January 26, 2001
 Issue #31

EXTREME ANABOLIC REVIEW
by Grendel

This week I am not going to just focus on drugs and some may view this as a radical departure from tradition within this series.   However, oftentimes the bodybuilding community is overly concerned with ergogenic drugs and sometimes neglects the fundamentals of our sport. I am going to address low-carbohydrate diet tools this issue (and okay, maybe I will mention a few drugs to keep your attention). And what the hell, the second profile will be Sustanon, there, does that make you happy?

Metformin (Glucophage)

This drug heightens the sensitivity of the body to insulin. Oral Metformin hydrochloride belongs to a class of antidiabetic agents called biguanides. It is used to treat type 2 diabetes (previously known as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus). Metformin lowers blood glucose levels by decreasing glucose production by the liver and increasing tissue responsiveness to insulin. Phenformin can also be used and is technically a more potent drug. For our purposes, Metformin is ideal. In addition to dropping your blood sugar into a level that will start ketosis, Metformin has other ancillary benefits. By controlling insulin levels, it limits hunger. Additionally, Metformin increases insulin sensitivity, which is good considering that most people are insulin insensitive. This insulin insensitivity causes their bodies to over-produce insulin, which causes weight gain and can eventually lead into a host of health problems. That makes the use of Metformin all the more potent a dieting resource; dosages of 2000 to 3000 mg per day taken in divided dosages with each meal are sufficient to rapidly induce ketosis. Oral insulin antagonists should be used until ketosis is reached, but may be continued to assist with controlling hunger and keeping insulin sensitivity high. For those people unwilling or unable to obtain Metformin, vanadyl sulfate may be used in its place. Vanadyl sulfate, along with chromium, serve as weaker forms of insulin antagonists. They will help in dropping blood sugar and may control hunger pangs, however, as should be expected, they are nowhere near as powerful of glucose disposal agents.

This is an excerpt from a previous article on ketogenic diets that I wrote, but seems unavailable on the back issues of the magazine.

Greens

When I do a low-carb diet I mostly eat meat and cheese, day in and day out. Recently I put into practice something I should have been doing all along, I increased the amount of green leafy vegetables I eat. I try to eat at least a bag of salad a day (the ready-made kind you can buy at any supermarket). Yes, it has a few carbs but it is super filling and helps your digestive tract. Generally speaking most greens are devoid of significant amounts of nutrients, particularly lettuce. I happen to like spinach, which has some protein but also a great deal of iron. Any nutritional guide can tell you which vegetables are best for you to consume, just try to choose those that have some nutrient value.

Pork Rinds

How can Grendel tell you to eat pork rinds? I am not perfect. Sometimes I just want something to crunch on while I am watching television. These snacks are important because they let you bend your diet but not break it. Pork Rinds are cheap and they are salty. What more does a food need?

Seriously I always keep a bag of pork rinds in my house, just in case I feel the over-whelming need to have some junk food. I wish I could say that every meal is a chicken breast and a whey shake, but it isn’t.

Diet Soda

I don’t think I could live without my Pepsi 1 and diet mountain dew. In the original low-carb literature people where warned about drinking diet drinks because they might disrupt ketosis. This is bullshit. I find that diet soda helps me control my urges and lets me get more fluids in me. Yes, I know that these drinks have caffeine and that caffeine is a diuretic.

Carbo-Lite

I don’t know is this product is available everywhere, but it is a blend of low-carb ice cream (more of a smoothie really). For those who do a ketogenic diet as a year round maintenance diet this is a wonderful product. It lets you enjoy yourself a little and not endanger your diet. If you, like me until so recently, have a girlfriend and must entertain her, this is a perfect product because it is available at ice cream stores that also serve normal ice cream. You can eat your low-carb ice cream and look social while your companion eats whatever flavor you crave the most. Seriously, this is another important anti-craving tool and I suggest you try it. Carbo-lite has kept me on my diet many times.

Ok, Ok, on to the drugs!!

Sustanon

First of all, sustanon is a trademarked product made by Organon. It really is just a blend of testosterone esters designed to act over a long period of time and eliminate the clinical need of frequent injections. sustanon has no magical properties outside of being 250mg of testosterone. People have a tendency to treat sustanon as if it is the king of all testosterones, a title I find ludicrous.  Sustanon is overpriced, especially compared to some of the bargain basement veterinary testosterone preparations that can be found in Mexico.  

If you’re willing to pay the price, sustanon does have two advantages over the other testosterone esters available.  Again, a single ml has 250mgs of testosterone in it, which is more then most testosterones (Mexican T-200 claims to have 200mgs per ml, but I have seen lab tests that show it be somewhat under-dosed, especially that which is manufactured by Brovel.). For those of you who are taking upwards of a gram of testosterone per week, sustanon is the stuff for you because your injection volume will be decreased.  Additionally, because sustanon is designed for an even release of testosterone over a period of about 3 weeks, injection frequency is also decreased over some of the shorter acting testosterones available.  In my own personal opinion, I’ll gladly inject an extra ml or take an extra shot per week to save money on one of the cheaper and more readily available testosterone products on the market.

I have seen many complex cycles on the web designed for sustanon. Many of them are overly complicated for no real reason. The most important thing to remember about sustanon is that the longest acting ester in the drug will not be “done” in your body until about 3 weeks after your last shot, maybe longer. This means that if you have an 8-week cycle planned (that means injections for 8 weeks) you are really doing a 10-11 week cycle. This is not a big deal for most of you, but can be vitally important for someone like a drug-tested athlete. For this reason, many people switch from a longer-acting testosterone (or blend, like sustanon) in the middle of their cycle and begin to use a faster acting ester like propionate or even testosterone suspension. If you are a more advanced user, this is that I would do because you want to be able to control when the drugs are out of your system. If this is your first cycle, don’t worry, just stick to your dosage for 8 weeks or however long and then use clomid for 2 weeks longer then you would normally. Does this mean a month of a clomid? Yes. If I took 500mg of sustanon per week for 6 weeks I would continue taking at least 50mg of clomid for 3-4 weeks afterwards.

People often report a fever when using sustanon. Honestly, this is probably a biological reaction to the injection or some foreign body that was accidently introduced because sterile injection procedures were not followed. There is no reason to suspect that any commercially manufactured sustanon is contaminated, I would tend to think it’s a problem with injection technique. Sometimes sustanon injections sting or ache for a while afterwards and form a lump in the muscle. This is very likely a result of the propionate ester included in the blend and is not something to be worried about; if you heat the body part with a hot shower and massage the injection site this will help disperse the knot.

 Well, this has been a very rough last couple of weeks for me. Those of you who read the AE board know about the problems in my life right now and I really thank you all for your helpful and kind words. Next week I will be running a comic piece to take a break for a while. I will be back soon enough with another Kitchen Chemist article.