Nandrolone Beats Testosterone for Weight Gain

Nandrolone Beats Testosterone for Weight Gain (*study)
by Anthony Roberts

Nearly everyone who has used both testosterone and nandrolone (Deca) will tell you that, at an equal dose, testosterone will build more muscle and strength. Despite this commonly accepted wisdom, nandrolone boasts a 25% higher anabolic rating than testosterone, as measured by Vida (on rodents). And now, a human study performed on AIDS patients, has also suggested that nandrolone is about a quarter (*give or take) more anabolic than testosterone (enanthate). And guess what else? Quality of life markers also showed a greater improvement with nandrolone over testosterone.

But remember, this study wasn’t performed on healthy, weight-training, athletes…it was performed on people with an autoimmune disease. So why do healthy people seem to get more gains on testosterone than nandrolone, while it appears to be the opposite in those with a viral/wasting condition? I think I have an explanation:

During the luteal phase of menses (*yes, I’m talking about the menstrual cycle here), women experience a variety of effects on their immune system, including heightened TH1 activity. TH1 cytokines produce proinflammatory responses responsible for killing intracellular parasites and for perpetuating autoimmune responses. It’s no surprise then, that women with autoimmune diseases find that the severity of their symptoms will decrease during this phase – which is marked by an increase in progesterone…

Which brings us to the fact that Nandrolone decanoate is derived from progesterone, which gives us good cause for thinking that this particular steroid will have an advantage over testosterone in those with an autoimmune disease. So while this study is pretty cool, and shows that anabolic steroids can have beneficial effects in the treatment of wasting diseases, it doesn’t tell us that the average healthy athlete will post more gains with nandrolone over testosterone. Both are great steroids, but in this case, I need to defer to my own experience plus the collective wisdom of literally hundreds of thousands of athletes, and say that test will put more weight on the average athlete than deca.

And you can always use both…

HIV Clin Trials. 2010 Jul-Aug;11(4):220-9.
Therapeutic effects of nandrolone and testosterone in adult male HIV patients with AIDS wasting syndrome (AWS): a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Sardar P, Jha A, Roy D, Majumdar U, Guha P, Roy S, Banerjee R, Banerjee AK, Bandyopadhyay D.
Source

Department of General Medicine, Medical College Kolkata, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. medicopartha@gmail.com

Abstract

PURPOSE:

We aimed to compare therapeutic effects of intramuscular (IM) nandrolone decanoate and IM testosterone enanthate in male HIV patients with AIDS wasting syndrome (AWS) with placebo control.

METHODS:

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12-week trial, 104 patients with AWS who satisfied our inclusion criteria were randomly allotted in a 2:2:1 ratio to the 3 intervention groups: nandrolone, testosterone, and placebo. We administered 150 mg nandrolone and 250 mg testosterone (both IM, biweekly). The primary outcome measure was a comparison of absolute change in weight at 12 weeks between the nandrolone decanoate, testosterone, and placebo groups.

RESULTS:

Intent-to-treat analysis was done. The nandrolone group recorded maximum mean increase in weight (3.20 kg; post hoc P < .01 compared to placebo). Body mass index (BMI) of subjects in the nandrolone group had a significantly greater increase (mean = 1.28) compared to both testosterone (post hoc P < .05) and placebo (post hoc P < .01). Waist circumference and triceps skinfold thickness of patients on nandrolone showed similar results. Nandrolone also ensured a better quality of life. Patients with low testosterone level (<3 ng/mL) benefited immensely from nandrolone therapy, which increased their weight and BMI significantly compared to placebo (P < .05). CONCLUSION:

Our trial demonstrates the superior therapeutic effects of nandrolone in male AWS patients, including the androgen deficient.