Editor’s Note:
Kinobody introduces guest author, Christopher Walker, author of Master Your Testosterone, to outline the 5 intermittent fasting testosterone benefits that occur in men while fasting. Christopher Walker has a degree in neuroscience from Duke University and in his college years, Chris was diagnosed with extremely low testosterone levels.
Unwilling to spend a life on hormone replacement drugs, Chris decided to learn how to naturally gain testosterone and how to increase it to high levels. Over the course of just a couple years, he brought his test levels from close to zero to well above the medical reference range.
In Chris’s awesome book,Master Your Testosterone, and probably the best course ever written on naturally increasing testosterone, Chris credits intermittent fasting as one of the most powerful tools in his arsenal for increasing his testosterone levels.
Intermittent fasting has been an effective strategy that I’ve been utilizing for four years now. Although, most people only see it from a limited capacity. So naturally, I had to get Chris to write an article on how fasting testosterone levels are increased. Let’s get to it!
The 5 Ways fasting testosterone levels are increased
Does intermittent fasting increase or boost testosterone?
Well, maybe these intermittent fasting testosterone facts won’t blow your mind. That said, they will, however, make you strongly consider intermittent fasting on a regular basis if you have any interest in naturally optimizing your testosterone levels.
1.) In non-obese men, an intermittent fasting testosterone study showed that fasting increased LH (luteinizing hormone – a testosterone precursor hormone) up to 67% and overall testosterone 180%.
This is with just a single short term fast. The ability to regularly control your LH and T levels with daily fasts can be a powerful tool in your T-boosting toolbox.
2.) Testosterone is positively correlated with insulin sensitivity.
Because of this, it is smart to skip breakfast – here’s why… the body’s circadian cycle has a natural cortisol spike shortly after waking, and this happens to be the time when most individuals eat breakfast.
With fit, or somewhat fit, individuals, the insulin spike with the food intake, along with already-high insulin sensitivity, and the high levels of circulating cortisol at this time of day leads to a rapid drop in blood glucose. This triggers what is known as “false hunger,” usually causing an individual to subsequently consume more calories than necessary.
By skipping breakfast, you are regulating your blood glucose levels, insulin, and cortisol during the period of the day in which they are most sensitive.
3.) Intermittent fasting allows your body a daily opportunity to burn excess body fat.
Your body utilizes this excess body fat for fuel and to rid itself of minor toxins before it needs to allocate energy to focus on things like digestion and glycogen synthesis. The quickest way to increase your T is to lose excess body fat. Fasting and testosterone elevation go hand in hand!
To put it simply, testosterone (both free T and SHBG-bound) levels correlate inversely with common measures of insulin resistance (such as insulin, C-peptide, and HOMA-IR) and body fat levels. The inverse association between testosterone and insulin resistance is mediated by adipose tissue, and independent of SHBG (sex hormone-binding globulin).
In simple terms: the more body fat you have, the less testosterone you will naturally be able to produce.
4.) Intermittent fasting increases levels of a hormone called adiponectin.
This increase in adiponectin during the fast helps improve insulin sensitivity. Adiponectin is so powerful, in fact, that it’s been shown to reverse insulin resistance in mice.
5.) With just a 24 hour fast, you can elevate your growth hormone levels by up to 2000%.
GH and T levels correlate with one another, both acting anabolically (improving glycogen uptake into the muscles, protein synthesis, and increasing training capacity and tolerance).
These are just 5 intermittent fasting testosterone benefits. You don’t need to be super strict about counting the hours of your fast either; you can experience these benefits by doing something as simple as skipping breakfast and consuming your first meal at lunchtime, which also helps with psychological and lifestyle flexibility.
If you fast regularly, have you experienced beneficial increases in your ability to train harder, lose body fat, and increase your T and sex drive?
Editor’s Final Note:
My experience with intermittent fasting and testosterone levels has been entirely positive. Funny enough, when I first started fasting for the first 4-7 hours of each day, I noticed I’d wake up with more powerful erections.
I even mentioned it in one of my first articles on intermittent fasting that I wrote about 3 years ago – 10 Benefits of Intermittent Fasting.
If you want to learn Chris’s full-blown approach to naturally increasing testosterone, go to.
Also, watch this full-blown interview on his program and tips you can utilize to maximize testosterone:
In this interview, you’ll also learn how most fitness model and bodybuilder style diets and training routines actually do more harm than good to testosterone production. It’s no wonder why drug use is so rampant, they have to take drugs to handle the diet’s and training.
