Testosterone Week: How I Doubled My Testosterone Levels Naturally and You Can Too
| January 18, 2013 — Last updated: December 26, 2017
At last we’ve reached the final post of Testosterone Week and based on the comments from you all, this is the post you’ve been most looking forward to. Today I’m going to share what I did during my 90-day experiment in order to double my total and free testosterone levels.
I’m afraid I have no super cool “secrets” to share and there are no easy shortcuts to increasing your T. If you were expecting some magical potion or supplement or weird body hack that will instantly and naturally increase your T levels, what follows is bound to disappoint. Despite what some companies or websites might tell you, there’s no single thing that will boost your testosterone naturally for the long term.
The unsexy truth is that increasing T naturally simply comes down to making some long-term changes in your diet and lifestyle. As you’ll see, what I did to increase T largely boils down to eating better, exercising smarter, and getting more sleep. That’s pretty much it. But as with most things in life, the devil is in the details, so I’ll share with you exactly what I did and provide research that explains why the things I did helped boost my testosterone.
The good news here is that while the things I recommend below will boost your T, their effect is hardly limited to testosterone. They’ll greatly increase your overall health and well-being at the same time.
Ready to get started?
The Obligatory Disclaimer
While I do have a pretty manly mustache, I’m not a doctor or a medical expert. I’m a guy with a law degree he’s never used who blogs about manliness. What I’m about to share shouldn’t be taken as a substitute for qualified medical expertise. It’s simply my experience and views on the subject. Before you make any changes in lifestyle or diet, talk to your doctor or healthcare provider. Be smart.
My 90-Day Testosterone Experiment
Let’s do a quick review of what I shared in the introduction to this series. August of last year was a tough month for me, primarily because of a huge and grueling project we were in the midst of here on the site. I was stressed out and my sleeping, healthy eating habits, and workout regimen all suffered. At the end of the month I got my testosterone levels tested and found that my total T was 383 ng/dL and my free T was 7.2 pg/mL – close to the average for an 85-100-year-old man.
I then began a 90-day experiment to see how diet and lifestyle changes could boost that number.
The reason I started the experiment at that point is because I know a lot of guys who live my last-August lifestyle all the time, and I wanted to see what would happen to an “average” guy who turned things around. At the same time, there was no “normal” time in my life which would have been better for me to start the experiment. My stress level and diet fluctuates throughout the year anyway, so at any point, factors in my current lifestyle would have influenced the results. I wanted to begin at “ground zero.”
After 90 days, I had my testosterone tested again. My total T had gone up to 778 ng/dL and my free T had risen to 14.4 pg/mL. I had doubled my testosterone.
I know the experiment didn’t simply bring me back to my pre-August levels because of the fact that when I learned that the original test I took can sometimes overestimate your T levels, I took a more accurate test around four months after the start of the experiment (I’ve continued the lifestyle changes made during the experiment) and my total T had gone up again to 826.9 ng/dL.
If you’re already healthy, making the changes I list below will probably not double your T levels. But if you’re starting at ground zero, then you should see pretty dramatic results.
Alright, with that all out of the way, let’s talk about exactly what I did to double my T levels in 90 days.
How to Increase Testosterone Naturally
- Eat a well balanced diet. Put an emphasis on foods with high saturated fats like butter, coconut oil, eggs.
- Supplement with Vitamin D3, fish oil, whey protein, and magnesium.
- Exercise. With an emphasis on strength training and HIIT cardio.
- Don’t overtrain!
- Get more and better sleep.
- Manage stress.
- Avoid Xenoestrogens and Other T-Lowering Chemicals.
- Have more sex.
- Take cold showers (maybe).
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