Hello I am a newbie, and i would like some help.

[iamanewbie]

Hello.

I am a 31 year old guy, 5'9" 112kg/246lbs.
Per my last measurement i am about 33% BF .
now before you immediately reply very high BF, get back to basics, please read on.

I finally go tired of how i looked about 4-5 months back. I had been steadily putting on weight for years.
When i started i was approximately 120kg/264lbs about 45% BF.
So, once i came to the realization, i decided to something about it.
I started cardio, and then started lifting weights.
have been lifting for about 4 months i guess . Soon as i joined the gym, i took on a PT to make sure that i had proper form when lifting (compounds).
I started with only compounds (Squats,Bench,Overhead,Rows&Deadlifts)
Now i do believe i have made considerable improvements. Put some decent lean mass, and dropped quite a bit of fat.
My lifts have gone up considerably over the past few months, About 6-8 weeks back, my weight loss stopped, however i have noticed re-comping. I am however in severe caloric deficit. I am burning about 4k calories on average and consuming about 2.8 - 3k calories.
My weight was remaining about the same, however my BF was dropping. Now for about 2-3 weeks my BF has also kinda stalled.

All this time,i have been soaking up information like a sponge, on fixing my diet, add exercises and what not.

I have already got my diet fixed for the most part. I have a little bit of difficulty hitting my macros. But that is within 10%.

Couple of days back, i visited a doctor and after a blood test,he informed me that i had very low TT .
He suggested we should do a few doses of TRT . 250mg test enanthe per week for 4 weeks.
Then he would test my blood again and then decide further course of actions.
if normal, stop for 3 months and retest.
Else we go for further testing to try and determine the root cause.

To be honest, he scared me a lil and as such i had my first shot yesterday.
Ever since he informed me, i have been trying to gather as much info as i can.

I learned about the possible side effects.
What is aromatization. How it can be countered (very basic in this yet)
What could be the possible benefits and so on.
Been learning a bit about cycles.

One thing that has struck me is it, if i am going to do this, why don't i do it right and try to make the best of this situation.

I would like some suggestions from the experienced folks.
Since i have already taken my first shot, what should i do now ?

Should i now just use this as trt and go with it ?
go about my routine as if nothing has changed. Reading up, has made me realize that people only turn to gear when they close to 10% BF and clearly i am far from it. They use it to polish what is already there, and make it shine.
Also, my doc has not suggested any kind of PCT . I will shutdown on 250mg per week, should there not be any kinda pct ?
My doc has not suggested anything for AI either. From what i have been reading, i might be an excellent candidate for aromatization.

or

Should i try to use this to my advantage ?
turn this into a some kinda cycle and try to put on as much muscle and drop as much fat as possible ?
Having normal T might actually help me drop alot of BF considering the way i was going before i was diagnosed.
i was thinking of dropping in some t3 and clen and increasing the cycle duratiion to maybe 8 weeks or so. For some reason, the pharmacist never took my script after he gave me the 4 vials.


help me out guys ??

Thank a lot.

 

[Milton]

Welcome to the site.

 

[halfwit]

Fact 1: You have low testosterone. This has a medical treatment, known as testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

Fact 2: TRT is NOT cycling. It's not cycled off, it's not to attain temporary gains in body composition, it's to treat your condition of hypogonadism.

Fact 3: You've been pushing hard, and hitting a stumbling block. I had a very similar experience which led me to discover that I had been hypogonadal for a very long time. TRT will most certainly remove that block from your path.

Now onto your question about aromatization; this is a natural process by which we men obtain needed estradiol. However, as you've likely read, it's also a problem with exogenous testosterone. Aromatase inhibitors or even modifying your dose/frequency can keep this in check. Be sure that estradiol is on the blood test he's going to request.

There's a PLETHORA of information in the TRT sticky that will help you to better understand what's going on. Having hypogonadism sucks, not going to sugar coat it - but having the treatment and KNOWING that you have it is a blessing.

Stick around, you'll catch on to all this stuff soon enough, and welcome to ology!

My .02c

 

[Repo]

Halfwit has just laid out a good starting point for you.

In addition...

I would stay away from the T3 at this point and increase the testosterone beyond your TRT dose.

I'm a big fan of T3... however, I would not jump into it just yet... instead, keep focusing on proper nutrition, and possibly increase your testosterone
which should exhibit more fat loss with an intense workout program.

3J (here at Ology) is your guy for diet and nutrition

Welcome to the forum - and please keep asking questions.

 

[Gainjin260]

Worries me a little that your doc wants to limit the TRT to 4 weeks and STOP if "normal". You are hypogonadal. You need exogenous test for the rest of your life, not for a 4 week trial. Please talk with him about. Finding a weekly dose that puts your t levels in the upper normal range. Stopping cold turkey after 4 weeks would be counter productive. In fact, are you sure this is what he meant?

What were your t levels?

I went on trt 6 months ago and have dropped 10% body fat while gaining a couple kilos of weight overall= gained many kilos of muscle.

You don't need to cycle- you'll be blown away just by having normal test levels.

 

[Teutonic]

...ur doc s clueless...

 

[iamanewbie]

Fact 1: You have low testosterone. This has a medical treatment, known as testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

Fact 2: TRT is NOT cycling. It's not cycled off, it's not to attain temporary gains in body composition, it's to treat your condition of hypogonadism.

Fact 3: You've been pushing hard, and hitting a stumbling block. I had a very similar experience which led me to discover that I had been hypogonadal for a very long time. TRT will most certainly remove that block from your path.

Now onto your question about aromatization; this is a natural process by which we men obtain needed estradiol. However, as you've likely read, it's also a problem with exogenous testosterone. Aromatase inhibitors or even modifying your dose/frequency can keep this in check. Be sure that estradiol is on the blood test he's going to request.

There's a PLETHORA of information in the TRT sticky that will help you to better understand what's going on. Having hypogonadism sucks, not going to sugar coat it - but having the treatment and KNOWING that you have it is a blessing.

Stick around, you'll catch on to all this stuff soon enough, and welcome to ology!

My .02c

Hey, thank you for all the information.
I have been reading alot and learning alot.
Estradiol was not on the tests my doc had told me.

Halfwit has just laid out a good starting point for you.

In addition...

I would stay away from the T3 at this point and increase the testosterone beyond your TRT dose.

I'm a big fan of T3... however, I would not jump into it just yet... instead, keep focusing on proper nutrition, and possibly increase your testosterone
which should exhibit more fat loss with an intense workout program.

3J (here at Ology) is your guy for diet and nutrition

Welcome to the forum - and please keep asking questions.

Thanks. I do intend to keep asking more and learning more.
I would like to know why u feel i should stay away from t3 for now ? for educational purposes .

Worries me a little that your doc wants to limit the TRT to 4 weeks and STOP if "normal". You are hypogonadal. You need exogenous test for the rest of your life, not for a 4 week trial. Please talk with him about. Finding a weekly dose that puts your t levels in the upper normal range. Stopping cold turkey after 4 weeks would be counter productive. In fact, are you sure this is what he meant?

What were your t levels?

I went on trt 6 months ago and have dropped 10% body fat while gaining a couple kilos of weight overall= gained many kilos of muscle.

You don't need to cycle- you'll be blown away just by having normal test levels.

My TT was 2.3 where normal range is between 3.x and 10.x
My doc explained it to me like this,
we do 4 weeks of TRT then test my blood, to see T levels. If normal (which i suppose it will be, maybe this is a reference ?)
then stop for 3 months and test again. If its normal, its all good.
Else we go in for further testing to determine root cause.
FSH
one more i cant recall LS or FS .
prolactin
and
free test.

i asked him if we should do those before trt, he said he prefers to do it this way.

...ur doc s clueless...

The more i am learning, the more i feel like my doc might be an idiot and had me go on TRT too quickly and i feel like a total idiot for going along with it.
You generally expect the doctors to know wtf they are doing.
I specifically asked him if taking this will affect my ability to have kids( Me and the wife have been trying for about a year and want kids)
His answer was "no this will not affect, trt will not affect fertility, only sexual drive"
My wife has a hard time keeping up with me as it is, now i don't know what is going to happen. I have heard people get very horny while on test, trt or not.

 

[oldmusclemike]

Welcome aboard a lot of good data here.

 

[Repo]

Thanks. I do intend to keep asking more and learning more.
I would like to know why u feel i should stay away from t3 for now ? for educational purposes .

T3 is the most active thyroid hormone in your body - and is not something I wouldn't use just yet.

If you should choose to do so it should be used properly and with caution.

Lets start with a starting dose ... which is recommended at 25 mg daily - then increased by no more than 25 mg every 1-2 weeks ... with the established maintenance dose of 24-75 mg.

Cycles are usually no more than 6 weeks - and should "NOT" be stopped abruptly...

It should be discontinued by reducing the dose by 25 mg every 4-7 days.

This is so the body has time to readjust its endogenous hormone production.

Also - a higher dose of 80-100 mcg can easily put you into a catabolic state and also "reduce anabolism when approaching higher levels."

I typically run it around 50 mcg.

 

[maurij1]

So your Doc is basically going to shut down what little test your body already makes and then see if your test levels just happen to recover all by itself?? Enjoy the 3 months of feeling like shit, I'm with Teutonic... ur doc is clueless!

Welcome to the boards, lots of good info here!!

 

[Milton]

Hello.

I am a 31 year old guy, 5'9" 112kg/246lbs.
Per my last measurement i am about 33% BF .
now before you immediately reply very high BF, get back to basics, please read on.

I finally go tired of how i looked about 4-5 months back. I had been steadily putting on weight for years.
When i started i was approximately 120kg/264lbs about 45% BF.
So, once i came to the realization, i decided to something about it.
I started cardio, and then started lifting weights.
have been lifting for about 4 months i guess . Soon as i joined the gym, i took on a PT to make sure that i had proper form when lifting (compounds).
I started with only compounds (Squats,Bench,Overhead,Rows&Deadlifts)
Now i do believe i have made considerable improvements. Put some decent lean mass, and dropped quite a bit of fat.
My lifts have gone up considerably over the past few months, About 6-8 weeks back, my weight loss stopped, however i have noticed re-comping. I am however in severe caloric deficit. I am burning about 4k calories on average and consuming about 2.8 - 3k calories.
My weight was remaining about the same, however my BF was dropping. Now for about 2-3 weeks my BF has also kinda stalled.

All this time,i have been soaking up information like a sponge, on fixing my diet, add exercises and what not.

I have already got my diet fixed for the most part. I have a little bit of difficulty hitting my macros. But that is within 10%.

Couple of days back, i visited a doctor and after a blood test,he informed me that i had very low TT .
He suggested we should do a few doses of TRT . 250mg test enanthe per week for 4 weeks.
Then he would test my blood again and then decide further course of actions.
if normal, stop for 3 months and retest.
Else we go for further testing to try and determine the root cause.

To be honest, he scared me a lil and as such i had my first shot yesterday.
Ever since he informed me, i have been trying to gather as much info as i can.

I learned about the possible side effects.
What is aromatization. How it can be countered (very basic in this yet)
What could be the possible benefits and so on.
Been learning a bit about cycles.

One thing that has struck me is it, if i am going to do this, why don't i do it right and try to make the best of this situation.

I would like some suggestions from the experienced folks.
Since i have already taken my first shot, what should i do now ?

Should i now just use this as trt and go with it ?
go about my routine as if nothing has changed. Reading up, has made me realize that people only turn to gear when they close to 10% BF and clearly i am far from it. They use it to polish what is already there, and make it shine.
Also, my doc has not suggested any kind of PCT . I will shutdown on 250mg per week, should there not be any kinda pct ?
My doc has not suggested anything for AI either. From what i have been reading, i might be an excellent candidate for aromatization.

or

Should i try to use this to my advantage ?
turn this into a some kinda cycle and try to put on as much muscle and drop as much fat as possible ?
Having normal T might actually help me drop alot of BF considering the way i was going before i was diagnosed.
i was thinking of dropping in some t3 and clen and increasing the cycle duratiion to maybe 8 weeks or so. For some reason, the pharmacist never took my script after he gave me the 4 vials.


help me out guys ??

Thank a lot.

get rid of your doc and find another one.

 

[mr.bean]

if you have lowT go on hrt, and if doc thinks in 3-4 months its normal he will pull you off it and then retest while off then he is a dumb muppet and you need a new doc. going on hrt will shutdown your production and your replacing it so thats ok, but then to stop hrt again to see if your "fixed" doesn't make any freaking sense... to test and adjust dose sure, not just stop.
did you also get thyroid function tested?

 

[manstan]

Ok, i'll add my two pennies here, you're dieting and trying to burn fat as a priority, right (this can suppress your Test levels, as can being over or under weight) ?
So being in a caloric deficit will effect your hormone balance, you have not mentioned any supplementation either, my suggestion (which seems to work for me) supplement vitamin d3, zinc, magnesium, ashwadandwa and fish oil for a couple of months, then have a couple of weeks eating at maintenance only lifting, no cardio, if you are sleeping well and hydrated, do another blood test and take it from there, you might find an improvement.

Also as you are losing fat, sometimes as the fat is burned the cells are replaced with water, when this phenomena happens it can take a few weeks for the water to go, you'll find yourself pissing for at least 50 seconds, several times a day.

Good luck...

 

[Gainjin260]

Ok, i'll add my two pennies here, you're dieting and trying to burn fat as a priority, right (this can suppress your Test levels, as can being over or under weight) ?
So being in a caloric deficit will effect your hormone balance, you have not mentioned any supplementation either, my suggestion (which seems to work for me) supplement vitamin d3, zinc, magnesium, ashwadandwa and fish oil for a couple of months, then have a couple of weeks eating at maintenance only lifting, no cardio, if you are sleeping well and hydrated, do another blood test and take it from there, you might find an improvement.

Also as you are losing fat, sometimes as the fat is burned the cells are replaced with water, when this phenomena happens it can take a few weeks for the water to go, you'll find yourself pissing for at least 50 seconds, several times a day.

Good luck...

If you are hypogonadal supplementation and diet will do very little to raise test levels. I tried for years through healthy diet, weight loss and exercise. Hypogonadal men need exogenous testosterone.

OP- go to the testosterone replacement section and start reading!