Birth control while on cycle

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This question is about my wife. She's an NPC physique competitor and is about 10 weeks out from competition. She just run a 5 week cycle of eq at 50mg/week. She's down to 13%bf and has just started a carb deficit trying to come in at 5-8% bf at competition. She takes a estrogen/progesterone oral birth control right now. From my understanding of hormones, this may prevent her from cutting down the last few percent of body fat. I'd appreciate any advice from the women on this forum. Should she nix the BC for contest prep?
 

BigSwolePump

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I would think that as a "trainer" and being that she is a "NPC competitor" you would know the answer to this but here goes.

Bodyfat that low for women is borderline dangerous. Birth control is pointless at this bodyfat. She wouldn't be able to get pregnant even if she wanted too. If she did, it would die. Its even rare to have a menstrual cycle during periods of bodyfat this low.

The answer is yes.
 

grind4it

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Smh, bro she can still get pregnant.

The BC isn't going to effect her physique
 

Flyingdragon

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She should by now have already stopped menstrating if she was on EQ....But I will guess not all the facts have been presented....She should look for a new trainer, someone with exp. in getting ladies ready for the stage....
 

snake

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I would think that as a "trainer" and being that she is a "NPC competitor" you would know the answer to this but here goes.

Bodyfat that low for women is borderline dangerous. Birth control is pointless at this bodyfat. She wouldn't be able to get pregnant even if she wanted too. If she did, it would die. Its even rare to have a menstrual cycle during periods of bodyfat this low.

The answer is yes.

BSP is dead on the mark.

I can add one thing and you should also know this by now. You really are not getting any anyway during that time. :)
 

gymrat827

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ahh, i do not think you really know what BF looks like..

Example, when i was 11/12% i had a 4pk of abs, top 4 showed pretty well and had a very lean waistline aside my some-what abs. you honestly think shes between 5-8%...?
 

Dapadeep1

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Get her to 5% and you will be accused for necrophilia.
 
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She should by now have already stopped menstrating if she was on EQ....But I will guess not all the facts have been presented....She should look for a new trainer, someone with exp. in getting ladies ready for the stage....

I'm sure glad that I've been educated by a "guru" of fitness! It must be tough to come up with an attempt at a slick remark on forums all day! You stick to internet stardom and I'll keep building bodies...
 
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She should by now have already stopped menstrating if she was on EQ....But I will guess not all the facts have been presented....She should look for a new trainer, someone with exp. in getting ladies ready for the stage....

No seriously. She is 47 and wouldn't get pregnant if we tried. She takes it for premenopausal symptoms. I was asking because I want to make sure she doesn't miss out on losing that last few percent BF.
 
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ahh, i do not think you really know what BF looks like..

Example, when i was 11/12% i had a 4pk of abs, top 4 showed pretty well and had a very lean waistline aside my some-what abs. you honestly think shes between 5-8%...?

We do caliper tests weekly and use Durnin-Wormsley scale. I round up to even out any +/- error. She has ran a few t-3/clen and t-3/Helios cycles for spot reduction in a few areas. She is 13% now but we are shooting for 5-8%. I'm watching her weight/BF% ratio to make sure she is not losing too much LBM.
 
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We do caliper tests weekly and use Durnin-Wormsley scale. I round up to even out any +/- error. She has ran a few t-3/clen and t-3/Helios cycles for spot reduction in a few areas. She is 13% now but we are shooting for 5-8%. I'm watching her weight/BF% ratio to make sure she is not losing too much LBM.
I believe he meant that you don't know what that bf percentage looks like on a woman.
The issue also isn't her lbm loss--it's the fat loss. She shouldn't really go below ~10%. If you're helping her contest prep, you need to know that before she tries to get to 5% and has organ failure and/or other issues.
 
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I believe he meant that you don't know what that bf percentage looks like on a woman.
The issue also isn't her lbm loss--it's the fat loss. She shouldn't really go below ~10%. If you're helping her contest prep, you need to know that before she tries to get to 5% and has organ failure and/or other issues.
Having a quantitative measurement of body fat is good to have, but it's esthetics that I go for. Of course She won't drop to 5% body wide. She is super lean in her upper body. D-W chart uses 3 locations on the body to adjust to the scale to get total BF%.
Her legs and hips hold the most body fat. My original question was whether other ladies that compete had similar problems with estrogen/progesterone BC causing water and SC fat retention in hips and legs. And if so, was it marginal.
 

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this is an old thread, but i will throw my personal experience in here. I just got done with my first show this past Sat. I am on b/c pills for HRT progesterone/estrogen basically the same as I have taken all my life. I continued to take them all through my prep (12 weeks) but concern with water retention made me decide to cut them in half the last 4 weeks and discontinue the last week. 2 weeks out i had a DEXA scan and was at 8.9% bodyfat. I lost a bit more fat prior to show and probably came in at 7-8%. Prior to prep in my off season i showed at 13% by caliper (which i know is not very accurate). Idk if the pills affected my water retention at all, or if the cessation of taking them affected it, but i honestly doubt it. The day of my show i turned 55.
 

BRICKS

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Strong work and happy birthday!
 

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