Blood donation

[FrancoC]

Any benefit to doing one over the other regarding whole blood or double red?

I know the frequency is longer with double red

 

[BigDaddyDonkeyD]

Whole is better. I feel less fatigued after and it has no impact on my lifting. Guys who do double red tend to take longer to recover.

 

[FrancoC]

I definitely feel more zapped after it today than when I did whole blood. The needle gauge is also smaller and way more comfortable in the arm than whole blood even if it takes 30 min in the chair.

I was just wondering if the end result is the same or better when it comes to lowering rbc, hematocrit, and hemoglobin

 

[Thrasymachus]

It depends where your hgb is at. If you're elevated and having side effects from too much blood, then you might as well just take 3-4 days off after doing a double red.

I honestly don't like the double red only because they put the plasma back in to avoid fluid volume loss and risk of tachycardia(rapid heart rate).

I draw off my own blood and remove almost 3 units of whole blood, around 1300ml, I really feel down after I do this for about 3 days where I chug water and eat plenty of salmon to let my body replaced the plasma as fast as possible. The body replaces plasma at a rate of 125ml/day and packed red blood cells at around 25ml/day unless anabolic doses are high and then it can replace these volumes faster. I don't suggest this method and only do it because I have lots of experience doing this and know what I'm getting into and I'm also 230lbs 6'2", so I have the mass necessary to remove this much blood without getting into trouble.