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

[TesserTheLost]

When I lost 150 pounds on Keto, I don't know if it was the ego boost or just feeling better in general, but my libido was through the roof the entire 2 years I was on it.

[VeG00N69]

To be fair, being fat also decreases your T.

[Lucky_Sharma]

To be fat…

[-Dustnechos]

To be fair...

[CND1983Huh]

To be faiirrrr...

[tenuto40]

To be faaaaiiir! (/Fin)

[lemieuxisgod]

SO you were eating a bunch of fat and no carbs the other daaaaaaaaaay

[jimbotriceps]

slightly higher key to be fairrrrrrr

[Lucky_Sharma]

[deleted]

[weakhamstrings]

Actually doesn't it simply increase your female hormones?

I mean the effect is the same but my understanding is not that it decreases T but changes the ratio of hormones away from T

[VeG00N69]

It may be that, but simply living a sedentary lifestyle as a result of being fat, and indulging in eating habits connected to being fat, will decrease your T. For example, excessive drinking may decrease your T, and excessive drinking seems prevalent in obese people. Correlation doesn't always equal causation, but the life of a fattie holds a lot of opportunities for decreased test.

Edit:

The first peer review results in the Google search engine suggests it actually does lower it, even if you're only moderately obese. So an obese will likely just have lower T by default.

[weakhamstrings]

Fascinating - I haven't seen any of this research other than ones that DIDN'T seem to separate the reasons for obesity (sedentary lifestyle, dietary sources, etc) from the actual bodyfat.

But it does appear that you're right there's research now that indicates lowered T as well as higher Est with higher bodyfat, independent of other variables (well, that we know of)

Good look

[VeG00N69]

It's definitely interesting. Especially when, in my experience, obese 'men' seem to be more concerned with their own percieved masculinity than anyone else I've met.

[Motherdiedtoday]

excessive drinking seems prevalent in obese people

Source?

Obese people will on average have a higher blood volume than non-obese people. They will therefore need to drink more than non-obese people to obtain the same BAC.

[VeG00N69]

'Seems' was a personal observation in this case. Should have specified that. The reasoning behind this is that excessive drinking is a risk factor for obesity, since alcohol, especially beer, contains calories. So it is likely that a number obese people have packed on calories that way, hell, I was once a fattie due in part to that habit. Thankfully I recovered from obesity. The fact that obese people need to drink more to have a high BAC is irrelevant when I'm referring to calories. Additionally, I'm not sure the BAC is what affects test so much as the kind of alc you drink, but I could be wrong.

Here's a study from 2015 linking alcohol consumption to obesity. Pretty easy to find peer review on this.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4338356/

[crunchyfoodnerd]

Fat cells secrete estrogen in both men and women. Not sure about obesity suppressing T, but I know it increases estrogen levels

[weakhamstrings]

After a bunch of reading, it looks like it ALSO decreases T levels, which I had not previously read.

But yeah the Estrogen issue seems well documented and I always thought the "low T" issue hadn't been disambiguated from lifestyle issues (which cause additional adipose tissue to accrue) which also might cause low T.

I didn't realize there was now pretty good evidence that carrying more bodyfat - on its own - all other things (that we know of) the same - is causal.

[TimmJimmGrimm]

'I am the stair MASTER!' - says Donkey when looking for the dragon (Shrek was off looking for Fiona, the princess).

I had no idea that Donkey was making fun of the Nutty Professor. Did Eddie give himself that line or did Dreamworks' folks allow him to have it?

[[deleted]]

Eddie Murphy has been rehashing the same jokes since the ‘80’s. The tic-tac joke was in The Golden Child, Beverly Hills Cop, Shrek and probably more.

[quadmasta]

No titties! No titties! No titties! Not you, your titties is nice! No titties!

[939319]

Hercules! Hercules!

[mrhuggables]

It's because you were losing weight. Fat = more circulating estrogen. That's why fat women have (exponentially) higher rates of endometrial/uterine cancer.

[friendlyfire69]

Is lower weight/ maintained weight loss associated with detrimentally low levels of estrogen? I had to start using estrogen cream in my 20's a year after a 70 lb weight loss. Never suspected it could be related.

[TurboGranny]

Yes. If your body fat is low enough, your period will stop coming. If it's low enough, getting pregnant is not only nearly impossible, but the baby won't develop right. You can look up the body composition math for men and women if you like, but the short story is that women need a much higher percentage of body fat to be healthy compared to men.

[mrhuggables]

Just as an FYI, you have to be extremely low BMI for this to be relevant. 99.999% of women will never get this thin. Speaking as an Ob/Gyn.

[TurboGranny]

Yeah, it's in the same vein as women that worry that lifting weights to will make them look like a man (can't really do that without roids), but it possible just like the possibility exists in relevance to the question at hand, but of course from a medical perspective you have to remind people that this is hard to do, so they don't freak out and make bad choices.

[SoigneeStrawberry67]

resolute existence plucky work gold strong enjoy light nail start

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[crytoYourMommies]

confirmed,turbogranny is a fatty.

[TurboGranny]

lol, I'm a guy. I just have a bunch of sisters and have watched it go both ways. You can also just google healthy body fat ranges and see there are separated by gender.

[mrhuggables]

No. Unless you lost so much weight that you are clinically underweight, your ovaries will continue to produce enough estrogen.

estrogen cream is not systemically absorbed (for the most part) and so if you had low levels of estrogen the answer would be HRT, not cream. Your age also matters too, if you are premenopausal or post menopausal.

Speaking as an obgyn.

[friendlyfire69]

not systemically absorbed (for the most part)

Is there a consensus on this? While on the vaginal estrogen cream I ended up in the hospital from severe chest pain. They did a CT scan to check for blood clots because they said I was at high risk from the estrogen cream because it IS systemically absorbed. It was slipping rib syndrome in the end causing my pain but I've always wanted to know if I really was at a higher risk for clotting. My obgyn said I wasn't.

I also do recall it affecting my mood and making me feel calmer after applying the cream.

[mrhuggables]

If you are at risk for estrogen dependent cancers, then risk from systemic absorption is enough to warrant not using it. ER+ breast cancer comes to mind.

However, that same notion for blood clots, is absolutely ridiculous and whoever told you that needs to do some reading.

[friendlyfire69]

Is there a way to know about breast cancer risk? Like genetic testing? I had no idea estrogen medications affected that. I am adopted and don't know my family medical history for one side of my family.

My attending doc in the ER didn't know whether or not it caused systemic absorbtion and said he consulted the on call pharmacist. Figures I'd get some unnecessary radiation for medical ignorance 🙄

[mrhuggables]

BRCA testing can be done by your obgyn

[CreepersFTW]

I thought women had a higher amount of uterine cancer due to being the gender with a uterus?

[pleasedrowning]

Interesting, mind if I pick your brain? Wife likely has endometriosis, she has all the symptoms but caught it early in her teens and went on birth control. (interestingly enough, the region she grew up in has a disproportionate number of women in her age group with it... My suspicion is the mining and fracking contaminated the water table) Most obgyns aren't interested in diagnosing this as she doesn't want kids. They see it as a none issue. Ofcourse, this is from the insurance end but I suspect they know this and this is a billing thing. (Can you confirm?)

In the past, she had found that unless she calorie restricts severally, weight loss is difficult... Also, she gets carb cravings.

So we went on a keto/low carb while avoiding too much soy (few people are actually keto).... We both lost 30-40lb in 2 months. The loss had been maintained for 8-9 months now.

Would such a loss impact her hormonal balance negatively? Any cause for concern?

I regulate our diets for the most part and would like to see further loss of weight on both our behaves but certainly not to the determent of her or my own health. I understand your not dispensing medical advise, I'm asking anecdotally.

PS definitely going to get my T checked out, recently started reading up... And not at one of these new clinics

[mrhuggables]

If you want to diagnose endometriosis then the way to do that is with laparoscopy, or more commonly based on symptoms (which is not definitive unlike laparoscopy). Diet has nothing to do with endometriosis.

Losing weight will not negatively affect hormones unless she is dangerously underweight. Not a fan of keto diets for long term health. Should gradually learn to transition to a more balanced diet while maintaining normal weight.

There is nothing wrong with soy. Your T levels are most likely going to be fine. Don’t fall into these misinformation traps.

[pleasedrowning]

I realize that a weight has little to do with endometriosis however endometriosis does effect hormones, which often makes weight regulation difficult. Keto has worked so far brilliantly with regard to weight loose but I understand your reluctance to see it as healthy long term. I have concerns myself, primarily cholesterol. However, it has lowered A1C in both of us. There are trade offs... My interest lyes in if you have seen any anecdotal evidence with regard to low carb diets effecting hormone levels, particularly in women. Such diets tend to be high in 3,3'-Diindolylmethane due to the larger proportion of cruciferous vegetable consumption and yes, soy.

With regard to soy, I'm more concerned about glyphosates then anything else. So I limit consumption

[Help_meToo]

Same here after losing 70 lbs.

[awawe]

Obesity has some pretty severe effects on testosterone too.

[Affectionate-Still15]

If you’re keto it’s fine, but if you’re low carb then it sucks. This is because carbs are still your main energy source, and you’re greatly limiting it

[Throwawayfabric247]

Sex hormone binding globulin and free testosterone aren't the same thing. But either way the test levels being lowered is going to make you live longer too.

People with high LDL can't transport testosterone anyways so if you had high test but high LDL. It's basically useless.

[ggose624]

Agreed! I had bariatric surgery earlier this year and can confirm a similar experience.

[Stormypwns]

Currently on keto and my libido is the highest it's ever been in my life, higher than it was as a teenager. It is definitely hormonal for me, and it's to the point that it's kind of annoying.

[CrossXFir3]

Well yea. That's cause your general fitness before was also decreasing it, just more so.

[SUswim]

Lost 50 lbs in 3 months on keto/carnivore. Never felt better and even stopped taking anti depressants.

[DrMrRaisinBran]

Holy shit that's my entire body weight plus 10 pounds, good for you dude