re-intro and a couple questions... be gentle.

[cornfedboy2000]

hey all. Well, here's the deal. I'm 36 years old, 5'11" and currently 320lbs. My story goes like this: I used to have no problem building muscle, it always came easy to me, but I've always had a little problem keeping the fat off. I figured just getting older and what not was the main reason for this. About 2 years ago I was really busting my butt in the gym (not overtraining but going hard), eating pretty well/clean, watching calories in, mixing in good cardio with free weights, on top of my very physical job (journeyman millwright), and I was lucky to lose 10 lbs, and my muscle gains were a shadow of what they once were. I went to my family doctor and mentioned all of this on top of symptoms like: constant achy joints, lack of energy, drop in sex drive, depression, etc. She ordered a blood test, and I came in at 273 for testosterone ... her little sheet said that I was within the "normal" range of 260-1080, and offered no help at all. Flash forward to the last 7 months... I was in a severe motorcycle accident Aug 1st of 2012, and my leg was almost severed. I am just now starting to walk again, but it has been a very long road. I obviously expected some fat gain/muscle loss from atrophy, but what happened has been a nightmare for my body. I was 260 when I hit the trauma ward, and had decent muscle mass, and now I am 320lbs of quivering jello. My BP went up, my resting heart rate is ridiculous... all in all a living hell for a formerly active person. I have been doing my physical therapy for months, with little muscle gains, everything seems to be in slow motion. I contacted my urologist, and he ordered another blood test. I came in at a staggeringly low 163 for testosterone (before you ask, this is all the info I have from the blood work) He prescribed Androgel 1.62% at 2 pumps per day, which I just started this week.

This was my intro post on the welcome forum as well... now, much like most people new to this, my head is spinning with new info and even more questions. I try to wrap my head around alot of the info but get easily confused... I'm not a stupid man at all, but I am having issues figuring out the best way to optimize my new TRT. So, in laymans terms, what should I do to optimize this new addition to my life.

1)Should I get more blood work, and if so, what should I specifically look for.

2)are there any other things I should add to my supplement schedule to optimize uptake?

3)Is there anything I should add in case this turns out to be a very long term TRT schedule.

I know I'll have more questions, and I continue to scour the boards for answers, but I figured with my extremely excessive body fat the answers might be a little different for me. Thanks guys.

[HRTstudent]

Firstly, welcome to the board, if you keep reading and pay attention to what expert physicians in the field are saying and doing, you will quickly learn that this stuff is learnable. The information is out there...

1)Should I get more blood work, and if so, what should I specifically look for.

2)are there any other things I should add to my supplement schedule to optimize uptake?

3)Is there anything I should add in case this turns out to be a very long term TRT schedule.

1) the best time for more blood work, unfortunately, has passed. But it might not really matter. What does matter most right now is: Are you interested in having kids in the next 1-2 years?

2) Telling you to take a supplement right now would be doing you a disservice. At over 300 pounds you are almost certainly doing more harm to yourself than any supplement could come close to offsetting. A thorough look at your diet would be useful, but it would suffice to say you need to eliminate processed food - especially sugar - and eat a more traditional diet.

Eventually you may want to consider supplements, but if you start on a good diet (a good diet is not one that merely avoids fast food and beer) then many things will correct. At that point, it might be worth looking at supplements, but honestly to me it sets you up to think your answers are all in pill form.

I would spend my time learning what to eat and how to eat it rather than what to take and when to take it.

3) I would want to know, what are your goals with testosterone replacement therapy?

[cornfedboy2000]

well, to start with, when I asked about supplements I was more thinking along the lines of things that can work in conjunction with the androgel , not neccesarily protein etc. My weight hasn't been from me sitting around eating bon bons (and I know you didn't mean it that way), but I do eat pretty healthy, not alot of processed foods, never drink beer... I was put on a drug for the massive nerve damage that has the nasty side effect of massive weight gain, that coupled with being layed up in a chair for over 7 months now really screwed me up. I knew I would put on some weight, but when they put me on this drug after my last set of surgeries my weight skyrocketed. In answer to the kid question, I already had a vascectomy, so that isn't an issue, I have 2 kids and I'm done. My goals are simple... get my levels back to where they should be, and get healthy. The inability, or rather difficulty, that I've had trying to gain muscle is putting a big hurt on losing fat, as well as the other issues with low T. I'm reading post after post, believe me, and I'm trying to figure out if there's anything I should be coupling with my androgel, or if I should let it ride for now, and see where it goes.

[cornfedboy2000]

like should I consider taking an AI, or add hCG ... and why. I'm re reading the stickies, but apparently I'm a little slow and can't figure out if I should be looking into this, or how to even go about it.

[HRTstudent]

like should I consider taking an AI, or add hCG... and why. I'm re reading the stickies, but apparently I'm a little slow and can't figure out if I should be looking into this, or how to even go about it.

The AI is easy... you don't add it unless you NEED it and lowering the testosterone is not working while still maintaining a good T level. This is between you and your doctor, but I would never recommend adding an AI until you had outright gynocomastia forming or you had bloodwork which showed very elevated E2. And then, in the latter case I would first consider lowering the testosterone dose or splitting it up to avoid large peaks where E2 conversion would be maximized.

As for the diet, i used to use the same words you use... so did some of my friends etc. But the reality is I've been around long enough now to know generally what it means, and it's almost always a diet that has "less" processed food than your peers, but not too much more nutritious food than average. Check out the book called Nourishing Traditions if you want to get a real glimpse into how far the developed world has strayed when it comes to eating right. The book may very well shock you and open your eyes. It also has a lot of recipes too.

Finally, it hasn't been very long on androgel . It might really help. You need to give it some time and don't rush things. Get bloodwork in 4 weeks to make sure you have enough T. MOST people on 2 pumps of androgel 1.62 actually need to increase their dose.