How to Increase Testosterone Naturally
Whether you want to improve your overall health and well-being, add muscle mass, or simply get fit, increasing your testosterone levels offers many advantages. Although there are certainly plenty of synthetic supplements out there, these require prescriptions and can sometimes come with undesirable side effects.
Because of this, it is always worth your while to learn how to increase testosterone naturally.
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Lose Weight
Francis Hayes, a professor at St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, conducted a study involving 900 pre-diabetic men. Although the purpose of the study was to attempt to delay the onset of type 2 diabetes with weight loss, the team also kept tabs on the men’s testosterone levels since previous studies showed that overweight men are prone to low testosterone.
The findings were significant. In the beginning, about 20% had low T. However, after lifestyle modification, which included the addition of a nutritional meal plan and exercise routine, that number dropped to only 11% after a year – a 46% decrease in the number of men affected by T. This study shows that if you want to learn how to increase testosterone naturally, you should lose excess weight.
Learning How to Naturally Increase with Foods
For centuries now, doctors and nutritionists have advised that we are what we eat. There are many different foods that can provide your body with the fuel and basic building blocks it needs to make testosterone.
These include tuna, which is high in Vitamin D, a nutrient necessary for production. Eggs are another great source of testosterone-building nutrients; while many doctors say that the cholesterol in whole eggs is unhealthy, it can actually help improve your levels.
Another food to consider is oysters since these contain Zinc, which is a necessary nutrient for development during puberty. Clinical trials show that men who are Zinc deficient can successfully raise their levels when they consume more foods high in this nutrient.
Replace Simple Sugars and Carbs with More Complex Ones
For years now, nutritionists have known that simple sugars and carbs can have an effect on your body’s levels. Essentially, these create a sudden surge of blood sugar, triggering a large insulin response. However, the more insulin your body releases to handle the influx of sugar, the more that insulin restricts your body’s ability to produce testosterone.
Thus, one of the keys to learning how to increase testosterone naturally is cutting out sugar and simple carbs. Replacing foods like white rice and Pasta with brown rice and whole wheat pasta can make a huge difference on your levels over time.
How to Naturally Increase Levels with Hydration
Though the idea of learning how to increase testosterone naturally may seem complicated, sometimes the answer is right under your nose. Studies have found that men who do not drink enough water often have significantly lower levels than their well-hydrated counterparts.
Why? It all comes down to cortisol, one of the most catabolic hormones in your body. A study published in the Journal of Sports Science found that men who were only 1% to 2% dehydrated had significantly increased levels of cortisol, and cortisol can hinder your body’s production, break down existing muscle tissue, cause fat gain (especially around the middle), and even make you feel tired despite getting plenty of sleep. If you want to Increase Testosterone naturally, drink more water.
How to Increase Levels with Strength Training
Whereas prolonged aerobics and other forms of moderate exercise can actually cause levels to drop or have no effect, short bursts of intense exercise can cause levels to rise. When combining strength Training with intermittent fasting, you can improve levels of what are known as “satiety” hormones.
These include Leptin, insulin, and even adiponectin. What’s more, these lifestyle changes ward off the production of a hormone called cortisol, which can cause fat gain, feelings of Fatigue, and suppression of testosterone production.
The best way to optimize strength training for natural production is to increase your weight but lower the number of repetitions, all while purposely slowing down your movements to turbo-charge your training.
Naturally Increase Levels with Supplements
Of course, another common means of boosting naturally is supplements that science has proven to help boost your hormones and even level them out. The chart below shows common all-natural testosterone boosters and ingredients that may impact your levels.
| Supplement | Daily Dose |
|---|---|
Be aware that even though these are considered all-natural, taking too much can be toxic. Never exceed recommendations for supplements, even if they seem safe because they are naturally-occurring.
Can You Increase to Above-Average Levels?
Before you load up on testosterone boosting supplements, it’s important to be aware of the impact that lifestyle changes and supplements can truly have. Learning how to naturally increase testosterone levels is important, but only for men who have levels at the low end of normal.
None of the changes or supplements listed above will provide your body with a boost high enough to match the doses of exogenous testosterone used by athletes and bodybuilders, so you should not expect this.However, with that in mind, it is easy to see the importance of learning how to naturally increase testosterone.
Men who are over the age of 30, especially, can benefit tremendously from diet, exercise, and supplementation as it will help maintain levels at the high end of normal. Even at this point, which is right around 1000 nanograms per deciliter, men who were previously at the lower end of the normal range (about 250 nanograms per deciliter) will experience noticeable changes. They will gain muscle more easily, they will better maintain their muscle, and they will simply look and feel better than before.
Learning how to increase testosterone naturally requires some lifestyle changes like Losing Weight, sticking to a diet high in vitamin D, zinc, and healthy fats, not to mention improving your strength training routine. When you combine all of these things, your natural levels will begin to improve on their own, and you can feel the difference in just a few weeks’ time.
