You look better than 98% of 20 year olds at my gym. You’re lean and muscular. From what I gather you are also training with high volume and high intensity. Couple that with a low body fat percentage and I’d say you are either underrecovering or overtraining. If it were me, I would try the most simple thing first and just take 2 weeks off from any training and see if that would resolve some symptoms of fatigue/general shitty feeling. Go for a low intensity 2 hour walk every day for those two weeks. You won’t lose any gains and will likely come back to your training refreshed and stronger.
Talk with your endo but as others have stated, your hormone values are fine and you will likely see very modest symptom relief on a true TRT dose. Good luck with whatever you decide.
We mostly agree on things but I completely disagree here. He has no hypogonadism for starters. Second, he’s doing so well naturally in the physique department, why screw with it for minimal if any improvement? Third, some men struggle to find a protocol that works for them. IMO this fatigue is solvable with life style changes versus marrying the needle.
I know you prefaced with “looking for reasons”, but I hate to see men screw up something good for a grass is greener scenario.
Thanks For the compliments, man. I appreciate your response and advice. Ya, I tend to agree. If my test score come back normal one more time. I’m probably under recovered.
Lol, sorry, not to derail, but upon reading that I got a flash in my mind of me standing at the altar next to a giant-sized needle filled with test, and with a vial of test standing before us as the priest officiating my wedding, LOL. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. Thank you for bringing a smile to my face this early @blshaw
Resume…oh, and OP, you look amazing for not only “your age”, but hell, better than most men at ANY age! Keep up the good work!
My opinion, get your COMPLETE bloodwork with ALL the tests we all recommend on here, discuss results with your doctor and perhaps us on this board, and then make an informed decision. As it’s been said, if your levels are not truly low/hypogonadal, probably best to remain natural, but if they are low, I’m telling you, you will feel like a million bucks on TRT! I know I did and many others on here as well. (yes, yes, some folks have some difficult dialing dosage, E2, etc. in but that is not most of us). And if you are PRESCRIBED 150-200mg/week level of test, I don’t agree with what others have said because YOU WILL notice some pretty good lean mass gains. Over the first 6 months to a year, you could possibly add another 7-10 pounds, maybe even more (yeah yeah, I hate having to always say disclaimers for the “But” guys on here… BUT that’s if your diet, training, recovery, etc is on point) Good luck
I’m getting back to daydreaming about my “marrying test” as I sit here at my desk at work, lol.
I got a lot of traction out of the article WHAT TRT IS AND ISNT.
For me? If and when I find out I’m low on test. It would be something to consider in order to get me back into a NORMAL range and symptom/life improvements and not something to play with unless I’m down for the long haul. All things considered. When the time comes, and I consider the advantages to outweigh the risks? Then I’ll be down for it.
If its sooner than I think? I’m ok when that and if not. I’m good with that too.
You wana hear the funny part? I could just as well be on TRT, or cycling PEDs at this point anyways because people ( mostly younger guys) don’t believe me anyways.
I usually hear. BRO…You natty Bro?..No way!!!..Seriously?
Ya, man…Seriously!..now get to work!
No derail. That imagery stood out to me as well. Thanks for the compliments and words of encouragement. Like I said earlier. It means a great deal to me. Especially coming from the experience level of the guys responding to my post. Yourself included.
Great attitude. At some point you likely WILL want/need TRT. Just IMO it may not be now. Its not been all fun and games for me. Plenty of people on here will tell you the same. At the end of the day its your body and your personal decision. I feel you have the ammo now to make a decision and know the ramifications. Good luck and yes you have an amazing natural physique.
Absolutely correct. The pics i posted were taken the third week of June. Just this last summer.
That was probably the height of my cut. I was big time flat and glycogen depleted. I then started increasing my calories, especially carbs in and around my workouts. Slowly climbing back out of my deficit. After what i would consider last years failed bulk. I decided to get lean and just lean bulk from there adding a few mini cuts as needed. That way I’m not gaining 20+ pounds of scale weight just for the sake of seeing the needle move. Then losing whatever gains I did make over the course of the calorie surplus phase during a semi aggressive fat loss or cutting phase. For me i guess the “Devil is in the dose”
At the time my training reflected my daily calories but now that I’m back to hitting it hard again. I could probably use some extra recovery tactics until my system can catch back up. I’m currently averaging a 300-400 calorie surplus a day and slowly gaining.
Ha, I think we went to the same school! That’s about all I got out of my research as well.
Not sure how you would free up albumin bound bio-test without just throwing more test at it.
My advice is to improve your rest and sleep. Testosterone is not your issue, almost certainly. You look great, but feel OFF. Ok, perhaps you need to rest more ! It should be easy and costs nothing. Give it a try. Exercise, sleep and nutrition go together.
Btw… I wish I had your T levels …
Agreed and thanks for the input. I still have my Endo appt. on Nov 7th. I’m not expecting much to come from it honestly. I’ve still been going pretty hard. But, defiantly focusing more on rest and recovery. I’m currently on week 9 of my 12 week program and really want to finish. As long as I keep training EOD symptoms are not as pronounced and mildly better.
Looking forward a big old deload coming up in the next few weeks.
You look great and your labs look ok fwiw. Imho you are overtrained and underfed. Or one of these, or both. I had exactly same issue before starting TRT 11 months ago. Was too lean for too long and felt my health tanking on diff levels. Took a break from gym, cardio, increased food, more sleep/rest, gained some weight and started feeling a lot better. No supps helped as I ticked all boxes for months before deciding to give treatment a go. Felt good with 16 TT(uk units) but had crashed cFT 0.2 (0.2-0.6) fwiw so warranted a test-drive to see if imcreasing it helps. I’d def recommend doing all this and giving it some fair time and then see how you feel and perform
Belekas, Thanks for the input on this. FWIW I think that’s good advice.
It’s funny because in my personal experience and throughout my journey I have heard so many opposing points on training, diet and supplements and although GENERALY speaking it’s all fairly unanimous and straightforward. Then once the newbie gains dry up the generalized information is no longer as useful as it once was. You then have to find new ways to experiment.
Always pushing to get bigger stronger and leaner and walking the tight rope between pushing to get gains and maintaining proper recovery. It’s been an awesome experience and still is.
They say that having a six pack in your forties and fifties is better than having a sports car in your forties and fifties. Sometimes I wonder…
OK guys I’m back. I just got a full panel done and its showing that my LH and FSH levels are both in range.
My testosterone came back ok again.
However, My Estradiol total was “21” normal ranges are supposed to be
27-52 pg/ml
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
