Hey all
Just came back from the endo and, thanks to the knowledge I gained on this site, gave her a real challenging conversation - the bottom line I don’t really know what to do next and I feel like I have nowhere in Fitness year after year. This post could be a bit long/details but I’d appreciate any and all advice fellow members can provide.
A bit about me: former 60kg amateur boxer til end of university, always lean as a greyhound despite zero knowledge of diet made up of high carbs (mostly bad ones and rice), moderate protein and little fat. Well - at 21 I didn’t want to look like a greyhound anymore and lifting did nothing. With little body/facial hair I saw a doctor who gave me 3 shots of Sus - resulting in gyno (not your paranoid BB teen, I mean a proper A-Cup!). A sedentary working life soon started and I got bigger on the chest especially, but also abdominal, reaching 80kg at my peak. I found a trainer, did full body x3 times pw + 1 run pw and got to 64kg at ~20%BF (so mostly loss muscle?) but still with seriously evident Gyno.
NOW: 5 years later (today) I sit in the early 70Kgs (172cm tall) ~25%BF and eat <60gram carbs per day (the rest is 45% Protein >1g per lb/bw, and 35%-40% fat) with one reefed meal or day (depending on hunger) per week. I maintain on holidays and during festive periods but generally eat a 500cal deficit for the past 2 years and am increasingly sensitive to carbs (I just seem to store them instantly).
I CAN NEVER GAIN MUSCLE NOR LOSE FAT AT AN APPRECIABLE LEVEL, literally no matter what I do. Believe me - I train HARD - I’m the guy in the gym at 6am doubled over gasping for air when other chumps are sitting on their iPhones and playing with the baby weights. I have a skinny frame and a round torso - people think I’m slim in a t-shirt, but I look ridiculous on a beach
MY GOAL:
- to get my BF down to ~12% first so I can see if the Gyno is pseudo and if not, have surgery on the true gyno (What little gains I CAN make (e.g. doing Poliquin work for 5-6 days pw + sprints the best I could do was lose 8.8lbs in 20 weeks and I basically looked the same)
- Then I want to bulk 10kg - slow n steady at my age (36yo) I know. I’m going nowhere, fast. something HAS to be wrong.
- I must be missing a major variable in my fitness ‘regression model!’… At this rate it will take me 20 years to look like I’m even remotely fit. I look at other [average] guys in the gym and I honestly don’t know how they even got CLOSE to looking the way they do.
MY CONUNDRUM: getting to the point now, after a ton of research, trial/error and pragmatic thinking I think there are 2 key problems:
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My testosterone is so low I can’t build mass (see BLOOD WORK BELOW - my Doc wouldn’t give me TRT so gave me LETRO instead to attempt fixing Gyno - which it didn’t - but also to indirectly boost T, which it did, at the expense of my libido. The idea is to spur metabolic changes), AND THEN
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I feel sense I’m insulin resistant, so I can’t lose the fat like other people even though I’m not obese. One idea - that didn’t inspire me with confidence was to try using the diabetic drug Metformin - but I’m on the fence with that one and cant find much fitness related research on it.
1+2 = I’m standing still in this weak ass “skinny fat” situation at 74kgs!
You’ve got the outline of my program and diet above. Supps are multi, carnitine + zinc in the morning pre-WO, Whey PWO, probiotics with food, magnesium at night and a fish oil - which I like. (+ I’ve tried all the Vitamin D, Tumeric, DIM, Calcium D-Glucarate, Resveratrol and it’s all BS)
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- I feel like I’ve tried it all and am simply the bottom of the Gene “bell curve” - but I’m not a quitter. If you can think of anything that would help me I’d be truly grateful for your responses * * * *
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(no “eat clean 'n train hard” responses thanks. I’m already doing it)
BLOOD WORK:
2000 - Low T, no pituitary gland or chromosome issue = 3 shots of Sus (the idea to ‘kick-start’ my T, which it did, but gave me f*kin Gyno)
Nov 2013 (after 2yrs of regular gym/boxing with no real program)
11.14 nmol/L Reference 9.90-27.80 by my GP Doc
(which would put me 328 n/dl and bottom slightly above/below 1 standard deviation by most sample sizes)
July 2014 (towards the end of a 9 month program, mostly Poliquin-based full body + sprints work)
19.88 nmol/L Reference 9.90-27.80 by my GP Doc
(done naturally with more fat, lots more veg, less alcohol, less refined carbs, more lifting and ZMA + a very chilled out job)
Dec 2014 (after negligible, if any, real results in mass or strength)
11.27 nmol/L Reference 9.90-27.80 now by Endo
(after having backed off from gym due to discouragement and a new job)
SHGB 19.66, with other measures like Liver Function (all being within middle of reference range)
Feb 2015 (mid-way thru Jim Stoppani â??shortcut to shredâ?? and eating clean 500cal deficit most days)
28.23 nmol/L Reference 9.90-27.80 now by Endo
(reminder: taking LETRO daily - halfway thru 4 months course, gaining minor weight despite deficit, no libido but feeling ok)
SGBH 18.4, Insulin Serum 15.5, Glucose Serum 5.1 (all being within middle of reference range)
- Needless to say the Letro is not sustainable -
Thanks in advance
Monkeyboy