Hi, this is my first post here, I hope you
guys will be able to help me, but you need to know the whole story, I'll try to keep it as short as possible
I'm 39 yo, have been lifting since I was 14, except a short dbol cycle when I was 19 I trained natty all my life, too scared of steroids Probably due to a low genetic potential I've never achieved any impressive results, especially my chest has always been weak, could never bench more than 225lb. At 6'0 most of the time I weighed around 200lb, probably around 18% bf.
Then a few years ago I finally started counting calories and realized that I've been always eating far too much, permabulking. I went on a cut and dropped my weight to 165lb, 8% bf. This calorie restriction, mixed with a stressful job, made my naturally low testosterone levels drop even further and I was diagnosed with hypogonagism, put on TRT. I got Tostran gel from my doctor, 6 doses a day, which gives around 40mg testosterone weekly. Not much, but at the beginning it worked great, suddenly all my lifts went up 10%, never was that strong before. After a while I lost some of this strength again, probably my own testosterone production was shut down.
I decided to add something to my TRT on my own, first I opted for Anavar, 40mg ED for 6 weeks, I experienced some strange pumps in my calves but nothing else, don't know if it was legit Anavar. A few months passed and I tried Tbol this time, 50mg ED for 6 weeks. I got slightly stronger and put on 5-6 pounds, but it was far below expectations, lost all these gains after the cycle anyway.
During all this time my doctor didn't want to change my dosage of Tostran, in my country the only other option is Nebido, he didn't want to put me on it. My checkups were very rare, every few months.
So lately I decided it was time to become friends with the syringe, I started a 10 weeks test e cycle at 500mg a week, 250mg on Mondays and 250mg on Thursdays. I have pharm grade testosterone and pharm grade Aromasin, I take 12,5mg EOD. Now 10 weeks have passed and.... nothing happened !!! No muscle or strength gains whatsoever!! I've put on around 8 pounds but I can see in the mirror it's mostly if not only fat. It seems my metabolic rate is increased because I eat 4200kcal a day, over 1000 above my regular maintenance and I've only gained 8 pounds in 10 weeks, but it doesn't translate into muscle gains. I did some blood work after 7 weeks and the results were quite good, hematocrit a little high but everything else in range. Total testosterone 2100, not terrific but high enough to expect good gains, SHBG 28 so the free testosterone values were also really good. Estradiol showed at 50, a little high but nothing dramatic that could hinder gains.
So what the hell is going on !? My diet is really good, plenty of high quality proteins, carbs and fats. I train really hard but don't overtrain, get a lot of rest. Maybe I just don't respond well to AAS and should try higher dosages, but in this case why did the very low dose of Tostran work so well at the beginning of my TRT? What do you guys think, any advice? I don't have extreme expectations but my dream is to get to 210lb at 10%bf, right now it's 195lb at probably 15%bf, I look worse than before the cycle...
guys will be able to help me, but you need to know the whole story, I'll try to keep it as short as possible
I'm 39 yo, have been lifting since I was 14, except a short dbol cycle when I was 19 I trained natty all my life, too scared of steroids
Probably due to a low genetic potential I've never achieved any impressive results, especially my chest has always been weak, could never bench more than 225lb. At 6'0 most of the time I weighed around 200lb, probably around 18% bf.Then a few years ago I finally started counting calories and realized that I've been always eating far too much, permabulking. I went on a cut and dropped my weight to 165lb, 8% bf. This calorie restriction, mixed with a stressful job, made my naturally low testosterone levels drop even further and I was diagnosed with hypogonagism, put on TRT. I got Tostran gel from my doctor, 6 doses a day, which gives around 40mg testosterone weekly. Not much, but at the beginning it worked great, suddenly all my lifts went up 10%, never was that strong before. After a while I lost some of this strength again, probably my own testosterone production was shut down.
I decided to add something to my TRT on my own, first I opted for Anavar, 40mg ED for 6 weeks, I experienced some strange pumps in my calves but nothing else, don't know if it was legit Anavar. A few months passed and I tried Tbol this time, 50mg ED for 6 weeks. I got slightly stronger and put on 5-6 pounds, but it was far below expectations, lost all these gains after the cycle anyway.
During all this time my doctor didn't want to change my dosage of Tostran, in my country the only other option is Nebido, he didn't want to put me on it. My checkups were very rare, every few months.
So lately I decided it was time to become friends with the syringe, I started a 10 weeks test e cycle at 500mg a week, 250mg on Mondays and 250mg on Thursdays. I have pharm grade testosterone and pharm grade Aromasin, I take 12,5mg EOD. Now 10 weeks have passed and.... nothing happened !!! No muscle or strength gains whatsoever!! I've put on around 8 pounds but I can see in the mirror it's mostly if not only fat. It seems my metabolic rate is increased because I eat 4200kcal a day, over 1000 above my regular maintenance and I've only gained 8 pounds in 10 weeks, but it doesn't translate into muscle gains. I did some blood work after 7 weeks and the results were quite good, hematocrit a little high but everything else in range. Total testosterone 2100, not terrific but high enough to expect good gains, SHBG 28 so the free testosterone values were also really good. Estradiol showed at 50, a little high but nothing dramatic that could hinder gains.
So what the hell is going on !? My diet is really good, plenty of high quality proteins, carbs and fats. I train really hard but don't overtrain, get a lot of rest. Maybe I just don't respond well to AAS and should try higher dosages, but in this case why did the very low dose of Tostran work so well at the beginning of my TRT? What do you guys think, any advice? I don't have extreme expectations but my dream is to get to 210lb at 10%bf, right now it's 195lb at probably 15%bf, I look worse than before the cycle...
