New member, some questions

[Guest guest]

I am 31 years old and was recently diagnosed with Low T. On two different AM

blood draws 3 weeks apart I had 263 on one and 257 on the other. I am very

active, I do martial arts training, functional type workouts (pushups, pull-ups,

sit-ups, etc..), HIIT, and things like that at least ~10hrs a week, sometimes as

much as 15-20hrs. If you want to see what I actually do, I started blogging it

in March at http://mattjon332.wordpress.com, it seems like my testosterone

should be very high with this activity, especially considering my age? I have

been on an extremely low calorie diet since March 17th (doctor supervised and

monitored) to lose my additional weight, so my activity did slow down some, but

has started to pick back up.

What made me test my testosterone was that I have had trouble losing all the

weight I need too. Over the course of 3 years I lost ~50lbs on my own with

becoming active and cleaning up the diet a little, from ~260lbs to ~210lbs, but

my ideal weight is more around 170-180lbs. According to the segmented

bio-impedance measurements I have 20-30% more muscle then the average 5'8 " guy.

I don't understand how I can have low T yet be muscular, be fit, and so forth?

Do you think that low T could also be preventing me from losing the extra

weight? Previously on my own diets it seemed like even on 2k calories a day I

was struggling to lose weight, shouldn't that calorie amount with the amount of

exercise I was doing burn the fat off? My diet now is only around 1100-1200

calories, and I have lost about 15lbs in 3 weeks and I am down to 195lbs now, my

diet will change tomorrow on Dr orders, but this was just a jump start type part

of the program.

Overall for me I seemed to have all the emotional and mental symptoms more than

the physical (except my weight). I have had a lack of confidence, lack of drive

(seems like everything I have been doing is sheer willpower), and also battling

depression. I have been this way for a very long time, who knows how long. The

labs showed my testes were ok, they suspected a pituitary tumor and I have had a

MRI done last week that I am waiting to hear results back on. In the mean time

my Dr put me on 2.5g of Androgel a day, I think this is the lowest dosage, but

since my physical attributes were ok my Dr had even said one option was to not

treat it but I wanted to go ahead and try. I believe he is may be new to this

treatment, he is an excellent bariatric doctor but only looks at these hormones

when there are issues. My workouts are better now and I recover faster, but the

emotional/mental aspects have only slightly improved. However I am also only on

day 14, I think I will not feel full results until 6-8 weeks? My weight has not

moving down as fast as it was either, but perhaps that is muscle conservation or

could just be the normal course when on a diet such as I have been. I expected

that it may speed up when on Androgel.

Are there any additional concerns I should have? Anything to look out for?

Will Androgel shut down my own T production, and if so what do I do about that?

Have to use a higher Androgel dosage or are their other options? Are there any

natural remedies to bringing my T back inline? I have tried Tribulus,

Fenugreek, and things like that in the past and it seemed like the first few

days my T felt like it was higher but it faded after that. I honestly would

rather not be on any testosterone if I could normalize it by other means. I had

some other blood work that was a little out of optimal (DHEA a little low,

vitamin D a little low, cholesterol numbers a little off etc..), combined with

my excess weight, my Dr said I may have a 30% chance testosterone could

normalize once we get everything else normalized but my odds would be much

greater if I were a lot heavier. So maybe in a couple of months if my T has

normalized on Androgel and my other blood work has as well we may take me off

Androgel for a month and recheck it.

Anyways any advice is greatly appreciated.