In my experience, if you haven't recently competed, like in the last year or so, then you probably have zero idea how your body REALLY will react to things. More than likely, if you're not within a year of being totally ripped, then you are probably around or above 10% bf or at the least you have stubborn areas that will require extra dieting.
What I found to be true is that I kept making progress on small modifications in diet and drugs. (You can see my thread to see exactly what modifications were made). I would continually progress, but the mistake I made was in believing I was closer to stage shape than I thought I was. The result was I needed 3 weeks of almost zero carbs, 2 hrs cardio a day plus training to hit my deadline when I actually started dieting at 15.5 weeks out!
So either A.) I was fatter than I thought when I started, B.) I didn't diet hard enough throughout or C.) something made me stagnate when progress was possible.
I suspect a combination of all three. But even so, I lost a total of 61 lbs and came in good enough for 2nd, so some things DID work too:
Things that worked:
1. gh. I took 10iu/day blue tops and it enabled me to forego cardio until 8 weeks out and eat an average of 800 kcal MORE per DAY than when I dieted without gh.
2. tren ace- I cycled it throughout the year and towards the end line I dosed up to 200mg/day. It shed off stubborn fat and gave me the intensity I needed to train.
3. Bronkaid (ephedrine)- as soon as I switched from clen to ephedrine I dried out immediately and had tons of energy. Would not prep without it.
4. Taking out gh 2.5 weeks before the show. I dropped 7-8 lbs of water immediately and hardened up every day considerably. Of course, I was using ND blues which bloat you a fair bit. But I would recommend this in lieu of several weeks of diuretic use.
5. Lasix- Only used a small amount but the difference overnight was drastic. Much, much tighter and drier.
Everything else could be seen as independant to the user. There's no cookie cutter answer to getting in top shape, except you're going to restrict calories and you're going to do cardio at SOME point.
Things I could have done better:
1. Started cardio earlier in the prep. I started in earnest at 8 weeks out when I should have been doing it from 12 weeks.
2. tightened diet up about 2 weeks earlier. I didn't get really tight on the diet until 5 weeks out. Would have been better being tight from 7-8 weeks out.
3. Had a leaner starting point. Being that my offseason was 9 years, I'm gonna give myself a pass on this, but still, I could have done much better starting from 8% instead of 11-13%
4. Been more conscious of long ester product use in offseason, the reason I bloat so badly. 2 whole weeks in the beginning was just pissing out water, which could have been semi avoided. I was always afraid to run short esters too much, but now I realize how awesome they make you look so I'll stick to them for the entire prep.
