Glad to find this forum

[qwerty14]

Hi everyone, I'm new to TRT, having only learned about it a couple of months ago through a Peter Attia podcast. I initially thought it was the same as "gear," but I’ve since realized they’re quite different.



I grew up in India and have been training on and off for 15 years. Three years ago, I got serious about my health, returning to the gym and cleaning up my diet. I dropped from 33% body fat to about 22% while building some muscle.



Over the past 6-8 months, however, my progress has stalled. Maintaining my gains requires intense effort, and further fat loss has been tough. I also experienced erection issues, but 5mg daily tadalafil has largely resolved that.



After reviewing my march bloodwork, I noticed my total testosterone was 436 and free testosterone was 85—both in the lower half of the range. When I approached my doctor about TRT, I was sent on an endless loop of referrals.



Frustrated, I’ve decided to self-administer with 120 mg/week of test cyp (40 mg on M/W/F), 750 IU/week of HCG (250 IU on M/W/F). Also on Reta for weight loss.

Latest bloodwork(7 weeks in) has been good:
Total T 903
Free T 232
E2 42
SBHG 15
iGF1 189

Next step is to start GH.

 

[BigDadd7]

Gnarly

 

[qwerty14]

Gnarly

Cant help it I am autistic lol

 

[Elektrobot]

Gains and weight loss are sometimes (always?) hard to do at the same time.

They are contradictory.

It is difficult to retain the body tissue we want, while trying to shed body tissue we don't want..

We don't get to pick which tissue goes and which tissue stays, but there are ways to favor fat loss and minimize muscle loss.

You might find this approach helpful:

Optimize for one at a time. Maybe optimize for weight loss first.

If you want any advice on putting together programs to optimize weight loss then a muscle gaining phase, there are lots of people here to help.

 

[qwerty14]

Gains and weight loss are sometimes (always?) hard to do at the same time.

They are contradictory.

It is difficult to retain the body tissue we want, while trying to shed body tissue we don't want..

We don't get to pick which tissue goes and which tissue stays, but there are ways to favor fat loss and minimize muscle loss.

You might find this approach helpful:

Optimize for one at a time. Maybe optimize for weight loss first.

If you want any advice on putting together programs to optimize weight loss then a muscle gaining phase, there are lots of people here to help.

Got it, that’s the plan. Drop to 12% body fat first then start building

 

[Elektrobot]

Got it, that’s the plan. Drop to 12% body fat first then start building

Try these things if you aren't already:

1. Get a food scale
2. Download a macro tracking app. I like MyNetDiary
3. Accurately calculate your maintenance calories. You can do this in the app, and you can also cross check it on various other websites. I think this is this one: Body Weight Planner - NIDDK
4. Determine what your deficit is going to be, and stick to it.
5. Weigh everything you eat. Everything. Ketchup, sauces, oil, butter, individual slices of bread, dry rice, croutons, .... everything.
6. Stay in your deficit. The Reta will help.
7. Stay in your deficit
8. Stay in your deficit
9. Do steady state cardio at 70% of your max heart rate
10. Resistance train to stimulate your muscles. You likely will not grow muscle or strength, but stimulating them with regular resistance training will help in prioritizing fat tissue loss vs muscle tissue loss.

Adding HGH can make a huge difference in what kind of tissue your body breaks down. Make sure you understand HGH use before doing that. Lots of info here for that.

I would strongly suggest optimizing the first 10 steps before adding more drugs like HGH to the program.