<div>
(Totentanz @ Feb. 21 2007,11:26)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I don't think AAS would be a good idea. If dieting makes your immune system go crazy, AAS will too.
You should gain back most of your strength losses once you go back to maintenance. Did you? Usually it's just a case of being depleted or whatever, and once you increase the calories a bit, it comes back fairly quickly... but if you really are losing tons of strength, then you probably aren't counting calories properly... just remember, this is a very long term thing. You shouldn't try a bunch of different approaches over spring and summer, but pick the moderate approach and stick to it for months until you reach your goal.
Going down to 10% shouldn't be that hard, in theory, unless you have some other medical conditions, or if your vitiligo screws with metabolism or something.</div>
Well, no.. can't say that I did. It's been half a year, and the strength gains are still gone. Before I went on the cutter, I was able to bench 258 lbs (or 117.5 kilos) for 6 reps. After I had to quit the cutter and go back up to maintenance (since I really wasn't getting anywhere), I realized that 258 lbs felt impossibly heavy. I tried dropping 5 kilos off at first, just to see if I'd be able to "rebuild" the gains I had lost, but that still felt too heavy. So I ended up dropping 10 kilos off both my bench presses (normal and close grip), and some poundages off my military press, too.
It's like the cutter somehow fried my CNS permanently, with regards to my pushing movements, such as bench etc. As I said, it's been half a year, and I haven't even been able to get back what I lost (not to mention that normally one would expect at least a small new strength gain in half a year's time).
I was very consistent with my approach to dieting. When I said I tried everything, I meant that I tried different kinds of cardio and stuff like keeping carb-heavy and fat-heavy meals seperate, but as far as the actual diet was concerned, I kept to it for about 4 months. I used the format that worked for me (to some degree) the summer before: 2x a day HST workouts 3x a week (splitting the volume over the two workouts; the first one in the morning with lower reps and heavier weights, and the second one with lighter weights and higher reps in the evening), and of course increased cardio. I got at least 8 hours of sleep a night, counted my calories and took all my supplements, so everything should have worked out. But it didn't. The longer I went into the diet (refeeds and everything), the more I started to feel fatigued. Eventually I just couldn't continue on with it, and had to call it quits. And what fat I managed to lose came off during the first month or month and a half. I don't think I lost anything but strength and muscle after that point. Oh yeah, and skin pigment, once I got vitiligo for my efforts.
All I can say is that dieting sucks. And I'm starting to consider the possibility that it's something that doesn't really work for me as well as it does for most people, at least not beyond a minute drop in bodyfat (2% seems to be the maximum amount). Maybe something like UD2, which is specifically geared for those who have a hard time losing fat the natural way, would be better for me. But then I would run into the problem of most likely aggravating my vitiligo, since UD2 is so hardcore and taxing on the body.
So yeah, it's kind of a tricky situation.. I can't really bulk up since I would have to start at a lower bodyfat % to get more bang for my buck, and I can't for the life of me get down to a low enough BF% because my body seems to love its fat reserves too much.
I have made reasonable strength gains in some of my lifts, though (other than bench et al, which took a plunge following my cutter). Maybe I should just become a powerlifter and forget about the appearance of my physique altogether?
(
edited for clarification: I meant kilos, not pounds, when I was talking about how much I lost off my bench)
. And I don`t think you`d hate having a sixpack at 10%(which is possible given the right circumstances).
