hey trish..
honestly i have not heard of var downgrading, HOWEVER i feel it is always important to take at least one week off to let the system clean out a bit... then jump back in.. i believe time off can be as important as time on..
If you feel you are plateauing, look at your diet, your training, and then if both are on target... then i would take a break for about a week... can't hurt

I've heard of ladies running Var for 18 weeks and still seeing good results. I too agree that you certainly need to take a break from it at one point, just to clean the system out.

ladies pardon me for butting in , a lot of the downgrade hype is nothing more than not adjusting calories up as your weight goes up .[ these numbers i will use are just for example and not important ] if you are bulking and eating 3000 calories at 150 pounds and you are making quality weight gains while on cycle but now your weight has increased to 160 pounds ,3000 calories isnt enough to bulk at 160 pounds it is instead a maintenance diet . you have to adjust the calories to compensate for the weight difference

EXCELLENT point Dawg!! thanks for chiming in!!! i agree that looking at diet is important, but you really pointed out specifically that sometimes we forget to adjust our calories according to our gains etc..

thanks, fyre, dawg, and super. that is probably the problem...my calories. i am 5'3" at 163lbs right now....(with top two abs showing)but i havent upped my cals any...god how did i not think of that? lol! thanks u guys...i appreciate your help.

oh, and fyre...i saw a few pics of u recently....u are one SEXY thing! keep up the greta work!