From 1987 - 1989, the average testosterone levels for a 40 year old man were closer to 550 ng/dL as per the Massachusetts Male Aging Study (there are many other studies that talk about this too—it’s a global phenomena that male testosterone levels have been steadily declining even after accounting for smoking, drinking, illnesses, and BMI). Your testosterone levels should be higher.
Besides losing body fat, any tips to get it higher? I have a pretty good system in place now. Do a meal delivery service that does healthy meal prep about 80-90% of the time. My macros are pretty good, high protein. I ended a relationship last June, during which I got to 27% BF. Looked incredibly sloppy, since then I've got it down to 16% and put on 5 lbs of muscle in the process. Lift 3-4 days a week, then do orangetheory 2-3x a week for cardio and function. Very rarely drink. Between the two usually some mix of that equals working out 5-6x a week.
Eat more veggies from the cabbage family (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.; broccoli seems to be most known for this for some reason). It has DIM which is an aromatase inhibitor (which stops your body from converting testosterone to estrogen). DIM also binds to SHBG more strongly than testosterone does, which may increase your free testosterone levels.
Vitamin K2 (MK-4 in particular)
caused a 58% increase in the testosterone of male rodents. This is the best place to get it. It can reverse calcified arteries to a degree, and will strengthen your bones and prevent arthritis. Must always be
trans configuration, not
cis.
This is probably the best source to get it from. You have to eat it with fat bc it’s fat soluble, otherwise you won’t absorb it. Animal fat tends to be better for it. You are also unable to overdose on Vitamin D so long as you take enough Vitamin K2. Some also say that it makes you grow even if your growth plates have closed (only finishes up unfinished growth, will not make you grow beyond what your genes lay out for you).
Another one is boron. This has been known to lower estrogen and increases your free testosterone. I can vouch for this one that when I first started taking it, I always started getting horny after like 15-20 minutes lol.
This is the one I use. It also pretty much cures arthritis much like Vitamin K2 does.
And if that doesn’t work, cartilage is amazing. GhostOfCordon forces his body to make it by superdosing Vitamin C with Proline and Lysine (also caked Pauling Therapy, which also cures atherosclerosis), but it’s really just the cartilage that does it. Eating more cartilage will make your joints and tendons stronger, you will reduce your risk of injury, any damaged blood vessels you have will heal, it’ll prevent cancer from spreading (will not cure it though, only treat it), and any wrinkles you have will begin to fade. So yeah, cartilage. While Pauling Therapy is good, it doesn’t consider that your body also needs glycine and arginine to produce collagen. Besides, cartilage has collagen AND elastin, so it’s better imo. Plus, arginine increases growth hormone too (which indirectly causes testosterone to raise as well lol).
At 16% body fat, it is not awful but you might find that once you get down to around 12% (approximately) or less body fat, your libido and natural testosterone levels might increase. I don't have science to back this claim, but I have seen it happen many times before.
I do. Bodyfat is estrogenic because it has aromatase in it. In men, the more estrogen we have, the more our body will slow down testosterone production.