Is There A Link Between Intermittent Fasting And Testosterone Production?
For those of you that don’t know, I’m a major proponent of the benefits of intermittent fasting & extended fasts. As a result, I’m frequently asked about intermittent fasting and testosterone & whether IF can lead to lower or higher testosterone production.
In short, I believe for 99% of people intermittent fasting will help you increase your T levels. You can find out what & more about how intermittent fasting & testosterone production are linked by reading on!
What Is Intermittent Fasting
Just taking a quick step back, for those of you who don’t know what IF is. Intermittent fasting is where you spend a significant portion of the day not fasting/ not eating. The most typical form is fasting 16/8, where you fast for 16 hours & only eat within an 8-hour window, anything from 16 hours fast up to eating one meal a day (OMAD) is considered intermittent fasting.
Just to clarify when in your fasting period, that doesn’t just mean food. You can’t consume any calories, so that includes things like not drinking fruit juices, fizzy drinks / sodas or any drink over 50 calories, which is the general rule of thumb for the number of calories that breaks you being in a fasted mode.
So now you know what intermittent fasting is, lets look at how intermittent fasting and testosterone production are linked & how intermittent fasting can boost testosterone production.
Every Time You Eat You Lower Your Testosterone Production
It’s been shown that every time you consume 300 calories & over you will lower your testosterone levels. That is regardless of the macros (fats, protein, carbs) and in reality your T levels will likely lower when you are consuming under 300 calories.
This drop in T will be for a few different reasons, including things like an increase in sex hormone binding globulin, leading to lower “free” testosterone, a spike in cortisol which also inhibits testosterone production. So the bodies response to food leads to a drop in testosterone & this can last up to approximately 3 hours.
Well this in itself isn’t a problem, as we all need to eat right, however if you are constantly eating, you are constantly inhibiting both your total & free testosterone production. So spending less time eating, immediately means you won’t see testosterone production drop & be inhibited as frequently!
Intermittent Fasting Increases Lutenizing Hormone Levels & T Utilization
For those of you who don’t know, lutenizing hormone (LH) is what stimulates the leydig cells to produce testosterone. So needless to say, the higher your LH levels the more testosterone your body is going to produce.
In this study it was found that non-obese healthy men, following a short Ramadan style fast saw serum lutenizing hormone levels by increase by an impressive 67%! In fact in that same study, those men saw an amazing 180% increase in testosterone utilization.
Intermittent Fasting Increases Growth Hormone Levels
While growth hormone is separate to testosterone, it does increase in correlation with testosterone, plus the higher your growth hormone, the lower your body fat & the more muscle you have. As you hopefully already know, having more muscle & lower body fat, leads to higher testosterone production.
In this study, researchers found that after 24 hours of fasting, growth hormone levels were elevated by an absolutely crazy 2000% from baseline. As mentioned above, higher growth hormone levels are associated with higher testosterone levels.
Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Lower Body Fat
Intermittent fasting is one of the easiest ways for you lower body fat, this is for a couple of different reasons, such as making it easier to consume fewer calories, & having higher fat oxidization while being in fasted mode.
Carrying excess body fat is one of the biggest causes of inflammation & testosterone being converted to estrogen. So lowering body excess body fat is one of the most effective things that you can do to boost testosterone production.
Intermittent Fasting Induces Autophagy
If you aren’t familiar with autophagy, this is the process where cells recycle/ regenerate themselves. This includes things like removing toxins & chemical estrogens & endocrine disruptors from the body.
This means lower inflammation & fewer chemicals messing with hormone balance & for me, this is one of the biggest reasons intermittent fasting and testosterone production have a positive relationship.
Final Thoughts
The positive link between intermittent fasting and testosterone production, is just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of how intermittent fasting positively impacts health. I had to go through all the ways IF benefits the body and how, I’d be going for ages!
Hopefully, it’s been clear how intermittent fasting can help boost testosterone production & lower estrogen levels. Same as always, if you have any questions or experience with this, drop me a comment below and please share with anyone you think will find this article useful!
It’s great that you now know why intermittent fasting and testosterone production are positively linked, you can learn even more ways to help optimize testosterone, by following me on my social media site. I also share more information on how IF can benefit health as a whole, so check them out!
