Testosterone is a hormone produced by the human body that is an anabolic steroid.. Although it is a hormone men are more focused on females also need and produce a small amount of testosterone.
It is often associated with our sex drives and it plays an important roles in several other key health functions.
The normal range of testosterone may vary depending on your age and if you’re male or female. For males, healthy ranges are usually between 300 - 1000 ng/dL while for females, it is 20 - 80 ng/dL.
Testosterone levels decrease naturally as you age, however there are things that you can do to boost or maintain the amount of testosterone levels in your body.
I’ve checked my testosterone levels several times since going on the Carnivore Diet..
Testosterone levels in the human body fluctuate depending on the time of day. Normally, levels peak hour early in the day. Testing it around 2 hours after you wake up could be a lot higher than testing it later in the afternoon. To get more accurate results, I was consistently taking a lab test around 3-4 hours post wake up.
6 months before I started the carnivore diet my total testosterone level was 687.5 ng/dL. After being on a carnivore diet for about 5 months, it went down to 315 which is on the low side. Generally, healthy levels are above 500 for someone of my body fat and age, and ideally north of 600 a few hours post wake.
After I had my results, I decided to make a few adjustments to optimize my testosterone levels and I was successful. I was able to raise it from 315 to 911 in just a few weeks.
Here's How Tripled My Testosterone Level in 3 Weeks
1. Increased my calories
I was on OMAD (One Meal A Day) for about 6-8 weeks leading to my fasted blood draw when I did my first test being on a Carnivore Diet. I was doing 22 hours fast and eating around 1800 - 2000 calories a day and saw my bloodwork result with a lower testosterone level of 315 ng/dL. After tracking and looking at my macros, I found that my actual daily target for calories at 155 lbs of weight is 2600-2700 calories a day. So I was around 20-30% lower than the actual energy consumption I needed. Eating at a deficit led me to think that my body was less interested in building and more interested in conserving. .I decided to open my eating window to increase my calories at a higher level. I still do a fast but only for 12-16 hours instead of doing a 22 hour.
Caloric restriction can be great for longevity. Doing OMAD can be awesome for certain things like cancer prevention, disease and cleaning up the body for repair, but too much restriction could also affect your hormones, reduce your fertility, and weaken your energy levels. It can be beneficial in a short period of time but if you’re looking to have optimized testosterone for libido, recovery for strength and for building muscle mass, you’ll want to avoid being in a deficit.
2. Increased my Fat intake
I was eating a lot of steak and red meat when I discovered that the actual fat macro percentage in my diet and the amount of calories I was getting from fat was only around 50%. I decided to up my fat intake 70-80% of my calories to see if this would improve my hormones.
To do this I started adding in egg yolks. I also discovered suet and beef fat prior. Before, I was eating Tallow which was rendered melted processed fat and I found that my gut would get uneasy and feel discomfort when I eat too much liquid fat. I believe that when you’re eating fat that has been liquified or melted down and processed, it releases more bile salts from your gallbladder and hits your small intestine quicker and triggers your gut and your body isn’t adapted to handle fat in that way. But if it’s raw and not melted, I can eat 100g of suet, 900 calories of fat in one serving without having any problem with gut issues.
After I added egg yolks, suet and fat trimming into my diet, my fat macro increased from 50% to 70-80% and I started noticing more energy. Having 20-30% of protein and 70-80% of fat is more ketogenic than having 50% of protein and 50% fat.
3. Optimized my Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important things to hormone health. Getting to bed between 9 and 10 at night is the most optimal approach because it allows you to hit the 10pm to 2am window when your hormones and your recovery sleep are most optimized. Going to bed earlier certainly can be the best way to get the best quality of sleep, but in my experience it's also the fastest to create anxiety and destroy a social life and just limit your opportunity to hang out with people and socialize. It’s a challenge because if you’re trying to optimize your sleep, it’s important to have a consistent sleep schedule and you have a deep sleep regimen but you don’t want to feel anxiety of not being able to socialize.
In this case I really focused on getting 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I tried to keep it more consistent. I also wore bluelight blocking glasses to respect my melatonin production. I use RaOptics or Uvex safety goggles once the sun is down and you’re exposed to artificial blue light. The idea here is that when the sun goes down, the eye in the human body is not supposed to be seeing blue lights from exposures to screens, computers, laptops, TVs and cell phones. When your eyes are exposed to bluelight it prevents your body from realizing that it’s time to produce hormones that allow you to recover and get deeper sleep, producing more testosterone.
I recommend wearing blue blockers during the evening hours, a few hours prior to sleep to help your body realize that it’s time for you to produce the right hormones and get the right amount of sleep to optimize your testosterone production. Going out wearing blue blocking glasses could be a lot better than going out with no protection and just experiencing all the bluelight directly in your eyes. Without it, you’re just signalling to your body to stay up and mess up your hormone production that needs to produce testosterone.
Sleep is definitely one of the main things your body uses to clean out your brain and recover your body. And the majority of testosterone is produced while you’re sleeping. When you deprive yourself of sleep studies [..]show that you’re actually reducing your testosterone.
There are so many reasons to focus on sleep. I actually wrote a book titled Sound Sleep that dives deep into sleep optimization, insomnia and the benefits in our body. Ultimately quality sleep is critical to achieve optimal health.
Those are the three main things I did that tripled my testosterone levels in just 3 weeks. I was retested around 3-4 months after and was over 700. I’m fairly confident if you implement these adjustments you’ll notice improvements for yourself.
Other things you can do to boost testosterone
Get foods Rich in Zinc and Magnesium
Zinc - is an essential mineral that is present in our body which supports your immune system. It has a lot of benefits in our body such as fighting off infections, producing cells and increasing your testosterone levels. Zinc deficiency causes delayed sexual maturation, impotence and hypogonadism in males.
Zinc is rich in the Carnivore Diet. You can start eating foods that are rich in zinc such as oysters, red meat and poultry. Don’t be fooled by the misleading low bioavailability of high zinc levels in plant foods. Many of these foods also have phytic acid when consumed which binds to this critical mineral.
Get Saturated Fat
Saturated fat has been demonized by epidemiologists for decades. They’ve been linking it to a cardiovascular disease for decades. But the evidence on the health effects of saturated fat intake is far from conclusive. In fact, it plays a lot of vital roles in our body chemistry such as improving the immune system, protecting us against free radical damage and increasing the testosterone productions.
Here are some of the healthy food where you can get high saturated fat:
Get Sunlight
We already know that sunlight triggers the production of Vitamin D which regulates the absorption of calcium. UVB from sun exposure on your skin is the biggest source of Vitamin D3.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin but it’s not just a vitamin, it is a prohormone. It’s actually a precursor of all hormones. It operates like a leader in the hormones in the body. It is critical in your immune system and your testosterone levels. You can get Vitamin D from a small number of foods but the majority of it comes from sunlight. Forget about your skin doctor who only concerns themself with protecting your skin, the overall benefits of sun exposure far outweigh the small risks of skin exposure.
Limit Alcohol
Alcohol is one of the worst things you can consume if you’re looking to optimize your testosterone levels. Consider minimizing consumption. It disrupts your body’s natural hormones, it disrupts sleep, it is toxic in your body and it’s high in histamine. It can be fun and create social bonding but if you’re dealing with testosterone issues, considering cutting back on alcohol.
Cut Out Refined Carbs & Sugar
Refined carbohydrates and seed oils destroy human health and have been shown to reduce testosterone levels. People who reduce these often see improvements in testosterone levels as well. Not to mention a whole slew of other health benefits beyond just improved T.
And that covers a LOT of the major variables to naturally raising your testosterone levels. If you do these things, not only will see increases in T, but you’ll also see improvements in several other areas, energy, recovery and libido.
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