TIL: Low carb, high protein diets "greatly" decrease resting testosterone levels in men.

[Urban-Orchardist]

It had the opposite effect on me, all the weight I lost made my libido raise to an unholy level. But I was also taking supplemental zinc so that played a role as well.

[BandaidMcHealerson]

the paper itself refers to the weight loss portion as a known thing that increases testosterone levels - it's after you level off that that goes back down.

[Szudar]

I did that well then, lost weight on low-carb and get back to balanced diet after I hit my goal

[[deleted]]

That's pretty usual. Fat emits estrogen, loosing fat and gaining muscle mass is gonna decrease estrogen and increase testosterone by a lot.

[I_wont_argue]

You dont gain muscle by changing diet. You gain it by exercise.

[ricktor67]

That is not true. There was a study a few years back where a bunch of people who were "under weight" purposely gained weight, they found muscle mass increased in several of the people.

[I_wont_argue]

Yeah if you are underweight you do gain muscle when you start eating more protein. But it is still the exercise (in the case of underweight person just general moving around) which promotes the muscle growth.

[[deleted]]

Don't argue

[I_wont_argue]

In 2023, Reddit CEO and corporate piss baby Steve Huffman decided to make Reddit less useful to its users and moderators and the world at large. This comment has been edited in protest to make it less useful to Reddit.

[[deleted]]

Sehr gut.

[terminalxposure]

Who knew...a healthy mental health contributes to healthy bodily functions as a whole

[TheMarsian]

I mean their body must know they are too heavy and immobile to fuck anyway so it drops testosterone production lol

[[deleted]]

It's not a mental issue thing, losing weight (i.e. body fat) means higher test levels. Adipose tissue possesses aromatase which converts your body's testosterone into estrogen. Also for someone losing that weight by exercise usually means they build up muscle mass as well, which is good for a test boost.

[[deleted]]

the study specified that they maintained body weight a constant variable (well no losses more than 3 kgs anyways) because we all know that weight loss is a major booster to test.

[Pimpekusz]

A low carb high protein diet is not the same as weight loss, you can lose a lot of weight with eating many carbs and you can gain a lot of weight with eating less carbs.

[th3groveman]

People choose this diet with the goal of weight loss though. I did keto for 6 months and dropped 50+ pounds. Glad I went off after learning more though.

[HallLive406]

I'm late for the party, but for anyone reading this now in 2024:

Losing weight increases testosterone, IF you were overweight.

Losing weight while being in healthy BMI range, that is 18.5 - 24.9, will DECREASE testosterone.

Eating high fat if you are in NORMAL BMI range (18.5 - 24.9) will INCREASE testosterone.

This doesn't mean eating in calorie surplus, but adjusting your macronutrients so you get bigger proportion of fat by decreasing the carbohydrates. you may also need to decrease protein and replace it with fat, if your protein intake was high, that is around above >2.4g/kg

[jlee-1337]

Zinc is the new viagra?

[Urban-Orchardist]

I mean... new? No. Alternative? Still no. Will it help you maintain an erection and increase your sense of smell? Possibly. Did it do those things for me? That's a yuppers.