If you’re looking to maximize your testosterone and feel like more of a man then not only do you need to focus on testosterone optimization but everything that goes along with testosterone. Testosterone does not exist in a vacuum meaning that there are many other things that affect it. For example someone could have very high levels of total testosterone yet still not get the many positive effects of it because of he has very low levels of free testosterone. Meaning testosterone that hasn’t been binded and is freely availble for us by the body. So in order to optimize free testosterone and get all of the positive effects associated with it one must also take care of other issues as well in addition to maximizing total testosterone levels.
A prime example of this is a man’s estrogen levels. Now a man will naturally have some low levels of estrogen which is good and healthy however it becomes a problem when his estrogen levels get too high (as in the case of the majority of modern males) this can happen because one’s testosterone levels raise suddenly and drastically (such as when injecting testosterone) and can also happen from other negative things that raise your estrogen levels above where they should naturally be at. You must take steps in order to ensure that you are keeping your estrogen levels down so that your testosterone can be increased and has the best chances of becoming free testosterone which is what gives you all the positive effects associated with testosterone.
Lose The Fat
Notice that I didn’t say lose the weight. But specifically lose the fat, getting rid of fat (especially stomach fat) is going to help decrease over all estrogen levels in your body and thereby allow for more free testosterone. There is a direct correlation with how much fat that a man has and how high his estrogen levels are. Meaning the fatter that a man is the more estrogen that his body has. Get rid of the fat and you’ll get rid of a good portion of the bad estrogen. Losing weight alone doesn’t mean anything, it’s losing fat specifically. Especially fat that is centered around your waist in men.
Estrogen and fat cells go together like peanut butter and jelly. And fat cells and testosterone go together like oil and water. The less fat a guy has is correlated directly with higher levels of testosterone. Note that a guy could be big and still have high testosterone based on a variety of factors but fat (especially gut fat) does a guy no favors. Likewise one could be a twig with a bit of a gut and have high levels of estrogen. Get rid of fat and build muscle, it’s as simple as that. The best way to get rid of fat and thereby lower estrogen is one by good dieting and two by doing intense cardio such as barbell complexes, sprints, or Tabata workouts.
Watch Out For Chemicals
There are chemicals everywhere and I literally mean everywhere. From the water that you drink to the foods that you eat. There are unnatural chemicals that mess with your body and your sensitive endocrine system (which largely contols your testosterone production). These chemicals can really screw us up and raise our estrogen levels, some are certainly worse than others but no matter what the less unnatural chemicals that you expose yourself to the better off you’ll be and the lower your estrogen levels will be. I used to think this was all hype but it’s very real and has a huge impact on your testosterone and estrogen levels.
Xenoestrogens and a host of other chemicals that mimic estrogen in the body (and therefore have the same effects) are contained in many different items we use everyday. It would be like having an IV of estrogen slowly dripping into our system throughout the day, destroying our testosterone levels. Here are the biggest offenders to avoid. First off plastics. Don’t drink out of plastic water bottles (perhaps the worst of plastics) and don’t eat from plastic containers. You want to drink filtered water (as tap water is another key offender) from a non-plastic container. Don’t keep refilling (or ever using in the first place) plastic water bottles. Get something else that is free of all those things.
Another thing to watch out for is many personal products especially if they contain parabens (if you see something listed paraben in the ingredients ditch it). Switch to more natural made stuff. Sure it might cost a little more but your hormonal health is well worth it trust me. Eat organic meats, meat is great when it’s organic grass fed meat and not processed crap. Unfortunatally processed meats contain many different hormones and estrogenic compound that’ll raise your estrogen levels and destroy the value of any macronutrients. So make sure to eat grass fed organic meats. Also you want to watch out for anything containing BPA which has actually been shown to change male animals to female animals (you read that right). That’s how estrogenic that crap is. Avoid it like the plague.
Cut Out Alcohol
What if I told you there was a substance that could all at the same time make you dumber, make you fatter, make your weaker, all while destroying your manhood, decreasing testosterone levels, skyrocketing estrogen levels, and ensuring that your dick didn’t work how well do you think that product would sell? Well turns out pretty damn well. Alcohol (the woman maker as it should be referred to) does all of this and at incredibly high prices. Of course binge drinking is worse than lightly drinking but nevertheless you’re always better off with water. Alcohol destroys testosterone levels and increases estrogen like crazy when consumed in large amounts. Drinking a lot also increases the rate at which testosterone in converted into estrogen.
The worst offender for alcohol is beer by a long shot. The hoppier the beer the worse that it is for you. If I were you I’d start calling beer by it’s real name estrogen shot because that is exactly what it is. Think about what the average guy does to his body every weekend when he pounds back estrogen shot after estrogen shot it’s a wonder that males in the Western world have balls that actually work. Far from being a man drink this drink is actually the biggest woman maker out there. Avoid beer and alcohol especially drinking it in large amounts. Trust me with lower levels of estrogen and high testosterone you’ll never have to worry about relying on alcohol to socialize, approach women, feel good, or get through the day. Testosterone provides all of that in spades.
Summary
To get all the positive effects of testosterone you have to look at more than just regular testosterone levels. You also have to take into account things like estrogen and other factors that might keep your testosterone from having it’s inteneded effect on you. It’s not enough to focus on simply testosterone alone, to have optimized free testosterone levels. Follow the steps outlined here to ensure that your estrogen is being kept in check and isn’t destroying your levels of testosterone and keeping you from being a man. Make sure to get rid of that fat, especially if you have a gut (perhaps caused by beer?), avoid chemicals, and don’t drink alcohol especially to excess. Do that and you’ll help lower your estrogen levels and keep free testosterone high.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it.
-Charles Sledge
