Foods That May Help Boost Testosterone
Testosterone is a sex hormone that affects:
- sex drive
- sperm production
- blood cell production
Testosterone declines as you age, but other factors can also cause low testosterone, including certain medications, high body-fat levels, and some health conditions .
Low testosterone, also called hypogonadism or low T, occurs when testosterone levels fall below 300 nanograms/deciliter . Low testosterone can be medically treated through testosterone replacement therapy .
Hypogonadism is very common. In fact, around 40% of men over 45 years old and 50% of men in their 80s are considered hypogonadal .
A health-promoting lifestyle, including diet, is important for maintaining optimal testosterone levels. Some studies have found that diets high in ultra-processed foods and low in nutrient-dense foods may reduce testosterone levels .
If you have low testosterone levels, follow a medical professionals recommendations. Additionally, you may consider adopting a dietary pattern rich in foods that contain nutrients important for maintaining healthy testosterone levels.
Many nutrients, including vitamin D, magnesium, and zinc, are important for maintaining optimal testosterone levels .
However, theres limited research investigating the impact of specific foods on testosterone levels.
This article covers 7 foods that are rich in nutrients that may help promote healthy testosterone levels.
Drink Milk At The End Of The Day
Did you know that your mother was right when she said you should drink milk before going to bed? Most of your testosterone is produced while you are asleep. So, whatever food you ingest just before you go to bed has a more significant influence on your hormonal production than what is consumed during other times of the day.
Therefore, milk will indirectly help you produce testosterone because you will sleep deeply and wake up less often during the night. Other factors also influence sleep, though, so milk may not be enough in all cases.
Get To Know Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha has been a part of Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years, mostly as a treatment for infertility. Until recently, Western medicine tended to scoff at the idea that this small evergreen shrub produced anything more than a captivating myth. However, once Western researchers finally got around to taking a look at Ashwagandha, they were impressed.
It turns out Indian ginseng, as its also called, does pretty much what traditional healers have been saying for centuries that it does: boost testosterone and increase sperm counts. Ashwagandha is most often taken as a supplement in capsule form, but ashwagandha powder can also be sprinkled into your latte or used in baking.
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How To Increase Testosterone Naturally
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Give Strawberries Some Love
Who said that strawberries werent manly was utterly wrong. Not only are these fruits delicious, but they are also an excellent source of zinc, which has a direct impact on how men produce testosterone.
Instead of taking zinc supplements, you can buy some strawberries instead, which taste much better and probably become cheaper. They are also very low on calories, so you dont have to worry about eating too many of them, as unless you overdo it, you wont have any adverse effects.
Another advantage of these incredible little fruits is that they are loaded with vitamin C and potassium, which every healthy person needs to ingest. If you arent already eating strawberries, add them to your list right now.
Shut Down Your Computer And Phone In The Evening
Blue light exposure disrupts your body’s circadian rhythm by alerting the brain’s “fight” mode to wake up and be on the alert. This raises cortisol levels, and overexposure can lead to systemic increases in cortisol, which contribute to heart disease, muscle atrophy, and fat gain. In the short term, blue light also simply disrupts sleep.
The answer: I switch off my phone, computer, TV, iPad, etc., a couple of hours before bed. When I have to work during this timeâhey, it happensâI will use blue-light-blocking glasses. Consider getting a pair of these if you’re addicted to your devices, especially late at night.
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A More Natural Approach To Boosting Testosterone
The first step in the process is to always identify why your testosterone levels are low in the first place. What are the causative factors? In the vast majority of cases, clients are violating the foundation principles of health and restoring balance in these areas often leads to significant improvements in overall health, including testosterone levels.
Foundation Principles of Health
| Emotional Health | Optimal Breathing Patterns |
You will see from the list below, that many of these testosterone-enhancing techniques focus on restoring balance to the foundation principles of health.
Resistance Exercise and Interval Training
To raise testosterone levels naturally, combine weight training with high-intensity exercise for fitness. Lifting heavy weights with larger muscle groups like your quadriceps, hamstrings, back, shoulders and chest for at least 30 minutes can give a very beneficial boost to low testosterone levels.
Interval Training has a proven positive effect on increasing testosterone levels and preventing testosterone declines. Interval Training involves exercising at 90100 percent of your maximum effort for a short interval followed by recovery then repeat. The Tabata Protocol is one proven method for benefitting from high-intensity interval training.
Stress Reduction
Simple ways for individuals to reduce their stress levels include:
Improve your sleep quality
What Is The Role Of Testosterone In The Body
Testosterone is primarily associated with defining secondary male characteristics during puberty such as a deepened voice and increased muscle mass. Through adulthood, its linked to sex drive, strength, and social markers such as confidence, authority, and aggressiveness.
Testosterone affects many aspects of the body and the benefits to overall health include, but are not limited to:
- Healthy metabolism
- Regulated mental and physical energy
- A healthy pain response
- Sufficient levels of red blood cells
- Regular sleep patterns
- Hair growth
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Minimize Estrogen Suggestion #: What Are You Putting On Your Skin
Along with avoiding plastic, you should also watch what you put on your skin. Your skin is an organ. It absorbs things straight into the blood. Thats how the hormone replacement gels and cream get into your body. Treat your skin like a second mouth. If I wouldnt eat it, I wont put it on my skin. Simple.
Sunscreens are a big one. They often contain chemicals that are estrogenic which disrupt the endocrine system. Remember guys, we want to minimize estrogen! Hormone-disrupting chemicals such as octyl-methoxycinnamate are found in most sunscreens. Homosalate, which is a UVB blocker, is also commonly used and linked to hormone disruption .
What do I do? We know its important to get some sun for testosterone production, so I simply avoid sunscreen use when outside. And if it gets too intense, I will cover up or find shade.
In fact, I require all my coaching clients to get outside for 20 minutes a day five days a week as part of their accountability program. They have to snap a photo to show me that they have gotten outside that day. Sunlight is that important!
Stop Hating On The Fats
Sifting through all the data can be a chore, but if youre up to it, youll discover that scientists generally agree that there is a positive relationship between the amount of monounsaturated fat a man ingests and his serum testosterone levels. That might seem counterintuitive since weve been told for decades that fat is bad. But it seems to be true .
That then begs the question: What type of food contains those beneficial monounsaturated fats? The answer is nuts like almonds and peanuts, peanut butter, olive oil, and avocados. For the record, there is also evidence that saturated fats have a role to play in boosting testosterone levels . Youll find healthy saturated fat in foods such as dark chocolate, hard cheeses, eggs yolks, red meat, and coconut oil.
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How To Boost Testosterone Levels Fast Conclusion
These are the main changes you can make to you diet and your lifestyle to boost testosterone levels fast and support your lifestyle both in and out of the gym.
The main way of getting a fast boost of testosterone has got to be via the Zinc and Vitamin D3, both of which have been seen to rapidly increase amounts of the male hormone in the bloodstream.
A good way to ensure a healthy and effective dose of both of these nutrients can be via daily supplementation of TestoFuel.
TestoFuel contains 15mg of Zinc per daily serving, along with a whopping 5000 IU of Vitamin D3 along with various other T-Boosting nutrients that will be sure to give your hormones the rise they need for the gains you deserve.
Fatty Fish And Fish Oil
The United States Department of Agriculture recommend that people eat seafood twice weekly. Fatty fish may be especially beneficial because they are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. A person can also boost their fatty acid levels by taking fish oil or omega-3 supplements.
Results of an animal-based
- trout
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Anabolic Steroids & Supplements
Men can choose to take testosterone supplements to increase the production levels of the hormone in their body. Its common in the weightlifting and bodybuilding industry for healthy adult males with normal levels of testosterone to boost their production for performance benefits. Doctors do not recommend this, and the FDA warns against it.
Other males administer testosterone supplements due to their low production levels as they age. Although this reasoning may seem more warranted, its also not considered completely safe by health professionals. Regardless of your reason for supplementing, Ill explain some of the side effects and risk factors of doing this.
You should also watch this video, it explains a lot about steroids and why you shouldn’t take them.
Anabolic steroids have an entire laundry list of risks and dangers that can be light to severe, short-term to permanent and everything in between. Steroids are a synthetic version of testosterone that is injected straight into the system with no regulation by your body. Some users try to regulate the levels of steroids in their bodies by taking them on a schedule or fluctuating the dosage, but this won’t stop the harmful side effects. Prolonged use of steroids will cause your bodys natural testosterone production methods to waste away because you are no longer using them. So even if you stop abusing them, the damage done by steroids never truly goes away.
- key Key Takeaway
Know The Medications Youre Taking
This is something thats often overlooked when guys are trying to figure out why they dont seem to be able to boost their testosterone levels. There are actually a number of prescription medications that are known to interfere to some degree with testosterone production. If you are taking one of these medications and not enjoying the kind of testosterone boost youve been hoping for, your meds might be the reason.
Medications known to interfere with testosterone production include Cimetidine , Spironolactone , Ketoconazole , and some antidepressants. Opioids and certain chemotherapy drugs can also interfere with testosterone production. If you are taking any of these meds, discuss the situation with your doctor. Dont just stop taking them on your own.
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Ok This Is Crazy But Why Is This Happening
You may be asking yourself why is this happening? Is it a natural evolution? Is it something that we can reverse? What is causing this yearly decline in men? Lets take a look at a few of the causes below.
YeahThese 3, among others, are all contributing to the drop in testosterone. But now that you know, you can be empowered. You can start to take steps to reverse these problems and get your testosterone levels up to where they need to be. For that, keep reading.
Stop Eating Junk Food
The best way to help your body produce the additional testosterone youre after is to support it by way of a healthy diet. Slamming down burgers and fries wont do anything except clog your arteries, starve you of essential nutrients, and weigh you down with more carbs than you could possibly use.
Instead of stopping off at the burger joint on the way home from the gym, stop somewhere that has a good salad bar or where you can get a nice lean steak. Stock your refrigerator with fresh fruit and veggies and more lean meat like boneless chicken breast. Replace your sugary drinks with spring water, and if youre drinking that premixed 3-1 instant coffee, ditch it and get a coffee maker, a grinder, some whole milk, and cut back on the sugar you use to sweeten it.
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Lift Heavy Weights Girls
Regular participation in weight training sessions increases lean muscle levels, as well as strengthening bones and connective tissue and with lower optimum T levels you wont run the risk of getting overly muscular. But you will naturally burn fat and add shape you your muscles.
Aim for full-body workouts covering all major muscle groups in each session. Complete 2-4 sets per exercise and aim for 6-12 repetitions per set. 8-10 exercises in total is what youre aiming for.
Key point: There are a number of ways that a woman can boost her Testosterone levels. These include diet, exercise and lifestyle changes.
How To Tell If You Are Testosterone Deficient
According to the ‘What Is TDS’ campaign, hypogonadism is a condition where the testes produce an unusually low level of testosterone, or dry up altogether. Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome has many symptoms, most notably, a loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, depression, anxiety, loss of wellbeing and a decline in cognitive functions.
If you are worried your T levels are dropping, visit your GP for a blood test.
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Be Sure To Train The Right Way
As you know, balancing the hormones of your body is not an easy task. It happens when you finally get a certain balance between training enough and having the proper diet.
So, its essential to know how to train the right way. Weight lifting, practicing martial arts or sports are excellent manners to improve your testosterone levels, but getting the process right is also essential.
You need to know the right amount of series you need to make, what exercises are the best for you, and what combination works. Every person is different, so dont be afraid to tweak the process until you can find one perfect for you.
Dark Chocolate Is Better Than Normal Chocolate
If you like chocolate, we have excellent news: dark chocolate is healthy, and you can eat it . While desserts, in general, are not very good for people on diets, dark chocolate is considered healthy because its low on sugar and it has a lot of flavanols, which are known for being suitable for the cardiovascular system.
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Promote Higher Levels Of Hdl Cholesterol
Everyone has the belief that cholesterol is bad for the body, but they are only half correct. The toxic and unhealthy cholesterol that can build up in the body is LDL cholesterol. However, HDL cholesterol has a much different impact. Some research suggests that elevated levels of HDL cholesterol have been linked to increased serum testosterone levels.
Even though the connection is relatively minimal, increasing HDL cholesterol extensively can cause heart disease. Anyone who wants to raise their HDL cholesterol to increase testosterone naturally may first speak with a medical professional.
Tips How To Increase Testosterone Levels In Older Men
If youre a man in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s, this article will show you how to increase testosterone levels in older men.
A common issue among men over 40 is low testosterone. The older we get, the more our testosterone drops. For most men, testosterone production starts to decline after 30.
Increasing your testosterone levels after 40 will boost your sex drive, promote muscle growth, and keep you young.
Note that the tips below can also help younger men increase testosterone levels.
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Ways To Increase Free Testosterone
03/12/2018 | 2 min. read
Healthy Directions Staff Editor
Men, if youre feeling more fatigued and out of shape, you may want to get your free testosterone tested. As men age, starting around age 30-35, their bodys testosterone levels decline. While this is normal and natural, there are things you can do to help boost your levels of free testosterone, which is the type that is bioavailable for your body to utilize.
1. Get Your BMI In Check: Having a high percentage of body fat can affect your testosterone levels. If youre carrying around extra weight, shedding those excess pounds can improve your testosterone.
2. Reduce Stress: When youre stressed, your body produces the stress hormone cortisol which suppresses testosterone production. Plus, stress can affect your libido. What can you do? Take time each day to burn off steam with exercise, meditation, or spending time with family and friends.
3. Turn in Earlier: When youre not sleeping enough it raises your cortisol levels, which, like stress, depletes your testosterone levels. So, turn off the TV and the electronics at night and hit the hay earlier.
4. Skip the Junk Food: To keep your testosterone levels up, you want to skip the refined carbs and sugar that can boost insulin and suppress the production of free testosterone. Instead, you want to eat vegetables, fruits, and organic lean meats that supply the vitamins your body needsincluding B vitamins and zincto produce testosterone.