When it comes to using anabolic steroids for weight loss, you should know they’ve been used by both bodybuilders as well as athletes for a long time now to get well-ripped and chiseled physiques.
Can these anabolic steroids help you successfully lose excess body fat and contribute to your overall fitness goals? Perhaps yes if you use them correctly and use the right ones!
Unfortunately, all such steroids cause specific side effects, which can be more severe in some people. Hence, they must be used only after taking a well-qualified doctor into confidence.
Can Steroids Really Help You Lose Weight?
While the majority of these steroids were created to promote muscle development and weight gain, there are a few which can help you with fat loss too. And some of those (for fat loss) are safer and more effective compared to the others.
What more, taking these anabolic steroids not only enhances the fat burning and weight loss process in the body, it does so by retaining your body’s lean muscle mass.
Steroids consumed for weight loss purposes are known as cutting agents, in contrast to bulking agents (used for increasing the lean body weight and overall muscle mass).
What Do Bodybuilders Use to Lose Fat Faster?
You might’ve seen bodybuilders using cycles of cutting steroids to shed excess body fat, get a leaner and well-ripped look, just before the bodybuilding competitions.
Having used bulking steroids like Trenbolone or Dianabol often makes these bodybuilders put on plenty of unwanted fat, apart from increased water retention.
As a result, they get a bloated or puffy look, quite unlike the ripped, well-defined and solid physique they’d like to display in such competitions.
So as to counteract such bloating effect, female and male bodybuilders often follow up their bulking cycles with well-thought-out cutting cycles, in which they use cutting steroids along with certain thyroid hormones and fat burners.
Such anabolic steroids help in the elimination of adipose tissues from the body while protecting the lean muscle mass. In the end, you get a hard-rock physique with improved vascularity.
However, as mentioned earlier, using such anabolic steroids is not recommended at all, as they are not safe.
Some of the risks you might get exposed to with their use include decreased good cholesterol, liver damage, high blood pressure, increased bad cholesterol, acne, hair loss, joint pains, abnormal hair growth, nausea, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, shaky hands, erratic heartbeat, muscle cramps, excessive sweating and more.
Can You Expect Long-term Results with Anabolic Steroids?
Although anabolic steroids might appear to be effective for protection of muscle gains and overall body recomposition while providing a significant reduction in subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues, they have several health risks and various harmful side effects.
Some of these have been already mentioned above.
While bodybuilders and athletes frequently use such anabolic steroids to get into the right body shape before a competition, they cannot be considered long-term weight loss solutions.
The only way you can maintain your body weight over the long-term is by making lifestyle changes and using natural means of weight loss.
Best Steroids for Weight Loss
When it comes to getting rid of excess body fat, while not compromising on your lean muscle mass, a majority of people opt for Winstrol, Anavar or Clenbuterol.
Please note, although Clenbuterol is technically not a steroid, it functions as a thermogenic, and delivers results by raising the body temperature and boosting the body’s BMR (basal metabolic rate).
Just like any other performance-enhancing drug or anabolic steroid, Clenbuterol also delivers best results if you combine it with a daily exercise routine and a disciplined diet.
Weight Loss Steroid for Men – Winstrol
Commonly recognized as the commercial name of Stanozolol, the anabolic steroid, Winstrol is a DHT-derived compound which is extremely popular among competitive male athletes.
If you remember Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter, he had in fact tested positive for nothing else but Winstrol in the 1988 Olympic Games. As you might recall, he was resultantly stripped of his gold medal.
Several other athletes have been caught using the Winstrol because of the physical performance boost it provides.
You can see professional bodybuilders using Winstrol on a regular basis during their cutting cycles, the phase during which they try to get rid of as much body fat as humanly possible while preserving their muscle mass and body strength.
This anabolic steroid is particularly popular among male athletes and bodybuilders who aspire for better muscle definition, less belly fat, and beach-ready six-pack abs.
These are the exact reasons why even Tim Ferriss promoted Winstrol in Four-Hour Body.
Known by the nickname Winny among the bodybuilders, Winstrol increases the concentration of red blood cells in the body, safely boosting the free testosterone levels in the blood.
As testosterone plays a crucial role in burning body fat and also has a nutrient repartitioning effect, Winstrol is found to be extremely useful for people who wish to get lean bulk and undergo weight loss.
Another way in which Winstrol aids weight loss is that it reduces the cortisol levels in the body while keeping up the strength and energy levels. This is very crucial during dieting.
Men who use Winstrol during their cutting cycles normally keep these cycles no longer than 8 weeks’ duration, owing to its potential negative side effects which may become more prominent over extended usage.
Winstrol is also used by a section of female athletes owing to lower the chances of androgenic or masculine side effects like deepening of the voice, unwanted body hair growth, etc. However, it’s men who use it more.
As you can imagine I don’t recommend using anabolic steroids at all. Unfortunately, their side effects outweight their benefits.
However, there are means to get similar results without risking your health.
Each anabolic steroid has its supplement counterparts, that try to deliver similar results being much safer to use.
Some of them are more effective than others, that’s why you need to do your research to find out what could be the best option for you.
From my experience I know that Crazy Bulk supplements work very well.
If you need to use something to get results similar to those posible with Winstrol, I highly recommend you to check Winsol.
Learn more about Winsol from this article:
Weight Loss Steroid for Women – Anavar
Easily the most commonly used weight loss steroids by women all over the world, Anavar’s popularity among the fairer sex is because of its better tolerance in the body (compared to other anabolic steroids).
However, its better tolerance doesn’t imply that it isn’t risky.
Although it’s safer than other steroids, it still has the potential of causing harmful side effects.
Anavar is a fat loss steroid which works by reducing the levels of thyroid-binding globulin and boosting the levels of thyroxine-binding free albumin.
What it implies is that your body is able to use T3 thyroid hormone more effectively.
Scientific research has revealed that the body’s resting metabolic rate is determined based on its T3 levels.
People having higher T3 activity will lose body fat more easily compared to the ones who have a lower T3 count. It means that people with low T3 are prone to more fat gain over a period.
However, it’s important to mention here that the Anavar results concerning weight loss have been inconclusive so far.
Furthermore, it comes with the risk of disturbing the body’s cholesterol levels, causing high blood pressure, causing testosterone suppression and other harmful side effects.
People who consume Anavar for weight loss do it to increase their rate of lipolysis, which is essentially about the breakdown of lipids or fats, and their conversion into energy.
Anavar also inhibits glucocorticoid hormones (such as cortisol) that are known to promote fat gain in the body. It may also potentially improve blood oxygenation as well as the red blood cell count, overall resulting in higher stamina and energy levels.
Athletes and bodybuilders consume Anavar because it’s not just useful in weight loss, but also helps in the preservation of lean muscle mass and strength building too.
Whenever you consume any prescription diet pill or a fat burning supplement, it’s inevitable that you’d also lose a good amount of muscle in the process.
Any such muscle loss automatically slows down the body’s metabolic rate and puts you at the risk of fat gain after you stop dieting.
People use Anavar owing to its anti-catabolic effect, implying that it helps in burning body fat while retaining muscles.
Similarly to Winstrol, Anavar also has its safer alternatives. One of the most effective is Anvarol.
Read this article about benefits of using Anvarol by female athletes and bodybuilders:
Effective Fat Burner for Both Men and Women – Clenbuterol
Many of you must be saying loudly in your head, “But Clenbuterol isn’t a steroid!” Well, you’re right in saying that, however, no one can dispute the fact that Clenbuterol is a top-rated drug for weight and fat loss purposes.
It’d be crazy not to put it in the same category as steroids as far as its weight and fat loss benefits are concerned. So, for this list, we’re going to refer to it as a steroid!
Being a sympathomimetic amine, Clenbuterol causes stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, delivering the same effects as the hormone adrenaline (also recognized as epinephrine).
In a sense, Clenbuterol works as a beta-2 adrenergic agonist, causing a spike in the body’s BMR, thus increasing the heart rate and burning more amounts of energy.
While this substance was originally employed as a bronchodilator in chronic asthma treatment, it was also found to have a thermogenic effect. It causes stimulation in the cells, making them release heat, which speeds up the body’s metabolic rate.
A higher BMR leads to more energy and quick weight loss. People also use Clenbuterol because of its appetite suppression effects, same as that delivered by high caffeine intake.
A certain section of users also experience higher alertness, more motivation, and increase in physical energy with this substance. All these positives help them train harder during workouts and thereby burn more amount of fats.
One of the major cons of Clenbuterol is that it can be very dangerous and ineffective when consumed in higher doses.
To be on the safe side, you can get similar results using Clenbutrol, the safer Clenbuterol substitiute.
Read my article that compares Clenbuterol and its safer alternative:
Myths About Fat Burning Steroids
Before you visit any online portal or head out to the closest land-based store to purchase one or more of these anabolic steroids, it’s important to get acquainted with some of the myths surrounding fat burning steroids. You should know what these drugs can and cannot do.
Please note, just like you cannot automatically build muscle mass by consuming anabolic androgenic steroids, you won’t automatically burn fat by taking any of these fat burning steroids.
However, it’s also commonly known that anabolic steroids help reduce body fat.
So, how can both these statements be true?!
How these fat burning steroids work is that they impact certain metabolic functions of the body, thus creating better chances of fat loss to happen. No anabolic steroid directly causes an increase in the body’s lipolysis rate (speed of adipose tissue breakdown).
Rather these drugs push your body into a state that you experience nutrient repartitioning and develop more amount of lean muscles when you exercise regularly and follow a disciplined diet.
It implies that the food you consume alongside such steroid usage is used up for fueling the growth of muscle tissues, rather than getting stored as body fat.
This process combined with healthy diet, cardio exercises, and weight training, automatically leads to fat loss.
So, even though steroids can be helpful in increasing the rate of fat burn inside your body, you should know that they are not magic bullets, and you’d still need to fulfill your end of the bargain to get optimum results.
Check how long does it take for steroids to bring results.
Final word
While you may be tempted to use anabolic steroids for fat burning and weight loss, please remember that none of them are completely safe.
You can opt for several other safer alternatives to undergo weight loss (you can read more about them here).
The best way to do that is by using dietary supplements, steroids’ legal alternatives and complementing their usage with healthy diet and a regular exercise routine.
As long as you do that, you’d enjoy optimum long-term results.