GFA - it sounds like your situation is somewhat similar to mine. After 7 months of chasing this monster, it looks like my issues are a combination of low T (though higher than yours) and a slow thyroid caused by high reverse T3. If you have a hypo thyroid then give up losing fat easily. It is really tough. I was eating like you described and then went paleo and it didn’t help. My high RT3 levels, I believe, is now cleared as my body temps are now up from 97.5 to 98.6 a good piece of the day. I also dropped 5lbs of fat in the last 2 weeks. I mean it just suddenly fell off.
If you do TRT it does help out on muscle and burn fat but all else needs to be working well too.
What are your body temps? Have you checked your thyroid levels including RT3?
Ya I have another thread with my blood work. Ill be happy to discuss it there. Id like to keep this thread for the Training and TRT related discussion.
Today my doc will be reviewing my request for HCG. I am also looking to get an appt with a hematologist just in case. I want to check additional things the first check didnt do. My RBC and hemocrit were slightly above range, not sure I need to be concerned about it but safe to check.
My other thread.
After I start the HCG I will continue with my workout and nutrition to see what impact on body comp and performance it has. I would imagine it should help considering I have the T levels of a woman.
[quote]GFA wrote:
So the question I have to other forum members, after you were able to get your T levels back to normal, were you able to change your body composition more easily or have a better physique than you have your entire life pre TRT?[/quote]
So to answer your exact question, yes. Absolutely. But my progress plateaued in about a month and thyroid was why. Hard to separate the two if you have both problems.
Reading this and your other thread, it occurred to me that you are
most likely B12 deficient. I would also bet that your Vitamin D is also very low.
B12 is hard to bring up and takes weeks with pills or sublinguals, you may want
to ask your Dr. for shots of B12 to get you going, it will really help in
the low energy and blood profiles that are skewed for you.
I am also carb sensitive, even using a low carb approach. But after reading the
following article Control Leptin and Control Your Leanness!
I added taurine to my daily supplements and it has allowed me to use
modest amounts of carbs each day while losing weight while maintaining muscle mass.
FWIW, I take LIV52 liver support each day as well and feel its is a positive part
of my overall health and body composition.
Good Luck on your journey.
[quote]PKNY wrote:
Reading this and your other thread, it occurred to me that you are
most likely B12 deficient. I would also bet that your Vitamin D is also very low.
B12 is hard to bring up and takes weeks with pills or sublinguals, you may want
to ask your Dr. for shots of B12 to get you going, it will really help in
the low energy and blood profiles that are skewed for you.
I am also carb sensitive, even using a low carb approach. But after reading the
following article Control Leptin and Control Your Leanness!
I added taurine to my daily supplements and it has allowed me to use
modest amounts of carbs each day while losing weight while maintaining muscle mass.
FWIW, I take LIV52 liver support each day as well and feel its is a positive part
of my overall health and body composition.
Good Luck on your journey. [/quote]
Thanks! Just got back from the hematologist. He is going to check B12 and some other things. He thinks my iron is too high and causing my blood work to be skewed. Says probably related to sleep apnea or possibly a gene defect that he is testing for.
Just dropped off my script at walgreens and pickd up some B12. Next round of blood work for the hematologist will be on thursday. Ill report back my results and will keep a log for my HCG and impact on training journey!
Just a tip I have picked up from the forum regarding High Iron, and Hemocrit.
You can donate blood to alleviate the situation somewhat, kind of modern day blood letting.
You can search the topic in the forum if decide to go for it.
Good Luck!
I discussed this with the hematologist, told him I knew a few vampires that could help haha. He doesnt think my RBC, hemocrit is too high to be concerned and said its most likely elevated because of sleep apnea and my body trying to compensate for the lack of oxygen at night making my body produce more blood.
Its a vicious cycle, sleep apnea because of being overweight, being overweight because its difficult to lose weight having no T. I have been working out consistently this past month, down 9 lbs so far. Need to drop another 30 lbs or so.
Once I get the HCG Ill start up a training log on this forum with starting stats, lifts and overall mood/energy levels. Hoping to get the HCG today and will start log tomorrow.
EDIT: Just wanted to add, I can lose weight with tons of effort and lots of will power. Its very difficult to get out of bed to get to the gym at 5am but I manage. I just hope having normal levels of T will eventually help my body comp. Ill take some before/afters as well.
Despite what others have said, Androgel took me from 300 to 750 and I use Ldex but no HCG (already have my kids, and my boys only shrunk a very small amount). I use a pregnalone, DHEA supplement along with it.
After years of struggling to make small slow gains at the gym with very hard training, cardio and diet the results slowly but surely began to happen with treatment. So, to answer your original question in the post…Yes, you will get stronger and recomp will be easier once your test is up and your E2 is in the 20’s.
I might switch over to T as well since HCG is difficult to find right now except for the Novarel which is like $170 a vial. I tried Androgel and it didn’t work for me.
Pregnyl ~$80 a vial is on back order and no where to be found.
Im going to talk to my doc after this first vial of HCG to see what my options are. Not going to shell out close to $200 a month for HCG.
My insurance covers Androgel and it works for me, I scrub my shoulders with dial and a scrub brush each morning and it seems to work better. I also put some lotion over the top of it about an hour later. I’d like give my self shots but alas, I hate needles and am too much of a puss to go that route.
If Androgel doesn’t work for you, you can ask if your Dr. will prescribe compounded Test (search that term here) at a higher concentration. It uses PLO-GEL and supposedly has an higher absorption rate than the alcohol system Androgel uses, its way cheaper too.
Have read in the forums that Androgel wont be absorbed well (or any other transdermal) if you have low (hypothyroid) so that can also be one of the issues effecting you.
Seems to be hard to track down the ifs and whats of what your problem is, but this forum has helped and guided me so much more than my Dr. SO glad I found this place!
Just read an ebook on why people get fat (Gary Taubes). He is basically promoting a low carb high fat, high protein diet as well. I may switch up my macros some after I get my blood work back and it shows my iron is normal.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
you forgot to mention he was only eating 500 calories a day…not relevant[/quote]
Nevermind–I saw this on my phone and didn’t click on the link–only looked at the URL. That site is mostly pure garbage. But I suppose like Politics and World Issues on T-Nation, there is occasionally a hidden gem in the otherwise rotting cesspool.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
you forgot to mention he was only eating 500 calories a day…not relevant[/quote]
Nevermind–I saw this on my phone and didn’t click on the link–only looked at the URL. That site is mostly pure garbage. But I suppose like Politics and World Issues on T-Nation, there is occasionally a hidden gem in the otherwise rotting cesspool. [/quote]
I stumbled upon it looking for info on HCG sources and ADC. They have a sticky with people getting their CC stolen on ADC and recommend using a preloaded card if you order from them.
But ya HCG diet is insane IMO. Of course you are going to lose weight at 500 cals a day with or without HCG. Not to mention a ton of muscle.
The guy in the post is taking 500 iu of HCG a day with maybe 1 or 2 days off a month. Didnt report his T levels but he mentioned he lost 40 lbs in the first month and continued to make great progress. This was using a normal calorie restriction diet ~2k cals a day and lifting program.
40 lbs is crazy for a single month. He wasnt morbidly obese and water is usually the first 5-10 lbs. His final pic he is looking real lean with visible abs.
Hrmmm come to think of it my credit card company told me there was a some suspicious activity on my card a few months after ordering from ADC…never any bogus charges that I saw when I checked my statement online, but they made me get a new one anyway…which was a pain in the ass since I like to memorize my credit card number and had to learn a new one. Not to mention update all my e-wallets.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Hrmmm come to think of it my credit card company told me there was a some suspicious activity on my card a few months after ordering from ADC…never any bogus charges that I saw when I checked my statement online, but they made me get a new one anyway…which was a pain in the ass since I like to memorize my credit card number and had to learn a new one. Not to mention update all my e-wallets.[/quote]
There is the thread where they had tons of complaints about their cards getting hacked. All of them ordered from ADC. ADC has claimed to switched to new secure servers and no one has reported issues lately. Still I would get a preloaded card before ordering from them.
I could only bear to read 2 pages of that thread…did all those morons use a debit card to order? I use a credit card for pretty much 100% of my purchases. Safer than a debit card.
Under US legislation you are not responsible for fraudulent charges made on either, as long as you report it in time, but with debit cards the money comes directly from your bank account and there is sometimes a long lag between reporting it and getting your money back.
Hence my use of a real credit card–if I’m gambling, its going to be with somebody else’s money.
