Oxandrolone is a synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid. It is a 17 alpha-methylated version of dihydrotestosterone (DHT). It can be used for the treatment of many kinds of disorders such as idiopathic short stature, body mass loss due to catabolic illness, severe burns, trauma and hereditary angioedema as well as turner syndrome. Oxandrolone is especially effective in the treatment of severe burns without causing obvious side effects. It acts as an agonist of the androgen receptor, which modulates related gene expression to increase protein synthesis, further boosting muscle growth and increasing body mass as well as bone mineral density. However, it should be noted that its androgenic effect is less than its anabolic effect.

Anavar does not aromatize or convert to DHT, and has an 8 hour half-life. Thus, a moderate dose taken in the morning is largely out of the system by night, yet supplies reasonable levels of androgen during the day and early evening.

Oxandrolone to be superior to testosterone and to Deca (nandrolone) for reducing abdominal fat in men, or at least in obese older men at the specific low doses studied, which were not necessarily equipotent. From this, some have made broad generalizations to bodybuilding. However, this does not necessarily carry over to anabolic steroid cycles at doses commonly used in bodybuilding. In the case of the study in question, I expect the difference in outcomes was dose-related.

In practice, at total androgen doses typically used, one can cut just as effectively without oxandrolone as with, given any of various possible substitutions for the oxandrolone. This is not to say this drug is ineffective, but rather that other androgens including testosterone are also effective at high dose for abdominal fat loss.