Beginner low cycle for health gains

[Elektrobot]

Dude says he tried everything to raise his test like “ice his balls” and doesn’t eat crap like “vegetables”.

 

[shredded.lyfe]

For the weight stuff I'm now taking Reta twice per week at 0.5mg seeing it got the scales moving again as I was out of options with constant hunger even though I felt satisfied I wanted to eat more steak on carnivore but that has gone now and I can think and stress less about food.

Yet more evidence of you doing everything wrong, why can't you stick to Eli lillys dosing schedule, instead you're doing this bullshit social media micro dosing.

Nobody cares about your dexa scans or whatever bullshit method is giving you a read out, we want your waist measurement around the navel, that will be enough to determine how fat you are.

 

[lusty]

Dude says he tried everything to raise his test like “ice his balls” and doesn’t eat crap like “vegetables”. Idk id write this one off lol. If you want to do test, just do it. We’re not your doctor. But, test will not fix your dumb diet or discipline issues either.

I reintroduced vegetables and my joints flared up after a few weeks.
Have tried many diets over the years, vegan, paleo, Mediterranean, keto, carnivore and the strict one I am on now seems to work best for my joints.

I don't get the discipline part, I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I go to bed the exact same time, I eat 0 sugar or junk food, never get take away, if I do eat out only ever at a steak place. I thought I was doing all the right things and yes I would eat vegetables and stuff but my joints get inflamed which I have not sorted out so I am stuck on a meat only diet. My poops are way better on this diet too. I do take probiotics and have tried doing gut healing protocols as well.

Yet more evidence of you doing everything wrong, why can't you stick to Eli lillys dosing schedule, instead you're doing this bullshit social media micro dosing.

Nobody cares about your dexa scans or whatever bullshit method is giving you a read out, we want your waist measurement around the navel, that will be enough to determine how fat you are.

34.5" measured relaxed around the navel.

I am sticking to the lower dose because it threw my hunger and food noise right down very quickly I am now back in a defict with out white knuckling it every day and thinking about food 24/7.

Running between 200-300g protein and 50-150g fat 0 carbs, 12hrs after dosing I find I go on the lower end of calories and the day before my next dose it creeps back up, hence the split dosing schedule rather than running once per week.

 

[shredded.lyfe]

I reintroduced vegetables and my joints flared up after a few weeks.
Have tried many diets over the years, vegan, paleo, Mediterranean, keto, carnivore and the strict one I am on now seems to work best for my joints.

I don't get the discipline part, I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I go to bed the exact same time, I eat 0 sugar or junk food, never get take away, if I do eat out only ever at a steak place. I thought I was doing all the right things and yes I would eat vegetables and stuff but my joints get inflamed which I have not sorted out so I am stuck on a meat only diet. My poops are way better on this diet too. I do take probiotics and have tried doing gut healing protocols as well.

34.5" measured relaxed around the navel.

I am sticking to the lower dose because it threw my hunger and food noise right down very quickly I am now back in a defict with out white knuckling it every day and thinking about food 24/7.

Running between 200-300g protein and 50-150g fat 0 carbs, 12hrs after dosing I find I go on the lower end of calories and the day before my next dose it creeps back up, hence the split dosing schedule rather than running once per week.

They specifically prescribed 1 bolus for the week, you think you're smarter than the companies that designed these drugs? There's a reason your hunger creeps back in so fast.

 

[shredded.lyfe]

Also I bet your uric acid is through the roof with that bullshit diet and it's not helping your inflammation at all.

 

[Astartes]

If someone has low lab range test for a early 30's male I am in the bottom 1/4th of the lab range and have autoimmune condition and mild other low T symptoms mainly from depression/mood, discipline and drive. I was reading about how Psoriasis improved in men who went from free T of sub 400 to 500+ pmol/L I am at 365. I have done all the natrual methods of increasing T from suppliments, to sleep to lifting 5x per week, HIIT, sunlight, red light therpay, icing my balls and more.

My experiment and just to try out because I don't want to go on full blown life time TRT just yet is to take a low dose Test E daily SubQ 10mg per day so 70mg per week to bump my levels up to 450-550 range to then see if my symptoms of low T and my Psoriasis improves.

Question is, how long would I need to run this to see differences but also to not shut down my natrual production so I can cycle off.

Do I need PCT I can get HCG fairly easily but Enclomiphene is a little harder to get.

I’m not going to comment on your diet. You do you, only insert I’m going to make is NOTHING in your diet is going to bring clinically depressed test levels up.

At 23 I was a BIG natural.

I developed psoriasis on my abs after some severe family loss. (Tremendous emotional stress) Nothing took it away. At 27 I went on Test and it disappeared almost overnight and hasn’t been back in 23 years.

I have always believed it was the exogenous test.

 

[lusty]

Also I bet your uric acid is through the roof with that bullshit diet and it's not helping your inflammation at all.

Serum urate is 0.274mmol/l range is 0.2-0.5

Doesn't seem high to me.

I’m not going to comment on your diet. You do you, only insert I’m going to make is NOTHING in your diet is going to bring clinically depressed test levels up.

At 23 I was a BIG natural.

I developed psoriasis on my abs after some severe family loss. (Tremendous emotional stress) Nothing took it away. At 27 I went on Test and it disappeared almost overnight and hasn’t been back in 23 years.

I have always believed it was the exogenous test.

Thank you I have heard a few things like this and there are a few papers on pub med of men going on TRT and reversing psoriais.

Hypogonadal men with psoriasis benefit from long-term testosterone replacement therapy - a series of 15 case reports - PubMed

Psoriasis is increasingly recognised as a skin disease with far-reaching systemic effects, associated with a high prevalence of comorbid disease such as cardiometabolic dysfunction, shifting the focus from a single organ disease confined to the skin to a systemic inflammatory condition. Chronic...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[thejumpingsheep]

Your health issues throw a wrench into everything. I have no idea how they play into all this nor the long term impacts but I will tell you the most obvious issue, low carbs = very hard to build muscles. It can be done, but its much harder to do because energy generation during workouts will be slower.

Given your activity level you should be seeing consistent gains in strength. You should be lean and mean without needing anything but you arent and it makes me wonder if you arent entering a catabolic state during workouts because your body cannot keep up with intensity and you are in a constant ketosis. Im no expert at this so dont take my word for it but I am thinking you are maybe not giving your body a chance to recover.

Think about how a normal person reacts at the gym. We eat carbs, work out, and body burns carbs quickly to replenish. But this doesnt happen for you. You are in ketosis. Your body is burning excess protein and fat, both slower and less efficient for energy. If you work out at a high intensity to exhaustion, its possible you may not be giving your body time to replenish forcing it to go catabolic... this is obviously bad. It means you are burning muscle. Again im totally theory crafting. Dont take my word for it. Have you tried slowing down? Like more rest between sets? Easy on the cardio? Less intensity?

Finally, lets make it clear that your Total T levels arent "low." They are normal. They are about where mine was at your age and I was performing well at the gym without any compounds at all. Ill tell you what I keep telling others who keep thinking its a T problem. Women can work out and have extremely muscular legs and butt with less than 25 total T... how is it possible? See what I mean? Its not just about T or gear.

 

[lusty]

Your health issues throw a wrench into everything. I have no idea how they play into all this nor the long term impacts but I will tell you the most obvious issue, low carbs = very hard to build muscles. It can be done, but its much harder to do because energy generation during workouts will be slower.

Given your activity level you should be seeing consistent gains in strength. You should be lean and mean without needing anything but you arent and it makes me wonder if you arent entering a catabolic state during workouts because your body cannot keep up with intensity and you are in a constant ketosis. Im no expert at this so dont take my word for it but I am thinking you are maybe not giving your body a chance to recover.

Think about how a normal person reacts at the gym. We eat carbs, work out, and body burns carbs quickly to replenish. But this doesnt happen for you. You are in ketosis. Your body is burning excess protein and fat, both slower and less efficient for energy. If you work out at a high intensity to exhaustion, its possible you may not be giving your body time to replenish forcing it to go catabolic... this is obviously bad. It means you are burning muscle. Again im totally theory crafting. Dont take my word for it. Have you tried slowing down? Like more rest between sets? Easy on the cardio? Less intensity?

Finally, lets make it clear that your Total T levels arent "low." They are normal. They are about where mine was at your age and I was performing well at the gym without any compounds at all. Ill tell you what I keep telling others who keep thinking its a T problem. Women can work out and have extremely muscular legs and butt with less than 25 total T... how is it possible? See what I mean? Its not just about T or gear.

I am happy with the amount of muscle I have built in my 20's I actually don't need to gain much more quite lucky being short makes me look like I have more muscle than I do. Still gained good muscle with low T, Dexa put me at 64kg or 140lb of lean mass when I was 15% (cut down on 0 carb carnivore) at 5'4

TRT is purely for my skin condition not to build muscle.

I do find keto to be quite muscle sparing due to the protein, and energy is not bad I usually take large rests between sets, as before mentioned I do this to stop my joints flaring up.

And I agree that T levels is not all about building muscle, my post is about health and reducing Psoriasis based on what I have seen on pubmed clinical data and reports online, it is also why I was talking about starting a low dose just to up my T in a range where my psoriasis would improve as many sources are now saying that Low T is associated with autoimmune conditons and also why women get autoimmune much more than men.

 

[thejumpingsheep]

I am happy with the amount of muscle I have built in my 20's I actually don't need to gain much more quite lucky being short makes me look like I have more muscle than I do. Still gained good muscle with low T, Dexa put me at 64kg or 140lb of lean mass when I was 15% (cut down on 0 carb carnivore) at 5'4

TRT is purely for my skin condition not to build muscle.

I do find keto to be quite muscle sparing due to the protein, and energy is not bad I usually take large rests between sets, as before mentioned I do this to stop my joints flaring up.

And I agree that T levels is not all about building muscle, my post is about health and reducing Psoriasis based on what I have seen on pubmed clinical data and reports online, it is also why I was talking about starting a low dose just to up my T in a range where my psoriasis would improve as many sources are now saying that Low T is associated with autoimmune conditons and also why women get autoimmune much more than men.

Ah I see. Im probably useless in this discussion then. I have seen enough disease and stuff to know its more complicated than just a pill or shot. Probably listen to @Astartes above. He seems to have experience with this.

I will echo what others said though. Low dose of say 70mg/wk will probably barely replace your natural T levels once shut down. But this takes a little bit of time before they fully shut down and you can undo it with PCT. But if you want to TRT long term, you probably need to run like 125ish to get a notable difference. Still depends on how you react. Wont know till you try.