Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
In both people and animals, a driving hormone known as testosterone can influence muscle and bone mass as well as sex drive. Men have more testosterone than women, although ladies can produce this hormone too. If you’re a man whose been diagnosed with low testosterone, can fasting help boost your testosterone levels once again?
Intermittent fasting can improve testosterone levels in men in the following ways:
- Changes your leptin sensitivity so you can avoid overeating, as being obese can reduce testosterone
- Lessens fat so your body can make more testosterone
- Boosts your insulin sensitivity, which can inflate testosterone levels
- Adds more luteinizing hormone, which encourages the testes to make testosterone
Ahead, we’ll talk about the importance of the hormone known as testosterone, why your testosterone levels may be low, and if intermittent fasting can make a difference. Keep reading!
What Is Testosterone and Why Is It Important?
As an anabolic steroid and sex hormone, testosterone begins production in men as they reach puberty. The hormone encourages the growth of the prostate and testes as well as other male reproductive tissue. Body hair comes from increased testosterone, as does stronger bone and muscle mass, which are considered secondary sexual traits.
Like we mentioned in the intro, women produce testosterone as well as estrogen, both of which come from the ovaries. However, women have far less testosterone than the average man does.
The reason both women and men make testosterone has to do with more than simply primary and secondary sexual characteristic development. The hormone also plays a key role in other bodily functions, including maintaining bone health, promoting feelings of wellbeing, determining your distribution of fat, producing red blood cells, managing muscle size, and encouraging sex drive.
When you begin puberty, your testosterone levels are at their highest. Then, as you begin to age, the levels will often drop off. This will happen by around 30 years old in men, and for every year after, you lose testosterone by 1 percent. By the time you’re 45 or older, up to 40 percent of men will have low testosterone.
What Are the Symptoms of Low Testosterone in Men?
Also known as male hypogonadism, low testosterone or low T can be caused by many things besides just age. Here is an exhaustive list of injuries, illnesses, and medical conditions that can cause your levels of testosterone to worsen before you’re even 30 years old.
- Brain surgery or radiation
- Head injuries
- Delays in puberty
- Hypothyroidism, especially if the condition is severe
- Having abused anabolic steroids
- An excess of estrogen
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Congenital defects
- Untreated type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Having lost a lot of weight
- Obesity
- Elevated prolactin levels, a hormone that produces breast milk
- Klinefelter syndrome or XXY syndrome, which leaves men with another X chromosome
- Kallman syndrome, which impacts the hypothalamus so hormones are not as well-regulated
- Sarcoidosis and other conditions that can cause inflammation
- HIV/AIDS
- Chronic kidney failure
- Liver cirrhosis
- Having abused alcohol
- Acute and chronic illnesses
- Using prednisone and similar steroids, prostate cancer treatment hormones, opioids, and/or other medications
- Pituitary gland tumors
- Hemochromatosis and other conditions that affect the body’s iron levels
- Chemotherapy
- Teste trauma, especially if the blood supply gets disrupted
How will you know if you have low T? The following symptoms will manifest, either altogether or just a few.
Anemia
Anemia is a condition in which your body doesn’t have enough red blood cells to send oxygen to your tissues. It leads to cold feet and hands, chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, changes in heartbeat, yellowing skin, weakness, and fatigue.
Reduced Testicle Size
You know your body pretty well, which means you’re aware of the size of your testicles. Yet if your testicles have begun to shrink, this could be due to dwindling levels of testosterone. Make sure you see your doctor.
Poor Memory
If you’re finding it hard to remember basic things that usually never slipped your mind before, you could have low T. A 2017 publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association did a study on over 1,000 men to see if a testosterone treatment could improve their low T. The first group included 788 participants over 65 years old, and the second group had 493 participants who used a placebo.
The group who received the actual testosterone treatment had elevated levels of testosterone as well as improved memory. The placebo group did not have memory improvements, suggesting a link between low testosterone and bad memory.
Changes in Mood
Besides the memory changes, you might notice that your mood isn’t quite the same either anymore. Men with low T often find it’s difficult to stay focused on tasks. They’re also irritable more often, and some are even depressed.
Less Bone Mass
Since one of the leading roles of testosterone is to manage your bone mass, when your hormonal levels dwindle, your bone mass will worsen as well. Besides just reduced bone mass, some men experience bone fractures, reduced bone volume, and osteoporosis with low T.
More Body Fat
Like women produce testosterone, men make estrogen. The testosterone in their system usually prevents the estrogen from becoming the dominant hormone, but with low T, that can change. That’s why, in addition to body fat, some men have breast tissue developments known as gynecomastia.
Less Muscle Mass
Without testosterone to keep the muscles large, the size of your muscles can begin degrading thanks to low T. While muscle size will deplete, the functioning of your muscles will not, and they will still be as strong as they were, even if they don’t look it.
Hair Loss
As you recall from earlier, the body hair that men develop during puberty is attributed to high levels of testosterone. The hormone can also influence the hair on your head, or lack thereof. Not only does aging increase your chances of losing hair, but so too does having low T. If the hair loss is not just atop your head, but also affecting your face and your body, it’s probably low T and simply not age-related baldness.
Lack of Sex Drive
A man’s libido can be influenced by age, absolutely, but low T can also cause your sex drive to plummet. If it used to be that your sex drive was moderate but not as good as it was in your 30s or 40s, that’s age-related. A severe decrease in sexual interest is likely caused by low T.
Even if a man wants to have sex, he may have erectile difficulties caused by reduced testosterone.
Does Fasting Improve Men’s Testosterone Levels?
If your doctor recently diagnosed you with low T, you might think your only option is hormone replacement therapy or something like a topical cream or gel. Before you commit to a treatment of this nature, you might want to try intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting is a form of calorie restriction that curtails what you eat and drink for periods of roughly 24 to 72 hours, sometimes longer. When you reduce or even cease caloric input, your body no longer receives glucose, a source of sugar it gets from food that acts as energy. Your liver then begins using leftover glucose to maintain your energy.
When even that glucose runs out, your body switches to burning fat instead. While aiding in weight loss efforts, intermittent fasting can also trigger cell turnover through autophagy, strengthen the immune system, and reset the digestive system for more efficient digestion.
Is there a chance that your testosterone levels can go back up if you fast? Indeed, intermittent fasting may be able to help those with low T in several significant ways. Let’s discuss these more now.
More Leptin Sensitivity
Leptin is a hormone produced by the enterocytes and adipose cells in your small intestine. It prevents feelings of hunger so your energy levels are maintained. By eating less, your adipocytes also hold onto less fat.
Now, leptin may sound like a positive hormone if you’re trying to lose weight, but it’s not necessarily as effective as you might think. If you feel like eating even if you’re not hungry, and that eating turns into overeating, then you lose leptin sensitivity. In other words, leptin is less effective.
This can prevent those feelings of fullness that tell you to stop eating, so you eat more and more before that feeling develops. The weight gain that can come from this absolutely could lead to low testosterone, especially if you become obese.
Like with your immune system and your digestive system, intermittent fasting presses the reset button on your leptin sensitivity. As the sensitivity goes back up, you’ll feel fuller without eating as much.
Less Body Fat
Intermittent fasting can reduce body fat in several ways. First, there’s the act of fasting itself, which converts your energy source from glucose to body fat. By cutting calories as part of an intermittent fasting diet, you’re also avoiding putting on any extra weight and fat.
As we just discussed, you can increase your leptin sensitivity through fasting, which will encourage you to stop eating as much because you’ll feel full. It’s important to respect that fullness limit, because pushing past it too often will dull your leptin sensitivity once more.
A 2013 study in the European Journal of Endocrinology says that even reducing your weight by five percent can lead to a spike in your testosterone levels. If you have a family history of type 2 diabetes, this 2018 report in the journal Endocrine Connections found that by boosting your testosterone, your chances of getting type 2 diabetes lessens significantly. Keep that in mind as you aspire to your goal of less body fat!
More Insulin Sensitivity
As the body’s primary anabolic hormone, insulin controls protein, fat, and carbohydrate metabolism by absorbing glucose and making it an energy source. The pancreas produces insulin.
When you feed your body, you provide more glucose to it, which can boost your insulin. Then, once the glucose is absorbed, the levels go back down. Having excessively high insulin, known as hyperinsulinemia, could increase your risk of type 2 diabetes. Very low insulin or hypoglycemia may induce symptoms of dizziness, elevated heartrate, confusion, irritability, chills and sweating, anxiety, and shakiness.
Having insulin resistance will increase your blood sugar, potentially setting you up for a future with diabetes. Thus, you want to maintain your insulin sensitivity, which allows your body to maintain your blood sugar to a healthy degree.
According to a 2013 report in Nature Reviews Endocrinology, having insulin resistance may be tied to low testosterone. By intermittent fasting, you can raise your insulin sensitivity by losing weight. If your fasting diet has room for food, make sure you consume more spices and herbs, eat a variety of vegetables and fruits, and get more soluble fiber. This will help increase your insulin sensitivity.
If you feel comfortable, exercise while fasting as well. This classic study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine found that when you exercise, you transport sugar to your muscles for more insulin sensitivity. Some exercises only boost insulin sensitivity for as little as two hours, but others can do it for two days.
Increase in Luteinizing Hormone
The pituitary gland’s gonadotropic cells make luteinizing hormone, which encourages cells to get to work. In men specifically, the Leydig cell is activated to make more testosterone through luteinizing hormone. Your levels of luteinizing hormone may decrease due to eating disorder, cancer, chronic infections, Klinefelter syndrome, Turner syndrome, hormone deficiencies, or testicular failure.
If you’re diagnosed with low luteinizing hormone, try intermittent fasting. This classic report in Acta Endocrinologica (Copenhagen) notes the results of a study on obese and non-obese men and their levels of luteinizing hormone. The researchers discovered that non-obese men who fasted had a better luteinizing hormonal response rate by a very impressive 67 percent.
Conclusion
Men regularly produce testosterone from the time they start puberty until their 30s or 40s. Low testosterone or low T can affect bone density, muscle mass, and many other areas of health. Fortunately, through intermittent fasting, you can combat obesity, boost your sensitivity to insulin and leptin, and increase luteinizing hormone to keep your testosterone levels strong.