Some statistics show a decreasing level of testosterone in men over the past few decades. To be honest, I did not assess the validity or whether or not such findings were reported or replicated in the scientific literature. A hunch would tell me it is likely so.
Regardless, central adiposity (belly fat) has been shown to be positively correlated with testosterone levels: thus, bellyfat => lower testosterone levels. And I would say that it's quite uncommon today to see men with little or no bellyfat.
Lower testosterone is not preferred in men; higher than normal is not either. To be proactive with this post, here's what I suggest.
If you suspect you're lower in T (due to your bellyfat, low libido, no morning erection, etc), the first thing I'd do is to get a blood test. Then, I would wait a few days, and repeat the test once or twice to ensure data consistency (looking forward for the days of smartphone continuous biomarker tracking).
If T is lower than normal and/or at the lower end of the normal, I'd do the following interventions first (to correct the low T) before reaching to more specialized medical care:
- make sleep one of the top priorities (optimize for both quality and quantity)
- correct your diet - eat good fats, protein, and increase your vegetable intake concomitant with reducing low-nutritious foods
- do strength training - gym or bodyweight exercises
- consider practicing intermittent fasting
- experiment with cold showers
Additional to these, I have a couple more that I've detailed in my testosterone book, which is free Kindle today. Since writing the book, I've updated many of my 'beliefs' (if I have any), but I can't take back the fact that the 9 interventions in the book, synergistically may have helped increase my T levels as I documented with the blood tests taken during that experiment.
In practice, the bulletpoints above should help a lot of men with low T. If you want to read the details of my experiment, you can grab the free Kindle today August 15, 2017 here:
To stay in touch with me, follow @cristi
Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author
Great post,some really useful information in it,can't wait to read the full details of your experiment,thanks for sharing.
thanks.
Nice tips to increase Testosterone. But i think the most natural way to increase T without having to make use of any medical treatment is exercise. Physical excises with a good diet as you mentioned in your article is the key to boost T in men's body. Body weight exercises have proved over the years to be an effective exercise that help a lot to increase T.
I think the two most important are: sleep and weight lifting. #1 sleep, #2 some form of resistance training, then the diet almost equally important.
If you overdo it with the weight-lifting you could get exhausted and get the opposite results, so it depends. Sometimes all you need to get a high libido for the day is a generous slice of watermelon!
I agree with you @alexander.alexis
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Interesting post! The semen quality in western men has also plummeted. Healthy T levels are important for high grade semen quality. I must confess that I have not read the original scientific literature, but if I just take the findings at face value my hypothesis is that lower T levels and semen quality is due to environmental factors. If you heard about the winner effect on T levels, I am pretty convinced that the general feminization of society is causing a decline in T levels. Just changing your posture can have huge impact on the testosterone/ cortisol levels. Just imaging the effect of an entire civilisation of almost entirely not physical dominant beta male does the the T levels!
yes and no. I did not see good replicability of research arguing that posture affects hormones. I think it's a propagating myth and it's sexy to say that 'standing tall increases your T levels'. and the societal feminization (aka 'emotional' men), if viewed through evolutionary biology perspective, makes sense: we are creatures of comfort and most of us find it hard to regulate eating habits in a environment of plenty. blame it on your biology.
The correlation between high T and posture has been proven throughout the animal kingdom. It could be so that higher T give a more dominant posture. Perhaps you are right, but I think it is probable that you can get higher T by displaying more dominance. I have a PhD in neuroscience, but I have a general interested in science, especially when it comes to psychology and dating. Many of my comments are my own hypothesis and experience, so I do not double check by browsing PubMed all the time. Before we go into an intellectual discussion, what is your background in science? It is cool to know other peoples scientific background on Steemit:)
Best method: inject 100 mg of testosterone every monday and your life will change for the better 10000%
easiest :)
Won't that have any negative results? Won't your body maybe start to depend on outside testosterone, and so reduce production of its own?
Useful info! And now I know what the "self-experimenter" in your signature means!