How Effective Is An Anavar Only Cycle?

Anavar, or Oxandrolone, is one of the most popular oral anabolic steroids used today. Originally designed for the treatment of AIDS-related muscle wasting, alcoholic hepatitis, treatment of osteoporosis, trauma recovery and other weight loss illnesses, its popularity amongst athletes grew due to its potent muscle building effects and good safety profile.

If you’re below the age of twenty-one, we don’t suggest using anabolic steroids, Anavar included. However, if you’re set on using anabolic steroids regardless of our advice or anyone else’s, Anavar is certainly an option due to it not aromatising and converting to estrogen, as well as its mild overall effects. For a first cycle or introduction into the world of using anabolic steroids, going to the oral route is often favourable. That doesn’t leave a lot of options, but Anavar is one of them. Dianabol can also be used alone, but this compound does cause estrogen levels to rise, will impact testosterone production moderately and cause the steroid user to experience symptoms of low testosterone. Because Anavar is a dihydrotestosterone (DHT) related anabolic steroid, its androgenic effects can cause libido to increase, even though endogenous testosterone may be inhibited, making it an excellent choice as an oral only based steroid cycle. But how effective is Anavar used alone?

Today we’re going to look at a study done at the University of Southern California in 2004.  Thirty men over sixty years of age were given a relatively low Anavar dosage of 20mg every day. Twenty of the healthy and untrained men, got Anavar and the remaining ten got a placebo. The study lasted for twelve weeks and looked at a number of parameters. The men did not exercise during the trial.

One of the parameters measured before and after Anavar treatment was a cross section of the thigh muscle. This would indicate muscle mass accrual from Anavar use. The figure below shows the results.




The men using Anavar gained far more muscle mass than those using the placebo. The figure below indicates how much of this muscle mass was maintained after the study ended, and unfortunately, its not much.



A similar result was seen in muscle power from the Anavar group as shown below. The lat pull-down, leg extension and leg press were all tested which showed a more dramatic increase in the Anavar group. But again, these strength gains faded away leaving around 5-10% remaining after discontinuing Oxandrolone.




However, all was not lost post Anavar treatment. Fat loss was maintained more so than the muscle mass and strength gained from Oxandrolone after twelve weeks. Fat mass fell after two weeks and this loss was still evident twelve weeks later.



Other parameters tested were the men’s luteinizing hormone (LH) levels, cholesterol, PSA markers for prostate cancer and liver enzymes. There were no adverse effects in any of these.

Limitations of this study are that the men were untrained. The results are promising showing gains in muscle, strength and fat loss are evident in untrained males, and these results could be expedited with a high protein diet, training and cardio program. We don’t suggest using Anavar alone and not training, but instead consume a calorie surplus for more muscle mass, or calorie deficit for wanting to lose fat mass.

As with any anabolic steroids used alone or in combination, a post cycle therapy (PCT) will be needed, and Anavar is no different. Although a mild androgen on natural testosterone production, Oxandrolone is inhibitive so using drugs, such as Tamoxifen and herbal products will be needed post cycle to boost testosterone output.

Why Use Cutting Steroids to Cut?

The convenience of using cutting steroids, is that because of their nature as being non-estrogenic (for the most part) they tend to favor the creation of a hard, defined, 3D look to the physique. It is for this reason that cutting steroids are utilized in cycles for fat loss, pre-competition, and for the more casual bodybuilders, before the summer season for obvious reasons. There also tend to be various anabolic steroids that are included in the cutting steroid category that might not even hold a viable use for fat loss or bulking, but tend to serve as a pre-workout performance booster. Halotestin (Fluoxymesterone) is one such example of this, but because Halotestin tends to possess all of the same characteristics as most other cutting steroids, it is therefore considered a cutting steroid.

It has been noted that a common shared characteristic or trait among cutting steroids is their ability to completely avoid estrogenic effects or estrogenic activity. The core of this characteristic lies in the common trait among most cutting steroids, and that is the fact that nearly all cutting steroids belong to the same family: Dihydrotestosterone derivatives (DHT-derivatives). DHT derived anabolic steroids are anabolic steroids that are modified analogues of DHT. DHT happens to be the body’s most potent natural androgen as well as the body’s natural anti-estrogen, and it is a well-known fact that hormones with very strong androgenic capabilities as well as strong anti-estrogenic capabilities tend to maximize the ‘rock hard’ definition and ‘ripped’ look to the physique and the muscles. DHT is also completely incapable of conversion into Estrogen (properly termed as aromatization). Dihydrotestosterone does not interact what so ever with the aromatase enzyme, which is the enzyme responsible for binding to androgens and aromatizing them into Estrogen, which is what is responsible for the unwanted estrogenic effects such as water retention, gynecomastia, fat retention/gain, etc. An exception to this family of DHT-derivatives is Trenbolone, which is in fact a Nandrolone derivative and could also be properly referred to as a Progestin (it is still incapable of conversion into Estrogen, however).

Cutting steroids such as Anavar, Primobolan (Methenolone), Winstrol, and Masteron, and virtually all other cutting steroids, are DHT-derivatives. Their nature as DHT-derivatives allow them to completely avoid the issue of aromatization. Some provide additional anti-estrogenic activity, such as Masteron, which has demonstrated the ability to inhibit the aromatase enzyme all on its own. Masteron has actually served a valid purpose in medicine as a breast cancer drug due to this quality it possesses. Hence, this is also why compounds such as Masteron are regarded as not only cutting steroids, but pre-contest steroids as well, due to its ability to reduce total circulating levels of Estrogen in the body thereby allowing the bodybuilder to achieve very low levels of body fat as well as very low levels of subcutaneous water on contest day.

It should be noted, however, that several cutting steroids might not be suitable from a monetary standpoint due to the higher doses required to elicit effects. This is due to the fact that some cutting steroids tend to express a very weak anabolic effect, and therefore require higher doses (and subsequently might cost more money to use). Primobolan, Masteron, and Turinabol are three examples of cutting steroids that are considered fairly weak compared to others.

The following is a list of the typically used and commonly considered cutting steroids,

Anavar (Oxandrolone)
Halotestin (Fluoxymesterone)
Primobolan (Methenolone Acetate)
Primobolan Depot (Methenolone Enanthate)
Trenbolone Acetate
Trenbolone Enanthate
Trenbolone Hexahydrobenzylcarbonate (Parabolan)
Turinabol (4-chlorodehydromethyltestosterone)
Winstrol (Stanozolol)
Winstrol Depot (Injectable Stanozolol)