Blood test feedback (incl before, during, after KETO - impressive results)

[abouttime]

I`m 35 male, spent my life very active & healthy.... yet always hovered on the low-ish testosterone side of life.. basically ticking all the boxes. Even on calorie & macro controlled diets with cardio & weightlifting.. it was always very hard to get very lean and even more so remain lean. Dont even get me started on libido.. what`s that?

A few years i said enough and started to look into my hormones.. now i`m doing quite bad and looking for help. I dont trust my doctors.

On Keto I felt amazing.. libido returned, had a few morning erections, dropped fat whilst doing minimal exercise... but i couldnt kick the insomnia (2 hrs sleep per night) and had to stop it. Tried enclomiphene to replicate but didnt manage... and now i`m worse than ever with estrogen:test ratio & estro at their worst ever. What do you suggestion?

I`m considering just find someone reliable from the bodybuilding scene to coach me on hormones

 

[Seagal]

Don't know what your off keto diet is but maybe a lower-carb diet is beneficial.
I would also look at thyroid hormones.

 

[abouttime]

the diet i had after keto was a low carb diet but no so strict & not weighing everything. tbh it was very similar to my keto diet but much much lower fat… so it was almost like a low carb medium fat medium/high protein diet.. heavy on red meat. When carbs get too low my sleep decreases heavily.

 

[abouttime]

Here’s my TSH or are you referring to thyroxine etc…. On the high side. Can you explain why you suggested th

 

[Seagal]

the diet i had after keto was a low carb diet but no so strict & not weighing everything. tbh it was very similar to my keto diet but much much lower fat… so it was almost like a low carb medium fat medium/high protein diet.. heavy on red meat. When carbs get too low my sleep decreases heavily.

You could vary carbs during the day, having in the evening or before bed a higher carb meal/snack.

 

[Seagal]

View attachment 52095

Here’s my TSH or are you referring to thyroxine etc…. On the high side. Can you explain why you suggested th

Meant also ft3, ft4 because of your complaints (body fat, sleep, libido).
Imho everyone has a different set point for body fat. It can be within a healthy range, however, just not fitting your/our expectations of a lean body.

Even on super physiological levels of testosterone many men have to adhere to strict calorie control and/or keto diet in order to see significant body fat reduction.

 

[abouttime]

I mean in that case I might as well have the carbs spread out.

When i did the Keto diet one thing i said was this is absolutely not feasible long term.
The cost & time spent cooking/preparing... it took toooo much out of me, was too long & was too disrupting on my life. i`m not a bodybuilder so I dont romanticise spending all my money on food & 10s of hours cooking.

Being such a 'slave' to the diet every single day to avoid going haywire hormonally is too much living life on a tight rope & imo is not a feasible long term solution. At this point I`d rather just pop pills or inject so I can live my life as a regular human.

Do you see my point?

 

[abouttime]

Meant also ft3, ft4 because of your complaints (body fat, sleep, libido).
Imho everyone has a different set point for body fat. It can be within a healthy range, however, just not fitting your/our expectations of a lean body.

Even on super physiological levels of testosterone many men have to adhere to strict calorie control and/or keto diet in order to see significant body fat reduction.

When i was on keto... i was training maybe x2 a week, on 2 hrs sleep per night & i think my calories where maybe surplus? Not exactly great for cutting... but I leaned out like crazy. I`ve done diets at -500 cals from maintenance + cardio + weightlifting + good macros & still I was not able to lean out as easy, fast & well as I did on a keto diet with bare minimum effort & exercise. You`d think I was taking PEDs. It was absolutely crazy.... I follow bodybuilding so I know what the body can be manipulated into but still crazy. I remember saying wow this is how life should be... had libido, some erections & was leanining out... on 2 hours of sleep mind you.

 

[Seagal]

I mean in that case I might as well have the carbs spread out.

When i did the Keto diet one thing i said was this is absolutely not feasible long term.
The cost & time spent cooking/preparing... it took toooo much out of me, was too long & was too disrupting on my life. i`m not a bodybuilder so I dont romanticise spending all my money on food & 10s of hours cooking.

Being such a 'slave' to the diet every single day to avoid going haywire hormonally is too much living life on a tight rope & imo is not a feasible long term solution. At this point I`d rather just pop pills or inject so I can live my life as a regular human.

Do you see my point?

Maybe TRT is the solution for you. I guess you need to try it.

 

[abouttime]

Also here are my thyroxine levels. I knew i had them.

 

[FunkOdyssey]

I mean in that case I might as well have the carbs spread out.

When i did the Keto diet one thing i said was this is absolutely not feasible long term.
The cost & time spent cooking/preparing... it took toooo much out of me, was too long & was too disrupting on my life. i`m not a bodybuilder so I dont romanticise spending all my money on food & 10s of hours cooking.

Being such a 'slave' to the diet every single day to avoid going haywire hormonally is too much living life on a tight rope & imo is not a feasible long term solution. At this point I`d rather just pop pills or inject so I can live my life as a regular human.

Do you see my point?

If you liked the results of keto but not the effort involved, I would suggest carnivore is much easier. Twice a day, I throw a salted piece of meat into an air fryer. It cooks for 10-15 min, I put it on a plate, add some fat to correct protein/fat ratio if necessary, done. Perfect metabolic health ensues.

Not sure about your sleep on your keto, maybe your macros or electrolytes were off. The way you describe your fat loss, you were probably in a large caloric deficit, which will disrupt sleep too.

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

The issue with sleep and keto (i had the same issue) as I understand it is low blood sugar episodes provoking cortisol release at night which puts the body into an awakened state. You can having your carbs late evening, or having a large serving of glycine late evening. I went away from strict keto before I fully solved the problem, but both of those things helped. You can also add in timed release melatonin. If carnivore works for you, then great, and it might because the extra protein may affect blood sugar in a different way. You can also try ultra high carb and low fat diet (the carbosis/rice diet) which works for some people, but be careful of elevated insulin.