Low Testosterone Tips (no doping)

S. Canaday wrote:

VeganBros wrote:

I think being Vegan is fine, just eat more and focus on recovery.

Endurance athlete issues are not caused by overtraining, it is from under recovering. Look at how the pros train… not insane when you get to nap all day and sit around.

Eat more, recover more, also add some strength work

Life long vegetarian here (vegan last 8 years).

Here's a thing: There are plenty of red meat eating guys that I know/knew (more standard American diet) that ran fairly high mileage (80mpw +) and would get low on T and low on things like iron even. Like all the time.

So to blame "just the diet" is missing the point and too simple. There are of course lifestyle factors with sleep quality/genetics/ and then also diet that can influence hormone levels as well as vitamin deficiency/levels.

For example Vitamin D is a big one and probably something most Americans (regardless of diet) are low on all the time.

For vegans, yes of course vitamin B12, iron and zinc can be a bit more critical to monitor. I'd also make sure I'm getting in some essential fatty acids like EPA/DHA (Flora oils makes a nice blend and it essentially uses the algae that fish eat to provide those essential omega-3s). You don't need very many, but they are essential.

But even simple things like cow's natural hormones in dairy milk generally can influence the human body to react in different ways (generally not good ways as cow's milk is specifically designed for baby cows). It could take decades of a certain type of diet to see how things shake out though.

Lifting and some HIIT (as well as maximizing quality of sleep and trying to stay more stress free) can certainly help. Then look at nutrient timing with your meals, blends of amino acids in your food items, and make sure you're staying on top of the zinc/B12/vitamin D levels....as well as caloric needs of course. Also, having a few lower mileage/recovery weeks stacked with the higher mileage weeks.

Just my 2 cents. I ran. up to 150 mpw without meat, never got injured on years of 100mpw + weeks, and ran 1:04 in the half marathon.

Skeptical Sprint Coach wrote:

deadhead wrote:

Hi guys,

I've just had some blood tests done & my testosterone is through the floor at 2.1. I've never taken PEDs and don't intend to so I'm wondering if anyone's ever successfully raised their T levels from this low.

Context: Running about 5 years & mostly targeting 5k/XC during that time. I ran 80mpw during this past winter season and was coping well but in hindsight I think it was a big cause. I initially discovered my low T through unrelated testing about 3 months ago which came in at 2.9 and shortly thereafter got posterior tibialis tendonitis & took 6 weeks completely off running. During that time I was doing lots of strength, some cycling and focusing on diet (I'm vegan & largely whole foods) i.e. incorporating lots of monosaturated fats, vit d, ashwaganda, zinc, magnesium, fadogia agrestis, maca root, boron, tongkat ali

My T levels went back up to 8.1 during that time and then after 6 weeks I started jogging again & my mileage is up to ~40mpw. So I thought all was going well but I've just gotten retested and came in with 2.1 so I'm stumped as to what I can do to help this

You don't live as a man and are surprised your body stops functioning as a man.