I have been on TRT for about 5 months now I started out on 200mg week for 3 months then was moved up to 240mg week 2 months ago. I have been working out 4 days a week lifting and cardio 3 days a week. I was making good gains until about a month ago. All of a sudden I feel tired and out of energy.
My bench and barbell curls have gone down 10 pounds and I just feel weak. I think it might be that I am under eating and doing to much cardio. A long story short 2 years ago I was a fat ass and lost 65 pounds then I realized I was a weakling so I started weight training. I eat clean and watch my calories normally about 1500 a day but always under 2000. I started eating more a few days ago hoping it would make a difference but nothing yet. Any ideas?
I am 43 years old 5’8" 200 pounds about 15% bf. I have noticed that even though I feel weak when I look in the mirror I am still seeing gains in my arms and other areas. Another note after a hard workout I would feel it for a day but now the last month they never seem to recover. I take a ton of supplements and would appreciate any help. I was planing on starting my first cycle in a few months but need to get this taken care of first. I am sure I am forgetting something.
I would focus on thyroid and adrenals. If you are eating between 1500-2000 calories per day and still maintaining 200lbs, your metabolism is way to slow. This is most likely due to hypothyroidism and/or adrenals being fatigued.
Thyroid: Test TSH, free T4, free T3, reverse T3.
Adrenals: Test 24-hour cortisol. Evaluate your lifestyle. Sleeping 8 hours? Stress at work? Need better time management? Draining relationships? You see where it’s going…
Address those two points above or your TRT will be subpar. If yor energy systems (thyroid/adrenals) are impaired TRT can make things worse.
[quote]Igs wrote:
I would focus on thyroid and adrenals. If you are eating between 1500-2000 calories per day and still maintaining 200lbs, your metabolism is way to slow. This is most likely due to hypothyroidism and/or adrenals being fatigued.
Thyroid: Test TSH, free T4, free T3, reverse T3.
Adrenals: Test 24-hour cortisol. Evaluate your lifestyle. Sleeping 8 hours? Stress at work? Need better time management? Draining relationships? You see where it’s going…
Address those two points above or your TRT will be subpar. If yor energy systems (thyroid/adrenals) are impaired TRT can make things worse.[/quote]
Good idea… My brother who is also on TRT has problems with his thyroid and adrenal glands. I am going tomorrow for some scheduled blood work and will see if they can check them or if I will need to set up a separate appointment.
I almost never get 8 hours sleep, have a somewhat stressful job, and my wife is crazy… This might explain a lot.
T dose is very extreme and we typically do not see guys who are doing well on high doses. We really cannot help much without your lab work and ranges.
Your estrogen levels might be high.
Please read these stickies:
advice for new guys
thyroid basics
– have you always used iodized salt?
– are your body temperatures low?
Injecting once a week creates peaks and valleys in your T levels. Please inject twice a week.
Standard protocol: or reference
100mg T ester per week injected EOD or twice a week
250iu hCG SC EOD
1mg/week anastrozole EOD or twice a week [would not be enough for your high T dose]
Have assumes that your T dose is high for you. A few are hyper-metabolizers of T and need 300mg/week.
So my doctor emailed me my blood test results. Free testosterone is 23.1pg/ml and E2 is 24.0pg/ml. I have been trying to eat more 2500-2700 cal day but find myself going back to under 2000. Anyway my workouts have been improving, some days are better then others but I’m still not back to where I was. I had not pinned for a week when the blood was drawn. I have an appointment with my doctor on Monday to see what she thinks. I have been also thinking some of my problem could be that I am just not letting my body rest enough and heal between workouts.
You’re don’t have energy and feeling weak because you’re only eating 1500 -2000 calories, so you literally do not have enough energy. Even if you were cutting, 2000 could be your rest day calories. You could be eating 3000 on your workout days.
Try eating 3000 calories a day consistently and see if your energy changes. Also, what do you eat? What is your Carb/Fat/Protein breakdown?
Do you normally inject once a week? If not, the blood test results you gave (after not pinning for a week) are useless. Also, the usefulness of free-T tests is considered doubtful by many. In addition, you need to know total testosterone and SHBG, and your doctor should test you for excessive red blood cells and iron retention (hematocrit, etc.).
I suspect your T dose is too high, which can cause the problem with tiredness you mentioned. As ksman said, your dose is extreme for TRT, and may be causing excessive red blood cell production, etc., which can cause this and other side effects, as well as cardiovascular problems in the longer run.
Your are carrying a large amount of weight for your height, and 15% fat isn’t bad but still generous. If you haven’t been losing weight, it seems doubtful that you have to eat more. Maybe you are eating more calories than you calculated.
So I went to the doctors today and they said my test was high and reduced me to 220mg once a week down from 240mg. Although still in the normal range my rbc was 5.72, hemoglobin 17.5 and hematocrit 50.9%. They were all at the very top of the normal range. I was told to go and donate blood to thin my blood. Is this normal? I will be looking for a Red-cross blood drive and see if that helps. My workouts have been improving as I eat more. Thanks to everyone that has offered advise and welcome more if anyone has another suggestion to help with my thick blood.