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[jagfc3s]

My name is Juan, I am 28 years old 5’11 and currently 300lbs I don’t feel super overweight but I felt better when I wasn’t this heavy. A few years ago I was actively going to the gym, and while I felt very limber I never really lost any weight. My program consisted of 5 gym days Mondays, Wednesday, Friday I lifted and Tuesday and Thursdays I worked my core and did cardio, Saturdays I did yoga with my wife. My nutrition was not solid to say but I’ve always stayed away from sugars, and fried foods. At that point I weighed around 245 which I didn’t mind, but I had a terrible case of Gynecomastia that to this day im very embarrassed about. I had thought my enlarged breast were simply excess fat from the weight loss in my teenage years as I was over 300lbs before puberty. I decided to go to a doctor about it who ran blood work and found abnormal levels and sent me to a neurologist where I discovered I had a benign growth on my pituitary gland After 2 years of MRI’s and blood work. Recently I had to switch doctors and the new doctor wanted to do a full baseline and went over some issues I had so he ordered some blood work which came back and leads me to believe I have low testosterone, vitamin d, b12 and low growth hormone. I have a follow up appointment with my doctor but want to share the results in hopes that some of you may give me an idea of what to expect when I go in.
Testosterone, total 204
Testosterone, free calc 72.2
Test % free 3.5
Test bioavail, calc 169
Test % bioavailable 83.
Sex hormone binding globulin 6
Cholesterol, ldl, calculated 132
Vit d 17
Growth hormone <0.05
B12 543
Cortisol 7.6
I would like to get back to going to gym regularly again but when i wake up I really struggle to just get moving. Before I stopped going to the gym I was able to bench my body weight but hurt my shoulder with bad form while lifting, while recovering is when I went to the doctor for the gynecosmatia.

[Justin]

My name is Juan, I am 28 years old 5’11 and currently 300lbs I don’t feel super overweight but I felt better when I wasn’t this heavy. A few years ago I was actively going to the gym, and while I felt very limber I never really lost any weight. My program consisted of 5 gym days Mondays, Wednesday, Friday I lifted and Tuesday and Thursdays I worked my core and did cardio, Saturdays I did yoga with my wife. My nutrition was not solid to say but I’ve always stayed away from sugars, and fried foods. At that point I weighed around 245 which I didn’t mind, but I had a terrible case of Gynecomastia that to this day im very embarrassed about. I had thought my enlarged breast were simply excess fat from the weight loss in my teenage years as I was over 300lbs before puberty. I decided to go to a doctor about it who ran blood work and found abnormal levels and sent me to a neurologist where I discovered I had a benign growth on my pituitary gland After 2 years of MRI’s and blood work. Recently I had to switch doctors and the new doctor wanted to do a full baseline and went over some issues I had so he ordered some blood work which came back and leads me to believe I have low testosterone, vitamin d, b12 and low growth hormone. I have a follow up appointment with my doctor but want to share the results in hopes that some of you may give me an idea of what to expect when I go in.
Testosterone, total 204
Testosterone, free calc 72.2
Test % free 3.5
Test bioavail, calc 169
Test % bioavailable 83.
Sex hormone binding globulin 6
Cholesterol, ldl, calculated 132
Vit d 17
Growth hormone <0.05
B12 543
Cortisol 7.6
I would like to get back to going to gym regularly again but when i wake up I really struggle to just get moving. Before I stopped going to the gym I was able to bench my body weight but hurt my shoulder with bad form while lifting, while recovering is when I went to the doctor for the gynecosmatia.

Hi Juan,

When listing out your blood results, it helps to include the unit of measurement. For example, are those numbers ng/dl, pg/ml, nmol/L, etc? Whichever one they are changes what those values mean. It's no different than measuring distance or weight, there are all types of possible ways to measure those but the number (just a random number) 25 means something completely different depending on the unit it was measured in.

As far as your weight loss struggle in the past, it sounds like you may have had a common problem many people have. Even if you avoid sugary and fried foods it's still very easy to stagnate in your weight loss if the total calories taken in is equal to or greater than what you burn per day. You can actually eat the healthiest diet in the world and gain body fat if your total daily calorie intake is consistently greater than the number of calories you burn. That's a hard concept for a lot of people to understand or accept - we all want to think if we eat chicken, green beans and apples we'll lose weight, but unfortunately, it doesn't quite work that way. Granted, there are huge advantages when trying to lose weight when it comes to sticking with healthy foods, but that's only part of the puzzle. Secondly, even if your caloric intake was below what you burn per day, if you have hormone imbalances this can make weight loss even more difficult. For some, if it's bad enough it can make fat loss nearly impossible and that can be very frustrating when you are legitimately putting in the time and effort. I'm sure a lot of people that read the threads on this message board have had similar situations, so it's not uncommon but thankfully there are remedies if you can pinpoint the problems.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have, and when you get a chance don't forget to add the units of measurement to your blood result numbers.

[jagfc3s]

Sorry about that here are the units of measure. Im not too knowledgeable on medical science was not sure if the units used were standard across all test
Testosterone, total 204 ng/dl
Testosterone, free calc 72.2 pg/ml
Test % free 3.5%
Test bioavail, calc 169ng/dl
Test % bioavailable 83.%
Sex hormone binding globulin 6nmol/L
Cholesterol, ldl, calculated 132mg/dl
Vit d 17ng/mL
Growth hormone <0.05ng/mL
B12 543 pg/mL
Cortisol 7.6 ug/dl

As for my diet ive been hovering around 2600-2800 daily cal, typically in the morning I’ll have oatmeal or yogurt, midmorning snack on hardboiled eggs ( usually 2 sometimes 2 full 1 whites) and fruit, or veggies lunch I usually have a can or two of tuna with an avocado and a dash of salt , mid afternoon snack a pack of almonds or more fruits, veggie and dinner a protein about closed fist size ( chicken, steak, fish) and salad ( I love salads I have a large garden, eat a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.) sometimes I struggle to hit my daily caloric goal because I don’t have an appetite I have to literally stop and tell myself its time to eat. I work for the railroad in the maintence of way department, which essentially means changing ties and rail im very active at work on my feet 85% of the day and walk on average 3 miles although lately with the added work its been closer to 7 miles a day.

[mkg]

At your height a maintenance diet would be 1800-2000 calories, you are overeating by 600-800 calories per day minimum. Get it down to 2000 or less and you will see you weight begin a downward trend. Your BMR should be high at your weight so you can lose weight for a while with normal activities. you can calculate your BMR, there are calculators all over the web.

[Justin]

Yes, you definitely have low testosterone levels, and if you're like a lot of men, weight loss or more accurately fat loss is going to be difficult.
You will probably need to come up with a more set guideline that you follow with your diet if you want to lose weight, however, getting your hormones under control is going to have to be part of it. It's highly unlikely just diet or just hormones will fix your issues.

mkg: keep in mind BMR doesn't account for muscle mass and doesn't account for daily activity when determining how many calories to consume.

Juan: you might try writing everything you eat down every day for a week or two and actually add up the calories each day as well as fats, proteins and carbs. It's possible you could be eating more than you think, this happens all the time. Even if you're not, it still helps you determine which direction you need to go.

[mkg]

not BMI, BMR (basal metabolic rate). That is a good rule of thumb for base calorie burn. You have to start somewhere....I use it as a target.

[jagfc3s]

thank you guys, i will start a log. i am actually looking forward to getting my body back in order, mainly waking up with energy. i will keep you guys all posted on any updates

[mkg]

keep us posted, we can be a community here...

[jagfc3s]

Well not a very good visit today. My doctor said I should look elsewhere for my low growth hormone, and the low testosterone he only wants to do dhea supplements 25 MG once a day for 3 months. I'm not happy with this because I'm crashing mid day, with my job where I'm often driving or operating machinery this is dangerous. I suggested maybe trying the gel or patch (because those were his only two options besides dhea) first and getting my levels to an acceptable range first then changing to dhea he refused to do so and said the supplement is the direction he is taking. I did some research and found a report that a three months regimen of dhea at 100mg daily only yielded a 10% increase on average. This is not enough if my current level is 204ng/dl, dhea seems like a good option for a slightly low t or a booster

[mkg]

Why not contact lowtestosterone.com?