Description
[17b-hydroxy-17a-methyl-2-oxa-5a-androstane-3-one]
Molecular Weight: 306.4442
Formula: C19H30O3
Effective dose: (Men)20-100mgs/day (or .125mg/kg~bdywt); (Women) 2.5-20mgs.day
Active Life: 8-12 hours
Detection Time: 3 weeks
Anavar (oxandrolone) is not
very toxic, not very androgenic, mildly anabolic, and pretty mild on
the body´s HPTA (Hypothalamic-Testicular-Pituitary-Axis). Those are its
4 major points, and I´d like to examine each one a bit further; as
usual, gym-rumors and internet conjecture has made this steroid the
subject of many misconceptions.
Anavar (Oxandrolone)
Side Effects
First of all, and this will come as no surprise to many people, Anavar
(oxandrolone) is quite mild on your liver. It´s probably the mildest
oral steroid available today. Dosages of up to 80mgs/day are easily
tolerated by most men, and most side effects often found with other
steroids are not common with ´var. For this reason, Anavar is
frequently the steroid of choice for many top level female bodybuilders
and other athletes.
Anavar Dosage
Due to its being a mild steroid in every sense of the word, high
amounts of Anavar dosage are needed. It binds reasonably well to the
AR, but pretty high doses are still needed and I would never suggest
doing less than 20mgs/day. In fact, 20-80mgs are needed to start
halting AIDS related wasting and recovering weight for burn victims so that´s the range I´d recommend keeping your dosages in
concerning this compound. Personally, I´d use 100mgs/day if I were ever
going to try this stuff. Any less than this amount (20-100mgs) would be
a waste. For women, however, I think 2.5-10mgs/day would suffice.
Virilation is not a concern with this compound, as it is only very
mildly androgenic. Water retention is also virtually nil with it.
Although Anavar is an oral steroid, and has been alpha-alkylated to
survive oral ingestion and the first pass through the liver, it´s still
relatively mild in that respect too…, the unique chemical
configuration of oxandrolone both confers a resistance to liver
metabolism as well as noticable anabolic activity. It would also appear
that Anavar appears not to exhibit the serious hepatotoxic effects
(jaundice, cholestatic hepatitis, peliosis hepatis, hyperplasias and
neoplasms) typically attributed to the C17alpha-alkylated AASs.
Anavar has even been used successfully in some studies to heal
cutaneous wounds, or to improve respiratory function. Both of
these novel properties could make it a good choice for in-season use
for boxers, Mixed Martial Arts competitors, and other such athletes.
Anavar and Fat Loss
Now here´s some interesting stuff for anyone interested primarily in
the fat loss properties of this stuff: Anavar may be what we´d call a
“fat-burning steroid”. Abdominal and visceral fat were both reduced in
one study when subjects in the low/normal natural testosterone range
used anavar. In another study, appendicular, total, and trunk fat
were all reduced with a relatively small dose of 20mgs/day, and no
exercise. In addition, weight gained with ´var may be nearly permanent
too. It might not be much, but you´ll stand a good chance of keeping
most of it. In one study, subjects maintained their weight (re)gains
from anavar for at least 6 months after cessation! Concomitantly,
in another study, Twelve weeks after discontinuing oxandrolone, 83% of
the reductions in total, trunk, and extremity fat were also sustained! If you´re regaining weight, Anavar will give you nearly permanent
gains, and if you are trying to lose fat (and you keep your diet in
check), the fat lost with Anavar is basically looks to be nearly
permanent. Check this chart out:
Absolute change in total fat mass (A) and trunk fat (B) by dual-energy
X-ray absorptiometry from baseline to study week 12 (solid bars) and
from baseline to study week 24 (open bars) in the placebo (n = 12) and
the oxandrolone (n = 20) study groups. Values are means ± SE.
*Significant decrease from baseline, P < 0.001. Significant
difference between study groups for change in fat mass from 0 to 12 wk,
P < 0.001.
Anavar Cycles
Keep in mind this is all without any Post-Cycle-Therapy, and without
any change in diet or training! And although many of the studies done
on oxandrolone use elderly men or young boys as the test subjects, some
evidence suggests that many of the effects of oxandrolone are not age
dependant . If you are following the typical “time on = time off”
protocol, this means you can lose a bunch of fat during your time on,
then keep most (if not all) of it off until your next cycle. That makes
it a great drug for athletes who are drug tested and need to be clean
for their season, yet need to keep the fat/weight they lost on their
cycle off& I´m thinking about wrestlers and other weight-class
athletes. Anavar is also the clear choice for a “spring-cutting” cycle,
to look great at the beach and you can use it up until the summer
starts, and then keep the fat off during the entire beach season!
Anavar is great for strength and cutting purposes, but not for bulking
or a lot of weight gain. In other words, what I´m saying is that
everything you gain will be solid. Personally I am leaning towards a
theory which basically purports that the more solid your gains are, the
more you´ll keep (percentage-wise). It makes sense, when you think
about it; people make a lot of weight gains on the highly
water-retentive steroids (Dbol, A50, long estered testosteones, etc. ),
but lose the greatest percentage of their gains afterwards. The same
seems to be opposite for the steroids which cause less (or no) water
retention (Anavar, Primo, Winstrol, etc& ).
So why else may you keep such a high proportion of what you gained on
´var? Well, I think it may be due to it´s relatively light impact on
the HPTA, which brings me to my final point; Anavar will not totally
shut down your HPTA, especially at lower doses (unlike testosterone,
which will eventually do this even at a 100mg dose, or deca which will
do it with a single 100mg dose). This could be due, at least partly, to
the fact that Anavar doesn´t aromatize (convert to estrogen).
Serum testosterone, SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin), and LH
(Leutinizing Hormone) will be slightly suppressed with low doses of
Anavar, but less than with other compounds. FSH (Follicle Stimulating
Hormone) , IGF1 (Insulin Like Growth Factor 1) and GH (Growth Hormone)
will not be suppressed with a low dose of Anavar, but will actually be
raised significantly as you may have guessed, and LH will
even experience a “rebound” effect when you stop using anavar. If
your endocrine system and HPTA are funtioning normally, you should be
able to use anavar with minimal insult to it, and can even keep most of
your values within the normal range.
Thus, Anavar may even be ideal for use in bridges between cycles, (at
very low doses under 10mgs perhaps), or as previously mentioned, for
cutting/strength cycles at 50-100mgs.
