Does dieting reduce testosterone levels?

Does dieting reduce testosterone levels?

There are many solutions to maintaining high testosterone and libido levels while cutting or dieting. Yes, you can actually increase your testosterone levels while losing body fat. In this post, I’ll teach you ways you can lose fat without declining your testosterone and libido levels.

The connection between testosterone and a calorie deficient diet

When we restrict our calorie intake our bodies experience hormonal changes. Our reproductive system starts to go into survival mode. This means our testosterone levels decrease and our cortisol levels will increase (study, study).

When in high stress/survival situations it doesn’t make sense for our bodies to keep producing testosterone and instead increases cortisol production to cope with the stress.

One of the worst ways to lose fat is by following a crash diet. Restrict your body of vital macro and micronutrients is a sure way to put your hormonal levels at risk. There are many safe ways to lose fat, following a crash diet should not be an option.

So we know that being overweight results in higher estrogen levels. The enzyme aromatase plays a big contributor role in the estrogen production process. This is because the more excess fat we store in our bodies the more of this enzyme our bodies will contain. Which is by no means making us more masculine.

So reducing the production of the aromatase enzyme by losing weight can play a big contributor to increasing testosterone levels.

Rules to follow to maintain high testosterone and libido levels while dieting/cutting

Don’t eliminate fats from your diet

Not long ago the norm advice to lose weight was to dramatically lower your fat intake. This is bad advice, especially when given by steroid users as they don’t need to worry about low T levels as they are injecting them.

Studies have proven that a low-fat diet will decrease your T levels (study). While dieting it is recommended to eat a healthy amount of unsaturated fats and to eliminate trans fats from your diet.

Low fat diets have now been proven to cause low testosterone levels. Healthy fats are needed for men to achieve maximum T levels

Try intermittent fasting

There have been lots of articles telling us that eating small meals up to 6 times a day can help boost metabolism and therefore help boost fat reduction. Let’s not forget there is no evidence to back up these claims that 6 meals will boost your metabolism. Most people who attempt this weight loss method rarely experience any results and that is for one main reason. When you eat 6 meals a day you are constantly spiking your insulin levels making it nearly impossible to break through your weight loss plateau. Increasing insulin this often is just doing injustice to your weight loss effort. It’s like pushing down on the accelerator and brake at the same time.

Regular insulin spikes and fat loss don’t go well together. This is why fasting has become so popular. By fasting, you are reducing the number of insulin spikes within a 24 hour period allowing more fat to be used as energy. And yes fasting has proven to be an effective way to increase testosterone levels and maintain muscle mass while dieting.

I suggest watching this fasting video by Jason Fung to improve your understanding of how IF is the ultimate way to lose weight. If you chose IF as your weight loss solution check out this book eat stop eat to give yourself a kickstart.

Fasting has many hormonal benefits

Research has shown us by fasting we can increase the frequency of the release of growth hormone. HGH plays a major role in male muscularity and maintaining healthy hormone levels.

This study has also shown that blood testosterone levels will skyrocket by fasting due to a decrease in leptin. Leptin regulates energy balance by inhibiting hunger. When leptin rises testosterone production decreases. The problem is when we diet out leptin levels tend to increase signaling to the brain we are hungry. Fasting is one of the only methods where our body can go without food and reduce the number of leptin signals released.

Eat more carbs

Carbs are crucial for testosterone as the body receives fewer carbs, it responds by increasing stress hormone production. The trick is to eat a healthy amount of carbs but while keeping insulin spikes to a minimum. There are 2 ways to do this:

1: Intermittent fasting: This way you can eat a healthy amount of carbs while keeping insulin spikes to a minimum. This supply of nutrients will allow you to lose fat while maintaining muscle and healthy hormonal levels.

2: Carb cycling: This is where you time your carb intake around your workout and rest days. This will also reduce insulin spikes and only provide your body with calories in a time of need. This is supply vs demand at its finest.

Sleep more

It’s important to realize that your body makes much more testosterone during sleep than when you’re awake. Less than 7 hours and your testosterone levels may drop. Imagine when you are asleep little workers come out to repair your body. If you are on a calorie deficient diet these workers need a longer time to get their job done and to create a stronger you. By giving these workers a long time to work you will maintain healthy levels of testosterone. Sleep less than 7 hours and you are sending these workers home before they get to finish their job.

Make sure you don’t have any micronutrient deficiencies

One of the easiest ways to boost your testosterone levels is to make sure you don’t have any micronutrient deficiencies. Even if you think you have a bulletproof diet there is still a good chance you are not meeting your micronutrient requirements.

A study published in the journal of the international society of sports nutrition discovered that; Food Alone May Not Provide Sufficient Micronutrients for Preventing Deficiency. In this study 70 athletes diets were analyzed. Surprisingly every single one of them were deficient in more than one micronutrient.

Considering athletes are well educated on nutrition they still struggle to meet their micronutrient requirements. What are the chances you are?

One simple way to help remove these micronutrient deficiencies while dieting is to consume a reliable multivitamin supplement. To learn about which multivitamins to choose and removing micronutrient deficiencies check out this post (Can multivitamins boost testosterone production).

Take a chill pill

keep cortisol levels low by generally reducing the stress in your life. While on a calorie deficient diet your cortisol levels are easily increased by stress (study, study). Ensure you reward yourself for weekly achievements. And Don’t forget to enjoy the process.

No more endurance training

Whether it be long runs or marathon gym sessions you need to be aware that exercising over 45 minutes could raise your cortisol levels to a point where it will put your testosterone level to a halt. Remember when you are on a calorie deficient diet it is easier to increase your cortisol levels.

While on a diet keep training sessions short and effective. One study proved that high-volume runners, age not mentioned, had lower T levels than moderate-volume runners, and the difference was rather large. A study even proved that at rest, testosterone appears to be lower in the endurance-trained male than in the untrained male (Study).

Conclusion

You are probably thinking how can I follow all these rules and still shred fat without losing muscle. In my opinion, the easiest way to do this is by giving intermittent fasting a go. It is a very popular method for losing weight while keeping testosterone levels high and maintaining muscle mass. Actually, you may increase your testosterone and libido levels and experience a new heighten sex drive and energy levels.

Want an extremely understandable introduction to fasting and weight loss? Then check out the highly recommended ebook “eat stop eat“.

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