Tag Archives: testosterone

Low carbohydrate diets favorably impact testosterone levels.

It is known.  Carbohydrate restriction improves (lowers) testosterone in women with PCOS.  It works for men, too… but by “works” I mean “increases.”

Decrease of serum total and free testosterone during a low-fat high fibre diet (Hamalainen et al., 1982) 

Intervention pseudo-crossover study: 30 healthy Finnish men in their 40’s were studied on their habitual high fat diet (40%  fat), then put on a low-fat (25%) high fibre diet for 6 weeks, then switched back to high fat.  The high fat diet was also higher in saturates, P:S ratio 0.15 vs. 1.25.

free T

 

Free testosterone levels declined on the low fat diet, but they recovered after 6 weeks of going back to their high [saturated] fat dieting (p < 0.01).

Some observational data: Testosterone and cortisol in relationship to dietary nutrients and resistance exercise (Volek et al., 1997)

…fat, and in particular saturated fat, is associated with increased testosterone levels [in men]:

observational

 

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