Research on How a Diet can affect your Testosterone Levels
( Advanced Nutrition & Research ) ..
Most serious bodybuilders understand that consuming some fat is necessary for staying healthy. Here's another reason not to avoid dietary fat completely: Both diet anti exercise have been shown to affect plasma levels of testosterone, and previous studies suggest that a low-fat
diet (approximately 20% of calories from fat) results in less plasma testosterone when compared to a high-fat diet (approximately 40% of calories from fat).
At this point; however, the evidence isn't entirely clear as to how nutrient intake affects resting levels of this anabolic hormone. To test this idea, scientists at Pennsylvania State university in university Park had t2 men perform bench presses (five sets of 10 reps to failure)
and jump squats (five sets of to reps at 30% of their one-rep max) with a two-minute rest between sets. They found that after doing jump squats, the subjects' testosterone levels increased by 15%, while the bench press produced a 7% increase. Cortisol levels didn't change in
response to either exercise. Significant positive correlations were found for pre-exercise testosterone levels and percent of calories from fat, and levels of saturated and monounsaturated fat.
This means that those test subjects who ate more fat, whether saturated or monounsaturated, typically had higher post exercise testosterone levels. On the other hand, researchers found a negative correlation between testosterone levels and the percentage of calories from protein,
the protein-to- carbohydrate ratio and the polyonsatu rated fat-to-saturated fat ratio. In other words, testosterone levels tended to he lower in those subjects whose protein consumption (as a percentage of caloric intake) was higher and in those who ate a greater relative
proportion of polyunsaturated fat vs. saturated fat.
Although diet and exercise do affect levels of steroid hormones, at this point it isn't clear how significant this is in terms of the training-related gains you could expect. Running, cycling and weightlifting certainly cause a rise in testosterone. But does it really matter what
percentage of macronutrients you consume, or is the absolute amount of certain macronutrients more important? Put another way, is the percentage of fat you consume (be it saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated) most crucial, or is it the absolute amount of fat consumed?
And what about how you train? Either way, you'd go crazy trying to maximi7e blood levels of testosterone by looking for the ideal macronutrient ratio. But if this study does have a take-home message, it's that you should maintain a sensible balance in your diet and that fat ain't
all that bad for you, anabolically speaking
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