 Our next caller is Elijah from Texas. Hey, what's up Elijah? How can we help you? Hey, so Had a question about some TRT diet stuff So a little bit of backstory former Air Force Got out Got lazy got fat Had the realization that I needed to make changes so about three years ago. I peaked at about 314 pounds We basically changed our entire lifestyle. I now maintain about 235 But I've been dealing with some symptoms of low T for a long while now even after the fat loss so Thanks to some of the conversations that you guys have had on the show especially Adam. I pursued that and I'm now two weeks on The initial dose that they're putting me on for TRT Already within a few days. I'm starving all the time So right now I maintain about 3,000 calories and I don't know whether I should kind of stay at maintenance for a little while Obviously, I got to get used to everything. They're gonna dial in the dose but after that do I stay at maintenance and try and recomp or push calories up slowly and See how I respond and if so, how long before I should probably jump into some type of You know cut face because I do still have some some body fat to lose. Yeah, no good question a couple things Do you mind if I ask what your testosterone was at before you went on to TRT? So the initial diagnosis test was like 320 I had another test at like 290 something and then they did another one That was like 357 Okay, and in starting dose. Do you mind if you let us know what the starting doses in milligrams? Just 100 milligrams a week. You're only on a hundred. You're not what you're not with dr. Ran Then are you no? Yeah, you must know it's a local clinic that my insurance covers Oh, I see okay. Dr. Rand is the best in the business So I would go there and he usually starts people off higher. Nonetheless what you're noticing is quite normal So testosterone is a metabolism boosting hormone if they give it to men who don't even work out with low testosterone They'll lose body fat and build muscle without even working out So it just shifts the way that your body uses Nutrients and where it shuttles them and you will typically if you look at the research It takes about four months or so before people start to kind of settle down So initially sometimes people feel way more energy libido goes through the roof That'll settle down a little bit and their appetite goes up quite a bit as well. These are actually good signs Okay, they're good signs. It's telling us that the testosterone is doing its job But also realize it's gonna settle after about four or five months typically again If when you look at the literature now if you were my client what I'd recommend is to go with it I would say look here's the deal Stick to whole natural foods Prioritize protein eat until you're satisfied. Okay, don't eat until you're stuffed eat until you're satisfied and that'll keep you Probably where you should be now a few hyper palatable foods Processed foods I should say you're gonna your calories gonna go up naturally if you don't prioritize protein You're more likely to eat too many calories So high protein whole natural foods continue doing your workout and then just eat until you're satisfied and kind of Give your body what it needs and what you'll probably notice is You're just gonna gain muscle and then what happens is the body's fat starts to come down Because of the metabolism boosting effects of the increased muscle mass I'm gonna predict that at some point. They're gonna probably increase your testosterone dose 100 milligrams a week is Typically barely a replacement dose from from what I understand but again, you can get a consultation from Someone like Dr. Rand and what they'll do is they'll go over what your clinic's doing and then give you some advice and you can go Back to your clinic and say hey, this is you know kind of what I want to try But this is not a bad sign this is a sign that your testosterone It's working you're in a great place right now You're in a great place right now in the fact that you're already consuming 3,000 calories And I know your question is asking us who you know what you should do whether you should cut bulk Recomp what you should do right now. Well the answer is you can kind of do anything. You're in a healthy place calorie wise You obviously your your your metabolism is speeding up and you're in you're hungry You're now I personally if I if you let me tell you what to do what I want you to do I mean your body is basically primed for building muscle and it wasn't so much not that long ago With your testosterone levels as low as they were Now that you're supplementing with testosterone, you're gonna build muscle better than you ever have before and so I would Want to go with that I'd want to instead of going into a cut right now Which you could because you're at a healthy amount of calories I'd rather put calories on and really focus on getting strong and building muscle and I would want so if you're a client I our goal would be okay I'm gonna I want to keep inching your calories up until you get at a place where you tell me like Adam That's this is I don't want to eat all this food and then I go back the other way with you So I'd keep inching you up trying to build strength until we reach a calorie intake where you're looking back at me Saying like I feel like I'm eating all day I don't like this much food Can we go the other way and then I'd bring you the other way and and try and land you somewhere kind of probably where you're at Right now calorie-wise, but work you up to probably 3600 plus. Yeah, I mean keep keep this in mind You're this is this is a very good sign if you feed your body properly, you're gonna be fine Now if you take this increased appetite and then eat a bunch of processed garbage Then yeah, you're gonna prop you're just gonna gain muscle and body fat So you'll get this huge bulk effect, right? But if you eat whole natural foods prioritize protein What you'll do is fuel muscle growth and then your metabolism will boost and then at about like month three four five Now you're gonna start to burn body fat and the body fat really starts to come off your body because of the This sped up Metabolism effects of what's happening right now. So not a bad place at all I like in feed your body just stay away from those foods that you know Are engineered to make us really overeat because then it'll just be too much of a compounding effect Okay, I'm I appreciate it. That's awesome. Elijah. What workout are you following right now? I do my own programming. I do I've been doing a push-pull legs six days a week Okay modulate intensity and you know volume. Yeah, I'm gonna put that I'm gonna send you maps aesthetic if you don't have that great program for building muscle I think you're in a good place for it right now, especially if you've been doing what you've been doing for a little while So if you don't have access We'll send that over to you and then if you want that consultation you want to inquire about it You go to mp hormones calm and they'll look over your current protocol and then tell you what they think, you know Would be would be good for you Okay, that's awesome. I appreciate it. No problem. Thanks for calling in Thank you Yeah, this is a different situation right then the average person Yeah, no, I mean, but what a great place to be eating 3000 calories still hungry taking your testosterone levels 293 hundred and probably now shooting them up to 900 plus I mean your body is just you know, so I guess you know He could go and cut right now if he really if because he's got extra body fat, but I would much rather you keep building Yeah, I feed the metabolism. It's already trying to you know bump up and you and who knows how long he's been training with this low of Testosterone, which you know, we've all experienced low levels of testosterone and know what it's like to try and build much Very hard to build muscle when your testosterone levels are on the floor and one of the best parts about getting on hormone therapy is having Optimal testosterone all the time makes it a lot more fun. Oh, yeah I mean now now so long as you don't eat like an asshole like it's Sal's talking about I mean you you will add and build muscle and speed the metabolism up I would go right with feeding the body. I tell you what though just kind of a side. No, it is quite It was very surprising to me to real and of course this makes sense. This is true for any business, right? the difference in Expertise and recommendations. Oh, yeah from one clinic to another. Well, he sounds like he's at a clinic I was the first time. Yeah, that's what I'm saying when you went to that first one And they were you started you off on a hundred and you're looking at your numbers and like I still I feel better But I still and then you go talk to dr. Ran and he goes, you know That's important But we also got to go based off of how you feel and it can fluctuate depending on the man and androgen receptor density and All that kind of stuff a hundred is in you know, typically typically Low if you're gonna go on replacement. Well, my take away from it in my experience is that you you'll get these clinics like this and Ageless men was like that and I think that they're they kind of like how NASM would tell you not to shoulder press deeper than 90. Yeah, you know, it's like a safe like well We don't want to risk going to guards and yeah So let's let's be conservative and put you on the lower end when in reality It's like you could handle double that no problem. They inched me up like 10 milligrams at a time By the time I got to dr. Ran, you know I'd already inched up like four or five times and he still was like, oh my god I would start you at almost double that that's nowhere near. Yeah, and it's you know what it's old school It's it's a it's a old understanding of testosterone because the the research now and I'm not even now for the last 20 years Shows it's only because it was a controlled substance because for a while there. Oh athletes are you sure? But no, no, no, it's not it's of all the hormones you need to be careful for testosterone is a pretty damn safe Hormone so this like fear around moving it up is totally unwarranted And I you know, I like I said when you talk to people really know what they're doing it becomes quite clear so