As a man, your testosterone levels are a major driving force in your overall quality of life.
The problem is:
TESTOSTERONE LEVELS IN AMERICAN MEN HAVE BEEN STEADILY DECLINING OVER THE PAST FEW DECADES.
In fact:
According to the research, approximately 24% of American men over the age of 30 have low testosterone levels (<300 ng/dL).
Now, the reasons for this generational decline in T are diverse but can largely be narrowed down to decisions regarding how we eat, train, and sleep. In this post, I’ll show you how to optimize these three areas so that you can move towards achieving and maintaining your energy, health, and virility well into old-age.
Taking the steps to naturally increase your testosterone levels will allow you to bring your A-game in every other area of life as well.
How To Eat For Naturally High Testosterone Levels
The building blocks of testosterone are formed by the foods you eat. If you don’t eat right, nothing else you do for testosterone will matter. This is why dialing in on your nutrition is the primary objective when looking to achieve hormonal balance.
How Body Fat Impacts Testosterone
Priority #1, when it comes to naturally increasing your testosterone levels, is to get in the range of 12-15% body fat. Research has consistently shown body fat to hold an inverse relationship with testosterone.
In other words:
The leaner you are, the more testosterone your body will naturally be able to produce.
This is because body fat produces an enzyme (called aromatase) that converts testosterone into the female sex hormone, estrogen. By lowering your body fat, you decrease the activity of this enzyme and allow more testosterone to remain unconverted.
Regardless of any preconceptions that you may have, there is only one rule of weight loss:
TO BE IN A CALORIE DEFICIT, I.E. TO CONSUME FEWER CALORIES THAN YOU BURN.
If you follow this rule, you will lose weight regardless of what you eat. Notice how I wrote weight and not fat. If you want to ensure that this weight loss comes in the form of fat and not muscle, factors such as food choices, training, and sleep also come into play, which we’ll discuss coming up.
If you are currently over 15% body fat, then lowering your body fat is the single most important thing you must do to naturally boost your testosterone levels.
How Micro-Nutrients Impact Testosterone
Micro-nutrients are the vitamins and minerals that your body needs in trace amounts to ensure proper growth, development, and function.
After getting lean, the best thing you can do for your testosterone levels is to correct any underlying vitamin and mineral deficiencies that you may have.
With regards to testosterone, the most important micro-nutrients are vitamin D, zinc, and magnesium. Vitamin D can be acquired simply by spending more time in the sun. As for the other micro-nutrients, check out this great list of 25 powerful testosterone-boosting foods.
If including more natural, whole, and unprocessed foods in your diet seems difficult, then opt for a quality multivitamin. I emphasize the word quality because almost half of Americans take a multivitamin supplement, yet large portions of the population still have deficiencies.
Before buying a multivitamin, read the nutrition label and make sure that it delivers as close to 100% as possible of the daily value (DV) for the following:
- Vitamin A (only if it is mostly beta-carotene; otherwise keep it under 4000 IU)
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Chromium
- Copper
- Iodine
- Iron
- Manganese
- Selenium
Depending on the extent of your current deficiencies, topping up your micronutrient levels can have an instant and drastic positive impact on your T.
How Macro-Nutrients Impact Testosterone
Calories are made up of macro-nutrients, which in turn, are made up of fats, carbohydrates, and protein. Each macro-nutrient has its own role in supporting endocrine function.
1. Fats
Considering that testosterone is literally made out of dietary cholesterol, dietary fat is the most important macro-nutrient for testosterone production. But more important than the amount of fat in your diet is the source that the fat is coming from.
There are four types of dietary fat:
- Saturated fats – found in foods like whole eggs, beef, and milk.
- Monounsaturated fats – found in foods like avocados, almonds, and olive oil.
- Polyunsaturated fats – found in plant-based oils like soybean oil, corn oil, and sunflower oil.
- Trans fats – man made and found in foods like doughnuts, crackers, cakes and pies.