Men, if you’re feeling more fatigued and out of shape, you may want to get your free testosterone tested. As men age, starting around age 30-35, their body’s testosterone levels decline. While this is normal and natural, there are things you can do to help boost your levels of free testosterone, which is the type that is bioavailable for your body to utilize.
1. Get Your BMI In Check: Having a high percentage of body fat can affect your testosterone levels. If you’re carrying around extra weight, shedding those excess pounds can improve your testosterone.
2. Reduce Stress: When you’re stressed, your body produces the “stress hormone” cortisol which suppresses testosterone production. Plus, stress can affect your libido. What can you do? Take time each day to burn off steam with exercise, meditation, or spending time with family and friends.
3. Turn in Earlier: When you’re not sleeping enough it raises your cortisol levels, which, like stress, depletes your testosterone levels. So, turn off the TV and the electronics at night and hit the hay earlier.
4. Skip the Junk Food: To keep your testosterone levels up, you want to skip the refined carbs and sugar that can boost insulin and suppress the production of free testosterone. Instead, you want to eat vegetables, fruits, and organic lean meats that supply the vitamins your body needs—including B vitamins and zinc—to produce testosterone.
5. Eat More Fat: Healthy fats like olive oil, avocado, nuts, and fish oil help to optimize free testosterone. Meanwhile, skip the hydrogenated oils and trans fats which do nothing for your testosterone, or your health.
6. Hit the Gym: While running and other cardiovascular exercises are good for burning off stress and boosting your heart health, the best exercise for keeping your free testosterone levels in the healthy range is lifting weights. When you pump iron, it helps you to change your body composition—reducing fat and building lean muscle that helps your free testosterone levels.
7. Get Outside: Vitamin D, which your body produces naturally with sunlight, is very important for healthy testosterone levels. But don’t overdo it. Just 10 minutes of sunlight exposure 3-4 times a week promotes healthy testosterone levels. After that, you want to put on a hat and slather on the sunscreen.
8. Pass on the Beer: Drinking a cold brew can do more than cause a “beer gut.” The hops used to ferment beer are plant estrogens that raise estrogen levels in the body and lower testosterone.
9. Take a Free Testosterone Supplement: Along with a healthy lifestyle, taking a free testosterone supplement, such as this one from Nugenix, can help to restore your free testosterone levels. (Bonus tip: If you’d still like to indulge in the occasional frosty brew, Nugenix also carries an estrogen-regulating supplement, Nugenix Estro-Regulator.)
