shane85
11-21-2003, 04:35 PM
The purpose of this post is to educate you about type-1 diabetes, working out, steroids, food-intake, and weight-training in general. Most of the stuff in this post is based on personal experience, and although the information in here is accurate, it could vary from person to person depending on size, weight, height, and lifestyle.
------ A few simple q’s and a’s ------
Q: Will diabetes effect the way I workout and gain muscle?
A: Yes. As you may or may not know, many bodybuilders use insulin, which has also been known as “Anabolic Maximus”. However, being a diabetic your pancreas does not produce insulin, therefore the insulin will not have the same effect on you as it would a person with a working pancreas. It will however still work to your advantage, if taken properly. For instance, on average this is what my insulin intake would look like:
Morning:
30n
6r
Night:
40n
8r
Again, this all depends on how much food I plan on eating during the day, exercise I will be doing, if I will be traveling, etc. But this is a standard dose for day-to-day purposes. However, in a bulking season (which I consider to be from October-February) I suggest taking your normal injections, however also get some humalog and do frequent injections with that as well so that you may eat more. Also, directly after your workout take some humalog (maybe start with 4iu and work your way up, depending on supplements being taken, food, training, etc.) So to sum it all up, you will be doing about 4-6 injections daily.
Q: How does my blood sugar effect muscle gains?
A: When your blood sugar is high, your body develops Keytones, which eat away at muscle and fat. You WILL lose a lot of weight if your body as keytones, so the best thing to do is to get your blood sugar back in normal range, and in the mean time drink a lot of water to flush out the keytones.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
------ Regarding Food ------
Being a diabetic, food is a MUST. A meal plan which you should develop with your dietitian should be followed until you feel comfortable developing one on your own. One good thing that comes out of being a diabetic is you must live a healthy life style. Good, clean food with only “cheating” every once in a while. See the attached image at the bottom of this page for an example of a meal plan. The one I have attached will give you a 3, 093 calorie intake/day. Bare in mind if you plan on bulking, this is not a sufficient amount of food. You will need to add in another 1000 calories at least if you want to have good gains.
As far as supplements are concerned, any that have low sugar content are ok. In fact, almost all supplements are ok to take; you just need to work them into your diet. Or, if they are high in sugar, you may consider shooting some humalog with your supplement just to even everything out. There are a few supplements that you will want to stay away from, and this includes Creatine. Creatine has been known to be hard on your liver, and therefore I would recommend staying away form it. However if you do decide to take it, proper liver protections (see below) should be taken.
------ Weight Training ------
Being a diabetic, weight training is an excellent form of exercise, and will help you keep your blood sugar under control. Depending on your goals, there are many different approaches to what u want to achieve. The way I train is a standard 5-day split:
Monday: Back
Tuesday: Chest
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Arms
If you want, you can throw in cardio with those or abs, or even do it on Saturday and Sunday if you prefer, but you want to make sure you are not over training.
------ Steroids ------
Now this is what all of you have been waiting for. Let me first off by saying that steroids, unless using to compete SHOULD NOT be taken by diabetics simply for the mere fact that many problems can arise.
Everything that you inject into your body will have a BIG effect on your blood sugar. If for instance you are taking 20n and 2r in the morning, and say the same dosage at night, the day after you inject do not expect your blood sugar to be normal based on that amount of insulin. You may have to inject much higher dosages which may be unsafe (could be as high as 40n and 20r) and if you are use to shooting such a small amount of insulin, and bump it up that high that fast, your body may not react properly causing you to go into a coma.
As far as orals are concerned, the best advice I can give is to STAY AWAY. Anyone who has done any research and oral steroids such as dbol know that they SHOULD NOT BE RUN for a whole cycle, and should not be taken by itself. The reason for this is because dbol is toxic to the liver, and being a diabetic you cannot afford to have liver problems, as I stated earlier with the creatine. However, if you do decide to run dbol during your cycle, I wouldn’t suggest running it at any higher dosages than the following:
Week 1-4 25mg/day
If your source offers 5mg tabs, those are best. Pink Tais, Naposim, whatever. Try to stay away from 10mg tabs because then you will be running at 30mg/day. Not a big difference, but I wouldn’t feel safe taking even that much more.
As anyone knows, the base of any good cycle is Test. Whether it be Test Cypionate, Test Enanthate, Test Propionate, Sustanon, or test Suspension, test is test is test. The difference however is the esters in which it is released. For instance, Sustanon has 4 esters, which include 1 short, 1 long, and 2 medium length esters. As anyone who has researched Sustanon knows, the way to “take advantage” and use Sust properly, is to do EOD (every other day) injections. This way, the esters are released and keeps your Test levels consistent throughout your cycle (which would be a good thing because the more up and downs you have, the harder it will with your insulin intake and blood sugar)
However, being a diabetic I would say stay away from sust, simply for the fact that its hard to keep constant, and also “Sust Flu” can have an effect on your blood sugar as well.
If you are going to do a cycle, I would say keep it as simple as possible, and use a shorter acting ester so that in the event that problems do arise, the test will be out of your system quicker so that you may get your blood sugar under control. Test Propionate would be a good decision, because the half-life is so short. Enanthate IMO would also be a good choice because it’s very simple.
------ Liver Protectants ------
Taking anything that is hard on your liver is obviously not recommended if you are a diabetic. However if you choose to, protect your self in everyway possible.
Milkthistle
Hawthrite Extract
ALA
Cranberry Tablets
Multivitamins
Vitamin C
These are all examples of things that should be taken. Not necessarily all, but at least 3-4 of the items.
If anyone has another q’s that aren’t answered, please feel free to pm me.
------ A few simple q’s and a’s ------
Q: Will diabetes effect the way I workout and gain muscle?
A: Yes. As you may or may not know, many bodybuilders use insulin, which has also been known as “Anabolic Maximus”. However, being a diabetic your pancreas does not produce insulin, therefore the insulin will not have the same effect on you as it would a person with a working pancreas. It will however still work to your advantage, if taken properly. For instance, on average this is what my insulin intake would look like:
Morning:
30n
6r
Night:
40n
8r
Again, this all depends on how much food I plan on eating during the day, exercise I will be doing, if I will be traveling, etc. But this is a standard dose for day-to-day purposes. However, in a bulking season (which I consider to be from October-February) I suggest taking your normal injections, however also get some humalog and do frequent injections with that as well so that you may eat more. Also, directly after your workout take some humalog (maybe start with 4iu and work your way up, depending on supplements being taken, food, training, etc.) So to sum it all up, you will be doing about 4-6 injections daily.
Q: How does my blood sugar effect muscle gains?
A: When your blood sugar is high, your body develops Keytones, which eat away at muscle and fat. You WILL lose a lot of weight if your body as keytones, so the best thing to do is to get your blood sugar back in normal range, and in the mean time drink a lot of water to flush out the keytones.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
------ Regarding Food ------
Being a diabetic, food is a MUST. A meal plan which you should develop with your dietitian should be followed until you feel comfortable developing one on your own. One good thing that comes out of being a diabetic is you must live a healthy life style. Good, clean food with only “cheating” every once in a while. See the attached image at the bottom of this page for an example of a meal plan. The one I have attached will give you a 3, 093 calorie intake/day. Bare in mind if you plan on bulking, this is not a sufficient amount of food. You will need to add in another 1000 calories at least if you want to have good gains.
As far as supplements are concerned, any that have low sugar content are ok. In fact, almost all supplements are ok to take; you just need to work them into your diet. Or, if they are high in sugar, you may consider shooting some humalog with your supplement just to even everything out. There are a few supplements that you will want to stay away from, and this includes Creatine. Creatine has been known to be hard on your liver, and therefore I would recommend staying away form it. However if you do decide to take it, proper liver protections (see below) should be taken.
------ Weight Training ------
Being a diabetic, weight training is an excellent form of exercise, and will help you keep your blood sugar under control. Depending on your goals, there are many different approaches to what u want to achieve. The way I train is a standard 5-day split:
Monday: Back
Tuesday: Chest
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Arms
If you want, you can throw in cardio with those or abs, or even do it on Saturday and Sunday if you prefer, but you want to make sure you are not over training.
------ Steroids ------
Now this is what all of you have been waiting for. Let me first off by saying that steroids, unless using to compete SHOULD NOT be taken by diabetics simply for the mere fact that many problems can arise.
Everything that you inject into your body will have a BIG effect on your blood sugar. If for instance you are taking 20n and 2r in the morning, and say the same dosage at night, the day after you inject do not expect your blood sugar to be normal based on that amount of insulin. You may have to inject much higher dosages which may be unsafe (could be as high as 40n and 20r) and if you are use to shooting such a small amount of insulin, and bump it up that high that fast, your body may not react properly causing you to go into a coma.
As far as orals are concerned, the best advice I can give is to STAY AWAY. Anyone who has done any research and oral steroids such as dbol know that they SHOULD NOT BE RUN for a whole cycle, and should not be taken by itself. The reason for this is because dbol is toxic to the liver, and being a diabetic you cannot afford to have liver problems, as I stated earlier with the creatine. However, if you do decide to run dbol during your cycle, I wouldn’t suggest running it at any higher dosages than the following:
Week 1-4 25mg/day
If your source offers 5mg tabs, those are best. Pink Tais, Naposim, whatever. Try to stay away from 10mg tabs because then you will be running at 30mg/day. Not a big difference, but I wouldn’t feel safe taking even that much more.
As anyone knows, the base of any good cycle is Test. Whether it be Test Cypionate, Test Enanthate, Test Propionate, Sustanon, or test Suspension, test is test is test. The difference however is the esters in which it is released. For instance, Sustanon has 4 esters, which include 1 short, 1 long, and 2 medium length esters. As anyone who has researched Sustanon knows, the way to “take advantage” and use Sust properly, is to do EOD (every other day) injections. This way, the esters are released and keeps your Test levels consistent throughout your cycle (which would be a good thing because the more up and downs you have, the harder it will with your insulin intake and blood sugar)
However, being a diabetic I would say stay away from sust, simply for the fact that its hard to keep constant, and also “Sust Flu” can have an effect on your blood sugar as well.
If you are going to do a cycle, I would say keep it as simple as possible, and use a shorter acting ester so that in the event that problems do arise, the test will be out of your system quicker so that you may get your blood sugar under control. Test Propionate would be a good decision, because the half-life is so short. Enanthate IMO would also be a good choice because it’s very simple.
------ Liver Protectants ------
Taking anything that is hard on your liver is obviously not recommended if you are a diabetic. However if you choose to, protect your self in everyway possible.
Milkthistle
Hawthrite Extract
ALA
Cranberry Tablets
Multivitamins
Vitamin C
These are all examples of things that should be taken. Not necessarily all, but at least 3-4 of the items.
If anyone has another q’s that aren’t answered, please feel free to pm me.