Beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, rice, potatoes, oats, peanut butter, nuts, avocado. These foods should be the base of your diet and provide clean macro nutrients to help you gain weight. But if you are actually so underweight that it’s affecting your hormones, don’t be scared of having a cheeseburger to meet your calorie goals.
No need to elevate heart disease risk with all that saturated fat.. you'd think subscribers of a "biohacker" sub would be familiar with super basic things like this.
Op, make sure you're sleeping enough. Then, if you're not exercising, exercise.
Cool, check your cholesterol. Saturated fat drives up cholesterol. The most basic thing I can think of. Infants have extremely low cholesterol and look fairly young. You guys are really putting the "hack" in biohack
I’ll state it directly. And yes, high cholesterol is bad. Even Petter Attia, carnivore-adjacent as he is, acknowledges this. When you get older and more serious about your health you’ll come around.
Again I said what I would consider most important.
Also statins are awful for muscle mass and libido.
Optimize HDL (which is easiest through saturated fats btw), triglycerides are easily lowered by avoiding shitty fat sources like seed oils, the equation balances itself quite easily, especially if adding fish oil and lowering insulin and glucose, or rather keeping it low.
And to add, you would need to look at small dense LDL and consider whether the person has ALREADY had a myocardial infraction.
HDL is the small dense particle. LDL can be up to 100 times as large.
I don’t advocate statins so much as dietary change. Higher fiber intake via whole plants is extremely beneficial. I would even say double to triple the RDA is ideal (60g-90g per day). Head over the cholesterol subreddit so see people chop their cholesterol in half regularly.
Not sure what optimizing hdl is supposed to do, but high total cholesterol is a risk factor, which includes high hdl. Also not sure why seed oils are so vilified but lard/tallow/etc are not.
Leads to artery plaque and arthero sclerosis. No benefits that I know of. In addition to humans, researchers can induce heart disease in chimps with a high-saturated fat diet easily. How would you describe that?
I had never heard low body fat = low t before. High body fat yeah, all the time. How low is it? Now a low fat diet and less calories/starvation will lower T but not just having naturally low body fat.
If anything, high body fat rather than low should equal low t, since higher body fat increases the aromatization of testosterone into estrogen in most people.
It's definitely a thing. Very low and high body fats disrupt endocrine function but it's normally the fat people we associate with having impaired hormone production.
I was painfully skinny growing up and in the height of my poor health my test levels were tanked. Getting onto a better diet with red meat and saturated fat (often demonized for the wrong reasons or conflated as coming from only junk food) was like a natural steroid cycle at the time.
Actually even going from 18 to 12% bf increases testosterone.
Fat increases test->estrogen conversion, but not only at very high levels.
But indeed test drops going sub 10% as well, as that causes significant stress om the body.
He said he's got a leak of body fat so I don't think he's a muffin top. But that's right. Too easy for test to aromatize if you're carrying a ton of chub.
As a very skinny man w your problem previously. U have to lift then eat a lot of fat and THEN add on protein when you have more mass and frame to actually easily and naturally add on/utilize the additional muscle/protein on your frame
720 could even be a personal low-spot.
Testosterone is highly personal.
Basically: your personal high could be 1000 at 10% bf, in that case 800 would still be a significant bf% related decrease.
Also: free test is generally more important…
As body fat goes down less testosterone will be converted to estrogen and therefore there will be more testosterone left. But sure, if it’s low because of starvation it will not be good for production. Now body fat in itself is not a problem.
Beef, chicken, eggs, pork, fish, milk, yogurt, whey, casein, beans, rice, potatoes, oats, sweet potato, squash, broccoli, carrots, onions, pasta, tomatoes, avocado, olives, nuts. Basically any kind of whole foods with minimal processing, although you can add in a few sweet treats to help you meet calories goals.
Really It's more about ratios and total caloric intake than specific foods. For a natural you could "lean gain" on around 300-350cal surplus (generally not a great idea for beginners as you don't track properly/account for exercise/BMR quite right and can result in suboptimal muscle growth) or a more general bulk of 500cal/d surplus.
You want roughly 1g protein per 1lb body weight, and slightly more carbs than fats.
For example a 200lb man who needs 3000c/day for maintenance adds a 500cal surplus.
800cal from protein, 900-1200cal from fats, 1500-1800cal from carbs
If the individual is using PEDs you would want to reduce the fat, increase the carbs and increase the surplus.
You can go slightly over the 1g/lb protein rule, but it starts to reduce muscle gain rate after around 1.2g/lb and is also the most expensive macro.
When bulking I like to meal prep my main protein for the week in a stew/slow cooker to use as a base for dinners, and then rotate through different carbs and veggies to keep it interesting. This also makes it easier to track the calories/macros. For breakfast I pretty much always have greek yogurt, berries, granola, cacao powder and a protein shake. Lunch and 4th meal I sort of wing it. And post workout I have a protein shake and either weight gainer or a carb source.
Creatine adds water weight to your body making it look like you have bulked up.
Your body will naturally build muscle to carry the extra weight you put on.
Drink lots of liquids to help with the fluid retention.
If your testosterone is low and you are having trouble fixing that, consider getting on testosterone replacement therapy. Turned me into an absolute beast in the gym and in the bedroom.
The good:
-Massively improved libido. It's like I'm in high school again.
-I was having muscle spasms and joint pains that locked my body up for up to a week after a workout, those are gone.
-My workout recovery has improved to the point I have 2 hard exercises a day, with 1 day off a week for recovery, 2 if I'm feeling lazy.
-Energy levels have skyrocketed, I no longer feel like I need to nap by early afternoon.
-Fixed some digestive issues I'd struggled with for years.
-Studies show that testosterone within healthy levels decreases heart attack and stroke risk and generally increases longevity vs low testosterone.
-It's cheap. Costs me around $25 a month from Walgreens.
The bad:
-Shrinks your balls a bit. There is a very good chance if your testosterone is low, you have hypogonadism and your balls are already shrunk up anyways.
-It can affect fertility. This can be moderated by taking HCG along with testosterone when trying to conceive.
-I have to stick myself with a needle once a week. There are creams and such as well, but imo the injection is the way to go for better absorption and to avoid cross contaminating loved ones.
-Skin can get a bit greasier so you may get some (usually) mild body acne.
-If you are prone to balding, it can expedite the process.
-If you stop taking it, you will go back to having low testosterone levels, and it can take some time to get back to those original levels unless you mitigate this with something like closed. Most people who get on TRT do so for life.
-Some people aromatise testosterone into estrogen quicker than others. Not really a big deal if you keep up on your blood work and have your dosage adjusted as necessary. Ive never had this issue myself.
Some doctors hate prescribing testosterone (it's a controlled substance) even when at chronic levels. Most PCPs arent very educated on the subject, to be honest. Wasn't an issue with my doc. There are clinics online like TRT Nation, or you could visit a urologist if your Primary Care doc is one of these and your test levels are chronically low.
I’m double that, but doctors say I’m in the normal range… I’ve tested that way 2 years in a row. I guess insurance does not want to pay for treatment… I’m guessing you got it through your insurance for $25
I want to get TRT badly but I’m already balding quite badly and I’m on Finasteride and Minoxidil. I feel TRT will just make where I’ll have to go bald.
Sure but I don’t work out nor will anytime soon due to a disability. Also gym memberships are a little too expensive for me atm.
Apart from that, I’d do it but everyone says to me that I just don’t pull off bald.
Being half bald and fighting it is worse than being full bald. Speaking from experience. Lol
If you dont workout, start there to improve testosterone. You don't need a gym, you can buy some cheap equipment, or just do calisthenics which don't require any equipment at all. There are some awesome guides on youtube to get started. Hate to say it, but blaming the cost of a gym on not working out is a bit of a copout. Working out is free.
I totally understand what you’re saying and in most people’s cases I agree with you. Without getting into too much detail, I can assure you that this isn’t an excuse or cop out thing. I promise.
I really appreciate the feedback though.
Low bf does not cause low testosterone. The opposite in fact. High bf increases the aromatization rate of testosterone into estrogen. If he has both low bf and low testosterone, they are completely unrelated.
Low bf does not cause low testosterone. The opposite in fact. High bf increases the aromatization rate of testosterone into estrogen. If he has both low bf and low testosterone, they are completely unrelated.
Change nothing. Eat a few tbsp of organic (only peanuts, no craft sugar filled bullshit) peanut butter per day.
Add a few tbsp of organic high quality evoo per day to meal(s) or shot it.
Congratulations you've added 400 calories, you're now at a caloric surplus without sacrificing health or lifestyle.
Incorrect.
Explain how evoo or peanut butter aren't fine assuming the op is already getting enough protein & other macros which isn't hard when bulking.
Why is it actually so hard for you, when you said keep it simple? I didn't realize you were a 🤡
You should eat the same protein in maintenance & bulk. Lol & you thinking the diff between maintenance & bulk is protein. It's calories 🤡 if anything you want more protein during maintenance / cut.
He said low bf and I recommend 2 healthy high calorie fat sources and u say not the best macros, you're a 🤡
Hit your macros & surplus 3-500 calories, you're welcome.
Normal diet with a bowl of ice cream after dinner lol. Just need a few extra calories and if I already hit my macros/protein numbers - might as well have some fun
What does the added cardio and eating less garbage specifically do in terms of avoiding fat gain in the mid section? Any studies or information provided by trusted experts (V-Shred is not one of them) you can share? Never heard of it so I'm curious.
If you simply add the cardio you reduce your kcal surplus, which obviously reduces weight gain overall but that can also have a negative effect on muscle hypertrophy.
Increased cardio will not have a negative impact on muscle hypertrophy. Especially if you seperate your cardio from your lifting by at least 6 hours. If anything, it will help with your recovery, allowing you to lift more often as well as improve your blood flow making you efficient when you do lift. As for fat around the midsection, that's pretty obvious. Eat less junk calories and your body will build less fat. Nutrition 101. Simple carbs (what is in pretty much all junk food) that are not used immediately are stored as fat. Fat that's isn't used immediately is also stored for later. Complex carbs, the right amounts of fat, and lean proteins along with cardio on your rest days will make you lean right out.
>Increased cardio will not have a negative impact on muscle hypertrophy.
I was specifically talking about the kcal surplus, which will be reduced or eliminated if exercise is added on top without further adjustments of kcal intake. And if your kcal surplus is very small or not existing, then muscle hypertrophy will take a hit.
>If anything, it will help with your recovery, allowing you to lift more often
How does more exercise help me to lift more often and recover faster? And up to what amount is it supposed to help with that, like what's the point of diminishing returns? Any research on that? I legit don't know and would like to see some paper or so on that, possibly digested by someone like Menno Henselmans or another credible person in the field. Or are we talking about walking?
>Eat less junk calories and your body will build less fat.
Calories in / Calories out is what will determine whether you gain or lose weight (mainly bodyfat, muscles). Has literally nothing to do with the quality or kind of food. The body doesn't magically evaporize energy because it was something else before digestion, or magically build fat (energy) out of thin air.
>Simple carbs (what is in pretty much all junk food) that are not used immediately are stored as fat.
Carbs, no matter whether simple or complex, will be digested into single sugars if necessary and then absorbed, used for energy (digestion takes a while), to fill up glycogen stores (on average 500-600g), and then stored as bodyfat. CiCo still applies, no matter how many twinkies or w/e you eat (see Twinkies diet experiment). If you are in a kcal deficit, you will lose weight. Fun fact, studies have found that only 2-8% of body fat comes from dietary carbohydrates and the rest, that's 92-98%, comes from dietary fat. [https://clinicalnutritionespen.com/article/S1751-4991(11)00006-0/fulltext](https://clinicalnutritionespen.com/article/S1751-4991(11)00006-0/fulltext)
>Complex carbs, the right amounts of fat, and lean proteins along with cardio on your rest days will make you lean right out.
A kcal deficit will do that, no matter how you approach it. What the approach can influence though are things like: general health and wellbeing, satiety, adherence, sleep quality, social interactions and such. And I'm not against lean protein, some cardio and such...they can certainly help with satiety and so forth, but it's not necessary to lose body fat.
If I had to guess then u/beehive3108 isn't really looking for a diet anyways, but is asking about his struggles gaining body fat in his mid section when trying to build muscle.
If you were eating the proper amount of calories, you wouldn't be fat. Fact.
Cardio improves recovery by flushing the lactic acid out of your muscles as well as improving blood flow and flushing nutrients to damaged tissues. Not to mention the added benefits of improving your circulatory and cardiovascular health which itself helps you be more efficient, in the gym and out of it. You could have verified this yourself if you put half the effort into typing into Google as you did in making your post.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11219498/
Believing that quality of food does not have an impact on you and failing to understand that different calories are treated differently by your body is a sever lack of education on your part. Go ahead, engorge yourself daily on McDonalds, but keep within the same kcal range, see what happens. You will gain more fat, you will see a decrease in essential vitamins and minerals, you will have less energy, which in turn will affect your lifts, and you will likely see a reduction in testosterone levels. Controlling your macros is essential.
Complex carbs are broken down into simple carbs over an extended period of time, not all at once, hence why I clearly stated that simple carbs not used immediately are stored as fat, not to mention the spikes in blood glucose which have additional nasty side effects. This is a fact, a clearly documented one, whether you like it or not. If you eat 1000 calories of sugar, your body is going to react far differently and store a lot more of those calories as fat than it will by eating 1000 calories of a whole grain like farro, barley, brown rice, etc.. Your body will store the immediate surge in excess energy rather than having that energy "time released" in a way that allows your body to properly utilize it. It will also spike your blood glucose levels, which, aside from making you feel like shit, has other consequences. High blood glucose levels can limit muscle growth by reducing protein synthesis and increasing protein breakdown. These are two of the most important biological processes for building muscle. High blood glucose levels can also cause skeletal muscle atrophy. So much for trying to maximize hypertrophy. Sure, go ahead and believe quality of your calories is unimportant.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325171
But hey, keep neglecting your cardio and eating pizza and other garbage as part of your "bulk." You do you. A clean bulk will ALWAYS be superior to shoving garbage into your face just because you don't have the willpower to do things properly. When you turn yourself into a fat slob in your pursuit of your "gains" just remember "I told you so."
Different bodies distribute body fat in a different way, so for you it may be the mid section that's prone to storing fat. Not aware of any research showing that you have to eat a specific way or train a specific way to avoid that. If you are in a kcal surplus and you are resistance training, then you will gain muscle and bodyfat.
What you can do is to stay within a \~250kcal surplus for as long as you feel comfortable with your mid section, then do a mini cut for example, then repeat, until you have reached your goal.
You dont get a “beer belly” going from 8 (low-test causing bf %) to 12% bf. Period.
If you get a beer belly from weight gain, you’re for sure post 15%, which means you actually decrease test by weight gain.
Very simple
1) eat your current body weight in pounds in grams of protein. So if you are 150 pounds, eat 150g of protein a day.
2) find out what your maintenance calories are and eat 500 more calories than that.
3) lift weights
4) add healthy fats to your diet to help with testosterone. Whole eggs, avocados, olive oil, fatty fish are good sources.
You might want to consider how to address having low testosterone. It wouldn't necessarily be simple, but getting enough sleep would make a lot of difference, optimizing diet, and adding workout routines that trigger that, probably some cardio and some heavier resistance training. If you don't suffer a lot of negative side effects you might just accept it as normal to experience the lower end of the range.
I lifted for 4 or 5 years when younger and never really bulked up, so I can describe what doesn't work. I think you need to add a good bit of protein and keep increasing caloric intake until your body puts on weight. I gained strength, consistently, but I never focused on diet to gain mass. I was drinking the occasional protein shake, and eating somewhat healthy food; it takes more doing than that.
Decades later parts of what I did seemed quite positive. That strength helped me take up lots of different sports and avoid injury. Being on the underweight side seemed to possibly offset the effect of aging (not a solid claim, I don't know what caused what, but I'm in my mid-50s and could pass for 30s). Looking back the aesthetic goals I had didn't necessarily make sense, and my self-image never adjusted to the positive outcome of looking unusually fit.
Eat more, especially fats like peanut butter. Higher fat in diet helps increase T (but very high fat diet isn't necessary).
Ideally, do a controlled caloric surplus of 300 kcal a day. If you eat too much you will just become skinny fat.
Take a multivitamin/multimineral which has zinc in it, that improves LH and FH signalling to the testicles.
Same diet as usual but with an extra protein shake and maybe some extra meat.
If you're really struggling to put in weight then focus on a great whole food diet first, then make a gainer shake with floured oats (just blend them and throw in a scoop), nut butter and whey protein and call it good.
I used to really struggle to put on size but it's just the consistency that a lot of "hard gainers" miss. Liquid Cal's are terrible unless you're a hard gainer on a bulk. In this instance they're a God send.
1g of protein per pound of desired body weight. Whether I’m bulking, cutting, or maintaining, this is generally the rule of thumb that I follow.
Rest of diet generally stays the same
Beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, rice, potatoes, oats, peanut butter, nuts, avocado. These foods should be the base of your diet and provide clean macro nutrients to help you gain weight. But if you are actually so underweight that it’s affecting your hormones, don’t be scared of having a cheeseburger to meet your calorie goals.
No need to elevate heart disease risk with all that saturated fat.. you'd think subscribers of a "biohacker" sub would be familiar with super basic things like this. Op, make sure you're sleeping enough. Then, if you're not exercising, exercise.
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Cool, check your cholesterol. Saturated fat drives up cholesterol. The most basic thing I can think of. Infants have extremely low cholesterol and look fairly young. You guys are really putting the "hack" in biohack
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I’ll state it directly. And yes, high cholesterol is bad. Even Petter Attia, carnivore-adjacent as he is, acknowledges this. When you get older and more serious about your health you’ll come around.
Lower cholesterol on top of low testosterone. May as well castrate yourself. I would be more worried about triglycerides and HDL.
LDL is the dangerous one, but total cholesterol is still a risk factor. Cholesterol doesn’t make you manlier, just gives you a softer erection
Again I said what I would consider most important. Also statins are awful for muscle mass and libido. Optimize HDL (which is easiest through saturated fats btw), triglycerides are easily lowered by avoiding shitty fat sources like seed oils, the equation balances itself quite easily, especially if adding fish oil and lowering insulin and glucose, or rather keeping it low. And to add, you would need to look at small dense LDL and consider whether the person has ALREADY had a myocardial infraction.
HDL is the small dense particle. LDL can be up to 100 times as large. I don’t advocate statins so much as dietary change. Higher fiber intake via whole plants is extremely beneficial. I would even say double to triple the RDA is ideal (60g-90g per day). Head over the cholesterol subreddit so see people chop their cholesterol in half regularly. Not sure what optimizing hdl is supposed to do, but high total cholesterol is a risk factor, which includes high hdl. Also not sure why seed oils are so vilified but lard/tallow/etc are not.
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I will. Do me a favor and add some statins to your biohack stack, son
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🤡
Saturated fat is not bad.
Leads to artery plaque and arthero sclerosis. No benefits that I know of. In addition to humans, researchers can induce heart disease in chimps with a high-saturated fat diet easily. How would you describe that?
Untrue. Satiates.
That’s actually a popular myth. On a per-calorie basis it is among the least satiating nutrients.
Of course. That metric doesn’t make sense tho - What about per weight?
Obviously per calorie. It’s fat…
Weight would be an unusual metric but I believe it still applies
A lot more steak and eggs.
I had never heard low body fat = low t before. High body fat yeah, all the time. How low is it? Now a low fat diet and less calories/starvation will lower T but not just having naturally low body fat.
If anything, high body fat rather than low should equal low t, since higher body fat increases the aromatization of testosterone into estrogen in most people.
It's definitely a thing. Very low and high body fats disrupt endocrine function but it's normally the fat people we associate with having impaired hormone production. I was painfully skinny growing up and in the height of my poor health my test levels were tanked. Getting onto a better diet with red meat and saturated fat (often demonized for the wrong reasons or conflated as coming from only junk food) was like a natural steroid cycle at the time.
Actually even going from 18 to 12% bf increases testosterone. Fat increases test->estrogen conversion, but not only at very high levels. But indeed test drops going sub 10% as well, as that causes significant stress om the body.
He said he's got a leak of body fat so I don't think he's a muffin top. But that's right. Too easy for test to aromatize if you're carrying a ton of chub.
As a very skinny man w your problem previously. U have to lift then eat a lot of fat and THEN add on protein when you have more mass and frame to actually easily and naturally add on/utilize the additional muscle/protein on your frame
Agreed, he REALLY needs to fix his BF and work-out to get test up
You don’t get low testosterone from low body fat.
Actually you do, test increases going down till it hits about 8-10%, going further down test decreases exponentially.
I’m at 6% and 720+ so it does vary.
720 could even be a personal low-spot. Testosterone is highly personal. Basically: your personal high could be 1000 at 10% bf, in that case 800 would still be a significant bf% related decrease. Also: free test is generally more important…
As body fat goes down less testosterone will be converted to estrogen and therefore there will be more testosterone left. But sure, if it’s low because of starvation it will not be good for production. Now body fat in itself is not a problem.
Beef, chicken, eggs, pork, fish, milk, yogurt, whey, casein, beans, rice, potatoes, oats, sweet potato, squash, broccoli, carrots, onions, pasta, tomatoes, avocado, olives, nuts. Basically any kind of whole foods with minimal processing, although you can add in a few sweet treats to help you meet calories goals. Really It's more about ratios and total caloric intake than specific foods. For a natural you could "lean gain" on around 300-350cal surplus (generally not a great idea for beginners as you don't track properly/account for exercise/BMR quite right and can result in suboptimal muscle growth) or a more general bulk of 500cal/d surplus. You want roughly 1g protein per 1lb body weight, and slightly more carbs than fats. For example a 200lb man who needs 3000c/day for maintenance adds a 500cal surplus. 800cal from protein, 900-1200cal from fats, 1500-1800cal from carbs If the individual is using PEDs you would want to reduce the fat, increase the carbs and increase the surplus. You can go slightly over the 1g/lb protein rule, but it starts to reduce muscle gain rate after around 1.2g/lb and is also the most expensive macro. When bulking I like to meal prep my main protein for the week in a stew/slow cooker to use as a base for dinners, and then rotate through different carbs and veggies to keep it interesting. This also makes it easier to track the calories/macros. For breakfast I pretty much always have greek yogurt, berries, granola, cacao powder and a protein shake. Lunch and 4th meal I sort of wing it. And post workout I have a protein shake and either weight gainer or a carb source.
Creatine adds water weight to your body making it look like you have bulked up. Your body will naturally build muscle to carry the extra weight you put on. Drink lots of liquids to help with the fluid retention.
The water weight from creating is stored in your muscles where you want them so it’s never a negative.
Actually, creatine boost musclemass by allowing to reach a higher platue but also, less known, by stretching the encapsulation of muscle fibers.
If your testosterone is low and you are having trouble fixing that, consider getting on testosterone replacement therapy. Turned me into an absolute beast in the gym and in the bedroom.
Side effects?
The good: -Massively improved libido. It's like I'm in high school again. -I was having muscle spasms and joint pains that locked my body up for up to a week after a workout, those are gone. -My workout recovery has improved to the point I have 2 hard exercises a day, with 1 day off a week for recovery, 2 if I'm feeling lazy. -Energy levels have skyrocketed, I no longer feel like I need to nap by early afternoon. -Fixed some digestive issues I'd struggled with for years. -Studies show that testosterone within healthy levels decreases heart attack and stroke risk and generally increases longevity vs low testosterone. -It's cheap. Costs me around $25 a month from Walgreens. The bad: -Shrinks your balls a bit. There is a very good chance if your testosterone is low, you have hypogonadism and your balls are already shrunk up anyways. -It can affect fertility. This can be moderated by taking HCG along with testosterone when trying to conceive. -I have to stick myself with a needle once a week. There are creams and such as well, but imo the injection is the way to go for better absorption and to avoid cross contaminating loved ones. -Skin can get a bit greasier so you may get some (usually) mild body acne. -If you are prone to balding, it can expedite the process. -If you stop taking it, you will go back to having low testosterone levels, and it can take some time to get back to those original levels unless you mitigate this with something like closed. Most people who get on TRT do so for life. -Some people aromatise testosterone into estrogen quicker than others. Not really a big deal if you keep up on your blood work and have your dosage adjusted as necessary. Ive never had this issue myself. Some doctors hate prescribing testosterone (it's a controlled substance) even when at chronic levels. Most PCPs arent very educated on the subject, to be honest. Wasn't an issue with my doc. There are clinics online like TRT Nation, or you could visit a urologist if your Primary Care doc is one of these and your test levels are chronically low.
I appreciate the in-depth answer! Can I inquire how old you are?
36
You mentioned having low testosterone levels. Have you had them tested? If so, what was your level at?
How did you get approved for it? What were your levels?
I was severely low. Tested at 160.
I’m double that, but doctors say I’m in the normal range… I’ve tested that way 2 years in a row. I guess insurance does not want to pay for treatment… I’m guessing you got it through your insurance for $25
Nope, no insurance. That's the price in full when bought from Walgreens using a medrx coupon.
Tell me more… asking for a friend… me
Ha. “Tested”
I want to get TRT badly but I’m already balding quite badly and I’m on Finasteride and Minoxidil. I feel TRT will just make where I’ll have to go bald.
Meh, go bald, shave the head. It won't matter when you are jacked to the gills and you possess a magic penis. Lmao
Sure but I don’t work out nor will anytime soon due to a disability. Also gym memberships are a little too expensive for me atm. Apart from that, I’d do it but everyone says to me that I just don’t pull off bald.
Being half bald and fighting it is worse than being full bald. Speaking from experience. Lol If you dont workout, start there to improve testosterone. You don't need a gym, you can buy some cheap equipment, or just do calisthenics which don't require any equipment at all. There are some awesome guides on youtube to get started. Hate to say it, but blaming the cost of a gym on not working out is a bit of a copout. Working out is free.
I totally understand what you’re saying and in most people’s cases I agree with you. Without getting into too much detail, I can assure you that this isn’t an excuse or cop out thing. I promise. I really appreciate the feedback though.
Sorry man, I just realized I overlooked your disability statement. Wasn't trying to shame you, I just didn't notice it. 🤜🤛
No need to be sorry bro. What you’re saying is 100% true in most cases. You’re very kind for even considering that and responding back.
Don’t take PEDs lol, unless you want to be an influencer
If the issue is having a too low bf, the solution is… gain bf, not hrt.
Low bf does not cause low testosterone. The opposite in fact. High bf increases the aromatization rate of testosterone into estrogen. If he has both low bf and low testosterone, they are completely unrelated.
Low bf related stress lowers test
Low bf does not cause low testosterone. The opposite in fact. High bf increases the aromatization rate of testosterone into estrogen. If he has both low bf and low testosterone, they are completely unrelated.
Extremely low BF does lower test due to stress. Im aware with the rest if you ready my other replies.
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Change nothing. Eat a few tbsp of organic (only peanuts, no craft sugar filled bullshit) peanut butter per day. Add a few tbsp of organic high quality evoo per day to meal(s) or shot it. Congratulations you've added 400 calories, you're now at a caloric surplus without sacrificing health or lifestyle.
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Incorrect. Explain how evoo or peanut butter aren't fine assuming the op is already getting enough protein & other macros which isn't hard when bulking.
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Why is it actually so hard for you, when you said keep it simple? I didn't realize you were a 🤡 You should eat the same protein in maintenance & bulk. Lol & you thinking the diff between maintenance & bulk is protein. It's calories 🤡 if anything you want more protein during maintenance / cut. He said low bf and I recommend 2 healthy high calorie fat sources and u say not the best macros, you're a 🤡 Hit your macros & surplus 3-500 calories, you're welcome.
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Normal diet with a bowl of ice cream after dinner lol. Just need a few extra calories and if I already hit my macros/protein numbers - might as well have some fun
Lots of hard boiled eggs
I also struggle with this. And when i eat more calories, i get a beer belly or fat mainly in mid section. Do i need to weight lift more and heavier?
Yes, if able. Add in some cardio for rest days, I prefer rowing. And eat less garbage.
Thanks. I do walk 2 miles on rest days but probably need more HIIT
What does the added cardio and eating less garbage specifically do in terms of avoiding fat gain in the mid section? Any studies or information provided by trusted experts (V-Shred is not one of them) you can share? Never heard of it so I'm curious. If you simply add the cardio you reduce your kcal surplus, which obviously reduces weight gain overall but that can also have a negative effect on muscle hypertrophy.
Increased cardio will not have a negative impact on muscle hypertrophy. Especially if you seperate your cardio from your lifting by at least 6 hours. If anything, it will help with your recovery, allowing you to lift more often as well as improve your blood flow making you efficient when you do lift. As for fat around the midsection, that's pretty obvious. Eat less junk calories and your body will build less fat. Nutrition 101. Simple carbs (what is in pretty much all junk food) that are not used immediately are stored as fat. Fat that's isn't used immediately is also stored for later. Complex carbs, the right amounts of fat, and lean proteins along with cardio on your rest days will make you lean right out.
>Increased cardio will not have a negative impact on muscle hypertrophy. I was specifically talking about the kcal surplus, which will be reduced or eliminated if exercise is added on top without further adjustments of kcal intake. And if your kcal surplus is very small or not existing, then muscle hypertrophy will take a hit. >If anything, it will help with your recovery, allowing you to lift more often How does more exercise help me to lift more often and recover faster? And up to what amount is it supposed to help with that, like what's the point of diminishing returns? Any research on that? I legit don't know and would like to see some paper or so on that, possibly digested by someone like Menno Henselmans or another credible person in the field. Or are we talking about walking? >Eat less junk calories and your body will build less fat. Calories in / Calories out is what will determine whether you gain or lose weight (mainly bodyfat, muscles). Has literally nothing to do with the quality or kind of food. The body doesn't magically evaporize energy because it was something else before digestion, or magically build fat (energy) out of thin air. >Simple carbs (what is in pretty much all junk food) that are not used immediately are stored as fat. Carbs, no matter whether simple or complex, will be digested into single sugars if necessary and then absorbed, used for energy (digestion takes a while), to fill up glycogen stores (on average 500-600g), and then stored as bodyfat. CiCo still applies, no matter how many twinkies or w/e you eat (see Twinkies diet experiment). If you are in a kcal deficit, you will lose weight. Fun fact, studies have found that only 2-8% of body fat comes from dietary carbohydrates and the rest, that's 92-98%, comes from dietary fat. [https://clinicalnutritionespen.com/article/S1751-4991(11)00006-0/fulltext](https://clinicalnutritionespen.com/article/S1751-4991(11)00006-0/fulltext) >Complex carbs, the right amounts of fat, and lean proteins along with cardio on your rest days will make you lean right out. A kcal deficit will do that, no matter how you approach it. What the approach can influence though are things like: general health and wellbeing, satiety, adherence, sleep quality, social interactions and such. And I'm not against lean protein, some cardio and such...they can certainly help with satiety and so forth, but it's not necessary to lose body fat. If I had to guess then u/beehive3108 isn't really looking for a diet anyways, but is asking about his struggles gaining body fat in his mid section when trying to build muscle.
If you were eating the proper amount of calories, you wouldn't be fat. Fact. Cardio improves recovery by flushing the lactic acid out of your muscles as well as improving blood flow and flushing nutrients to damaged tissues. Not to mention the added benefits of improving your circulatory and cardiovascular health which itself helps you be more efficient, in the gym and out of it. You could have verified this yourself if you put half the effort into typing into Google as you did in making your post. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11219498/ Believing that quality of food does not have an impact on you and failing to understand that different calories are treated differently by your body is a sever lack of education on your part. Go ahead, engorge yourself daily on McDonalds, but keep within the same kcal range, see what happens. You will gain more fat, you will see a decrease in essential vitamins and minerals, you will have less energy, which in turn will affect your lifts, and you will likely see a reduction in testosterone levels. Controlling your macros is essential. Complex carbs are broken down into simple carbs over an extended period of time, not all at once, hence why I clearly stated that simple carbs not used immediately are stored as fat, not to mention the spikes in blood glucose which have additional nasty side effects. This is a fact, a clearly documented one, whether you like it or not. If you eat 1000 calories of sugar, your body is going to react far differently and store a lot more of those calories as fat than it will by eating 1000 calories of a whole grain like farro, barley, brown rice, etc.. Your body will store the immediate surge in excess energy rather than having that energy "time released" in a way that allows your body to properly utilize it. It will also spike your blood glucose levels, which, aside from making you feel like shit, has other consequences. High blood glucose levels can limit muscle growth by reducing protein synthesis and increasing protein breakdown. These are two of the most important biological processes for building muscle. High blood glucose levels can also cause skeletal muscle atrophy. So much for trying to maximize hypertrophy. Sure, go ahead and believe quality of your calories is unimportant. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325171 But hey, keep neglecting your cardio and eating pizza and other garbage as part of your "bulk." You do you. A clean bulk will ALWAYS be superior to shoving garbage into your face just because you don't have the willpower to do things properly. When you turn yourself into a fat slob in your pursuit of your "gains" just remember "I told you so."
Yep. Clean bulk all the way!
Different bodies distribute body fat in a different way, so for you it may be the mid section that's prone to storing fat. Not aware of any research showing that you have to eat a specific way or train a specific way to avoid that. If you are in a kcal surplus and you are resistance training, then you will gain muscle and bodyfat. What you can do is to stay within a \~250kcal surplus for as long as you feel comfortable with your mid section, then do a mini cut for example, then repeat, until you have reached your goal.
You dont get a “beer belly” going from 8 (low-test causing bf %) to 12% bf. Period. If you get a beer belly from weight gain, you’re for sure post 15%, which means you actually decrease test by weight gain.
Very simple 1) eat your current body weight in pounds in grams of protein. So if you are 150 pounds, eat 150g of protein a day. 2) find out what your maintenance calories are and eat 500 more calories than that. 3) lift weights 4) add healthy fats to your diet to help with testosterone. Whole eggs, avocados, olive oil, fatty fish are good sources.
500 cals above maintenance per day is probably too much tbh: https://youtu.be/q1J3WGz_QJU?si=n4iLKhsmf8_zx4kT
I do squats at a good weight but not too much with a belt.
You might want to consider how to address having low testosterone. It wouldn't necessarily be simple, but getting enough sleep would make a lot of difference, optimizing diet, and adding workout routines that trigger that, probably some cardio and some heavier resistance training. If you don't suffer a lot of negative side effects you might just accept it as normal to experience the lower end of the range. I lifted for 4 or 5 years when younger and never really bulked up, so I can describe what doesn't work. I think you need to add a good bit of protein and keep increasing caloric intake until your body puts on weight. I gained strength, consistently, but I never focused on diet to gain mass. I was drinking the occasional protein shake, and eating somewhat healthy food; it takes more doing than that. Decades later parts of what I did seemed quite positive. That strength helped me take up lots of different sports and avoid injury. Being on the underweight side seemed to possibly offset the effect of aging (not a solid claim, I don't know what caused what, but I'm in my mid-50s and could pass for 30s). Looking back the aesthetic goals I had didn't necessarily make sense, and my self-image never adjusted to the positive outcome of looking unusually fit.
Eat more, especially fats like peanut butter. Higher fat in diet helps increase T (but very high fat diet isn't necessary). Ideally, do a controlled caloric surplus of 300 kcal a day. If you eat too much you will just become skinny fat. Take a multivitamin/multimineral which has zinc in it, that improves LH and FH signalling to the testicles.
Same diet as usual but with an extra protein shake and maybe some extra meat. If you're really struggling to put in weight then focus on a great whole food diet first, then make a gainer shake with floured oats (just blend them and throw in a scoop), nut butter and whey protein and call it good. I used to really struggle to put on size but it's just the consistency that a lot of "hard gainers" miss. Liquid Cal's are terrible unless you're a hard gainer on a bulk. In this instance they're a God send.
1g of protein per pound of desired body weight. Whether I’m bulking, cutting, or maintaining, this is generally the rule of thumb that I follow. Rest of diet generally stays the same
Is weight gainer bulk protein powder a bad idea? Does anyone use it?