47 Years old…245 lbs…Toal T of 379 with 11 free…Long time weight lifter but probably 20-22% Bodyfat…Considering TRT.
I’ve seen a bunch of posters happy with muscle gain…Anyone out there notice accelerated fat loss on TRT?
I’m 47 years old (91 ng/dL, Free T 2.3 ng/dL, SHBG 13) and am noticing I’m trimming very quickly on TRT, I have diabetes so TRT is improving my insulin resistance and increasing my SHBG so the results are staggering in such a short time. I had restarted TRT for only a week and my muscles are much harder.
I don’t need much T to feel young again, I would thrive at your T levels.
Using TRT for fat loss is like using asthma medication to improve your marathon time. It might help, but you’re misusing the medication as a shortcut which opens the door for side effects.
But based just on the numbers you put out, it would appear that TRT may be appropriate and, yes, getting your hormonal health in order can help body composition. Several of the guys here talked about improved body composition: Any TRT Success Stories?
How tall are you, for context?
What’s your current training and nutrition like?
What have you done in the last six months to lose fat?
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You are the absolute furthest thing from any kind of TRT success story, most especially with regard to fat loss.
You need to stop misleading people with half-truths and partial stories. Last we heard, you’re carrying significantly more fat than the guy whose question you’re answering and you have been for quite a while.
Feel free to clear things up by responding to the people who are trying to help you avoid dying: Diagnosed with Uncontrolled Type 2 Diabetes - #62 by ncsugrad2002
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I started trt in mid june and I’ve lost 50 lbs as of yesterday. I cleaned my diet up quite a bit but obviously having optimum hormone levels played a huge role.
I’m 6’1"…
I do full body weights 2-3 times a week and walk on off days…I incline 225 for 5…Squat 315 for 5 and Dead 375 for 5.
I’ve had a bad 2 months of dieting …But the goal is to get no more than 2200 calories a day with 200 grams of protein and the rest split between carbs and fat.
Sure it’s quick progress, but progress nonetheless. The thread has been update, perfect timing.
Yes. I went from 240lb to 213-220lbs depending on training and carbs. But, I don’t believe it’s directly TRT, nor should a life long medical commitment like TRT be the price for the same result that simple discipline will give you. Having said that with low T and belly fat building it is really tough to lose.
My experience is that TRT gives me the energy and motivation to train harder and lift heavier. More training means more muscle and better results in the gym which motivates me to keep my diet cleaner. More muscle plus a more disciplined diet means less fat. I also find it MUCH easier to shed a couple extra pounds when I slip. I follow a limited carb lifestyle, I subscribe to the 100gm/carbs per day thinking and my BF sits between 11 and 12%. Just my experience.
By “bad 2 months”, I’m guessing it means not sticking to the plan, going over calories, cheat days, etc.? Dude, you gotta buckle down on that with or without TRT. Any of these approaches are fairly simple to implement and hard to mess up.
You could also, obviously, step up the cardio work a bit. Walking is great in general, but it’s pretty inefficient as the main method of fat loss training.
Bodyweight x 10 in calories is generally considered the basement in terms of how low you want to go, especially when you’re doing some kind of exercise every day. You need to kinda plan ahead on that front. Like, if you hit a wall after 8 or 12 weeks of progress, you want wiggle room to shave some calories if necessary, so you never want to start a plan too low.
Also, more protein is pretty much always better for fat loss. This is some support for that approach. Shoot for 250g protein. That’ll have a double benefit of re-adjusting your other macros.
(Sorry, really didn’t mean to hijack this thread. Let’s keep the success stories rolling in. Consider starting another thread to dial in your training and diet.)
Thanks for the info…I think I’m clear on all of that except that I disagree with the info regarding IF… I prefer to skip breakfast and save calories for 2 - 3 larger meals between 12 and 7 p.m. Everything I’ve read says it doesn’t really matter as long as calories are equated…
So back to the original question…If calories and training are good…will TRT help with fat loss?
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I started TRT 7 weeks ago and so far Ive gained like 6kg hopefully water 
But all my muscles seem more pumped up. Im working put 3-4 times a week and do some snowboarding from time to time. I do not feel fatter, my jeans are not tighter anyway. Its very difficult for me to maintain absolutely clean diet. Its like masochism. I like to eat and one thing I love too much and cannot give up is bread.
If your thyroid is functioning optimally, more than likely you will notice benefit on TRT because you have the opportunity to have the hormone levels you had when younger. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.
It was Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, a leading expert in testosterone, that said in his book “Testosterone for Life” men <15 pg/mL (ranges 10.8-26.5 pg/mL) are expected to show benefit on TRT.
If they are, then it should, yep.
What is 15pg/ml in ng/dl?
You can’t compare with other lab companies or convert units like that because the ranges aren’t interchangeable.
I don’t know of an easy way to answer that question. I’m 57, 5’9" and 199-lbs. TRT is but one part of a variety of related changes that I’ve made over the past year. In 2018 I was fed up with how I felt: tired, lack of focus, low libido, mediocre erection quality…all the usual symptoms. I decided to do “something” about it but that something was more than just TRT. I went to the doctor and had a physical. I was at 303 ng/dL and started on TRT in December of 2018. The symptoms cleared up within a few weeks. But I also started a new workout program and a couple of months later began closely monitoring my diet, making adjustments along the way. According to body composition I’ve gained 12-lbs of muscle, lost 23-lbs of fat, and taken 5 1/4 inches off of my waist… I certainly look and feel much better. TRT helped provide motivation and no doubt improved my overall results but good old fashion diet and exercise played a large part in that as well. I’m a little over a year into TRT now and planning to drop another 15-lbs to get into beach shape. We’ll see how easy that is.
What’s your protocol
75mg/day 1% testosterone gel which should be around 620 ng/dL total testosterone and 95 pg/mL free T which unfortunately is using Quest Diagnostics labs and range which doesn’t align with LabCorp that most people use so it’s hard to compare. I’ll be testing again next week so I’ll have all the updated lab numbers then. Diet consists of Chicken breast, brown rice, vegetables. I supplement protein powder and creatine and aim for 200gm of protein per day. Initially I was eating around 3200 calories/day for the first few months and my weight went up from 210 to 216. Then I cut to about 2000 calories/day for four months and dropped to 190. Now I’ve stabilized at around 2800 calories/day and I’ve been steady at 198-200-lbs at 15% body fat for the past 3 months. I’ve tried a variety of different workout plans, generally working out 6 days a week. I’m going to drop back to 2000 calories/day for the next two months and see if I can cut down to around 183-184.
I am really curious about this as well. I am a longtime lifter as well and have a pretty significant amount of muscle. I am well versed on diet, macros, and cutting, but have found as I have gotten older that it was almost impossible for me to drop fat. I started TRT about 12 weeks ago and after a week my weight increased 10 lbs overnight. I will say though that my waist on my pants are looser and I am close to dropping down a size. I am trying to hit 2200 calories per day but don’t freak out if I go 2500 with the amount of exercise I do. I am 253 right now at 5’10- I would love to hit 210 and reevaluate from there.
TRT will help with fat loss only if it motivates you to push harder exercise wise and clean up your diet. It will help you recover somewhat faster and benefit more from resistance training. But taking TRT and not changing anything else will leave you exactly where you are.
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