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Testosterone: Can You Boost Testosterone Naturally? | Nutritionist Explains | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Can you boost testosterone levels naturally? Our expert nutritionist is here to explain everything you need to know about this all-important male sex hormone.
Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone and plays a key role in protein synthesis, and therefore muscle building, so it can be useful to your fitness goals to make sure your natural levels are at their optimum.
Nutrition expert and PhD researcher, Richie Kirwan, is here to explain how your diet, body composition, and exercise could all be affecting your body's natural production of testosterone — and whether you can do anything to increase this.
Find Richie on Instagram: @be_more_nutrition
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Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
00:56 — What is testosterone?
02:32 — How can I change my testosterone levels?
05:11 — Micronutrients that can affect testosterone levels
07:39 — Important considerations
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0:00
everyone knows that testosterone is the
0:01
single most important hormone for muscle
0:03
building and all you need to do is raise
0:05
your levels to see some serious gains
0:07
right let's talk about
0:09
that how's it going guys my name is
0:12
Richie Kerwin and today we're going to
0:13
talk all about testosterone what it is
0:16
what it does in the body and whether you
0:17
can change your testosterone levels
0:20
naturally as always I want to point out
0:21
that I'm not telling you what you should
0:23
or shouldn't eat or supplement with and
0:25
I'm not recommending any particular
0:27
supplements that's entirely your choice
0:29
what I am going to do is help you
0:31
understand what the research says about
0:32
the effects of diet and exercise on
0:35
testosterone and you can use that
0:36
information to help you make more
0:38
informed choices before I start I want
0:40
to mention that a lot of the information
0:42
in this video came from a great review
0:44
that was recently published from zir at
0:46
all let's get started okay if you're
0:48
interested in training hard and building
0:50
muscle and strength you've almost
0:51
definitely heard of how important
0:53
testosterone is but do you know why
0:55
first off we need to know what it is
0:57
exactly testosterone is the main
0:59
anabolic steroid in the human body and
1:01
is made in the testicles in men and to a
1:03
smaller degree in the ovaries in women
1:05
besides being responsible for male
1:07
sexual characteristics like deeper voice
1:09
facial and body hair its main effects
1:11
are to increase protein synthesis and
1:13
generally increase anabolism or building
1:15
up reactions and to reduce catabolism or
1:18
breaking down reactions the effect of
1:20
this is to lead to an increase in muscle
1:22
mass strength and performance which
1:24
sounds pretty sweet right now the next
1:26
bit is going to be a little technical
1:28
but it'll be important later on in the
1:30
video to produce testosterone the
1:32
pituitary gland in the brain first has
1:34
to make mizing hormone this is what
1:36
causes the testicles to produce
1:38
testosterone that testosterone then
1:40
travels around the body in the blood it
1:43
travels in two forms as free
1:45
testosterone which is active or it can
1:47
also be bound to a protein and that form
1:50
is inactive testosterone has its effects
1:52
by binding to Androgen receptors in the
1:55
cells this causes our cells to activate
1:57
a load of different genes many involved
1:59
in muscle growth and strength
2:01
testosterone can also be converted to
2:03
dihydrotestosterone or DHT which is
2:06
almost five times more potent than
2:08
regular testosterone oh and one last
2:11
thing in the UK at least the normal
2:13
range for total testosterone men is from
2:16
about 9 to 29 nanomoles per liter that's
2:19
a really wide range but men can be
2:21
perfectly healthy within it oh and yeah
2:23
testosterone levels in men tend to start
2:25
dropping from around 30 years of age
2:27
onwards okay now that we have all that
2:29
technical stuff out the way let's get to
2:31
what we really want to know what can you
2:32
do to affect your testosterone levels
2:35
but pay attention and make sure you
2:36
watch all the way through to the end to
2:38
understand how this affects your gains
2:40
the first thing you can do to keep your
2:42
testosterone at a healthy level is to
2:44
make sure you are doing some form of
2:46
resistance exercise so hit the gym and
2:49
move some heavy weights not only does
2:51
resistance exercise increase
2:52
testosterone immediately after training
2:54
but regular lifters have higher
2:56
testosterone levels than non- lifters in
2:58
general as for the best best type of
3:00
exercise those movements that use the
3:02
most muscle mass so think big compound
3:04
movements involving the legs chest lats
3:06
Etc seem to be the best for stimulating
3:09
the release of testosterone it's not
3:10
that there's anything wrong with
3:11
isolation movements but the more muscle
3:13
worked overall the better for increasing
3:15
testosterone right so the next thing to
3:18
take care of is body composition
3:20
specifically body fat a number of
3:22
Studies have shown that higher levels of
3:23
body fat are associated with lower
3:26
levels of testosterone one explanation
3:27
for this may be that body fat has higher
3:30
levels of enzymes known as aromatases
3:33
and these convert testosterone to
3:35
estradiol which is a type of estrogen
3:37
and that is not what you want to happen
3:39
if you're trying to keep your
3:40
testosterone high now while keeping body
3:42
fat lower is important the next point is
3:44
going to make that seem a little bit
3:46
tricky you see calorie restriction
3:48
especially with large deficits for a
3:50
long period of time can also
3:52
significantly reduce testosterone this
3:55
is why testosterone levels usually tank
3:57
in natural bodybuilders at the end of a
3:59
long cut or fat loss face just before a
4:01
show being that lean or at least the
4:04
diet you need to be that lean is just
4:06
not good for testosterone something
4:08
related but slightly different is low
4:10
energy availability which can affect a
4:12
lot of athletes especially those who do
4:14
Endurance Sports energy availability is
4:17
the difference between the energy that
4:19
you take in and the energy you burn in
4:21
relation to your fat-free Mass
4:24
chronically low energy availability can
4:26
lead to relative energy deficiency in
4:29
sport or Reds which has a number of
4:32
major health problems one of which is
4:34
alterations in hormone production
4:36
leading to low levels of testosterone in
4:38
men so you need to avoid excessively
4:40
high body fat but you also need to avoid
4:41
overly restrictive diets and calorie
4:43
deficits I never said this was going to
4:45
be easy now another thing to keep an eye
4:47
on especially if you're dieting is your
4:49
fat intake it seems that very low fat
4:52
diets of around 20% of calories from fat
4:54
or below that can lead to slightly lower
4:57
levels of testosterone compared to
4:58
higher fat diets of about 40% of
5:00
calories from fat this is likely because
5:01
of the essential role fat plays in
5:03
testosterone production as cholesterol
5:06
is used to form the basic structure of
5:08
steroid hormones okay moving on to
5:12
micronutrients and one that you may want
5:13
to pay special attention to is vitamin D
5:16
interestingly higher blood levels of
5:18
vitamin D are regularly associated with
5:21
higher testosterone levels on top of
5:22
that supplementing people with low
5:24
vitamin D levels for about 12 months can
5:26
lead to increases in total and free
5:29
testosterone compared to Placebo groups
5:31
vitamin D is a pretty important vitamin
5:33
as it binds to the vitamin D receptor in
5:36
our cells causing a lot of major effects
5:38
in our bodies men also have vitamin D
5:40
receptors in the cells in their
5:42
testicles that produce testosterone and
5:44
this is why vitamin D might lead to
5:46
Greater production of this hormone
5:48
finally there are two minerals worth
5:50
mentioning in a very specific context
5:52
when it comes to testosterone zinc and
5:54
magnesium zinc plays an important role
5:57
in the production of lutenizing hormone
5:59
and as I mentioned earlier lutenizing
6:00
hormone is what causes the testicles to
6:02
produce testosterone on top of that zinc
6:04
helps with the conversion of
6:06
testosterone to DHT and as I said
6:08
earlier DHD has an even greater anabolic
6:11
effect than basic testosterone Studies
6:13
have shown that zinc deficiency is
6:16
associated with lower levels of
6:17
testosterone and supplementing with zinc
6:19
can restore testosterone concentrations
6:21
back to their normal physiological range
6:24
magnesium is another essential mineral
6:26
that we need in quite high amounts about
6:28
400 Mig a day day for men and about 300
6:30
Mig a day for women there seems to be an
6:33
association between low magnesium levels
6:35
in the body and low testosterone which
6:37
may return to normal with magnesium
6:39
supplementation the way magnesium
6:40
affects testosterone isn't fully
6:42
understood but one way it might work is
6:44
by reducing oxidative stress in the body
6:47
which allows for normal testosterone
6:48
levels magnesium also seems to reduce
6:51
testosterone binding to some of the sex
6:53
hormone binding globulins in our blood
6:55
meaning there's more free active
6:57
testosterone now it's really and I mean
7:01
really important to point out that
7:03
taking vitamin D or zinc or magnesium
7:07
only has an effect on testosterone
7:08
levels if you're already deficient in
7:11
that specific nutrient if your nutrient
7:14
levels are sufficient taking more isn't
7:17
going to increase your testosterone even
7:19
more and if you have a good balanced
7:20
diet or supplement already your levels
7:23
are probably already okay that's
7:25
something to bear in mind with all
7:26
supplements there's an Optimum dose and
7:29
taking more might not be of any benefit
7:31
at all or could even be dangerous for
7:33
example with some vitamins like vitamin
7:35
D that's why it's worth getting your
7:37
blood levels tested if you're worried
7:39
now after hearing all these different
7:40
tips there's probably one thing that
7:42
many of you are thinking I do all those
7:45
things already or at least most of them
7:47
you see all of what I've mentioned here
7:49
are just standard healthy lifestyle
7:51
practices that most gym goers are
7:53
probably doing already and if you are
7:55
great you're doing exactly what you need
7:58
to do to optimize your natural
7:59
testosterone production that's probably
8:01
going to make a lot of you wonder well
8:03
then why aren't I super Jack jet here's
8:06
the thing all these healthy lifestyle
8:07
tips will help you to optimize your
8:09
testosterone within the normal healthy
8:11
range I mentioned earlier between 9 and
8:14
29 nanom per leader when people talk
8:16
about the huge benefits of testosterone
8:18
for building serious strength in muscle
8:20
they're actually talking about exogenous
8:23
testosterone or testosterone injections
8:25
not the testosterone produced naturally
8:28
in your body you see to get those muscle
8:30
building and performance benefits you
8:32
need what's known as superphysiological
8:34
levels of testosterone
8:36
supraphysiological means greater than
8:39
the normal amount produced in the body
8:41
so if the upper end of the normal range
8:44
of testosterone is 29 nanom moles per
8:46
liter what levels do people achieve with
8:49
exogenous supplementation well in one
8:51
study where they supplemented men with
8:52
healthy testosterone levels or about 26
8:55
nanom per liter with 600 mg of
8:57
testosterone per week their blood blood
8:59
levels shot to over 120 nanom per liter
9:04
that's just not going to happen with
9:06
better diet exercise and some common
9:08
supplements and that's okay it's still
9:12
perfectly possible to build muscle and
9:14
strength without taking steroids like
9:15
exogenous testosterone they just may not
9:17
be the superhero likee physiques that we
9:20
often see on social media I just wish
9:22
some people in the fitness sphere were
9:23
more open about their use of such
9:25
substances so people were more aware of
9:27
what is and isn't possible for a natural
9:30
physique increasing testosterone gets a
9:32
lot of attention and I just want to make
9:34
sure that you are completely aware of
9:36
what proper nutrition supplementation
9:38
and training is going to do for you
9:39
instead of holding out hopes for some
9:41
Holy Grail of gains so did this answer
9:45
your testosterone questions or just
9:46
smash your dreams as always if you have
9:49
any more questions let me know in the
9:50
comments below and remember to like And
9:52
subscribe to the my protein YouTube
9:53
channel for more great evidence-based
9:55
nutrition information
9:58
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