@roscoe88 what is your exact protocol?
Here is another thing that I donāt understand:
Why the obsession with SHBG? What difference does it make? Do as close to daily administration as possible and increase until symptoms resolve. This makes SHBG absolutely and utterly irrelevant. If you insist on once a week injections, and claim that you donāt feel ādialed inā, thatās why. Most guys will never be optimized on once weekly injections.
Iām doing the 30mg/day thing now for the last 4 weeks or so. Boners are gradually disappearing even w PDE5s.
They seemed better on 100mg/week test.
IDK danny. I will hold out longer to see if things improve, but it seems the MORE test I add, the crappier boners get.
I have lowish shbg, and therefore, higher free androgensā¦
@roscoe88 no AI or HCG correct? Only the testosterone? Nothing else? No supplements? Anything?
Other than whey, correct. Nothing.
Interesting. I have seen some guys require a longer period of time to adjust to a protocol. Just to confirm, were you ever on an AI? If so, how long as it been since you stopped?
Iāve tried tiny amounts of arimidex here and there. But only like twice a week for one week then stopped. So really no.
I guess I think there are some exceptions to your rule about increasing until symptoms reside.
Systemlord is a prime example. I may be one too. Jury is out.
Do you think I should up Test at some point even more? I know youāre on a really high dose for TRT personally but you get relief
@roscoe88 my advice: give it another 2 weeks or so to see if there is any change for the better. If there is not, it will have been 6 weeks which is usually plenty of time to assess a protocol. You can then try dropping it down to 20mg a day. If you start feeling better, youāll know that you are highly sensitive to the stuff and one of the lucky few that gets better results with less. There is a point that if I cross I wind up with less libido (Iāve tried everything). I know what my best dose is and everything above it results in issues with both sleep and libido.
Iāve said this a couple times lately but I thought the SHBG stuff was all bullshit but if you see the guys that are on around 100mg and are doing good they all have </= 20ās shbg. It seems these guys have major issues at higher testosterone levels. I have literally not seen one person pushing low doses besides the low SHBG guys so that canāt be a coincidence. The good thing is you tried for yourself and know what doesnāt work so you are that much closer to figuring out what does. Donāt get discouraged though. It took me for fucking ever to get to where I just felt ok much less feeling great. There could also be some other variable that needs to be fixed before you get any positive effects from TRT (thyroid, adrenals, etc). Keep your head up and keep trying. When you finally get there itās smooth sailing.
Libido was the very last positive effect I got once dialed in. Like 4 months on the same dose before it happened and it came slowly.
what is your current testosterone protocol?
Levels arenāt stable yet, levels are still in swinging, give it a couple of months. I notice great benefit within the first week of my daily protocol, sadly thatās when the iron deficiency really started wrecking my life.
@systemlord
Takes me almost 8 weeks on the dot to feel good. When I most recently went from EOD sub-q to daily IM (same total weekly amount) at week 6 I was thinking IM wasnāt for me. I felt ok but not good and libido was way down. At week 8 I woke up and felt fantastic and have stayed that way from then on. A month or two after that libido came back full force even higher than before the protocol change. Youāre right about it taking a while even longer than most people say here (6 weeks) for me (takes me 8 weeks). I really think many of the issues people have are because they donāt give it enough time on any given protocol. I know I was that way my first year of TRT.
I had an improved libido after a month. It was awesome at 5 to 6 weeks then bam crashed out. Thatās when the numbers confirmed it. I took 1/2 mg Anastrazole and bam, 2 days later it was back. Bloods showed high estrogen.
Weāve since dropped the estrogen down a lot and I feel better.
Iāll admit thereās a sweet spot for sure of estrogen.
But Iām feeling good even lower atm.
Mistershadow
@mistershadow
How many weeks in did you take the AI?
When I reach 8 weeks itās like a light switch goes off in my head and I feel tremendously better, Iāll say that at 6 weeks I can still feel slight swings in levels.
Your levels may be stable at 6-8 weeks, but your body actually has to use the hormone and for some it might take longer.
If you certain members keep messing with the dose too often, they will be at this forever never really benefitting.
@roscoe88 I canāt believe you are taking this clowns advice. Heās going to fuck you up worse that you already are.
Some things never change I see.
Itās been several weeks on increased AI. I feel better.
Time will tell.
MS
Well folks, update time. Iām feeling really good (apart from being very sick with atypical pneumonia-- yay! airplanes on the holidays!). I still forced myself to the gym 3 times this week off in a private corner.
Energy is really good, my strength still continues to increase weekly. I have not plateaued yet, since starting this ābulking program.ā September through present. I have consistent weekly gains.
My trainer thinks I never properly developed my core functional muscles (upper body, upper/lower back, arms, legs) etcā¦ to any āsignificantā degree. Yes, I was strong as an ox, but not strong like I am now. Iām starting to actually pack on a LOT of mass.
Body is recomping to a ridiculous degree. My in-body scans for benchmark purposes show a drop from 39% BF to 29% since september. Iām at 318 pounds at the moment.
I have no gut, no tire, still a decent fat layer, but mostly empty. My arms no longer quiver. (There is almost no fat on my arms anymore-- even at the armpit)
Legs are very leanā¦ still a ālayerā of fat but nothing quivers. Most of my fat is in my mid to lower back, and in my pubic region. There is probably a 1/2" to 1/4" layer of fat under my skin system wide, but all my bones are becoming visible in my sides and hips etc.
Jean size dropped from a 48 to 42 regular. Unreal. I am starting to look like a strong-man athlete. Or power lifter. Big large muscles. Trainer wants to keep me in this ābulkā phase until I plateau on strength.
Weird thing isā¦ like every 3 to 4 weeks I get freakish across the board gains. According to his data some of my lifting is like 28% to 39% gains across the different exercises. He basically called it a 30-35% across the board gain.
My veins have started moving around in my armsā¦ which is weird. Found this out when they stuck me for blood work. So Iāve managed to drop 42 pounds on TRT of fat/water. I did 40 pounds prior between diet change and basic exerciseā¦ but none of my results were comparable to how I look now. (Which btw is not awesome. I just am starting to look big and bulky but not insanely obese). Not flubbering gut etc.
According to in-body I have about 62 pounds of fat left on meā¦ so hopefully they are predicting in the next 6 months I should be able to drop down to 15% BF.
At present I eat daily in the range of about 3500 to 5000 calories a day, mainly golden era keto style eating. Very low carb.
Still abusing metformin early morning and late before bedā¦ 2000 mg per day.
I will say, cutting the carbs makes the workouts a lot harderā¦ but not impossible and it has not effected my strength the way I thought it would. But my wife notices the body changes almost every 2 days she says something about you lost here, you lost thereā¦ your muscles are showingā¦ etc.
Really crazy shit happening.
MS