My Free T:Total T % is now 1.88%, a marked improvement from the previous 0.77%. That said, the numbers are quite high – but pushing them even higher will, I think, be necessary for me to continue improving. Not sure if I should be worried about how high they’re getting. Free T is more than 3X over the top of the range.
My SHBG has dropped from 114 to 72, so the Danazol appears to be working! @traveling-man I’m really encouraged to see this.
Of note: Estradiol has gone up to 91. It was 50 before. This seems strange; I guess it happened because T went up so much? I am not on an AI.
I don’t know how to interpret the over-range DHT and Reverse T3 – any cause for concern there? Any other thoughts on these numbers? @NH_Watts@jackolee@enackers
With test that high your pretty much running a cycle. Watch your RBC coins as well as your HCT. Both can get out of wack with high test. If the HCT is high I’d look at doing a double red donation at a blood bank place like carter. Tricky thing is that if your RBC count is already out of range they won’t let you donate. High HCT can be pretty dangerous.
Make sure your monitoring your blood pressure and pulse.
With test and free test that high I’m not too worried about the E2 as the test to estrogen ration seems to be more important than total numbers.
I don’t know much about thyroid or DHT sorry bout that.
With all this said I don’t think keeping your levels like this for 12-16 week would be too bad but I sure wouldn’t do it year round. Your total test is 3x top of range and your free test is 4x. You should be eating like crazy, training hard, and making monster gainzzz!
I wish I’d had HCT tested on this round! That will be coming next time. It’s still like a cycle despite my SHBG still being pretty high (72)? Though it is much more reasonable than it was when I started (nearly 200).
Damn, I’m hoping to find a sustainable protocol – was hoping I could keep this going, but definitely don’t want to risk long-term health. I feel great overall and body-comp is improving rapidly, though libido is still not nearly what I want it to be.
I’m all for this and want to capitalize on these levels! That said, I don’t want to put on body fat because there are only 3 weeks left in this transformation challenge. I’m currently eating 1800 cals. How high would you push it? Thinking maybe 2000-2200 for the final 3 weeks, then 2500-3000 after.
Your SHGB is gonna bind up a bunch of test which usually makes the free test lower. That clearly isn’t an issue with these levels. You have plenty of free test.
How much test are you taking and how often are you injecting? I’d try an every other day injection protocol for a while and see how that does. Thought I’d that smaller spikes in test will also cause less to get bound up by shgb. That said you need to be treating the symptoms and not chasing a number. If you feel good and your healthy I wouldn’t sweat it too much.
I agree; I finally feel good about the level. 1.88% is a good %. What’s yours usually around when you’re on TRT/cycling?
My prescription is for 200 mg/week. I’ve been taking 260. How much would you do with each injection? I have a follow up with my provider so I’ll see what he says about these numbers before changing injection frequency, but I like that idea.
I don’t measure the percentage and my labs measure differently than yours. Your total is measured in ng/dL and your free t Is measured in pg/dL. So the percentage is strange.
Your numbers look way more reasonable. Why do you think E is so low, though? Was that on a blast?
Also, what do you think about the cals I laid out for the final 3 weeks of this challenge? I always appreciate your perspective on recomp/contest prep.
I know that my input wasn’t asked for here, but I wanted to share with you the one in-immutable truth that I have learned in the last 2 years of trying to manipulate my body composition…
A dietary caloric deficit will screw your metabolism, abnormally spike cortisol levels, and completely rob you of muscle mass. You should be eating at least 2500-2600 calories a day.
If you want to create a deficit to burn more fat, do it by working harder, and working fasted in the morning. Working in the mornings (If you aren’t already) will help with your sleep issues as well. Evenings are for winding down and preparing your body to recover.
Stop playing with dietary deficits man. They will hurt you more than they will help you in the long run.
It’s the low SHBG guys. The less T that is bound to SHBG, the more that is available as Free T. The more that is available for Free T, the more that is also available for aromatase.
More frequent injections allows less T to be injected at a time, therefore lower and more stable peaks, and lower aromatase rates.
No I was just on my TRT. 250mg split twice weekly. Normally this keeps me around 750-850. I recently started taking boron and this lab showed 1100. Who knows.
I didn’t really feel too bad with crashed E. Maybe I would have if I was eating normally. I was so far into the diet that I’d felt really bad regardless, but crashing the E didn’t make a noticeable difference for me and I was taking 1 mg anastrozole daily for the last 10 days of contest prep.
I didn’t run any kind of contest prep cycle. I’ll compete next spring and will probably run a test, maestron, winstrol or anivar cycle.
Your input is always welcome around here! I find your perspective really interesting (you clearly know your stuff), though it does contradict the conventional wisdom of body recomp. As I understand it, pretty much everyone in the bodybuilding space uses dietary deficits – and wouldn’t employing more movement simply be creating the deficit in a different way (i.e., getting your body accustomed to more movement rather than fewer calories)?
I guess the perspective you’re sharing is more about long-term health, not recomp, correct? I would love to have a stronger metabolism. Cutting at 1800 calories (as a 6’2" male) is far from ideal. I’m hungry a lot. Plus hormones are a major key.
FWIW I used to do this, for years and years, and recently (2 months or so) started having a high simple carb moderate protein meal before lifting and all I can say is I have a LOT more energy in the gym and recover faster between sets. So that being said, wouldnt lifting in a fasted state keep you from working as hard and therefore burning less calories throughout the rest of the day with the afterburn?
Im also using a periworkout high carb drink as well but I introduced that the same time as the meal so not sure which is most effective.
All THIS being said working and eating to achieve size gains is generally accepted as counter to eating to remove fat still right? So maybe my point is moot.
I’m speaking from a standpoint of trying to gain/maintain muscle mass AND burn fat at the same time.
You would think so but not really. What happens is that the quick acting carbs that you consume just before the workout actually go to fuel the workout itself, instead of forcing your body to call on reserve energy (fat). When you’re trying to burn fat, if you eat before training you’ll have to burn through what you ate before your body will start trying to convert stored fat to replace lost muscle glycogen.
So in other words, eating before a meal DOES give you the ability to push harder because the fuel source is already in the processing state, BUT you’re not going to burn as much fat.
One other point to note…
When you eat within 2 hours of training, the food you eat has to begin the digestion process. This requires a lot of blood and also takes priority over everything else in the body. So if you realize that you have a very finite blood source to keep everything moving throughout the body, the extra blood required for digestion will take away from the amount available to be shuttled into the muscles to bring those nutrients in during training. So in that sense, even though you FEEL stronger when you eat before (and you actually aren’t, you just recover between sets better because the fuel source is already there and waiting, not needing to be converted from stored fat), you really do a small injustice to your workout by not having as much blood available.
This kind of balances out the benefit of having the “ready to go” fuel source, because the mechanism for getting that fuel to the muscle is somewhat compromised. Catch 22.
From a fat burning standpoint though, as I said, it’s pretty clear in my opinion (take it for what it’s worth lol) that working out fasted will burn fat better.
