There are loads of reasons why you might want to raise your testosterone levels.
You might be wanting to pack on slabs of muscle, boost your maximal strength or improve your athletic (and bedroom) performance. Alternatively, you might be aiming to improve your health or just feel better about yourself.
But did you know that optimal testosterone levels are also important for keeping fat at bay and maintaining a healthy and aesthetic body composition?
In this article we give you the lowdown as to why.
Within your blood right now you have testosterone flowing. It is a naturally occurring steroid hormone that is responsible for performing a number of important jobs.
In order for these to be performed optimally, you need to have just the right amount of testosterone. Too low and both your health and also performance will suffer.
Anything between 300 – 1000 ng.dL would be classed as normal during a clinical test.
If your serum T falls below the lower benchmark then you have hypogonadism – clinically low testosterone. This is usually diagnosed with a morning T test.
And research suggests that one of the first symptoms of low T is the accumulation of fat – particularly around your belly.
The key to losing fat is to find a healthy negative energy balance. This means eating less than you burn off each day.
By achieving a calorie deficit you allow your body to tap into the fats stored in your adipose cells and use it to make up the lack of incoming calories.
But if you’re in a surplus you won’t be able to break into these cells, and if anything you’ll continue to top them up with surplus energy.
To achieve a negative energy balance you firstly need to find out how many calories you’d need to maintain your body weight.
There are a lot of factors that can influence how much energy you need, but by inputting your vital statistics and daily activity levels you’ll get a valid figure.
Once you’ve done this you calculate a deficit of 20%. This usually equates to around 500 kcal for most people.
That sounds difficult to work out, right?
It can be, yes.
So to make it as simple as possible for you we’ve added our own calorie calculator below. That way you know you’ll maximize your changes of getting your daily energy intake needs just right.
So even though you need to find a negative energy balance to lose fat, there are ways that you can speed up fat loss once you’re there.
And that’s where testosterone comes in.
Here’s why your hormones are important when you’re trying to cut fat.
Muscles require calories to maintain mass. So if you’ve got more mass you divert more incoming energy towards them, as opposed to your fat cells.
This is a process called nutrient partitioning.
Testosterone is an important regulator of muscle mass and when combined with strength training helps to increase protein synthesis. This is why testosterone is considered a natural anabolic steroid hormone.
A study published by Griggs et al [1] found that boosting T levels in a group of nine male volunteers over a 12-week period, increased muscle mass and protein synthesis by 27%.
Low T levels are associated with an increase in total fat levels and visceral adiposity – what we know as ‘belly fat’.
Just like higher T levels help to partition incoming calories into muscle cells, low T levels cause energy to deviate towards fat cells instead.
A study published in JCEM [2] found that when a group of men had their testosterone levels blocked, their fat mass went up by a massive 36%
So by elevating your testosterone you can decrease existing fat levels as well as prevent fat from accumulating.
“Testosterone booster supplementation reduces total body adipose tissue” [2]
Optimal T levels help to keep your fat cells small. Why? Because it helps to reduce how much your fat cells soak up insulin.
In one study, researchers exposed fat cells to testosterone and found that it reduced the uptake of glucose – even in the presence of insulin [3]
Why is that good?
Because testosterone stops fat cells converting incoming energy into fat. And the androgens from T attach themselves onto the receptors responsible for shuttling the energy into fat cells too.
Although this one doesn’t directly help you burn fat, more energy allows you push harder in the gym. And that means more calories burned.
Working hard in the gym is a surefire sign that you’re getting stronger and packing on lean tissue.
If you’re constantly tired, lethargic or lack vigor then your gym sessions just won’t be productive enough to make a difference.
As a premium testosterone boosting supplement, TestoFuel has the ability to push the muscle building boundaries in a safe and natural way.
Shred body fat, boost energy and ramp up your athleticism with nutrients such as vitamin D3, magnesium and zinc.
TestoFuel is considered to be a revolutionary, exhaustively researched muscle building supplement with one very focused aim…to smash down the barriers to growth by opening your testosterone floodgates.