Starting TRT for muscle — where should I begin?

Low testosterone was something I suspected for a long while. I did all the other things that push you the right way. Dropped 65lbs to reach 15% body fat, gave up smoking, gave up drinking, ate well. Over a year passed and the low testosterone symptoms were still with me. Testing showed my levels were extremely low, and so I started on trt.

Plenty of good advice already in this thread. If you are hesitant about being dependant on it, hold off until nearly everything else is done, and only then get tested. I wasn't keen on dependence either, but in the end there was no alternative.

This is a marathon, not a sprint, in my book. Get the body fat much lower before you jump on test. Be patient, and carry on with what you are already doing!
 
GiffMeReta said:

I've been on Reta for a while now and the dose is still climbing. What I want is to make the most of the weight I'm carrying at the moment and add some muscle to it.

By all accounts TRT is the undisputed king for exactly that. I'm too chicken 🐥 to sign up for a lifetime of depending on it, though. Muscle is what I need regardless - arms in particular.

Have I got the dependence side of this roughly right? And is there a supplement, a peptide or a stack I should be considering instead, one that keeps the long-term side effects to a minimum?

At the moment I lift weights and take whey, creatine and hydrolysed collagen. I keep reading and researching, but I am no bodybuilder - just a bloke carrying too much fat.
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My muscle mentor pointed me at HGH secretagogues rather than HGH somatropin. Secretagogues prompt the pituitary to put out natural HGH. Somatropin frightens me a bit, having read up on it. I am about to stack one on top of my TRT. At 60 yrs old , it is John Wayne time. Younger people come with bodies that make enough natural hormones, so synthetics are not needed.
 
deleted.user.27 said:

GiffMeReta said:

I've been on Reta for a while now and the dose is still climbing. What I want is to make the most of the weight I'm carrying at the moment and add some muscle to it.

By all accounts TRT is the undisputed king for exactly that. I'm too chicken 🐥 to sign up for a lifetime of depending on it, though. Muscle is what I need regardless - arms in particular.

Have I got the dependence side of this roughly right? And is there a supplement, a peptide or a stack I should be considering instead, one that keeps the long-term side effects to a minimum?

At the moment I lift weights and take whey, creatine and hydrolysed collagen. I keep reading and researching, but I am no bodybuilder - just a bloke carrying too much fat.
Click to expand...
My muscle mentor pointed me at HGH secretagogues rather than HGH somatropin. Secretagogues prompt the pituitary to put out natural HGH. Somatropin frightens me a bit, having read up on it. I am about to stack one on top of my TRT. At 60 yrs old , it is John Wayne time. Younger people come with bodies that make enough natural hormones, so synthetics are not needed.
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That diagnosis surprises me. Getting the pituitary to produce HGH through secretagogues after the 40s is difficult (assuming an average human being rather than an elite athlete).
 
Could be so - he has had real success with it. The man is stacked with muscle. I will give it a go; should it flop, Hexorellin or Tesamorelin can come in and take over.
 
deleted.user.27 said:

Could be so - he has had real success with it. The man is stacked with muscle. I will give it a go; should it flop, Hexorellin or Tesamorelin can come in and take over.
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Before you run either of them I would want a baseline igf/z and your A1C, and to know your bg/fbg. Check that your lipids and everything else are in order.. I am 45 and I passed on the secretagogues, since there is only so much they will produce. Anywhere from 4-6iu GH for 9 mths has been a complete game changer, for my recovery and for my physique both.

trt has been part of my routine for years too. My usual dose is 140mg/wk. That comes after recomp. Getting my numbers into the range where I ran 200mg/wk took years. A few times a year I cycle in low dose Deca for the joints - brilliant on the elbows, shoulders and knees. Getting old sucks! LoL.
 
Thanks brother. TRT Enanthate has been my routine for nearly a year now , at a lower dose. I start to cycle at 1ml a week , and the nipples don't lie. Lol. Something needs to give me a boost, and my doc refused Arimadex. Blocking estrogen completely is not what I want, just knocking it back a bit.
 
On top of what others have said about lab work beforehand and lifestyle changes, etc. I would add that the risk of permanent shutdown is really rather small.

Running HCG every three months or so while you're on test keeps your nuts working, and PCT is always there if you need to come off.

The idea that your balls are oh so hard to bring back, and that losing fertility should terrify you, strikes me as very dubious. Not when HCG and other PCT are available. Not when nutrition is available to keep your nuts and natural systems healthy. Permanent shutdown is not something I buy - it is a vague possibility rather than a genuine worry.

Travelling is not the problem people make it out to be: on test cypionate you can go as long as 8 days without a dose. Domestically there is nothing to worry about, and prescription labels for your gear are easy to buy. Cruises are fine too.
 
Is this purely about aesthetics? If it is, I would advise against TRT and suggest holding off. And how old are you right now? In your 20s or 30s and on r3ta, a solid gym routine and some discipline should be enough - unless your testosterone levels really are low. In your 40s or 50s, TRT becomes worth considering and would do you some good.
 
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