Flee, thanks for the info. Yes, that helped. (Not the least of which that now that I know you’re 27 I won’t have to automatically say “You shouldn’t use MAG-10!” like I would to an 18-year-old. )
I did the CD/EDT cycle twice. The first time was as Joel posted it on the Lair board, the second time was with some modifications of my own. I wrote about these in my Hot Rox contest report, which I’ve excerpted below. (I haven’t read the new version on JMB’s site yet, so I can’t comment on it.)
Hot-rox contest report - Part Three
I went back on the CD/EDT protocol on April 24th, after having given myself some time off from the androgens. This time, I tried it using MAG-10 and Hot-Rox. My intention was to be able to provide a heads-up comparison between the first and second cycles, so as to compare MAG-10 versus the earlier androgens that Biotest had put out, and Hot-Rox compared to MD-6 plus T2-Pro. I figured that I could do a really quality study on my own body, since I would be able to regulate absolutely everything, right down to eating exactly the same food.
Unfortunately, that’s not how it turned out. (It’s never that easy…) I forgot to factor in that this would be the second time in a relatively short period that I’d be attempting to significantly alter my body composition. I know that MAG-10 is more powerful than the other androgens, both from personal experience on other cycles and basic logic. Yet, ten days into the second cycle my LBM retention wasn’t as good as it had been the first time around. Just goes to show that no program, no matter how well-designed, works forever. There will come a point of diminishing returns, and in my case, at least, that point comes fairly quickly.
However, despite this, the fat-loss was comparable to the first cycle - in fact, it was slightly better! Ten days into the second cycle, I had lost an additional 2.3 pounds of fat, as compared to 2.1 the first time. Mind you, this was after a cycle of CD/EDT and another cycle of 5x5 with slightly restricted calories, and eating exactly the same foods as on the first CD/EDT cycle. This to me indicates that Hot-Rox - at three pills a day, not four - is actually somewhat more effective than a full-dose combination of MD-6 and T2-Pro taken together. The only drawback was that Hot-Rox didn’t do quite as good a job of controlling food cravings as MD-6 did. Perhaps future formulations can address this point.
In any case, halfway through my second CD/EDT cycle I took a very close look at the day-to-day breakdown to see what could be done to improve my results. (For those not familiar with the CD/EDT protocol, it involves a four-day cycle: going extremely hypocaloric for two days; a third day with another half-day at hypocals, work out and hypercal re-feed; and a whole fourth day of re-feed. Then repeat.) The data for the first half (i.e., the first eight days) of the second cycle looked like this:
(The first number is LBM change; the second number is fat change. So the first Diet Day 1 would read as +0.3 lbs LBM, -1.4 lbs fat.)
Diet Day 1 1st time +0.3, -1.4; 2nd time -0.4, -1.3
Diet Day 2 1st time -0.5, -0.6; 2nd time -1.4, -0.2
Workout Day 1st time +1.5, +1.3; 2nd time +0.3, +0.8
Full Re-feed Day 1st time +1.1, +0.5; 2nd time +1.7, 0.0 (No change)
Looking at the numbers, you can see that Diet Day 1, for example, was an unqualified success. Subtracting fat gain from LBM gain, you get a net gain positive gain of 1.7 pounds the first day and 0.9 pounds the second. Good results no matter how you look at it.
However, Diet Day 2 was setting me back. Although there was a very slight plus the first day (0.1 pounds, which could have been anything), the second time around there was a whopping -1.2 pounds, totally negating the gains made on DD1 and then some.
To combat this bodycomp loss, I decided to modify things a bit. First, after some playing around with different HIIT protocols I didn’t feel that any of them were really that good for retaining LBM. So I decided to make my DD2 HIIT a weight training session instead of running, swimming, jumping rope or anything else. (Cue collective gasp from the audience…)
It’s not as far-fetched as it seems; if you think about it, most weight workouts are basically HIIT sessions in a sense anyway: you exercise intensely for a brief period of time, then rest. And we all know that LBM retention is going to be better with weights than with anything else. So I thought: why not add a light pumping session into the mix, placing it on the second diet day of the cycle? I also decided to eat a little more on DD2, part of the extra cals coming from Surge after the workout, and part from a hamburger patty taken in as my post-Surge meal.
(The hamburger was selected to try to limit any leptin response as much as possible, since leptin manipulation is the whole basis of the CD/EDT program in the first place. I was willing to go with the Surge because it was coming during and immediately post-workout [and would therefore be absorbed immediately], but I wasn’t going to have a plate of pasta or anything after that.)
So on my third DD2 I gave it a shot, and was rewarded the next morning with no change. My skinfolds were exactly the same as the day before, if not slightly better (not enough to log in, though), my weight was exactly the same, I looked better in the mirror, and I felt better as well. So that was an unqualified success. However, the real test was yet to come: would eating more on DD2 affect leptin levels enough that I wouldn’t get as good a re-feed response as usual on Workout Day and Re-feed Day?
The answer was no. My results for the 36-hour re-feed were a net gain of one pound to the positive, which fell perfectly within the range already established. (My first two 36-hour re-feeds during this cycle gave me results of +0.8lbs and +1.2lbs, respectively.) So I was back on track, and resolved to eat slightly higher calories during my two diet days for the last part of the cycle.
Beginning and ending stats for this cycle were:
April 24th: LBM 151.7 Fat mass: 23.7 BF% 13.5
May 9th: LBM 154.0 Fat mass: 22.0 BF% 12.5
Hope this helps you out. If you want the whole report, along with pics, you can call up my contest report and read the entire thing.