Will Testosterone Help Me Keep Muscle While Dieting?

[FrankUnderwood]

Does anyone know if being on TRT would help protect ones existing muscle mass and allow someone to pursue a steeper caloric deficit to accelerate fat loss? Or will you still got catabolic, regardless of TRT, and have significant risk of losing muscle along with fat in a steep deficit, i.e. 1500cals/day?

 

[Joey786]

I'm starting trt soon. I'm also going to start cutting when I start therapy. From what I've read there's no need to cut calories drastically because the testosterone is going increase metabolism quite a bit. I'm going to eat slightly below maintenance and adjust from there. If you eat about 1500 cal/day I imagine your thyroid will down regulate. With higher testosterone you will definitely be less catabolic but I would still recommend a less aggressive cutting phase.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

In some men, taking testosterone while dieting may help lose fat, not muscle

 

[Helboi]

Interesting study. Thanks for sharing it. I definitely need to trim up a bit, so it's nice to know that I won't necessarily be cannibalizing muscle if I do it right.

 

[PAUL-E]

Give your body a reason to keep muscle exercise! I can tell you first hand not being able to exercise/weight lifting the way I used to, I have lost a lot of muscle.

 

[midlifealpha]

I can only give my personal testimony but I haven't lifted now in about 4-6 weeks. I really lost count. I've been just taking daily hourly walks on the treadmill enough to get my heart rate from 135-150. Do I know that running wind sprints is better? Yes and I will certainly change over to that at some point. I went to shoot hoops the other day and could really feel the extra weight in my knees so I decided no actual basketball games, and no sprints until my weight is more in the 240 range.

Having said all that, I am not seeing any drop in my arm size. I am low-carbing at usually less than 25g per day, down 15 lbs in two weeks, and it seems to be all in the waist. My arms are still the same size, my shoulders aren't changing. I am not eating ridiculous amounts of protein, in fact no protein shakes at the moment. Just the TRT maintenance is maintaining.

Now I'll probably start lifting again this week or next. I've been crazy into NBA playoffs, and following the primary election cycle and just cutting down some time. Soon I will lift and cut my walk to about 40-45 minutes, but the goal is to lean and any muscle I gain is just gravy.

 

[Nutpuncher]

YES it will help preserve muscle on a calorie deficit.

 

[pureblood]

Agreed it'll help from losing muscle. I wouldn't go too steep with a calorie reduction right off the bat. Try and start with a 10-20 percent deficit, this way when weight loss slows down, you have somewhere to go rather than being at such an extreme deficit.
Good Luck

 

[FrankUnderwood]

is this actual fat loss or more water/glycogen loss due to the low carb diet?

I can only give my personal testimony but I haven't lifted now in about 4-6 weeks. I really lost count. I've been just taking daily hourly walks on the treadmill enough to get my heart rate from 135-150. Do I know that running wind sprints is better? Yes and I will certainly change over to that at some point. I went to shoot hoops the other day and could really feel the extra weight in my knees so I decided no actual basketball games, and no sprints until my weight is more in the 240 range.

Having said all that, I am not seeing any drop in my arm size. I am low-carbing at usually less than 25g per day, down 15 lbs in two weeks, and it seems to be all in the waist. My arms are still the same size, my shoulders aren't changing. I am not eating ridiculous amounts of protein, in fact no protein shakes at the moment. Just the TRT maintenance is maintaining.

Now I'll probably start lifting again this week or next. I've been crazy into NBA playoffs, and following the primary election cycle and just cutting down some time. Soon I will lift and cut my walk to about 40-45 minutes, but the goal is to lean and any muscle I gain is just gravy.

 

[bgreenlee]

For me it seemed that HCG at my 125iu a day dosages helped with that too. I rarely go below 500 calories under my maintenance calorie requirements when dieting though.

 

[Vince]

You may know this already, but here's a youtube video on losing weight. Dr. Mark Hyman: Eat Fat, Get Thin

Read more at: https://www.excelmale.com/forum/showthread.php?6587-Dr-Mark-Hyman-Eat-Fat-Get-Thin