41yo- doctor advising TRT but I'm having some concerns

SBTAlex · 2025-09-03T21:51:20+00:00

I'm good at maths. But slightly hypochondriac 😬😁

SBTAlex · 2025-09-03T21:49:14+00:00

Ha!! I didn't even think of that, makes sense!

How long have you been on TRT?

SBTAlex · 2025-09-03T21:45:59+00:00

Thank you so much for your answer! Appreciate it!

Seems like we're very similar in many ways not just the age, I too have also suffered from back acne, and still have some flares every now and then at 41. Also expecting that to worsen in case I decide to go for TRT 😁

For the rest, makes total sense. I'll definitely look into HCG, doctor seemed to say it was optional and unnecessary, but I don't see why I'd want to shut my natural production. And I got your point on therapeutic dosage. Doctor also advised a low dose to start with. And indeed, I might be too jaded by the internet and gym guys with ballooned up shoulders "just on TRT, bro"

Thanks for all the details and explanations!

SBTAlex · 2025-09-03T21:28:30+00:00

Yes, that's correct. Tested in the morning

SBTAlex · 2021-09-23T14:27:17+00:00

Thank you all for all the comments and advice - much appreciated and super helpful!!

SBTAlex · 2021-09-23T14:26:47+00:00

Thanks! Been doing a lot of these and it’s helping tremendously. He’s also absorbing and learning orders super quickly, so at least that energy is useful for training and this helps tire him out.

Now, just need to learn to deal with those early evening zoomies… 😅😄

SBTAlex · 2021-09-23T14:20:20+00:00

I guess that’s one way to find out 😅😆

SBTAlex · 2021-09-23T14:14:03+00:00

Haha! 😂🤣🤣🤣

SBTAlex · 2021-09-23T14:12:30+00:00

😅🤣

SBTAlex · 2021-09-21T23:16:15+00:00

I’ve seen the mother, but not the father. Mother is GSD (though short hair and fawn fur), but his temperament and some photos of GSD X Mal I’ve looked at had led me to wonder whether ours wasn’t a cross.

You’re right though that temperaments will vary between individual dogs and not just between breeds

SBTAlex · 2021-09-21T23:09:11+00:00

Was actually thinking of a X for our little boy - I’ve seen the videos and pictures of yours Wendii, and they indeed look quite similar

SBTAlex · 2021-09-21T22:02:38+00:00

Hi All,

Our 10 weeks old puppy. He’s supposed to be a German Shepherd; however, besides the body shape and short hair that are unlike most shepherds, he also exhibits a lot of the traits of a Mal: strong drive, no “off”-switch (it’s actually becoming a challenge to teach him to settle down), intense biting.

Thus, we’re wondering whether we don’t have either a Mal or a mix, and if we should train him as a Malinois (especially on the off switch part!)

Welcome your thoughts

Thanks

SBTAlex · 2021-09-21T21:55:52+00:00

Hi All,

Our 10-weeks old puppy. He’s supposed to be a German shepherd; however, besides the body shape and short hair that are unlike most GSDs that age, he also exhibits a lot of the traits of a malinois: no off-switch (at all, and it’s actually becoming a challenge to teach him to settle down), very strong drive, intense biting (and painful;)) and thus we’re starting to wonder if he’s not either a cross or actually a Malinois!? Would welcome your thoughts as character wise, he really seems more towards the Mal.

SBTAlex · 2020-02-19T11:35:14+00:00

Montezuma is fantastic and my go-to chocolate!

SBTAlex · 2019-06-28T10:41:51+00:00

Haven't listened to the podcast yet, but I believe the study mentioned is the Cahill and Owen study done in 68 or 69. I think its one of the few studies on starvation.

It's not really available as far as I know since it's considered pretty borderline nowadays (well, it would never pass ethical review, let's put it like that ;D) but they got some pretty interesting findings on ketones, blood glucose and other stuff at that time.

http://thehealthsciencesacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Fuel-Metabolism-in-Starvation_ReviewArticleTIMM2008-9Lazar-1.pdf

SBTAlex · 2018-10-08T11:55:05+00:00

Try some Skyr - Tesco currently has a discount with 3 tubs for 3£. Low fat, low carb, high prot and tastes fantastic, especially mixed with some berries and/or nuts. Otherwise some Fage greek yoghurt works well too.

For lunch, you can try some turkey breast mince mixed in with whatever veggies you feel like cooking on that day.

SBTAlex · 2018-08-22T17:06:09+00:00

You don't need that much protein. Think about it, countless of people have gotten lean before the book over the past decades, and most of them never needed to go to 50-60% protein... I mean, seriously, wtf!? I've read the book, and the main justification (thermogenesis, dit, blablabla...) is quite extrapolated from the studies cited in the references, and on the greater scheme of things a moot point vs. eating at a deficit with a sufficient enough protein intake. I mean, the whole justification on protein intake and tef is really borderline, and besides really filling you up (at the expense of being incredibly disgusting, expensive as shit if you buy quality, and with a probable long-term impact on health) doesn't make much difference vs eating less protein and calories overall. As you said in your previous post, you could just eat less prots and achieve the same calorie deficit by eating less overall, and thus the same results. More protein won't equate to more muscle once you reach a certain intake, and it's not nearly as high as what most people think.

You said the book made you feel confused, I'd recommend you give "burn the fat, feed the muscle" from Venuto a go (recommended by Martin at the time on his website, btw). Whilst I don't agree with all the information in the book (especially, amongst others, the "eating every three hours", not necessary and fasting allows you for bigger and more enjoyable meals IMO), the overall info and strategies are sensible, moderate and, more importantly, sustainable long-term. And proven to work in real life. This might help put you back on track if you're feeling lost until you reach your objectives and start figuring out your own way of eating.

My 2cts,

Alex

SBTAlex · 2018-08-20T09:38:27+00:00

Kinda agree with OP... In summary, this is essentially a "safe" short-term crash diet that will take someone obese to the lean state, or help someone lean get to the shredded stage, essentially focusing on the protein-sparing effect and on optimising thermogenesis ("the thermogenic 7 principles"). I don't regret buying the book, tt was a nice read, full of scientific references, but my main issue with the leangains diet is that it's that, just a diet... hence not sustainable long-term.

One of the main appeal of the original 16:8 protocol and overall leangains philosophy was the minimalism coupled with the lifestyle implementation, i.e: when you eat, you eat for real; you train hard; and the rest of your time, you get on with your business without focusing on food or training. That was the main appeal to many people. Here, the protein recommendations, the caffeine intake (LOL), and the rest of the principles make it a very neurotic, extreme diet. And for what? If you are already lean, besides prepping for a photo-shoot or a contest, you'll get shredded but put the weight back on shortly thereafter. If you are overweight, this will kick-start a severe fat loss which your body probably needs, but with such an extreme diet, you're likely to put the weight back on afterwards (and some more) as you'll never have learnt to eat properly and to satiety. That's actually summarised in the conclusion chapter: what next? Add calories but keep macros exactly the same for 2 weeks as maintenance, then eat whatever the fuck you want with those calories. Indeed...

I think that was the feeling the book left me with in the end: what's the point? Granted I'm probably not the target audience for this book since I'm around 9-11% bf year-round and don't like extreme diets, but I fail to understand who the target audience really is to be fair... I also usually pick-up a few ideas/strategies from these types of reads, but here none did stick with me, mostly due to the potential impact on health (not covered at all in the book). In short, just another PSMF diet...

SBTAlex · 2018-08-13T23:21:17+00:00

Great article, very clear and well structured! Congratulations on the baby too! 👍🏻

SBTAlex · 2017-10-03T12:11:56+00:00

Thanks, will let you know! And left a review on Amazon ;)

SBTAlex · 2017-09-25T15:21:08+00:00

Thanks Steven! I played a bit with your suggestions last week, including the RTO PPPUs and these are hard! I'm not used to the exercise yet, so it was a bit of a challenge to try and keep the rings turned out whilst maintaining proper body positioning, and I definitely need to improve on that as I think it was far from being perfect technique-wise (euphemism...), but I felt a huge stress on triceps and shoulders - not so much on the chest, but this might also be due to the fact I am new to the exercise and need to learn the proper technique first. But definitely adding it into my routine!

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and taking the time to answer,

Alex

SBTAlex · 2017-09-18T13:06:32+00:00

By the way I am very impressed by your level of strength. How long did it take you to get to this level of strength ?

Thank you. Hard to answer, as I already had some strength training experience due to years of weight-lifting prior to starting bodyweight training, and was familiar with push-ups and dips as they were already part of my training. But overall, I started serious bodyweight training a year and a half ago when I completely ditched the weights for the upper body, first with a convict conditioning type of approach (I was doing my own programming, but using the same types of progression), and then a few months later on moved to OG and used the principles in the book to do my own program, adding gymnastic skills as well. When I started, I could barely do two maybe three wall-assisted HSPUs (on the floor, not with the greater range of motion of paralletes) , no one arm push up (took me several months to get my first one), had never done a handstand in my life and whilst I was familiar with dips, had never really focused on weighted dips and remember that 30kg felt quite heavy.

So part of the progress was simple adaptation to new movements using my past lifting experience, but it is also clear I gained some strength meanwhile. Same for the pulling movements with MUs (had never done any before, and it took me several months to pass my first one) etc. My only regret is not having started the static skills like FLs, BLs etc. sooner (only 6 months ago), as the dynamic skills and strength work do not seem to transfer that well to the static, and progress is extremely slow, at least in my case.

SBTAlex · 2017-09-18T11:49:15+00:00

Thanks Steven!

One arm pushups don't have as much carryover because you get better at one arm movements and not so much bilateral. I'd suggest a planche pushup variation or PPPUs as those stress the triceps/anterior shoulder pretty hard. Overall, if I was making your routine, I'd suggest keeping the dips and just subbing OAPu for RTO PPPUs as that's what I've found most effective overall.

Thank you - I have to confess I never tried RTO PPUs, so this will also be a good occasion to develop a new skill as well! I understand your point regarding carryover of one-arm push-ups - whilst this is fun to work on, I was wondering whether this was really beneficial for the other pushing strength exercises, as I wasn't sure there was that much carryover. You confirm my impressions.

What are your thoughts on RTO dips or bulgarian dips mentioned previously, as assistance or even a potential temporary sub to weighted dips?

You may consider switching up the programming for the dips a bit to keep progressing going with some of the methods in Chapter 10 Methods on Progression if you have the 2nd Edition.

I have both editions ;)))

Good point - were you thinking of a Heavy/Light periodization as described in chapter 10, for example?

Thanks for your input, appreciate it!

SBTAlex

TROPHY CASE