How Dieting Can Lower Your Testosterone Production

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Do you know how dieting can lower testosterone production?

 

A lot of guys think their testosterone levels don’t matter until they are in their 40s.

 

Well, as it turns out that couldn’t be further from the truth.

 

If gaining muscle, losing fat and having a great sex life are important to you then your t-levels should be as well.

 

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TESTOSTERONE AND WEIGHT LOSS

When it comes to losing fat, having high testosterone levels is extremely helpful.

 

While older men tend to benefit the most since they tend to have lower testosterone levels, even men in their 20s can develop a much greater physique with high t-levels.

 

Testosterone helps build muscle mass which helps regulate insulin sensitivity, improves metabolic health and a slew of other health benefits.

 

Let’s look at what happens when you have low testosterone levels.

 

Over time as you gain fat your testosterone levels tend to drop which creates a vicious cycle: the more fat you gain, the more your testosterone levels drop – which causes you to gain more fat and the cycle continues.

 

Since being obese messes up your ability to produce testosterone it means your body has a higher tendency to store more fat.

 

Having low t-levels can also mess up your insulin resistance which means more of those carbs will be packed on around the stomach.

 

While losing fat can help you bring your testosterone levels back up it can be difficult to break out of this nasty cycle.

 

As you can see it’s very important to keep those testosterone levels high if you want to stay at a healthy weight.

 

It’s worth noting that even if your weight is low, however you can still be unhealthy if you are skinny-fat.

 

Therefore you need to also monitor your bodyfat percentage.

 

Even if your weight is low your testosterone levels could still be depressed if your bodyfat percentage is higher than it should be.

 

It’s funny how dieting down the wrong way can actually mess up your key hormone levels and make you less healthy.How Dieting Can Lower Your Testosterone Production

 

DIETING AND TESTOSTERONE LEVELS

So let’s say you are tired of being a fat, low-testosterone man and decide you will diet down to improve your physique.

 

Unfortunately all of that work might be a waste as they will also reduce testosterone levels further and cause you to burn lots of muscle along with that fat.

 

This is one of the reasons many men struggle with low sex drives when dieting – it’s due to the depressed testosterone levels.

 

While any fat-loss diet will result in some reduction in t-levels it doesn’t have to be so drastic if you do it the right way.

 

The problem with most fat loss diets is that they tend to be biased towards eating foods that are low in fat.

 

Well as it turns out numerous studies have shown that eating low-fat foods is a great way to drastically reduce your testosterone levels.

 

Therefore, make sure you avoid these types of diet if you want to cut down to a nice six-pack rather than a skinny-fat gut.

 

So what sort of foods do you need to eat? First of all, you will want to incorporate saturated fat into your diet.

 

Many studies have shown that diets that contain lots of saturated fat tend to boost testosterone levels.

 

On the other hand, vegans and vegetarians who consume less saturated fat tend to have low t-levels.

 

Monounsaturated fats are also helpful (such as olive oil) since they boost testosterone levels in men as well.

 

Which one is better?

 

Well, there are a lot of arguments backing either side but as long as you consume both you will certainly get a lot of benefit.

 

CALORIE DEFICITS AND TESTOSTERONE

When you consume a calorie deficit your testosterone levels drop since your body is melting away some of the muscle tissue along with the fat.

 

It’s impossible to lose exclusively fat but if you follow a good program you should be able to limit the damage.

 

In order to maintain as much of that hard-earned muscle mass as possible make sure you are eating enough protein – at least 1g per pound of bodyweight.

 

At the same time, don’t go overboard as this takes away from the helpful carbs and dietary fats that will help keep your t-levels high.

 

Also make sure you are performing heavy resistance training even when trying to lose fat. Even though your strength will decline over the course of your cut you will be able to maintain more muscle mass this way.How Dieting Can Lower Your Testosterone Production

 

STRESS LEVELS

There are a lot of ways we can stress our body – working too many hours, trying to manage too many things at once, working out too long for too hard, etc.

 

When you start to feel overwhelmed and get that “stressed” feeling what you are actually experiencing is the stress hormone cortisol.

 

When this hormone is elevated it can be a real nuisance for your body – causing you to burn more muscle and put on extra fat.

 

The simple way to keep your cortisol levels is to reduce the amount of stress in your life (that might be easier for some people than others).

 

Make sure you get at least 8-9 hours of sleep each night, give yourself enough rest time between workouts and eat plenty of the right foods.

 

Source: http://broscience.co/dieting-can-lower-testosterone-production/

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