Should Cytomel be Used for Weight Loss?

In the weight loss world, a debate rages between advocates and opponents of a synthetic hormone replacement drug some are using to shed unwanted pounds. The drug, liothyronine sodium, is given to patients suffering from hypothyroidism, a condition where the thyroid doesn't make enough natural Triiodothyronine (T3). Liothyronine sodium, better known by the brand name Cytomel, can help treat many symptoms, including weight gain. There are those who are willing to take Cytomel if it means possible weight loss.

The natural thyroid hormone T3 has a role in almost every process in the body. For a person with hypothyroidism, the lack of T3 could mean hampered body growth, hair that breaks easily or falls out, impaired or slowed speech, and weight gain. If used, Cytomel can take the place of T3 and begin to address the hormone deficiency problems. It can also speed up the body's metabolism, making it desirable for dieters. Cytomel as a weight-loss agent works in the same way that T3 would. It stimulates adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which holds energy in the body and then releases it to fuel metabolic reactions. When that happens, it raises the metabolism and makes it easier to burn fat. Cytomel benefits people who lack enough thyroid hormones because it restores functionality to their bodies' processes.

Advocates for Cytomel's use as a weight-loss drug are attracted to its ability to quickly process carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Some bodybuilders and dieters look to Cytomel to burn off extra body fat. The extra release of energy may encourage users to exercise. Those who use Cytomel as a diet aid recommend slowly increasing the dosages until reaching a maximum amount, not to be exceeded. They also advise seeing a doctor before beginning Cytomel and being cautious during its usage. Those who oppose it for dietary use do so on the idea that Cytomel, which serves as a replacement hormone for those with a medical deficiency, can be harmful to people with regular hormone production. They warn that taking unneeded drugs can permanently affect the body's natural functions. Because Cytomel works as a thyroid replacement hormone, it works on almost every process in the body, not just the metabolism. The side effects from unnecessary Cytomel use can include nervousness, headaches, diarrhea, rapid heartbeat, breathing problems, and chest and abdominal pain. In serious cases, it could cause shock, heart attack, congestive heart failure, or even death. The package insert for Cytomel warns users about using it as a diet aid. It states that, although thyroid hormone drugs have been used to treat obesity, not all doses will cause weight loss. Large doses may bring about serious or even potentially fatal toxic reactions.

Pros
Cytomel can burn body fat, without restricting caloric intake. The stimulated ATP can release enough energy to promote exercise, which aids in weight loss. Some people believe they can safely take Cytomel with no adverse side effects and lose the weight they want, then come down off the dosages.

Cons
Taking Cytomel, a replacement hormone, with a healthy thyroid could actually bring on hypothyroidism, not to mention other harmful side effects. The amount for a safe dosage in a person with the deficiency is dependent on the degree of hypothyroidism and age; those who take it for weight loss may have less accurate means to determine dosages. It is impossible to determine when and which side effects could appear.

Cytomel works well as a replacement hormone for thyroid deficiency, but there is much controversy over its usefulness as a diet drug. While it greatly boosts the metabolism and can be used to assist in weight loss, it also carries numerous health risks that may outweigh the benefits. Those still willing to try Cytomel to lose weight would be well advised to consult a doctor first, and to follow medical advice.

Mr. Olympia Shawn Ray's Legs Workout

ARGUABLY THE BEST PRO bodybuilder to have never won the Mr. Olympia (he finished in the top 5 for 12 years straight, 1990–2001), Shawn Ray is a guy you want to listen to when training advice is being dispensed.
“I never map out my leg workouts, and that’s probably why my workouts are so fresh,” Shawn says. “The most consistent thing I do on leg day is a few light leg extensions first to warm up the muscles and get the blood moving.”
Although Shawn performs regular hack squats, he also likes reverse hack squats, where you stand in a regular hack machine backward.

BARBELL LUNGE
START: Adjust a barbell across your shoulders and traps so it rests comfortably, and focus your gaze forward. Start with both feet together, abs tight and back straight and strong.
MOVE: From this standing position, step forward with one foot, leading with your heel, and lunge down toward the floor, maintaining control over the speed of your descent. Lower yourself until your opposite knee almost touches the floor, then push back off your lead foot, returning to the start position. Complete all repetitions on one side before switching to the other.

LEG PRESS
START: Begin the exercise with your feet shoulder-width apart in the centre of the foot plate.
MOVE: Slowly lower the weight, bringing your knees toward your chest but stopping before your hips curl off the pad. Keep your lower back pressed against the seat back throughout the movement. Pause a moment before pressing through your heels to return the weight to the start position. “I see a lot of people pressing on their knees with their hands to move the weight back up,” says Shawn. “Let your legs do all the work or you’re cheating yourself of the full potential of the exercise.”

HACK SQUAT
START: Stand with your feet slightly forward of your body and adjust your torso so the pads rest comfortably on your shoulders.
MOVE: Lean into the machine so your back is entirely supported and unlock the weight stack, slowly squatting down until your hips and knees are at, or just below, 90-degree
angles. From here, stand back up by pressing through your heels to lift the sled. Come almost to a full extension at the top without locking out your knees before descending again into your next repetition. “I’m pretty consistent on my rep speed,” Shawn notes. “I keep constant tension on my legs and maintain a continual motion throughout the set.”

LEG EXTENSION
START: Adjust the machine so your back is fully supported and your legs rest comfortably over the seat; the footpad should touch just above your ankles. Grasp the handles at your sides.
MOVE: Flex hard through your quads to raise the weight stack, kicking your legs straight out in front of you. Squeeze your quads at the top of the movement before slowly returning to the start position, keeping a constant tension throughout the motion by not letting the weights hit the stack.

Post cycle therapy with Nolvadex

Post cycle therapy is a method of employing drugs which work via various mechanisms to go about trying to aid stabilising and restoring a users hormones back to normal once a suppressive anabolic androgenic steroid cycle has been ceased.

Once a user has ceased use of anabolic androgenic steroids they are left in a situation where their natural testosterone production has been suppressed , sometimes severely by androgens and aromatising drugs. Add this onto the fact the levels of steroids are forever diminishing in their system, this can leave the user in a very catabolic state post cycle, which may reflect in their ability to maintain muscle mass gained whilst on cycle. It is therefore easy to conclude that we would like to find a way to restore ones natural testosterone production to bring about a better environment for overall health and to maintain muscle tissue.

Clomiphene citrate, also known as clomid, and tamoxifen, also known as the brand name nolvadex, can be employed post cycle to aid restoring the users natural testosterone production. With both abilities to block oestrogen at the hypothalamus and pituitary, thus ceasing negative feedback inhibition, we have drugs that can successfully increase FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone) in the male body. Increased LH can help to stimulate the Leydig’s cells in the testes to produce more testosterone.
Many find just using nolvadex on its own post cycle is efficient enough to recover from their anabolic androgenic steroid cycles. Some however prefer to use both drugs to cover all angles. It is worth noting nolvadex is more profound in stimulating the increase of LH over time, on a milligram to milligram standpoint compared to that of clomid. Also many users complain of side effects from clomid such as visual implications and mood swings.

When analysing the methods in which both drugs work to bring about raises in natural testosterone production it is easy to conclude some old-school approaches are flawed. Many users would use a burst of clomid mid cycle in the hope of it causing an increase in testosterone production to minimise shut down. The only use of clomid during use of a heavy androgenic cycle is as an anti-oestrogen, as the heighten levels of androgen will cause a feedback to the testes to cease production of testosterone. Therefore, if androgen levels are high clomid will do very little in aiding production of natural testosterone. It will a lot more effective starting a PCT protocol when the androgen levels of the steroids drop, and this will be dependant on the half life of the compounds the user used during their cycle.

Due to the half life of clomid and nolvadex there is little need in splitting the dosages of the drug, just take when its most continent.

Dosages of nolvadex for PCT protocol

Day 1	100mg
Following     10 days	60mg
Following 10 days	40mg

The above outline is a sample protocol which could be employed. Obviously the cycle and other parameters may alter the dosages and duration of your post cycle protocol.

Active Half-life of Steroids and Esters

An important thought once designing a steroid cycle, specially the temporal arrangement of dosing to be administered, is that the active half-life of the drug being used. Steroids

The half-life is also outlined because the time the amount is 1/2 the beginning level of a given compound; at time 2t, the amount may be a quarter of the beginning level, and at time 3t, the amount is AN eighth of the beginning level, and so on.

This info is important within the temporal arrangement of the dosing once making an attempt to attain a a lot of stable blood concentration, that ends up in larger overall results and maintenance of gains. Some fluctuations of concentration levels ar acceptable, and also are principally inevitable, however ought to be unbroken to a minimum.

This article covers the half-life’s of the foremost normally used steroids, esters and adjutant compounds.

Oral steroids

Drug	Active half-life
Anadrol / Anapolon (oxymetholone)	8 to 9 hours
Anavar (oxandrolone)	9 hours
Dianabol (methandrostenolone, methandienone)	4.5 to 6 hours
Methyltestosterone	4 days
Winstrol (stanozolol) (tablets or depot taken orally)	9 hours

Steroid esters

The half-life applies to the ester regardless of hormone attached, for example trenbolone enanthate and primobolan (methenolone enanthate) will act very similarly to testosterone enanthate in terms of release rate.

Drug	Active half-life
Suspension	within 1 hour
Acetate	1 day
Propionate	1 day
Phenylpropionate	1-2 days
Butyrate	2-3 days
Valerate	3 days
Hexanoate	3 days
Caproate	4-5 days
Isocaproate	4-5 days
Heptanoate	5-6 days
Enanthate	5-6 days
Octanoate	6-7 days
Cypionate	6-7 days
Nonanoate	7 days
Decanoate	7-8 days
Undeclenate	8-9 days
Undecanoate	Approx 20 days

Ancillaries

Drug	Active half-life
Arimidex	3 days
Clenbuterol	1.5 days
Clomid	5 days
Cytadren	6 hours
Ephedrine	6 hours
T3	10 hours

WHAT AN ESTER IS, AND HOW IT WORKS

I'm sure that if you have taken an interest in anabolic steroids you have noticed the similarities on the labeling of many drugs. Let's look at testosterone for example. One can find compounds like testosterone cypionate, enanthate, propionate, heptylate; caproate, phenylpropionate, isocaproate, decanoate, acetate, the list goes on and on. In all such cases the parent hormone is testosterone, which had been modified by adding an ester (enanthate, propionate etc.) to its structure. The following question arises: What is the difference between the various esterified versions of testosterone in regards to their use in bodybuilding?

An ester is a chain composed primarily of carbon and hydrogen atoms. This chain is typically attached to the parent steroid hormone at the 17th carbon position (beta orientation), although some compounds do carry esters at position 3 (for the purposes of this article it is not crucial to understand the exact position of the ester).

Esterification of an injectable anabolic/androgenic steroid basically accomplishes one thing, it slows the release of the parent steroid from the site of injection. This happens because the ester will notably lower the water solubility of the steroid, and increase its lipid (fat) solubility. This will cause the drug to form a deposit in the muscle tissue, from which it will slowly enter into circulation as it is picked up in small quantities by the blood. Generally, the longer the ester chain, the lower the water solubility of the compound, and the longer it will take to for the full dosage to reach general circulation.

Slowing the release of the parent steroid is a great benefit in steroid medicine, as free testosterone (or other steroid hormones) previously would remain active in the body for a very short period of time (typically hours). This would necessitate an unpleasant daily injection schedule if one wished to maintain a continuous elevation of testosterone (the goal of testosterone replacement therapy). By adding an ester, the patient can visit the doctor as infrequently as once per month for his injection, instead of having to constantly re-administer the drug to achieve a therapeutic effect. Clearly without the use of an ester, therapy with an injectable anabolic/androgen would be much more difficult.

Esterification temporarily deactivates the steroid molecule. With a chain blocking the 17th beta position, binding to the androgen receptor is not possible (it can exert no activity in the body).

In order for the compound to become active the ester must therefore first be removed. This automatically occurs once the compound has filtered into blood circulation, where esterase enzymes quickly cleave off (hydrolyze) the ester chain. This will restore the necessary hydroxyl (OH) group at the 17th beta position, enabling the drug to attach to the appropriate receptor. Now and only now will the steroid be able to have an effect on skeletal muscle tissue. You can start to see why considering testosterone cypionate much more potent than enanthate makes little sense, as your muscles are seeing only free testosterone no matter what ester was used to deploy it.