Posted on June 12, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

Increasing testosterone levels is a very effective way of improving body composition and can be easily achieved by ensuring that you are not deficient in certain nutrients that are directly linked to sub-optimal levels of testosterone.

There are number of ways your diet can affect your testosterone levels such as eating high glycemic foods, restricting fats, eating a lot of sugars as well as not taking in enough magnesium, testosterone or vitamin D.

As well as having great benefits of body composition with higher testosterone levels it can also be beneficial to health. Men who have lower levels of testosterone have been found to have greater incidence of type 2 diabetes, less muscle growth for strength training, slower recover from intense training, greater risk of poor reproduction health and prostate cancer.
Factors such as exposure to chemical oestrogen, lack of exercise, poor diet and nutrient uptake can all result in lowered testosterone a problem many men experience. By following these 5 tips it will help increase testosterone, improving health and body composition.

1) Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?
Normally you save the best to last but Vitamin D is vitally important for testosterone. Research found that men with levels of vitamin D below 20ng/ml had considerably lower free testosterone and higher levels of oestrogen. The men also had less lean mass, increased body fat, greater chance of depression and higher rates of cardiovascular disease then those with higher levels of vitamin D.

The reason vitamin D is so important in testosterone production is because vitamin D receptors are on the cells in the glands were testosterone is found. Vitamin D also plays a significant role in testosterone production as it inhibits the process of aromatization were testosterone is changed into oestrogen.

2) Are You Getting Enough Zinc?

There is a strong link between zinc, testosterone and reproductive health. Low Zinc can have detrimental effect on both your health and training, it is much more common than people realise and can affect both men and women equally. Consistently low levels of zinc can lead to infertility and increased risk of cancer. Zinc plays numerous roles that directly influence your hormonal drop including the following:
• Low zinc leads to an increase in estrogen receptors and a decrease in androgen receptors
• The male prostate tissue requires 10 times more zinc than any other cell in the body to maintain health.
• Low zinc increases the risk of breast cancer in women (and men but the risk is lower than prostate cancer)

To find out if you have low levels of Zinc in your body you can get a red blood cell Zinc test. If you do have low levels of zinc supplementing on good quality Zinc tablets (with no calcium. You can also get zinc from meat.

3) Are You Getting Enough Magnesium?

Ensuring you are getting enough magnesium will increased testosterone leading to a build in muscle as the magnesium improves the body’s antioxidant capacity, decreasing inflammation allowing for the robust release of testosterone.

Hormone balance can be maintained by ensuring that you are having adequate magnesium resulting in a leaner body. Magnesium levels influences many physiological factors:
• It must be present to enable muscle contraction
• It plays an important role in cardiovascular health as it relaxes the central nervous system
• It supports energy use and blood sugar regulation, and low magnesium has been linked to the risk of diabetes
• It enables the production of enzymes to allow the Vitamin D to help calcium absorption and bone building.

Taking 500mg a day of Magnesium can support hormone levels and training performance. It is much more beneficial to vary the form of magnesium you take. High amount of magnesium can be a laxative so be cautious.

4) Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Not only is sleep vitally important for growth hormone production and recovery from training it is just as important for testosterone release. Numerous of recent studies have found that one night of short sleep will alter testosterone release and result in lower levels of testosterone in the morning. They also tested the effects of only having 4 hours of sleep a night for 5 nights in young men they suffered lower testosterone levels, higher afternoon glucose and significant altered glucose and insulin. To help increase your quality of sleep try and get into a sleep routine and go to bed the same time every night.
For more blogs on sleep benefits and how to improve sleep click here

5) Are You Eating Too Many High Glycemic Index Foods and Sugar?

Testosterone is temporarily reduced by having your blood sugar spike. A low level testosterone is pretty much certain with people suffering from diabetes .

The solution to maximise testosterone is to manage your blood sugar response to food. You should avoid foods that are quickly digested and lead to a rapid increase in blood sugar. As well as glucose and other sugars highly processed foods should be avoided.

Testosterone is also produced in the body using cholesterol which is made from fat so including healthy fats (fish, nuts, avocado etc) is key for testosterone production. For more healthy fat recipes click here.

By following the above tips you can help increase your testosterone resulting in improved body composition and increased health benefits.

Pilz, S., Frisch, S., et al. Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on Testosterone Levels in Men. Hormones and Metabolic Research. 2011.43, 223-225.
Randler, C., Ebenhoh, N., et al. Chronotype but not Sleep Length is Related to Salivary Testosterone in Young Adult Men.psychoneuroendocrinology. 2012. 37. 1740-1744.