Metabolic syndrome while looking fit

WindFish1993

New Member
Hi guys,

While trying to get some answers I stumbled across this very informative post here:


Now, my situation at the time was strange. Somewhere around the age of 21 I started having some common low testosterone issues. I shrugged it off as just anxiety and stress from transitioning from college to work life. Then it persisted and at 23 I had decided something was going on and that someone my age shouldn’t have had ED. I got my blood test and was like 315ng/dl. I didn’t know about TRT or anything then but I knew it didn’t make sense that a fit guy, hitting the gym 5 times a week, eating decent (but I did like dessert) and sleeping well was having this issue. Fast forward a few more years and I ask for the bloodwork again, this time it’s a little more detailed and I can see I am still in the gutter, but I see my SHBG and estrogen are tanked too. My glucose was 101 which is borderline. Eventually I had enough and got TRT.

Now, about 10 years later after my initial test results I am 5 years on TRT but still not sure how I got here. I wasn’t fat, I never smoked, I barely drank, I slept, I had been weight training for at least 5 years at that point. But again I always loved dessert, my Achilles heel and I figured it must have been fine since I wasn’t overweight and I always stayed active.

Now, I’ve changed my diet a lot since then, mostly vegetarian, high fiber, good fats, etc. Still my SHBG remains low (probably from TRT), glucose is back to 85 when fasted but I had an ultrasound and found out I have a fatty liver.

I found the link posted here and now I feel like everything is sort of aligning, In college I was walking class to class, biking to and from school, I did less weights but I moved more. After college I had a desk job, I still hit the gym 4-5 times a week though. And yes I ate dessert often, but I always had a flat stomach. After reading the article though it sounds like you can’t just do the 1 hour and suddenly it fixes everything else you did poorly the past 10 hours.

Ok all that being said, my goal since getting on Test C + HCG has been to find out how to get off it. Now I think I’ve probably been spiking the hell out of my blood sugar, but still being in a deficit or state that prevents weight gain. I haven’t been moving as much throughout the day and then thinking it was okay to make it up later (ignorance I suppose). But now where do I go from here?

First is to definitely figure out if my meals are spiking my glucose and I’m thinking a CGM can help. Second is to start moving more in intervals.

But here’s where I want to get feedback. If my body is possibly insulin resistant then should I try to get something like metformin? Tirz? Should I run them alongside TRT for a few months then try to do a pituitary restart? I know before all this that my testes work, enclomiphene bumped my LH and Total T to the 1000s. I just think my liver was suppressing my hormones due to my unrealized poor lifestyle. Realistically, is there hope? I’d be happy to get at least mid range.
 
Hi guys,

While trying to get some answers I stumbled across this very informative post here:


Now, my situation at the time was strange. Somewhere around the age of 21 I started having some common low testosterone issues. I shrugged it off as just anxiety and stress from transitioning from college to work life. Then it persisted and at 23 I had decided something was going on and that someone my age shouldn’t have had ED. I got my blood test and was like 315ng/dl. I didn’t know about TRT or anything then but I knew it didn’t make sense that a fit guy, hitting the gym 5 times a week, eating decent (but I did like dessert) and sleeping well was having this issue. Fast forward a few more years and I ask for the bloodwork again, this time it’s a little more detailed and I can see I am still in the gutter, but I see my SHBG and estrogen are tanked too. My glucose was 101 which is borderline. Eventually I had enough and got TRT.

Now, about 10 years later after my initial test results I am 5 years on TRT but still not sure how I got here. I wasn’t fat, I never smoked, I barely drank, I slept, I had been weight training for at least 5 years at that point. But again I always loved dessert, my Achilles heel and I figured it must have been fine since I wasn’t overweight and I always stayed active.

Now, I’ve changed my diet a lot since then, mostly vegetarian, high fiber, good fats, etc. Still my SHBG remains low (probably from TRT), glucose is back to 85 when fasted but I had an ultrasound and found out I have a fatty liver.

I found the link posted here and now I feel like everything is sort of aligning, In college I was walking class to class, biking to and from school, I did less weights but I moved more. After college I had a desk job, I still hit the gym 4-5 times a week though. And yes I ate dessert often, but I always had a flat stomach. After reading the article though it sounds like you can’t just do the 1 hour and suddenly it fixes everything else you did poorly the past 10 hours.

Ok all that being said, my goal since getting on Test C + HCG has been to find out how to get off it. Now I think I’ve probably been spiking the hell out of my blood sugar, but still being in a deficit or state that prevents weight gain. I haven’t been moving as much throughout the day and then thinking it was okay to make it up later (ignorance I suppose). But now where do I go from here?

First is to definitely figure out if my meals are spiking my glucose and I’m thinking a CGM can help. Second is to start moving more in intervals.

But here’s where I want to get feedback. If my body is possibly insulin resistant then should I try to get something like metformin? Tirz? Should I run them alongside TRT for a few months then try to do a pituitary restart? I know before all this that my testes work, enclomiphene bumped my LH and Total T to the 1000s. I just think my liver was suppressing my hormones due to my unrealized poor lifestyle. Realistically, is there hope? I’d be happy to get at least mid range.
try semaglutide and trt
 
Hi guys,

While trying to get some answers I stumbled across this very informative post here:


Now, my situation at the time was strange. Somewhere around the age of 21 I started having some common low testosterone issues. I shrugged it off as just anxiety and stress from transitioning from college to work life. Then it persisted and at 23 I had decided something was going on and that someone my age shouldn’t have had ED. I got my blood test and was like 315ng/dl. I didn’t know about TRT or anything then but I knew it didn’t make sense that a fit guy, hitting the gym 5 times a week, eating decent (but I did like dessert) and sleeping well was having this issue. Fast forward a few more years and I ask for the bloodwork again, this time it’s a little more detailed and I can see I am still in the gutter, but I see my SHBG and estrogen are tanked too. My glucose was 101 which is borderline. Eventually I had enough and got TRT.

Now, about 10 years later after my initial test results I am 5 years on TRT but still not sure how I got here. I wasn’t fat, I never smoked, I barely drank, I slept, I had been weight training for at least 5 years at that point. But again I always loved dessert, my Achilles heel and I figured it must have been fine since I wasn’t overweight and I always stayed active.

Now, I’ve changed my diet a lot since then, mostly vegetarian, high fiber, good fats, etc. Still my SHBG remains low (probably from TRT), glucose is back to 85 when fasted but I had an ultrasound and found out I have a fatty liver.

I found the link posted here and now I feel like everything is sort of aligning, In college I was walking class to class, biking to and from school, I did less weights but I moved more. After college I had a desk job, I still hit the gym 4-5 times a week though. And yes I ate dessert often, but I always had a flat stomach. After reading the article though it sounds like you can’t just do the 1 hour and suddenly it fixes everything else you did poorly the past 10 hours.

Ok all that being said, my goal since getting on Test C + HCG has been to find out how to get off it. Now I think I’ve probably been spiking the hell out of my blood sugar, but still being in a deficit or state that prevents weight gain. I haven’t been moving as much throughout the day and then thinking it was okay to make it up later (ignorance I suppose). But now where do I go from here?

First is to definitely figure out if my meals are spiking my glucose and I’m thinking a CGM can help. Second is to start moving more in intervals.

But here’s where I want to get feedback. If my body is possibly insulin resistant then should I try to get something like metformin? Tirz? Should I run them alongside TRT for a few months then try to do a pituitary restart? I know before all this that my testes work, enclomiphene bumped my LH and Total T to the 1000s. I just think my liver was suppressing my hormones due to my unrealized poor lifestyle. Realistically, is there hope? I’d be happy to get at least mid range.
A number of things could be going on...
- Poor sleep is well-known to damage insulin sensitivity
- Leaky gut, which is generally caused by plant matter can be a problem
- When you say "good fats" , you didn't specify if you are minimizing Omega-6 fats. Seed oils are well-known to promote fatty liver, especially in combination with alcohol
- Movement timing is key. Doing some type of light movement (e.g. a 10 minute walk) after eating increases insulin sensitivity.
- Eating within an 8-hour window gives your body 16 hours in an unfed state which reduces insulin

In general it is much harder to control your blood sugar if you are not eating animal products. You could add bitter melon, however personally, I would not jump to pharmaceuticals until you have at least addressed the above, as well as other things I'm likely forgetting.
 
My sleep is solid, I’ve done take home apnea tests, in person studies, I’ve used an Apple Watch. I sleep extremely well.

I’ve heard lots of talk about seed oils being bad, but I use canola and olive oil primarily at home. That’s what AHA recommends, but I can try olive oil only, don’t think I’ll be using butter I feel like that’s bad for cholesterol.

I definitely don’t move enough throughout the day, it’s more concentrated into a one hour window so I’m gonna fix that. I feel like no one ever mentioned this, they just ask if you exercise and if you say yes then they assume everything is okay.

As far as diet, I lean heavily into plain non fat Greek yogurt, eggs, beans, oats and soy milk for the protein. I don’t really have any added sugar in my diet, but I watch someone on YouTube who tests foods with his CGM and even oatmeal spikes blood sugar pretty high and I eat that every day so I think I will try to eat like a diabetic for a few months and see if that helps too.

Appreciate the input. I just reordered my meds so I probably won’t come off for 3 months or so which is hopefully enough time to get into the habit of moving around more and changing up the diet first before trying other meds.
 
Have you checked your fasting insulin or A1C? I’d be curious what those look like before jumping on metformin or tirz.
Unfortunately the default Defy panels only have glucose which for me is 90-96.

But I do have 2 labs through Kaiser 2021 & 2024 and both on TRT and A1C was 5.1-5.2 which I think is good, but interestingly Kaiser labs have my glucose as 102-103. For them that’s in range. Quest shows 100 being their upper limit which I am usually within.

If my glucose is that high after fasting since 6-7pm and blood draw was around 7-8am, isn’t that mildy highly for having eaten nothing? Now add in food and suddenly within 2 hours my glucose in theory could be really high. You think there’s value in an OTC CGM?
 
Unfortunately the default Defy panels only have glucose which for me is 90-96.

But I do have 2 labs through Kaiser 2021 & 2024 and both on TRT and A1C was 5.1-5.2 which I think is good, but interestingly Kaiser labs have my glucose as 102-103. For them that’s in range. Quest shows 100 being their upper limit which I am usually within.

If my glucose is that high after fasting since 6-7pm and blood draw was around 7-8am, isn’t that mildy highly for having eaten nothing? Now add in food and suddenly within 2 hours my glucose in theory could be really high. You think there’s value in an OTC CGM?
yes above 100 is high. Consider a GLP-1, even starting with ozempic. These drugs have miraculous benefits.
 
Unfortunately the default Defy panels only have glucose which for me is 90-96.

But I do have 2 labs through Kaiser 2021 & 2024 and both on TRT and A1C was 5.1-5.2 which I think is good, but interestingly Kaiser labs have my glucose as 102-103. For them that’s in range. Quest shows 100 being their upper limit which I am usually within.

If my glucose is that high after fasting since 6-7pm and blood draw was around 7-8am, isn’t that mildy highly for having eaten nothing? Now add in food and suddenly within 2 hours my glucose in theory could be really high. You think there’s value in an OTC CGM?
You can have Defy add just about any test available. I've had them test fasting insulin and the test is fairly cheap, but you are doing a bunch of things that could be expected to cause many issues so I would fix those first. I always recommend that people use the book Perfect Health Diet by Paul Jaminet as their dietary home base. The AHA is a horrible source of health guidance. Stop the canola oil. Linoleic acid in large amounts is a high risk/low reward proposition. IIRC correctly, full-fat dairy is linked to better insulin sensitivity. Activity after a meal (as little as a 10 minute walk) has been shown to be as effective as metformin for lowing blood sugar. You are basically eating a very high sugar diet and the body will convert what you don't burn to fat. I would start with fixing the basics and see how you do.
 

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