6’3 250 SZ 36 pants. Diet is shit and I go through my day feeling like a Sloth. I’ve been on Wellbutrin/Adderall for about three years but I’m hoping to get off Pharms for good. Find it odd that even with all these “stimulants” I’m still extremely low energy.
History:
@22 y.o: Did an OTC Pro-Hormone (TrenXtreme.) Heavy Dose with no PCT. Shit gave me Gyno, Bacne, and Urinary Tract problems to this day. Huge Regret.
@28 y.o: Tried a “Clomid Restart.” The first two weeks of taking Clomid I felt GREAT. Like it was a miracle pill that transported me back to being my 17 year old self. Woke up with Morning Wood and was in a playful mood all day. But then it just stopped completely. I thought maybe e2 had elevated, so I upped my Anastrozole dose but unfortunately that didn’t help either. Also struggled with E.D while on this Protocol, even with “ideal” Test/e2 levels.
@30 y.o: Tapered off Clomid/Ana protocol. Defy advised that I start TRT/HCG but I postponed. Have gotten some positive results from just taking Anastrozole by itself the past week to lower E2.
Main Symptoms: Chronic Lethargy, Extremely Low Libido, High Anxiety and general Bitchiness. No Morning Wood.
Any ideas on what the next step should be? Any tests I should have done? Seems like TRT/HCG and cleaning up my Diet is logically the next step. Just wanna be sure before jumping on the wagon.
I’ll share my story because it’s got some similarities to yours. Hope it helps.
I got fat. I did it the way companies go bankrupt: slowly, and then all at once. I let it happen because I was rich, depressed, and had a lot of good excuses (newly minted dad, life was good on the surface, everyone wanted my lifestyle, all that BS). It was easy. Just don’t say ‘no’ to dessert. Just say ‘yes’ to larger portions. Eventually it was going to kill me, but I didn’t care. Then one day I cared again. Started an SSRI, started to take life seriously, changed jobs (with a huge pay cut) so I could do what I wanted to do, and I lost 50lbs. It was 100% diet. I did not exercise once during the weight loss phase. It was all about lifestyle changes that could stick. After the weight came off I started lifting again. It felt good, but not really. I struggled to put on any size and all I could do was get definition, which didn’t even look that great on a skinny frame. So I kept trying. And trying. I was still depressed. I still wanted to feel better, but nothing really worked. People tell you to eat right, work out, be a good father, be a good man, and things will fall into place. Well they were wrong. I did all that and I was still miserable. So I took a shot and had my test numbers checked. And that was the end of one phase of life and the start of a new one.
Today I’m 42lbs bigger than I was at my skinniest, but I’m wearing the same size pants I was wearing in college, when I worked out religiously. I feel great, which makes me spread that good feeling to everyone in my life. I gave up the SSRI after six months of TRT because I didn’t need it anymore. All I needed was to be hormonally normal.
But it all started with diet, and more accurately what diet represented. It represented change. Change from what I had let myself become to what’s I wanted to be. You know your diet sucks. You said it. So go change it. It’s entirely within you to do it. If you do it at the same time as starting TRT it may even be easier for you. Or maybe it’s harder. You don’t know. But make a plan and then go execute it. You will never be disappointed if you bet on yourself and then make it work. Nobody else will care as much about you as you do. So go out there and make it happen.
SSRIs work against you metabolically and cause fatigue, there’s always a give and take with medications. These medications will make TRT less effective and will work against you.
You likely need these drugs because of your low hormone state, it’s a bandaid for a larger problem, low testosterone. My SHBG is similar and 6 weeks ago my TRT protocol scored a similar Total T and felt really bad.
These numbers you’re scoring are disease state levels. Your adrenal glands are overactive.
I’d suggest cleaning up your diet, get on and stick to a hard exercise program(5-6 days a week) and when you lose fat and get to a healthy weight test again. Trt will work much better for you at a healthier bf % if your levels are still shit. You may notice many of these issues improve dramatically just by eating right and exercising