gaining or losing X amount of weight on a scale. For example, most people wouldn’t think that 10 lbs of muscle mass was that much, now go find 10 lbs of steak and divide it up and put some on your arms, chest, back and legs. You’ll quickly see that 10 lbs of muscle is more than you think, and when you can do that over time while losing body fat (yes, sometimes they both don’t happen at the same time, but through a prolonged endeavor) you’ll begin to understand how body composition changes really work.

I urge you not to think of steroids as a direct fat loss component to a diet and weight training program. Think of them more as gasoline to your fire rather than starting the fire itself.

To sum this article up, as much as I’d like to come right out and say, “hop on a steroid cycle and watch the fat melt away,” they just don’t work like that. Even the few that have direct fat burning properties to them really aren’t effective enough for the average person to notice THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE, especially if they aren’t dieting tight and bringing intensity to the gym with them.

My advice, is that no matter what you’re doing, at least be committed to eating and training the way you need to before jumping on anything. Nothing is going to change if you don’t put forth the effort and sacrifice a little bit.

ANYONE THAT TELLS YOU THAT YOU CAN GET SHREDDED AND NEVER FEEL HUNGRY IS A FUCKING LIAR!

Yes, there are ways to help, but NEVER, EVER, have I been shredded without mother nature eventually taking over at some point and letting me know that my energy levels were low and that I was hungry as hell!

Train hard!

-JD