How Much Muscle Can I Gain On A Steroid Cycle?


How much of the weight that is usually gained on a steroid cycle is actually solid muscle?
If you have ever used anabolic steroids, or have seen a person use anabolic steroids, there is generally a period of time where they seem to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And some take it to the extreme, so big that you think they are going to explode. And then you can almost guarantee that a number of weeks later you, or they, are half the size, in a near depression inducing loss. I'm sure we have all some experience of this in some respect. So what is actually going on? How can the body gain so much size so quickly and lose it twice as fast? Do steroids not actually work long term?


Well, again this leads us back to how much you actually are aware about the science of muscle building and how that science is applied to the real world of proper application of anabolic steroids and the most effective drugs used in the most effective combinations. What you must understand is that steroids do work. They work primarily by increasing the uptake and rate of metabolic anabolism - the production of muscle cells from the protein that you ingest through your diet. However, as the drug is a drug and carries with it side effects - the majority of weight gained on a steroid cycle, is from retention of cellular and extra cellular fluid. This is what many lifters will call water retention or bloat. Simply the androgen in the system is causing an increase in cellular fluid storage, increased greatly by the production of estrogen, the female sex hormone, from unused high levels of aromatised testosterone. Estrogen of course, gives the female of the species, the curves, and smoother appearance than the male of the species.


It is not uncommon, with very high androgen based drugs, for one to expand like a balloon. The amount of extra cellular fluid retention can be quite high and dramatic. This initial water weight gain is beneficial up to a certain point. It provides extra nutrients to the muscles and increases their ability to contract by simply giving them more area to work in. As a negative, you must realise that you are increasing your blood pressure, putting undue strain upon your heart and generally heading for a crash after your cycle. It is also true that extra cellular retention, normally goes hand in hand, with increase fat storage. So when using certain anabolic steroids, you run the risk of getting bigger muscles to a degree, while growing bigger around the mid section too!


The average weight gain on a steroid cycle ranges anywhere from five to twenty pounds. This depends upon the drugs used and the duration of the cycle and the method of administration. As a classic example let's say that a weight lifter has gone on a two month steroid cycle and gained a total body weight of twelve pounds.


By monitoring body fat percentages, through body composition analysis, an athlete can keep an idea as to how much of what they gained is body fat, to some degree. Although anabolic steroids can increase the body's ability to mobilize and use fat stores, many athletes find that they go through an increase in body fat while on a bulking cycle. I think this is quite an individual thing, how a person reacts to the application of a particular drug. And it is true that some of the anabolic steroids have a greater potential to burn fat, while other have a high potential for fat storage. Proper drug selection obviously comes down to your goals and what you are really trying to achieve from administering anabolic steroids.


Often, however, fat gain on a steroid cycle can be put down to simply taking in an excess amount of calories on an effective bulking program. This is actually a benefit, not a hindrance, at this time. Remember, there is no point in busting your gut in the gym, spending hard earned money on anabolic steroids, and eating like an anorexic bird! The two do not go hand in hand with effectively gaining substantial muscle tissue.


Now let us say that based on the above, our subject who gained twelve pounds, determined through body composition analysis, that he had put on four pounds of body fat.


This leaves an eight pound increase in lean body weight. Of that eight pounds, it is very likely, if we are being very honest, that only two pounds are skeletal muscle.


It is known that for every one pound of skeletal muscle you put on, the body brings with it three pounds of supportive cellular and extra cellular fluid. Still, an increase of two pounds of skeletal muscle mass is a substantial gain. Remember most people are very pleased with a net gain of five pounds of solid muscle tissue every year. For a 170lb man to put on five pounds for four to five years will turn him from the average man into a very awe inspiring competitive bodybuilder. If you have no concept of what a solid pound of muscle is like then go to your butchers and buy a pound of steak. This you can roll into a ball and hold it by your bicep. Pretty heavy actually isn't it and pretty meaty. Five pounds a year is pretty good going.


So yes, steroids do work for the effective gain of muscle tissue, but if you gain twenty pounds on a cycle and you're expecting to keep that then you should have a real serious think about your logic. Either you are hugely optimistic, or poorly informed of proper physiology and biology.