Also regarding these articles (which I don’t have time to read right now but I’ll assume the context based on the headers).
This is a flawed premise (in the context of the current discussion). Yes, if you are in a caloric deficit, and you work out fasted, your body will signal that it is in famine mode, and start reducing mass by breaking down muscle tissue.
You need to read the entire conversation. We were talking about the OP upping his caloric intake to enough to sustain his current mass, and using fasted workouts to help to keep the fat burning machine alive.
We are talking about two different subjects here man.
No brother me neither and I hope I’m not coming across that way. If I did I sincerely apologize. I’m just adding to the conversation as well and you are not wrong in any way. I think that we were just talking about two different things here lol.
@Brando52 I appreciate the constructive nature of this conversation; just two informed dudes sharing good info and having a healthy debate. I think it comes down to context, goals, and personal preference. Fasted workouts can work well. So can non-fasted workouts. I personally find having some carbs + caffeine in my system just elevates my workouts to another level, whether I’m cutting, maintaining, or bulking. Maybe it’s mental, but either way, that’s the approach I like best.
Took some measurements this morning for the first time in a while. Really glad I “laid off the BF bong,” as @The_Myth put it, and stopped doing this every day. I may not be a winner for this challenge (who really cares?), but it’s substantially benefitted my sanity and overall enjoyment of life. Plus it’s helped my relationship, though the wifey was — and always is — very supportive of my health/fitness goals.
As a reminder, my scale is a cheap piece of shit, but at least it’s consistent. In the past couple weeks, since upping calories, BF has not changed (12%), nor has waist (29.5”). However, the veins on my lower abs look as defined as ever, and muscle mass has increased by 1 lb. Basically, I think BF is holding steady while MM slowly increases. Plus sleep has improved considerably! Could be a result of slightly decreasing my T dose, or could also be tied to my higher food consumption.
I’ve done two-a-days the past two days because I’ve had this insatiable drive to lift and have consumed ~2500 cals/day. Today I have the road trip, so there will “only” be one workout (emphasizing HEX bar deadlifts and the lower posterior chain).
You have so much going on, that this is beyond my knowledge.
Your high estrogen bothers me; your SHBG is still too high – BUT Your AST and ALT scare the hell out of me. I think you are getting WAY TOO MUCH testosterone. Just my opinion.
Your Alkaline Phosphatase went low – the same issue I have had and NO ONE can talk knowledgeably about why because it is HIGHLY unusual.
Interesting. You seem a lot more worried about the liver enzymes than my provider. He thinks that was a result of my workout timing and said we’ll just keep monitoring. I ordered NAC and plan to take 1000 mg 2X/day. May add other supplements eventually. Not going to panic at this point but definitely something to keep an eye on.
It’s only been a little over a week, but since lowering my dose to 180 and starting to take Danazol 25 mg ED, I have felt a considerable amount better! I was already feeling very good but have felt great. How much lower do you think the T dosage should be?
Yes, and your levels aren’t that high in reality. But I am sensitive to them in my own results because of the rare, but possible, side effects of Danazol on the liver. You are taking extremely low dose Danazol; as you will likely choose to increase the dose later, you will need to watch your liver markers (in my opinion).
After starting my ramp-up at 2200 calories, I’ve been eating 2600 for the past week. I’m pretty shocked, to be honest, that I haven’t put on ANY fat. My wife keeps making comments about my abs and saying they’re looking more defined…? Obviously not complaining, just confused!
I think my body must be like a sponge right now, desperate to use the food as fuel for muscle, because of the high free T (much higher than it is used to) and my high level of activity. I’m insanely driven in the gym and haven’t taken a rest day in 2 weeks. I know I should…I just can’t help myself. I daydream about crushing the weights — I’ve been lifting nearly 10 years and that’s never happened before. It’s a weird experience but I’m really enjoying it.
Your body is enjoying having the fuel to do what you are asking of it…
You have to eat enough to maintain your mass, or even in a slight surplus (especially in protein) if you’re trying to build muscle. As long as your total activity expenditure is MORE than that amount of intake calories, and your activity tells your body that you NEED that muscle mass, then your body is happy to increase your muscle mass and burn it’s reserves (fat) for the extra fuel.
Basically, your body is learning to trust you again that you won’t starve it!
I love it, man. It’s pretty amazing how the body can build muscle and burn fat simultaneously if the conditions are optimal (which is obviously made 100 times easier with hormones). I’ve been eating a ton of protein – 220-250g per day.
One side effect of TRT that many have noted, but I thought I’d add here for those interested: I’ve never had body acne before, even as a teen. Now, I have a bunch of it. It was worse on cream and then wasn’t bad at the start on injections, but it’s come back with a vengeance. It really doesn’t bother me, because I’ll take gains with acne any day! Fortunately, nothing on my face.
Would you mind explaining what that means for me? I hear the term glycogen thrown around a lot, but not sure I really understand – is it just excess energy (i.e., calories)?
I’ve been told that acne is caused by estrogen. One thing I found is that a benzoyl peroxide 10 body wash will help. Get one of those Salux nylon bath cloth and use the body wash - it will help.
Next blood test, check the E2 - if you’re not using an AI, add one but do it very slowly.
Had it checked recently and it was a 91 – highest I’ve ever seen on my labs. I’m pretty wary of AIs because of Neal Rouzier’s work. I take it you are less anti-AI?
The body converts your carbs into muscle glycogen and stores it in the muscles for energy later. When your muscle are full of glycogen they appear fuller and larger. When you have been depleted you burn a lot of it and don’t hold as much. I believe if I understand correctly that because you have been in a defecit your muscles allow a supercompensation allowing even more glycogen in, because as brady said they are hungry. Therefore all your cuts from the fat loss will appear deeper because the muscles themselves are also fuller from extra glycogen. That is one thing I hated about keto is I felt flat as hell because of the lack of muscle glycogen.
I’ve been taking creatine + glutamine, but just ran out of glutamine. I definitely will keep taking creatine but am flip-flopping on glutamine. Thoughts on whether it’s necessary?
I definitely know what you’re saying about keto. Makes perfect sense! My workouts on keto were also so subpar in comparison to my workouts with carbs in my system. Though I did love the mental clarity of keto, that makes a massive difference when it comes to body comp!