As a young guy, you’ve probably heard that maximising testosterone naturally is super important. It plays a huge role in drive, energy, and your ability to thrive in life. Increasing testosterone is a major talking point online, with countless influencers pushing their own takes, so I wanted to deliver a clear, grounded guide on how to actually support healthy testosterone levels.
This guide aims to give solid, practical advice without leaning too hard into bro-science. Here’s everything I’ve learned about increasing testosterone, using information from every corner of the internet and beyond, so that you don’t have to. ENJOY.
Understanding Testosterone
What is Testosterone?
Testosterone is a hormone that the body produces, mainly in the testes for men, and in the ovaries for women. Hormones are like signals that different areas of the body release to regulate various systems. This can be anything from growth and development, to mood and motivation, to sexual function.
Testosterone is responsible for modulating many things in the body, which is why so much importance is placed on it. The key word here is ‘modulate’ – more testosterone won’t just give you these things, it just supports these processes.
Physical
- Muscle protein synthesis
- Strength
- Bone density
- Fat distribution
- Insulin sensitivity
- Voice, facial hair, body hair, etc
Mental
- Motivation and drive
- Confidence and assertiveness
- Willingness to compete
- Risk tolerance
- Resilience under pressure
- Libido
Testosterone sometimes gets a bad rep – it isn’t responsible for
- Anger and aggression
- Emotional numbness
- Being domineering or toxic
- Being a stereotypical ‘alpha male’
These traits often get pinned on testosterone, but are more to do with personality, upbringing, and self-control. The common example of ‘roid rage’ comes from anabolic steroid use, where testosterone is WAY above normal levels, AND normal hormone regulation is altered, AND brain chemistry is altered. These same issues are not present in individuals with healthy levels of testosterone.
High vs Low Testosterone
So why do we want higher levels of testosterone? Following from the above, high testosterone feels like thriving. With high, healthy levels of testosterone, life is good. Here’s what you can expect to see as day-to-day benefits:
- Higher baseline energy levels
- Less fat stored around the hips and abdomen
- Stronger libido and sexual function (guys, you’ll notice this in the mornings)
- Greater and more consistent motivation and drive
- Better stress resilience
- More decisive behaviour
On the other hand, what can someone expect to see with lower than ideal levels of testosterone?
- Overall lower energy and increased fatigue
- Reduced strength and performance
- Reduced libido
It’s important to remember that these traits aren’t definite symptoms of high/low testosterone, just things you may expect to see. Any of the above could also be attributed to other factors that aren’t hormonal.
Hormones Related to Testosterone
It’s super important to know which hormones are linked with testosterone reductions so you understand why certain things reduce your T levels. This will be important for later.
Oestrogen
Oestrogen is vital for both men and women.
Women need it for loads of things; men need small amounts, mainly for sexual function and libido. Too much oestrogen however, is very bad for men.
Testosterone is converted to oestrogens (specifically ‘oestradiol’) by an enzyme called aromatase which lives in body fat. Having high oestrogen signals to the brain to produce less testosterone.
Less testosterone increases body fat around the stomach which has high aromatase activity. This leads to more oestrogen, which leads to further reduction in testosterone production.
Cortisol
Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone. Your body releases it under physical stress, mental stress, and when you have a lack of energy.
The role of cortisol is to tell the body to prioritise survival. This causes other processes such as testosterone production to be reduced as it’s no longer a priority.
Cortisol is important at certain times of the day, and inevitable in certain situations, but to maximise testosterone we want to avoid elevated levels other than that.
Trends in Testosterone
Just something that may be of interest. Testosterone levels in guys have declined steadily over the past 100 years or so. Ie. On average, men 100 years ago had higher levels of testosterone compared to men today of the same age. Why? Probably a number of reasons that have all stacked over time.
- Reduced physical activity, more office jobs, fewer manual labour jobs
- Worse quality of sleep due to artificial light, screens, irregular sleep patterns
- Way more ultra-processed food and rising levels of obesity
- Endocrine disruptors in plastics, pesticides, and other chemicals which have become more prevalent over the last 100 years
Each of these things cause a reduction in testosterone (covered in more detail in ‘Things to Avoid’), and an issue for modern men is that many of these things are just part of normal daily life. All the more reason to look at ways to increase your testosterone.
Testosterone also trends over time within an individual. Levels rise sharply during puberty and peaks in late teens / early 20s. Testosterone then plateaus and eventually decreases by roughly 1% per year from early to mid-20s. This drop isn’t inevitable though, and men especially in their 20s and early 30s can slow or stop this decline, and even see increases. This is where certain lifestyle decisions come into play, how someone can adopt certain habits and choices to naturally increase their testosterone.
How to Increase Testosterone Naturally
So we’ve established that we’d all benefit from a boost in testosterone, but how do we actually do that? I wouldn’t recommend buying supplements from your local shady influencer. Focus on the big movers, the things that going to increase your testosterone the most. Increasing your testosterone follows the 80/20 rule, in that 20% of the changes and systems will be responsible for 80% of the increase. This 20% are your big movers, below are the main ones:
The Big Movers
Sleep
Sleep is when testosterone release happens, specifically deep sleep. So if your sleep duration or quality is shit, even for just a few nights, your testosterone is going to reduce. Poor quality of sleep also increases cortisol which, as we’ve mentioned, suppresses testosterone.
Training
Firstly, weight training. Heavy compound lifts (around 8 reps) stimulate a short-term testosterone response.
- Squats
- Bench press
- Deadlift
- Barbell rows
- Pull-ups
- Overhead press
Make sure your training routine includes these exercises or similar across the week. It’s important that you don’t have too many of these exercises in the same session, as this can spike cortisol and decrease testosterone – stick to 1 or 2 max. Similarly, don’t train for too long in a day, an hour is a good time to aim for, an hour and a half max. Training too long, or training every day (overtraining) also leads to increased cortisol and therefore, decreased testosterone.
What about cardio? Cardio is good for cardiovascular fitness and mood, both of which will indirectly support testosterone. Similar to weight training, avoid cardio training for too long, running for an hour per day, marathon training etc is not good for testosterone levels, as excessive endurance training increases cortisol. If you’re optimising for testosterone, aim for 2 hours of zone 2 cardio per week. Alternatively, competitive sports that have elements of cardio (Eg. Football) are good as well, as long as you don’t overdo it and your eating and recovery match your training.
Stress
As mentioned, cortisol and testosterone act in opposition, which means that an increase in cortisol will suppress testosterone – not what we want if we’re looking to increase testosterone levels. Chronic stress increases cortisol and therefore reduces testosterone. So should we avoid stress altogether and go and live in a hammock in Bali? Not necessarily. Short term stress is good and can increase performance as long as we lean into it, it can actually be enhancing (see growth mindset guide at How to Develop a Growth Mindset). Short term stress is also part of daily life.
What we want to avoid is chronic stress, the type that makes your sleep poor and your hair fall out. So what can we do to fix this? Improve stress management and cut out anything that causes us unnecessary stress. Here are some simple ways to do this.
- Meditate. Sounds boring, but an incredible way to lower chronic stress
- Cold showers. Exposing yourself to a little intentional stress every morning improves your brains stress management
- Limit social media. Imagine having all the news, injustice, politics, and crazy clips on a screen and then exposing yourself to it for hours and hours per day. How do you think your brain that hasn’t significantly evolved since the stone age is going to deal with that? Excessive social media is stress inducing and should be limited (for overall mental health as well as testosterone)
Calorie intake
Undereating signals to the body that conditions are unsafe or that food is scarce, and so the body downregulates non-essential systems, including testosterone production. So to support testosterone, make you’re getting enough calories each day to maintain or a slight surplus to gain muscle mass.
What about for cutting? If you’re trying to lose weight and maintain muscle mass, it’s smart to finish after 12 weeks. Cutting for extended periods can seriously decrease testosterone. If you really want to support your testosterone during a cut, try eating at your maintenance calories for 1 day per week. While this won’t increase your testosterone, it will act as damage control. My best advice is to cut, do it right first time, achieve your goals, move on. Trying to figure out how to cut effectively? Try The Cutting Guide – How to Lose Fat and Keep Muscle
Body fat
Body fat contains an enzyme called aromatase which converts testosterone to a form of oestrogen. So to support testosterone, it’s a good idea to get your body fat in a healthy range, roughly 12-18%. Any higher than this and you’re going to have increased aromatase activity which is going to decrease testosterone. Any lower than this and it signals a lack of energy to the brain (ie. The brain goes into survival mode), causing the brain to trigger the production of less testosterone because it’s prioritising survival.
If you’re above this body fat range and are worried about going into a large calorie deficit because it might reduce your testosterone, prioritise reducing your body fat. Being largely overweight or obese will cause lower testosterone than a calorie deficit. Get yourself into the 12-18% body fat range and then look at increasing your calories to maintain that weight.
Alcohol Intake
A nightmare for uni students and pub goers across the country. Unfortunately, alcohol does cause a reduction in testosterone for a number of reasons.
- Heavy alcohol consumption harms the cells in the testes that produce testosterone (Leydig cells)
- Alcohol increases aromatase activity which converts testosterone into oestrogens
- Alcohol leads to reduced sleep and poor sleep quality, causing testosterone reduction
- Alcohol increases cortisol levels which suppresses testosterone production
The good news is that the reduction in testosterone from alcohol is pretty short term unless your drinking is heavy and regular. You’ll typically recover (back to your baseline testosterone) after a night out within 3 days. This will be even quicker if you’ve only had a couple of drinks. If you’re a heavy and regular drinker (more than one heavy night out per week regularly) testosterone will be suppressed for longer, it may take weeks to fully recover.
Food and Supplements for Testosterone
Diet doesn’t directly increase testosterone, but it can support the biological processes that produce testosterone. Most of the benefit comes from meeting basic nutritional needs rather than chasing exotic compounds, but you can optimise certain specific areas to see some extra increases.
Some supplements are mentioned here, these aren’t substitutions for a healthy lifestyle and diet. This is for informational purposes only and isn’t medical advice. Consult a doctor if you’re planning on taking a supplement.
Healthy fats
- Testosterone is made from cholesterol which is supported by healthy fat intake
- Diets very low in fat are associated with lower testosterone
- Fats help regulate hormone signalling and the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins
- Good sources are: Eggs, olive oil, avocado, fatty fish
- You don’t need to eat loads of fat, just avoid it being too low
Zinc
- Plays a big role in testosterone production
- Having low levels of zinc is strongly linked to low testosterone
- Also important for sperm production and immune function
- Good sources: Red meat, shellfish (especially oysters), eggs
- You can supplement this if needed, 10-15mg per day is suitable for most
Magnesium
- Helps reduce stress (and therefore, cortisol), and supports sleep quality
- Supports muscle function and recovery
- Good sources: Leafy greens, nuts and seeds, whole grains
- You can supplement this if needed, 200-300mg per day is suitable for most
Vitamin D
- Low vitamin D is linked with lower testosterone levels
- Supports overall hormone health, immune function, and bone health
- Sources: Sunlight, fatty fish, egg yolks
- You can supplement this as well (most people, especially in colder countries with less sunlight, are deficient). Up to 4000IU (100µg) is suitable for most.
Things to Avoid
There are also things that we should be avoiding when looking to increase our testosterone because they disrupt the production of testosterone in some way.
Processed food
- Highly processed foods are high in calories and nutrient poor
- Causes higher body fat, insulin resistance, and chronic inflammation
- More body fat and inflammation mean more aromatase activity
- This leads to more testosterone being converted into oestrogen
Microplastics
- Contain endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemicals. Examples are BPA and phthalates
- The effects are small but add up over time
Overstimulation
- Desensitise dopamine pathways which will reduce motivation and drive
- Increases stress and compulsive behaviour, harder to stick to good habits
- Leads to poor sleep which affects testosterone production
Conclusion
Many of you may be here because you’ve heard that testosterone is the key to a lor of things in life. Want big muscles? Testosterone. Want to be social? Testosterone. Want unlimited motivation and drive? Testosterone.
While I don’t think a ‘shot’ of testosterone will automatically give you these things, I think the lifestyle you need to live to support your testosterone is one that facilitates these positive benefits and more. And increasing your testosterone gives you the motivation and momentum to further lead a good lifestyle. An upward spiral really.
There really is no good reason to not put this stuff into practice. It’s not difficult, and the return on your investment is huge. Give it a go, but for God’s sake, stay natural.
