How to Increase Your Testosterone Levels

Testosterone is a steroid hormone that helps with the production and development of male sexual characteristics. Testosterone also has its benefits to a woman’s body, but for the purpose of this article, I’ll be discussing only what testosterone does for the male.

Before I get started, take into account your own answers to the following questions:

• Has your libido been less prevalent?
• Have you been experiencing erectile dysfunction recently?
• Have you been gaining weight, with the inability to lose it?
• Are you finding that you’ve become more physically and mentally tired lately?
• Have you recently felt depressed or really unhappy?
• Do you have less of a drive or desire to maintain daily activities?
• Do you wish you felt manlier in certain things that you do?

Low testosterone levels could be the reason why some, or all, of these situations are occurring. It’s not definite that low testosterone levels produce these affects, but there is a high chance that low levels greatly affect these areas of life for a man.

But before I get into how to raise your testosterone levels, I want to briefly tell you the benefits of testosterone, along with the possibilities of why you’re lacking the sufficient amount your body needs.

Benefits of Testosterone

• Testosterone boosts your physical and mental energy
• Testosterone makes you more competitive
• Testosterone increases your muscle size and your strength
• Testosterone helps regulate your metabolism
• Testosterone helps in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia
• Testosterone improves libido and gets rid of erectile dysfunction

Possibilities of Low Levels of Testosterone

Some of the factors at play for low levels of testosterone are as follows:

• Stress on the body or mind can increase levels of cortisone within the body, in turn decreasing levels of testosterone within the body.
• Lack of Sleep. When you’re asleep, testosterone levels rise. Which in turn means that if you get adequate sleep, your testosterone levels will be stable. However, if not enough sleep is granted to your body, you’ll be low on testosterone.
• Soy Intake. Soy is not as good for you as everyone claims it to be. Soy actually increases estrogen within the body and depletes the body of the appropriate testosterone it needs to carry out particular functions. Unfortunately, too much soy in your diet can also lower your sperm count.
• Eating a low fat diet. Eating a low fat diet can decrease your testosterone levels. Your body needs a little bit of healthy fat on a daily basis to maintain an adequate testosterone level.
• Two of the products within cigarettes, nicotine and cotinine, both deplete the body of necessary testosterone. The more you smoke, the less testosterone you’ll have.

How to Increase Your Testosterone Levels

The list that I’m about to provide for you will indeed increase your testosterone levels. Until they are where you want them to be, try doing three out of nine options below. When you start to feel a low testosterone level coming on, go back to doing three out of nine of the options, too. If you can do more than three, more power to you.

1. Get 8 hours of sleep each night. Try for 9 if possible.
2. Quit smoking entirely. (If you don’t smoke in general, this option cannot be counted as one of the nine you are doing).
3. Stay away from soy as best you can. Unfortunately, this means you have to start reading labels on products that you’re putting into your body. A lot more foods have soy in them than you think.
4. Try meditating each day. Aim for at least 10 minutes. This helps with de-stressing, one of the reasons low testosterone levels could be happening.
5. Try doing some resistance training. Do some of the following each day, if possible: lift weights, do deadlifts, perform squats, try some rows, or get down with pull-ups. Do these exercises with heavy weights, if you can. Try making sure you do short sets, too.
6. Eat at least one serving of good fat. Once your fat intake rises, so will your testosterone levels. Fats that are good for you consist of nuts, fish, olives, olive oil, and avocados. Having foods with saturated fats in it once in a while isn’t a bad thing, either.
7. Eat some animal protein. Being a part of the vegetarian or vegan diet actually lowers testosterone levels. Instead, eat a nice thick steak with minimal fat on it.
   • Tip: Keep up with a carbohydrate to protein ratio of 2:1 if possible. This will boost testosterone levels the most.
8. Eat certain vegetables as best you can. Such vegetables consist of broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. Eating such vegetables will not only balance out your testosterone levels within the body, but they’ll also balance out estrogen levels within the body.
9. Have some morning sex. Having an erection produces testosterone in itself. And you remember that hard you have on first thing in the morning? Combine that with morning sex and you’ll boost your levels in no time (however, this option won’t be used as often as the others).

Suggestion: Even though you technically only have to do three out of the nine options provided above when you have low testosterone levels, you should still try and keep up with it on a daily basis. I stated above that you only have to do this when your levels are low, or when you feel them coming down. But keeping up with them indefinitely will assure you and your health that low testosterone levels can now be a thing of the past.

Have fun boosting your levels!

I know I wouldn’t mind having a nice, flavorful, seasoned steak each night. And to add in some broccoli and exercises wouldn’t be too bad, either. Plus, the morning sex is a huge bonus. Have fun picking your three!

By Jenny Lyn