Week 7 of test e cycle and only gained 7 lbs?

[astronomics]

Hey guys, so i'll do a little background story before I explain what's going on. Took my first cycle of pro hormones (1 andro, 4 andro, epi andro) had some pretty noticeable size and strength gains from that 8 week cycle. Gained probably about an inch in my arms and more mass overall with about 30 lbs on my bench and 30-50 lbs on my squat and deadlift. Thing is near the last half of my cycle I started to take my doses pretty high, into intermediate/advanced user ranges and did clomid pct. Was supposed to take a 12 week break not counting pct but ended up starting my first cycle of Test e and dbol 2 weeks before my recommended 12 week break.
Currently doing test e 500mg and did dbol kickstarter 4 weeks, ended up trashing that dbol two and a half weeks in because I didn't notice much by then. Ever since my strength and size went up slowly. So far i've only gained 7 lbs from what I started, 167 to 174 but people have been calling me out on roids and close friends have been telilng me i've def got bigger in my arms and shoulders. i'm up about 20 lbs on my bench, 30 lbs on deadlift, 20 lbs on squats which is decent, but sadly this is where I was during my peak last pro hormone cycle and I was wishing to far surpass that especially on the real deal, test, especially on week 7. My gains have slowed halted and are not going up anymore at this point for the last two weeks. Taking .25mg adex every 3 days or whenever I feel gyno signs, don't want to push it too much because I don't want to crash my estro.

My question is why am I not gaining anymore and my gains have halted only at week 7? I'm narrowing it down to either 1)overtraining because I don't feel motivated to really go to the gym as much these days 2)diet, 3) need to bump up my test dose higher (maybe 600mg).
My split is 6days a week
monday chest/tri
tuesday back/bi
wednesday legs shoulders
then repeat same thing with rest day being sunday
I tend to do 16 sets for chest, and 12 sets for tri recently
18-21 sets for back, 12 sets for bi
shoulders 12 sets and legs 12 sets and then I repeat this for everything twice a week each workout

I've been trying to eat at least 3000 calories but sometimes I'm not able to eat as much as I'd like.
I also think that I might need to bump up my test dosage for the test to be as effective because maybe I messed up my tolerance last prohormone cycle going into crazy high ranges with all my prohormones and I started my cycle two weeks earlier.
Any input would greatly be appreciated as this is sort of frustrating as I expected a lot more from this cycle. Thanks in advance my guys.

 

[casanovaaa]

it boils down to your diet, and your cycle is over the place. why did you not wait on your test and dbol cycle before its reccomened time frame?

 

[tbonexl]

What exactly are you expecting from a test cycle? Your not going to be a pro bodybuilder in 12 weeks.. your training might be a bit much and your diet most likely is the culprit. I will say bumping up your test dose with a long ester will do nothing. I think you need to do some more reading up on things bud...

 

[Nicky_eye_lids]

what was said above ^^^^^^ and please read up on beginners cycle https://www.steroidology.com/forum/...ycling-beginners-guide-safe-androgen-use.html

 

[astronomics]

it boils down to your diet, and your cycle is over the place. why did you not wait on your test and dbol cycle before its reccomened time frame?

Alright, looks like I got to get my diet in check then. Little confused what you mean by this cycle is over the place? Just been blasting on 500mg test e and tossed that dbol because It was bunk as I only got side effects with no gains or strength.

 

[astronomics]

To be honest I jumped the gun because I felt decent enough and wanted to look good before a certain event, but I should have been patient and waited the two weeks i'll admit.
For my cycle I expect to at least get hopefully anywhere from 15-30 lbs during cycle, water weight or not especially being my first actual cycle, even though I know i'll probably lose half of that even with a good pct, but at the rate I'm going it doesn't seem like i'll get there which is why I just worried. Just maybe expected a little more I guess being that it seems that I grew faster on my prohormone cycle than I did now, but I realize that was just a lot of muscle memory gains, getting back to my normal size.

 

[Unnatty Lifter]

With your split, you're exhausting shoulders then doing chest the next day? That'll limit your pressing abilities on that day. I'd change it to ensure you don't train shoulders and chest on consecutive days. Something like PPLPPL. I don't so much like PPL though because you train shoulders with chest, which treats shoulders like accessory work rather than dedicating a slot to them where you can lift your best weight.

 

[scorob777]

With Test E you wouldn't hit max blood levels until about week 6 or so, so at week 7 you've only been up near max a couple of weeks. Once you dropped the dbol it is possible the lower test levels as you built up were pretty lackluster compared to the prohormone cycle you did last time.

Give it time, going from now until week 12 will give you five or six more weeks up at effective levels, train hard and keep eating large amounts of clean food.

Include nolvadex along with clomid in your PCT this time.