Low Fat vs High Fat Diet: What's Better for Testosterone Levels in Men?
Jul 07, 2021
High fat diets have been demonized by the main stream media. They are blamed for all sorts of medical issues. Fat intake is a controversial topic in nutritional science. With many so-called experts, saying less fat is better. Likewise, cholesterol polarises opinion. As soon as I mentioned cholesterol, I bet you thought it’s “bad” for your health and you want to avoid it at all costs. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, consuming adequate fat and cholesterol is key to your health, testosterone production, and muscle building potential.
Optimal testosterone levels are critical to men’s health. Low testosterone levels are linked to heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Maintaining healthy testosterone levels will help you to improve athletic performance, gain muscle mass, and boost mental and sexual health.
Since the 1940s the average testosterone levels of men has been dropping. According to the New England Research Institute, testosterone levels are 40% lower now than they were 70 years ago. This means there is a very real risk of you suffering with dangerously low testosterone levels. The solution to this alarming problem for many guys is actually very simple.
Before we move on to what you can do to optimize your testosterone levels, let me quickly outline some of the symptoms of low levels of testosterone.
You could suffer with…
- Poor health
- Increased body fat
- Reduced strength and muscle mass
- Decreased bone density
- Low libido
- Erectile dysfunction
- Infertility
- Depression
- Fatigue
- Anxiety
Avoiding these symptoms and keeping your testosterone at optimal levels is largely within your control.
Your nutrition is a critical factor in helping to stay within healthy ranges.
Traditional dietary guidelines tend to focus on lowering fat and cholesterol intake. The current guidelines suggest keeping fat to less than 35% of total calories. However, an ever-expanding pile of research is questioning the wisdom of this. Multiple studies have reported benefits from higher fat, lower carbohydrate diets.
A low saturated fat diet is linked to lower testosterone production (1). Men who shifted from a 40% fat diet down to 25% saw a drop in their total and free testosterone production levels. When they shifted back to their original fat intake of 40% their testosterone levels quickly normalised. Another study, reported that men who deliberately restricted their dietary fat intake had a significant reduction in serum testosterone of about 7.5%
Numerous other studies have shown that eating diets low in saturated fats reduced testosterone levels (2).
One of the reasons people are worried about their fat intake is cholesterol. It is a small, fat-like molecule that according to the mass media clogs your arteries and kills you. The reality is, however, that for most people the amount of cholesterol you consume in your diet does not influence how much cholesterol is in your blood stream (3).
In fact, cholesterol is so important that your body highly regulates levels. For example, if your diet does not contain enough cholesterol, your intestines will increase their absorption in an attempt to compensate. If that’s not enough, your body will actually produce its own cholesterol.
On top of that, a review paper on the heart-related health effects of cholesterol concluded that,” data does not support a link between dietary cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.” (4)
Many people avoid eating eggs because they are worried about their cholesterol. The good news is that a scientific review on egg consumption concluded that, “the evidence suggests that a diet including more eggs than is recommended (at least in some countries) may be used safely as part a healthy diet in both the general population and for those at high risk of cardiovascular disease, those with established coronary heart disease, and those with type 2 diabetes.” (5)
So, there is plenty of evidence that we’ve been wrongly brainwashed into avoiding fats and cholesterol in our diets. Not only this but there is evidence from the literature on saturated fat that a typical high cholesterol diet increases testosterone production. Saturated fat is a building block for cholesterol, which in turn is used for testosterone production.
Cholesterol is good for your gains and vital to testosterone production. A study in 2007 had 49 individuals undertake a 12-week training program which was accompanied by nutrition guidelines. Interestingly, they found a linear relationship between amount of cholesterol consumed and lean muscle mass gained. The more cholesterol a participant ate the more muscle they gained. This observation stood up to scrutiny once total protein and fat intake was considered too (6).
A 2011 study investigated this further (7). They compared high vs low cholesterol intakes. They had one group consuming about 800mg of cholesterol a day and another group only consuming roughly 200mg per day. The rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis in the high cholesterol group were three times higher than the low group. Myofibrillar protein synthesis is a very good measure of muscle growth.
A 2017 a study got a lot of attention because it found that consuming whole eggs instead of egg whites post workout stimulated more muscle protein synthesis (8). This supports the anabolic effects of consuming enough fat, but also cholesterol because egg yolk is rich in cholesterol. This is one of the reasons that whole eggs are such a great food to include in your diet.
A new study has found that low fat diets decrease testosterone levels by 10-15%!
If you consume too little fat and cholesterol then your testosterone levels will plummet. Your drive and motivation to train will drop too. Low T levels and poor training is not a good combo. It practically guarantees you’ll become fatter and weaker.
You can fix this though!
The first step is to eat properly. Make getting plenty of protein from whole food sources such as meat, fish, and dairy a priority. Then play particular attention to consuming adequate fat to support optimal hormone levels. Consuming about 0.5g of fat per pound of body weight per day is a good rule of thumb. For a 200, pound guy that means eating 100g of fat per day. If you’re eating a calorie surplus then this will almost certainly be enough to support optimal hormonal function.
If you’re dieting to try and strip away some fat then, you’ll need to consume a calorie deficit. When in a deficit your risk of hormonal disruption increases significantly. As a result, consuming a slightly higher percentage of your calories from fat could prove useful. Bumping fat intake up to 0.6g per pound has proven effective for tons of guys I’ve worked with. For our 200-pound example from earlier, that means pushing fat intake up to 120g per day when in a calorie deficit. Keep protein high and take these additional calories from fat away from carbs to keep you getting leaner and maintaining optimal hormonal levels.
Because low T can cause so many nasty symptoms, it’s best to bulletproof your body so that you fortify your sexual, physical, and mental health. As I’ve just identified, the first step is to get your diet on point and consume adequate amounts of fat. The next step is like an insurance policy for your T-levels.
That’s where Man Greens comes in...
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As well as boost your sex drive, energy, vitality, health and immunity, and lower your stress.
Other greens powders on the market include flaxseed, alfalfa, and oils that raise estrogen or mint and green tea which reduce testosterone. And the effective ingredients they do have are cut to ineffective doses and hidden behind shady proprietary blends so the supplement company sneakily gets more cash out of your wallet.
But Man Greens is fully transparent so we reveal every drop in the formula.
To put it simply, Man Greens is the only greens powder on the market that’s made specifically for men to improve their energy, health, and vitality while actually increasing testosterone and sex drive.
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Alright, that was the video on how low-fat diets can contribute to low testosterone. Avoid the life sucking symptoms of Low-T by eating right and supplementing with Man Greens.
Don’t forget to grab Man Greens by visiting the link down below, and I’ll see you in the next video.
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6298507
- https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/63/11/1260/759439
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0007114511000237
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0007114511000237
- https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/7/9/5344/htm
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17921432
- https://www.fasebj.org/content/25/1_Supplement/lb563.short
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28978542/
