Testosterone increase after an exercise break

Reverting from overtraining will increase testosterone, yeah. My lowest ever testosterone readings have been during periods of higher stress, with one only situation of moderately high stress (subjectively) but a prolonged calorie deficit. And the highest testosterone readings I had were during periods of only moderate or low training stress and moderate body fat / diet level

Except I couldn’t possibly be overtraining as I said coz I run like 15 mpw and lift 2-3 times a week, nothing dramatic. I was also under a decent caloric deficit during the week of travel coz it was very hot and humid and that suppresses my hunger.

I’m curious to explain this mostly coz I’d obviously like to keep doing more of whatever makes it go up and vice versa.

The week long break had very little to do with the T change because T doesn't change that much that fast.

It sounds like you need to look at what you were doing in the 6 months before your reading of 465 and see how that was different from what you've been doing in the past six months before the 727.

Those differences will probably point to why the T levels changed so much.

That said, the most likely culprit is distance running in the months before the 465 T measurement. Distance running is known to suppress T levels. Also, look for changes in stress levels, sleeping, illnesses, increasing training volume, work, studying... anything that might increase your cortisol levels (which reduce T level).

I'm horniest when heavy.

Both T values are in the normal range. So no big conclusion to make.

I didn’t note this in OP, but I took the two measurements on Jan 1 2024 and 2025 respectively with everything I can think of in the preceding years (2023 and 2024 respectively).

- Same exercise levels: 3x and ~15 mpw running (one “long”, one recovery, and one track workout) + 2-3 times lifting, usually squats, deadlifts, bench, presses etc.

- Very consistent sleep averaging right around 8 hours +/- 10 mins according to my watch.

- Same job and similar modest stress levels as far as I can tell.

- Had viral laryngitis last week FWIW, just before the latter measurement, causing me to lose my voice for a couple days.

- Similar diet, generally very healthy and whole.

- BMI has been between 20.5 and 21 the whole time.