Can I take less gear on my next cycle?

I did Sus @ 500 MGS a week and Deca @ 400 MGS a week for 10 weeks for my first cycle.

I did a lot of research and it looked like that was sort of the minimum to take to be effective for my first cycle. I know local people who say they just do 250 MGS SUS and 200 MGS deca a week and blow up of that but i just assumed they were lying after reading these boards.

I gained 10 pounds and kept about 6 - 7 of them after clomid. I was a bit dissapointed with the weight gains but i did get noticable physical results.

Now im thinking there could be something up with the gear i got. I know the source very well and if it was fake they wouldnt have sold it me knowing it was. Me and my training partner got exactly the same results and we have back acne from the gear.

If i get my gear from another source incase mine was dodgy, could i take 250 MGS of SUS and 200 MGS of Deca for 8-10 weeks and still get results or will it not be very effective because of the cycle ive just done?

it just all depends on the person....yes..i do believe you can...but anytime you take AS..there are other things used in conjunction with it...FOOD,SLEEP, Training

You may see some results with the lower dosages. Chance are it wasn't the gear but you diet like dedprez hinted at. For a first cycle you should have seen good results with those dosages. May be you could let us know what your diet and training look like so we can give you more input for your next cycle.

well for my trainig ive listed my routine here in the other forum:

http://board1.mantisforums.com/upload/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14459

please let me know if i should change anything or if im doing too much or too little.

as for my diet well i ate more while on the gear. do you want me to list more or less what i eat through the week each day?

Basically on the diet you will need to find your mainatainace cals and make sure you are eating a surplus while you are on your cycle. 1.5 - 2 grams of protien per pound of body weight. I don't really count cals as much as protien when I'm bulking. When I'm cutting I'm watching carbs and fat closely also. You will want to take in 1000 to 1500 cals above maintainance when bulking keeping in mind that you need to keep the protien grams up.

is there any easy way of finding my mainatainace cals level?

Keep a log of everything you eat during a day. If you are staying the same weight then you are at maintainace if you are gaining you need to drop some cals.