How can you increase testosterone naturally? Is one of the questions I’m most frequently asked. In reality the answer to this quite complex & detailed. Naturally optimizing testosterone levels will require you to optimize multiple aspects of your lifestyle. This can be pretty complex and usually means you need guidance. There are however some simple methods you can all use to increase your testosterone naturally. That is what we are going to look at today.
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The 8 Ways To Increase Testosterone Naturally
- Quality nights sleep
- Lose excess body fat
- Plenty of dietary cholesterol
- Lift heavy
- Get plenty of Sun vitamin D
- Lower cortisol/ Yoga
- Sex
- A diet high in vitamins & minerals
1. Increase Testosterone Naturally With A Quality Nights Sleep
Ensuring you regularly get 7 + hours of sleep per night is one of the best to increase testosterone naturally. I’d even go as far to say. That if you regularly sleep poorly each night. You will never have naturally high testosterone levels. There have been a multitude of studies looking in to how sleep impacts T levels.
This study followed 10 healthy men. In the course of the study. These men went from having over 8 hours sleep per night. They cut their sleep down to just under 5 hours per night for a week. The end results showed that the mens testosterone levels dropped by an average of 10 – 15%.
There have been a number of similar studies. Which have had similar findings. The common theme has been that regularly getting under 5 hours sleep. Leads to a pretty severe decline in testosterone production. Coupled with having around 7 – 8 hours per night. Is needed for you to have healthy testosterone production. So that is what you need to be aiming for 7 – 8 hours of sleep per night.
2. Lose Excess Body Fat
If you were to ask most people what are the best ways to increase testosterone naturally. It’s unlikely that most would actually think of fat loss. But the reality is that if you are above 15% body fat. Fat loss is the best thing you can do long term for a natural testosterone booster. You want to aim to be between 10% – 15% for optimal testosterone production.
Fat cells (especially abdominal fat cells) are high in the aromatase enzyme. This is the enzyme that leads to the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. The more body fat you carry, the more of your testosterone is converted to estrogen. Which in turn obviously leads to excess estrogen. The excess estrogen can then interfere with the signals for the body to produce testosterone.
This then creates a negative feedback loop, as the more estrogen your body has. The more body fat you are going to gain. With the increase in body fat, your estrogen levels will become even higher. All this meaning that you have even lower testosterone. So hopefully it’s clear why getting to 10% – 15% body fat. Is one of if not the most effective way to increase testosterone naturally.
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3. Consume Plenty Of Dietary Cholesterol
Cholesterol is the building block of sex hormones. Which of course includes testosterone. Your body produces only about 80%. So you do need top your levels up with dietary sources. Don’t worry about if “consuming too much” either. Your body is smart. It will amend your own production, based on how much you consume!
You won’t have healthy testosterone production without cholesterol! Eggs are an excellent source of dietary cholesterol. In fact, there are very few foods that are a better source!
Common worries with increasing cholesterol intake, are things like high blood cholesterol. People also worry about things like cardiovascular disease. The link between cholesterol & these health issues has been disproved. Dietary cholesterol doesn’t negatively impact blood cholesterol levels without inflammation.
4. Lift Heavy Weights
You should all be doing resistance training anyway. It’s essential for your wider health. Even more so as you age. Regular resistance training is one of the best ways to increase your testosterone naturally. With the more muscle you utilize & the greater the weight you lift. The larger your testosterone spike is.
Best Type Of Lifts For Increased T
So the big heavy compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench press & overhead press. Are the most effective when it comes to spiking testosterone levels. Yes, T levels will return to normal after you have finished lifting. However the more muscle you have. The higher your testosterone production will be.
With your legs being the largest muscles in the body. Compound lifts are ideal for T. As most of them help you build extremely strong legs. Meaning you will be carrying more muscle. So compound lifts are best for a short term testosterone spike. They are also the best type of lifts to focus on for you to increase your testosterone naturally for the longer term.
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5. Get Plenty Of Sun
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. The active form functions as a steroid hormone in the body. It is needed for the production of testosterone & other sex hormones. Sunlight is your main source of Vitamin D. Sadly due to modern lifestyles and advice most don’t get nearly enough sunlight exposure. This has led to low and in many cases, vitamin D deficiency. Recent surveys suggest that approximately 1 in 5 people have very low/ deficient vitamin D levels.
In reality, most who don’t live in extremely sunny climates year-round. Get less sun exposure than they need. With vitamin D levels suffering as a result. This has led to testosterone levels suffering. One study in particular found an extremely close correlation to vitamin D deficiency and low testosterone levels. They found that when the participants spent more time in the summer sun. Their vitamin D levels increased and their testosterone levels did as well. You can check this study out here.
Studies On D3 & Testosterone
There was also a year long study. That investigated how supplementation with vitamin D increases testosterone naturally. There were 65 male participants. Who were split into two groups. Half took 3,300 IU of vitamin D every day. The vitamin D levels of this group doubled and their testosterone levels increased by approximately 20%. So as you can see getting at least 3,300 IU of vitamin daily can increase testosterone naturally by a significant amount.
It’s considered that the absolute minimal amount of sun exposure you should be getting is the equivalent 20 – 30 minutes of midday sun. That is the absolute minimum & the darker you are in complexion. The more that time in the sun needs to increase. For example, if you are African/ of African descent you would probably want close to an hour to in the equivalent to midday sun. To be the minimum exposure you get.
Sources Of Vitamin D
As mentioned earlier. Unless you live somewhere that is hot all year round & you are frequently out in the sun. Chance is you aren’t getting enough vitamin D & you will need to supplement. There are some foods that are a decent source of Vit D. Such as
- Eggs
- Beef liver
- Salmon
- Mackerel
Even if you are eating a decent amount of these. You will likely still need to supplement if you aren’t getting constant sun exposure. Especially if you are in the winter months!
6. Lower Your Cortisol Levels
Stress & the stress hormone cortisol are one of the biggest killers of testosterone. When your stress levels are high, cortisol levels also spike. When cortisol is spiked, the production of testosterone is inhibited. So when you have chronic high cortisol levels. Your testosterone production is seriously inhibited & negatively impacted.
So you need tools that can help you to lower cortisol. Anything that lowers stress is effective. Some of my personal favorite ways to lower cortisol are:
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Tai Chi
- Walking
- Time with family
A particularly powerful to increase testosterone naturally is using the yoga move pictured above. Which is called the cobra. Even if you aren’t keen on yoga. The “cobra” is a pose you will want to do daily. By holding this for up to 200 seconds. You can see your testosterone levels increase by up to 33%! So I suggest this is something that you do daily.
7. Have More Sex
I’m sure you can all get behind having more sex. Research has shown that an active sex life serves as an effective testosterone booster for both men & women. So a great reason for you to “get busy” more often. Abstinence from sex for up to 7 days is also shown to be an effective testosterone booster. Think we can all agree, that regular sex is the more enjoyable route to go down.
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8. Make Sure Your Diet is High In Vitamins & Minerals
There are a multitude of vitamins & minerals. That you need to be getting enough of in your diet for healthy testosterone production. Some of the major ones are as follows:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin D3
- Vitamin K2
- Zinc
- Magnesium
- Boron
You should first be aiming to get enough of these nutrients through your diet. It will take far too long to go through how much you need of every single nutrient in this article. What I would say is, some of these nutrients you may need to supplement to get enough of.
If you look at boron for example. You need 6mg – 10mg daily and you won’t get that in your diet. To get enough boron, you literally have to supplement. You could supplement boron or other nutrients individually. Supplementing them as a part of a testosterone complex supplement is possibly a better option.
You Can Check Out My Top Testosterone Supplements For 2021 Here
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you have found this article on ways to increase testosterone naturally useful. All of the methods outlined should be simple for you to put into practice. Again if you want a more detailed approach & guidance on how you can optimize T. I suggest you check out how I can help you optimize T with my coaching here
Any questions, just drop me a comment below & I’ll get back to you. Please share this article with anyone else you think may find it useful. You can also follow me on my social media sites. Where I provide more info & data on ways to increase your testosterone naturally.