Curious on the matter, but in your opinion, can a change in testosterone dosage cause a loss in weight? I am about 5'11", 165 right now, lean. I looked fuller at about 180-200mg/wk until I learned that A) for low shbg men, less is more and B) a lot of urologists don't understand TRT. I titrated down to 112 right now and have been here for the past month, but overall ive been 112 or less for approximately 4 months now and I've lost approximately 8-10 pounds. Granted, my diet has slacked at times and I'm on the go a lot more recently, but I can't help but feel like the decrease in my dosage could play a role outside of diet and exercise. In addition, I also feel like I haven't gained a whole lot of muscle since getting on. December 5th will make it a year so is it that I simply haven't been on long enough or did I miss my window to make real gains on the protocol? I worked very hard before starting trt to maintain my physique and I don't feel like I have made quite a noticeable difference in gains nor have my lifts increased. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Side notes: I have always been lean. Pre TRT i was approximately 160lbs ; 6 months in I was 173lbs, and now at 11 months in I'm at 164-65.
Diet is usually around 2800-3100 calories a day, train 4 days a week
Curious on the matter, but in your opinion, can a change in testosterone dosage
cause a loss in weight?
- regarding muscle tissue..... using trt doses highly doubtful unless you decreased your dose to the point that your TT/FT levels are now too low
-keep in mind to that if your diet is not consistent and you are not taking in enough calories/day than one could easily lose some weight
- loss in water weight definitely if you were holding more water/bloat due to excess E2 but in your case you were using a whopping dose of adex 2 mg/week and your E2 that you posted above on labs is in the lower end (standard assay)
- seeing as you were 160 lbs pre-trt at a height of 5'11and lean.....I would definitely say you have a fast metabolism and are the hard-gainer type and would most likely need a fair amount of calories to put on weight
I also feel like I haven't gained a whole lot of muscle since getting on.
- why would you expect such we are on trt here.....not steroids
- sure with the proper diet/training protocol when on trt and using a dose of T which would have your TT/FT levels in a healthy range whether high/normal or slightly above one should see improvements in body composition (muscle/strength gain, fat loss (depending on diet) but it will be minimal as in do not expect to gain a lot of pure muscle tissue (actin/myosin) using such doses
- most that claim they are gaining a lot of muscle on a trt doses are holding more water weight intracellular as in the muscle cell and in many cases extra-cellular as in water retention/bloat (between the muscle/skin) due to excess E2.....along with increased muscle proteins (actin/myosin)
- you were only eating 2800-3100 calories.....with your body type no way you are gaining much weight on such
Vince, what is/are the differentiating factor(s) needed to assess whether a higher or lower dosage is needed in my case?
As you can see, getting free T in normal range is hard with any dose. Also, taking 2mg/Adex a week at 180 was a bit excessive but if I took a higher dose again, I would most likely take .25Adex/day, which would bring it hopefully into the 20's.
- gaining muscle should be the least of your concerns on trt as what truly matters is following a protocol which has your TT levels elevated enough to allow you to attain a healthy FT level which will result in relief/improvement of low-t symptoms regarding your mood/energy/libido/erectile function and increased overall well-being
- you have no idea where your FT truly sits on such protocols as you tested it using the piss poor inaccurate direct immunoassay.
- to truly know where your FT sits you would need to use the most accurate testing method such as the gold standard Equilibrium Dialysis or Ultrafiltration (next best) or simply use the newer TruT calculated method (which has been shown to be on par with results obtained by the gold standard testing method ED)