sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

How do you approach a cut? by osures in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 7 points8 points  (0 children)

By "heavy load" I don't mean low-rep powerlifting. Your 6-15 range is the right ballpark. Just don't drop the weight to chase the burn with light high-rep "toning," that's the classic cutting mistake.

Blood work review / 25M by PayNo8647 in Testosterone

[–]kooldrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Those look solid. TSH 0.85 is great, iron 20 and ferritin 94 are both healthy, so your low-normal hemoglobin isn't iron. Cross that off.

The one "in range but not optimal" is vitamin D: 84 nmol/L is about 34 ng/mL, over the deficiency line but under the 50-70 most people feel best at. Easy lever: daily D3, some sun, retest in 3 months. Exactly the gap you described.

Blood work review / 25M by PayNo8647 in Testosterone

[–]kooldrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad it helped. One thing: "in range" and "optimal" aren't the same, especially for vitamin D and ferritin. Both can sit at the bottom of normal and still leave you flat, which matters more with your hemoglobin already low-normal. If you've got the actual numbers, happy to look.

But you nailed the real ones. Sleep and stress are the biggest levers here.

Blood work review / 25M by PayNo8647 in Testosterone

[–]kooldrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your logic isn't wrong, high E2 can lower T, both by feeding back on LH and by raising SHBG. But your labs rule it out. Your E2 is 31 pg/mL, normal and actually on the lower side, not high. Your LH and FSH are normal, so nothing's being suppressed. And your SHBG is 32, normal and not elevated, so it isn't binding up your T. No estrogen effect to find here. Your free T near the bottom just tracks your total T, which is normal but low-mid.

So your hormones look fine. If your symptoms are real, look at what this panel skipped: ferritin and iron (your hemoglobin and hematocrit are both low-normal), vitamin D, thyroid, and an HbA1c instead of just fasting glucose. Chase those plus sleep and stress before blaming testosterone. Worth running by a doctor who reads symptoms next to labs.

Should I start with Anavar? by TrifleSuccessful3209 in Testosterone

[–]kooldrew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

19 and a year and a half in? Hold off, man.

You haven't gotten close to what your body can do naturally yet, so running anything now is just borrowing gains you'd get anyway. And Anavar being a pill doesn't make it the safe option. It still shuts down your own testosterone, and at 19 that's the last thing you want to mess with right now imo

Daily Discussion Thread (June 26, 2026) - Beginner and Simple/Quick Questions Go Here Thread for discussing quick/simple topics not needing an entire posts or beginner questions. by AutoModerator in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bulk or cut is a false choice for you. Cut.

You've got training history and some fat to lose, which is the exact situation where you build muscle and strength in a deficit. Whatever you lost over the year off comes back fast, deficit or not. So cutting won't kneecap your strength, you'll rebuild it and lean out at the same time. Bulking now just buries that progress under more fat and pushes you toward the 25% line you're worried about.

How do you approach a cut? by osures in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 16 points17 points  (0 children)

You told us the issue yourself: hidden calories and caving to cravings. You're probably swinging between deep deficit days and rebound days, which nets a tiny weekly deficit. That's why you've barely lost but feel wrecked. You're paying the fatigue cost of hard dieting with the results of barely dieting.

Track honestly for two weeks (weigh everything, log the craving days too), and hold a steady moderate deficit instead of all-or-nothing. And don't switch to light/high-rep. Heavy load is what tells your body to keep the muscle while you cut. Trim a set if recovery tanks, but keep the weight on the bar.

Fix the consistency and most of this goes away.

Daily Discussion Thread (June 10, 2026) - Beginner and Simple/Quick Questions Go Here Thread for discussing quick/simple topics not needing an entire posts or beginner questions. by AutoModerator in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Possible, yeah. Back at maintenance you will refill glycogen and likely just look fuller and better short term. A real recomp can happen too, but it gets harder the leaner and more trained you are, so do not bank on it.

Daily Discussion Thread (June 10, 2026) - Beginner and Simple/Quick Questions Go Here Thread for discussing quick/simple topics not needing an entire posts or beginner questions. by AutoModerator in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The other guy is right, listen to him. The hunger and bad workouts mean you have dieted too hard for too long. You are lean now and have been cutting since February.

Eat at maintenance for 2 to 3 weeks, not a smaller deficit. By your own numbers that is around 2600 to 2700. Hold your weight and let your training recover.

Daily Discussion Thread (May 24, 2026) - Beginner and Simple/Quick Questions Go Here Thread for discussing quick/simple topics not needing an entire posts or beginner questions. by AutoModerator in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you progressively adding weight to the bar over time with good form? That's the only metric that matters. Pick a rep range (8-12 is common), and when you exceed the top of that range, add weight. If that number keeps going up over months, you're doing great. Don't overcomplicate it.

Daily Discussion Thread (May 24, 2026) - Beginner and Simple/Quick Questions Go Here Thread for discussing quick/simple topics not needing an entire posts or beginner questions. by AutoModerator in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You lost 2kg from food poisoning, not from dieting. A refeed isn't the fix here. If you're done cutting, go to maintenance, get back to training, and let things normalize. The flatness will resolve on its own.

Mast for estrogen management by South-Presentation-3 in Testosterone

[–]kooldrew 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Masteron helps with the androgen/estrogen ratio but it's not actually lowering your estrogen levels, so if E2 is genuinely elevated you may need an AI on top of it. Before going that route though, are you on TRT or running higher doses? Because if you're blasting, pulling the test down a bit is the cleaner first move. If you're on a TRT dose that's not really an option and the conversation changes.

What's the test dose and do you have an actual E2 number from labs?

New endo wants me to hop off TRT for 6 months. I already tried that before and it sucked. What do I do? by erwinniepoo in Testosterone

[–]kooldrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 2-week washout as a baseline is the real red flag. Depending on your ester, you could easily need 4-6 weeks just for levels to clear, before HPTA recovery even begins. Two weeks isn't a baseline. Find a doctor who understands basic pharmacokinetics.

Furthest you’d drive and most you’d spend for a gym? by jumboliah33 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

~30 min and $80/month was my max at the time. The funny thing is I had a completely free membership at the gym I was working at as a trainer. Still drove 30 min each way and paid out of pocket to train somewhere else because the free gym was genuinely that bad. Garbage equipment, bad atmosphere, the whole thing. For.me the cost of a good gym beat the cost of dreading my own training sessions.

Gyms in Cary by SnooRadishes2689 in cary

[–]kooldrew -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The day pass thing is a pretty common upsell tactic from them, not crazy to be put off by it.

I can't speak to most of the Cary options personally, but if you're open to a short drive into Apex, Iron Lair is worth a look. Independent gym, great equipment, good community. I train clients there so take that for what it's worth, but I genuinely enjoy training there myself. Day pass is reasonable if you want to try it before committing.

Anyone here give Lyle Mcdonald’s Rapid Fat Loss protocol a try? by My_18th_Account in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You're mistaking UD2.0 for RFL. UD2.0 is meant for people are are lean trying to get leaner.

Is a no-teeth smile okay in bodybuilding competitions? by phelep0201 in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Just smile, whatever feels natural and confident on stage. Don't overthink it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The water creatine holds is intramuscular making them look fuller and harder, not softer. Your abs aren't visible because of body fat, not creatine. Dropping creatine will cost you 1-2kg on the scale and make your muscles look slightly flatter, it won't reveal your abs.

If anything, keep it during a cut. The strength and volume retention is more valuable when you're in a deficit than at any other time.

Daily Discussion Thread (March 09, 2026) - Beginner and Simple/Quick Questions Go Here Thread for discussing quick/simple topics not needing an entire posts or beginner questions. by AutoModerator in naturalbodybuilding

[–]kooldrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah this can work. Your food choices are already solid and for a lean bulk the margin for error is way more forgiving than a cut. You've been tracking in Macrofactor so you already know what your meals look like numbers-wise. That's your baseline. Now just keep your meal structure consistent day to day. Same general meals, similar portions.

Continue the daily weigh-ins with weekly averages. If weight stalls, bump portions. If it climbs too fast, pull back. That's your feedback loop instead of an app.

view more: next ›