Rhino99
Elite
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2017
- Messages
- 1,554
- Reaction score
- 1,189
- Points
- 113
Hi all,
So after flipping through several of the other forums for a couple weeks, and some of them smelling a little fishy I came across UGB. Checked out for a couple days and like what I see, more so than those other juvenile forums. I wont mention names but they've been mentioned here.
So here's my background if you're interested.
50 year old male and have been on TRT for about a year. Im definitely doing better than I was before but not where I should be. I've been in a constant state of trying to improve for the last 2 years.
I will backtrack a little and start from beginning.
Up until my low 30's I was in good shape. I went through periods where i'd not eat right and gain weight but could lose it at will with no issues. In late 20's to early 30's was pretty focused and in the gym 5-6 days/week either training or cardio of some sort. As I said my diet wasnt the best mainly because I did not know what I know now but also because I had life pulling me in different directions, so my BF was approx. 14%. Not bad but def. could use improvement.
So at that point diabetes type 2 came knocking on my door. Poor diet and constant stress since childhood. Up until that point I was superman. Hardly ever sick and in general nothing could touch me, or so I thought.
I didnt take the diabetes seriously for a while, then I started gaining weight, and could not stop it anymore. One week I gained 20lbs, and overall over the course of a year and half gained about 125lbs or so. I went from 235lbs, 14%bf and could run 4.4 40 to being morbidly obese with metabolic syndrome and a bmi off the charts.
I stopped weighing myself at 350lbs, so I was at least that and probably a few more. Over the course of the next 13 years or so I tried everything I could to lose weight. Not the way of fad diets or anything asinine but worked my but off. I'd lose a couple gain a couple.
This went on for a long time until ~2 years ago after I had a couple of stents put in I wanted / needed to stop the train ride to the graveyard. Things were not getting better only worse.
I made it my priority again, with my 2 young kids in mind, to live as long as I could.
So after a 15 or so year hiatus, I joined the gym. I started on treadmill and could only do 15 minutes walking. I only did treadmill for 3 - 4 months until I started to incorporate the weights back in. Back in the day I would train pretty intense, but now I was starting over, and humbled.
I wont go into every little detail but over the course of the last 2 years i've lost ~100lbs, im off the 4 insulin shots I was taking daily as well as bp meds.
I got my A1C down from 13 to 6.6.
It was a struggle, believe me. As opposed to my younger days, I was training 4x harder for 1/4 the results. My metabolism was just telling my F-you!, but I kept it up and perseverance and consistency were the key.
In the course of this time I fired several doctors for either being incompetent, arrogant or in the case of my Endo, both. In 100's if not 1000's of hours of my research and learning I figured things out that werent told to me or I did not know yet. I asked my endo questions every visit, I asked for lab work that he wouldnt do because he said I didnt need it, lol. He just wanted to keep my on the insulin, which is part of the reason I could not lose weight. I fired him and took care of the lab work myself.
My T level was 137. Well ok, at least now I knew and had something to work towards, which I was with a new competent doctor. A few months in I had improved slightly, but knew something else was up. I asked for thyroid labs - T3, T4, Reverse T3, TPO antibodies, thyroglobulin, etc etc...in addition to other tests.
Turns out I am also hypothyroid. The dr was amazed that I was able to lose ~100lbs while being hypo.
I started thyroid meds several months ago and it's def. helping, but I want to feel 100%, not 55%.
My current numbers are
Total T - 1089 (264-916)
Free T 26.7 (6.8 - 21.5)
Estradiol 47.8 (7.6 - 42.6) This is down from last test 6 weeks ago from 63, started anastrozole.
DHEA - 346 (71 - 375)
DHT - 81 This is down from last labs, not sure why.
I wont post all the other numbers at this point, they're pretty good also though.
Im on test cyp 210mg/week which are split into 3 injections.
HCG also 3 injections for total of 900iu/week
Anastrozole total of 1.625mg/week
3 grains thyroid med daily.
Various supplements
I've been increasing my T the last couple weeks to about 40 - 45 per injection and it has helped me feel a little better and my weight has stabilized more, so I think I need to go higher though I can only get so much with a trt RX.
I will mention that before trt there was about a 3 week time frame about 1.5 years ago that I was only taking supplements but whatever worked and I felt amazing. Better than I had in 15 years. Every single part of my well being was at 1000%, then it faded back. That is when I started pursuing trt because until that point I really had no idea how bad I actually was until I got a taste of what I should be like.
Anyway, to cut a long story a little shorter, here I am. On trt but will probably need to go into a mild cycle of just test or test plus something so I am here to learn what I can to get where I should be. It's quality of life issue.
Thanks for reading.
So after flipping through several of the other forums for a couple weeks, and some of them smelling a little fishy I came across UGB. Checked out for a couple days and like what I see, more so than those other juvenile forums. I wont mention names but they've been mentioned here.
So here's my background if you're interested.
50 year old male and have been on TRT for about a year. Im definitely doing better than I was before but not where I should be. I've been in a constant state of trying to improve for the last 2 years.
I will backtrack a little and start from beginning.
Up until my low 30's I was in good shape. I went through periods where i'd not eat right and gain weight but could lose it at will with no issues. In late 20's to early 30's was pretty focused and in the gym 5-6 days/week either training or cardio of some sort. As I said my diet wasnt the best mainly because I did not know what I know now but also because I had life pulling me in different directions, so my BF was approx. 14%. Not bad but def. could use improvement.
So at that point diabetes type 2 came knocking on my door. Poor diet and constant stress since childhood. Up until that point I was superman. Hardly ever sick and in general nothing could touch me, or so I thought.
I didnt take the diabetes seriously for a while, then I started gaining weight, and could not stop it anymore. One week I gained 20lbs, and overall over the course of a year and half gained about 125lbs or so. I went from 235lbs, 14%bf and could run 4.4 40 to being morbidly obese with metabolic syndrome and a bmi off the charts.
I stopped weighing myself at 350lbs, so I was at least that and probably a few more. Over the course of the next 13 years or so I tried everything I could to lose weight. Not the way of fad diets or anything asinine but worked my but off. I'd lose a couple gain a couple.
This went on for a long time until ~2 years ago after I had a couple of stents put in I wanted / needed to stop the train ride to the graveyard. Things were not getting better only worse.
I made it my priority again, with my 2 young kids in mind, to live as long as I could.
So after a 15 or so year hiatus, I joined the gym. I started on treadmill and could only do 15 minutes walking. I only did treadmill for 3 - 4 months until I started to incorporate the weights back in. Back in the day I would train pretty intense, but now I was starting over, and humbled.
I wont go into every little detail but over the course of the last 2 years i've lost ~100lbs, im off the 4 insulin shots I was taking daily as well as bp meds.
I got my A1C down from 13 to 6.6.
It was a struggle, believe me. As opposed to my younger days, I was training 4x harder for 1/4 the results. My metabolism was just telling my F-you!, but I kept it up and perseverance and consistency were the key.
In the course of this time I fired several doctors for either being incompetent, arrogant or in the case of my Endo, both. In 100's if not 1000's of hours of my research and learning I figured things out that werent told to me or I did not know yet. I asked my endo questions every visit, I asked for lab work that he wouldnt do because he said I didnt need it, lol. He just wanted to keep my on the insulin, which is part of the reason I could not lose weight. I fired him and took care of the lab work myself.
My T level was 137. Well ok, at least now I knew and had something to work towards, which I was with a new competent doctor. A few months in I had improved slightly, but knew something else was up. I asked for thyroid labs - T3, T4, Reverse T3, TPO antibodies, thyroglobulin, etc etc...in addition to other tests.
Turns out I am also hypothyroid. The dr was amazed that I was able to lose ~100lbs while being hypo.
I started thyroid meds several months ago and it's def. helping, but I want to feel 100%, not 55%.
My current numbers are
Total T - 1089 (264-916)
Free T 26.7 (6.8 - 21.5)
Estradiol 47.8 (7.6 - 42.6) This is down from last test 6 weeks ago from 63, started anastrozole.
DHEA - 346 (71 - 375)
DHT - 81 This is down from last labs, not sure why.
I wont post all the other numbers at this point, they're pretty good also though.
Im on test cyp 210mg/week which are split into 3 injections.
HCG also 3 injections for total of 900iu/week
Anastrozole total of 1.625mg/week
3 grains thyroid med daily.
Various supplements
I've been increasing my T the last couple weeks to about 40 - 45 per injection and it has helped me feel a little better and my weight has stabilized more, so I think I need to go higher though I can only get so much with a trt RX.
I will mention that before trt there was about a 3 week time frame about 1.5 years ago that I was only taking supplements but whatever worked and I felt amazing. Better than I had in 15 years. Every single part of my well being was at 1000%, then it faded back. That is when I started pursuing trt because until that point I really had no idea how bad I actually was until I got a taste of what I should be like.
Anyway, to cut a long story a little shorter, here I am. On trt but will probably need to go into a mild cycle of just test or test plus something so I am here to learn what I can to get where I should be. It's quality of life issue.
Thanks for reading.
