After years of training, eating 2500-4000 calories and reaching a maximum of 149 pounds, I have trained for 1-2 hours a day at the gym 3-5 times a week.
Going through protein powders and bags and bags of chicken a week day in and out, I think I may have low Test.
I made a doctors appointment next week to get my levels checked.
With a solid diet at 5’9" and a weight of around 135 pounds on average eating my 2,000 calories, I am struggling to maintain my current weight.
My sex drive is fairly low as well.
I hear its near impossible to get test from a doctor much less expect anything but a “lift weights and eat right” diagnosis.
Any word for someone is interested in these types of measures?
[quote]QwertyGucci wrote:
After years of training, eating 2500-4000 calories and reaching a maximum of 149 pounds, I have trained for 1-2 hours a day at the gym 3-5 times a week.
Going through protein powders and bags and bags of chicken a week day in and out, I think I may have low Test.
I made a doctors appointment next week to get my levels checked.
With a solid diet at 5’9" and a weight of around 135 pounds on average eating my 2,000 calories, I am struggling to maintain my current weight.
My sex drive is fairly low as well.
I hear its near impossible to get test from a doctor much less expect anything but a “lift weights and eat right” diagnosis.
Any word for someone is interested in these types of measures?[/quote]
Get your blood work done and if your “T” is below 220, your doctor will be on board. You may have other issues that the blood work will flush out. You may also want to move your posts to the TRT forum; it’s more tailored for the questions you have and will have.
If your levels are low you can get the test, or you can obtain it illicitly.
However if you are eating 2000 cals a day, you are doomed anyway.
Working out as much as you are is fine, but remember that costs calories, and 2000 is not nearly enough to sustain yourself let alone grow, as you have discovered.
If you were 14 lbs heavier at one point and eating upwards of 4000 cals, why in the world did you stop?
Drugs or not you are gonna have to suck it up and eat, get your protein and down carbs. Periworkout protein+sugar. Tons of rice. Oats with honey. Hell I hate oatmeal but I eat 3 bowls of it a day, I don’t even chew it.
[quote]c.m.l. wrote:
If your levels are low you can get the test, or you can obtain it illicitly.
However if you are eating 2000 cals a day, you are doomed anyway.
Working out as much as you are is fine, but remember that costs calories, and 2000 is not nearly enough to sustain yourself let alone grow, as you have discovered.
If you were 14 lbs heavier at one point and eating upwards of 4000 cals, why in the world did you stop?
Drugs or not you are gonna have to suck it up and eat, get your protein and down carbs. Periworkout protein+sugar. Tons of rice. Oats with honey. Hell I hate oatmeal but I eat 3 bowls of it a day, I don’t even chew it.[/quote]
this. A lot of people are more focused on what’s gonna taste good and satisfy their cravings. I find myself thinking mainly about macros and calories only, fuck the taste just shovel it down. Now that’s not to say I don’t love good food but everything isn’t gonna taste amazing.
Testosterone is not necessarily the answer. There are more important things affecting muscle mass than testosterone in my opinion. A lot of guys can gain despite even relatively low T levels (a recent study found that guys tend to start having trouble with muscle mass only once they fell below around 200 ng/dL - these were not lifters but still it gives you an idea - also, a lot of lifters presenting with low T levels have as their initial complaint only problems with sex and energy, despite being quite muscular).
I have always been a hardgainer with a very high metabolism set point and also struggle to maintain my weight. TRT has not made it any easier for me to maintain or gain muscle despite maintaining T levels of above 1,000 ng/dL. Only massively increasing my diet makes any difference, and then I tend to lose quickly once I eat normal again. At least the advantage of this kind of metabolism is that my abs are always visible no matter how much crap I might stuff my face with and without needing to do any cardio. Possibly different things may happen once you reach steroid cycle levels, but that is a different conversation.
So by all means get tested but don’t jump on TRT if your T levels are above, say, 400 ng/dL, because you will most likely be disappointed, at which time you then have the problem that TRT comes with its own set of disadvantages and problems and is not that easy to get off of.