How Testosterone Levels Affect Muscle Growth and Fat Loss

Higher testosterone levels are often equated with more muscle growth and fat loss. Is it that simple?



If you ask the average gymgoer what single physical factor most affects muscle growth and fat loss, they would probably answer “testosterone levels.” And they’re right.

Testosterone is certainly a primary hormonal driver of muscle growth. Research has shown that anabolic steroids, which drastically raise testosterone levels, given to even young, healthy men can induce muscle growth and fat loss without any exercise whatsoever.

Thus, it would be fair to assume that the higher our testosterone levels are, the more muscle we build and the leaner we get, right?

Testosterone Levels and Muscle Growth

We already know that dramatically elevating testosterone levels induces muscle growth.

Yes, if you take enough of the right steroids, your testosterone levels will skyrocket, and if you lift weights regularly, you will be able to achieve more muscle growth than if you were drug-free.

But here’s something that most people don’t know:

Fluctuation of testosterone levels within the physiological normal range does not affect muscle growth.

That is, if your testosterone levels are right-down-the-middle normal, and you increase them to a high-normal, you may feel a little better and notice a boost in libido…but it won’t enable you to build more muscle.

I know that sounds kind of blasphemous, but it’s actually been scientifically proven.

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science conducted and published a study about a decade ago wherein they administered varying amounts of  testosterone enanthate along with drugs to inhibit natural testosterone production to young, healthy men for 20 weeks.

While higher testosterone levels did produce greater muscle gains, it wasn’t as pronounced as you might think.

What researchers found was that so long as testosterone levels were within the physiological normal range, between 300-1,000 ng/dl, muscle growth didn’t change very much. That is, the subjects on the low end of normal weren’t that far behind subjects on the high end in terms of muscle growth.

A statistically significant increase in muscle growth wasn’t seen until testosterone levels surpassed the top of “normal” by about 20-30%.

Now, this study does have a limitation: subjects weren’t exercising. While total amounts of muscle and strength gained would clearly have been higher if they had been weightlifting, the relationship between testosterone levels and overall muscle growth would still be seen.

This was partially demonstrated by another study, this time conducted by McMaster University with young, resistance trained men.

Subjects lifted 5 times per week for 12 weeks, and followed a standard dietary protocol (high-protein intake, post-workout nutrition, etc.). The primary finding of the study was that the exercise-induced spikes in anabolic hormones like testosterone, growth hormone, and IGF-1, which all remained within physiological normal ranges, had no effect on overall muscle growth and strength gains.

That is, all subjects made gains in muscle, but the variations in the size of the hormone spikes among them had no bearing on the results.

The key takeaway here is not that you should take steroids, but that things you can do to naturally raise your testosterone levels are unlikely to affect your muscle growth.

And speaking of steroids, the above findings are in line with steroid research as well.

For instance, researchers at Maastricht University conducted an extensive review of literature related to the use of anabolic steroids and found that the muscle gains in people engaging in resistance training while on anabolic steroids mostly ranged between 2-5 kg (4.5-11 pounds) over the short term (less than 10 weeks). The largest amount of muscle growth researchers found was 7 kg (15.5 pounds) over 6 weeks of weightlifting while on steroids.

The point is this:

Even steroids don’t always dramatically increase the amount of muscle you can build (it depends what you take, in what dosages, and for how long), so what does that tell us about how fluctuations of testosterone in the normal physiological range relate to muscle growth?

As I talk about in my article on the best supplements for muscle growth, this is why buying natural testosterone boosters for muscle growth purposes is a complete waste of money. Even if they work (and most don’t), it’s just not going to help you build more muscle.

The only exception might be someone whose testosterone is at the absolute bottom of the physiologically normal range, or even below that, and who is then able to naturally increase it to the top of the range. That person would probably notice an improvement in muscle growth, not to mention overall well-being, libido, cognitive function, and so forth.

Now, I’m not saying that there’s no reason to do anything to naturally improve your testosterone levels. Improving muscle growth just isn’t on the list. Losing fat, however, is…
Testosterone Levels and Fat Loss

Unlike muscle growth, researchersat the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science did find that fluctuations of testosterone within the physiological normal range had significant effects on body fat percentage.

The higher the testosterone levels, the leaner subjects were. And conversely, the lower the testosterone levels, the fatter they were. When researchers decreased certain subjects’ testosterone levels from the baseline average of 600 ng/dl to around 300 ng/dl, they saw a dramatic 36% increase in fat mass.

Although the exact mechanisms behind this aren’t fully understood just yet, research has show that testosterone directly inhibits the creation of fat cells and that low testosterone is a contributing factor to obesity.

Increase Testosterone

It’s no secret, if you’re an athlete, a gym rat or someone who simply wants to look a little better the higher you can increase testosterone the better off you’ll be; after all, testosterone is the primary anabolic hormone. When we’re trying to increase testosterone the first thing that often comes to mind is anabolic steroids, as this is one of the primary roles but there are actually many things we can do to increase testosterone besides regular injections. Make no mistake, if one needs or desires to increase testosterone anabolic steroids will always be best in-terms of ability, nothing else will come close but we can naturally provide small incremental increases if we follow certain principles. However, in the grand scheme of things, while these applications will prove to be useful where they really shine is aiding in staving off low testosterone; no, it is no guarantee but in greatly improves your odds.
Increase Testosterone with Food:

You’ve heard the old saying, “nothing is more anabolic than food” and that’s quite true; when it comes to growth and performance nothing on earth can beat or replace food. In that light there are certain foods that have been shown to have a positive effect on our natural testosterone levels and many studies have indicated that individuals who consume diets rich in these foods often increase testosterone production. The same can be said in the opposite direction; certain foods have been shown to have the opposite effect and if you’re trying to increase testosterone or at least maintain it they will be the foods you want to avoid.

For the individual who is a vegetarian this next part is probably going to be some pretty sad news; if you’re looking to increase testosterone through the foods you eat you’re not going to be able to do it through a vegetarian style diet. No, meats are not the only foods that will increase testosterone but things such as red meat and eggs are our primary increasing tools. The best foods for increasing natural testosterone production include:

    Red Meat
    Whole Eggs
    Pork
    Salmon
    Nuts & Legumes
    Broccoli (in addition, not alone)
    Cabbage (in addition, not alone)
    Cauliflower (in addition, not alone)

From looking at the list you may be a little concerned with cholesterol, especially when we consider red meat and whole eggs to be our two primary food sources. Do not let your heart fret, the idea of these foods being unfriendly to cholesterol levels has long since passed and neither will increase LDL levels; assuming you’re not covering your steak and eggs with oils, butter, massive amounts of cheese, etc.

The next step is going to be to avoid certain foods; no, we want list these out or you’d be reading for the next three and a half weeks but we can give you a pretty good idea. Saturated fat has been proven to be something you need to increase testosterone but it needs to come from the right sources such as the ones above; the saturated fat you’re getting at your favorite fast food chain is not such a fat. Further, processed foods in general have been shown to be horrific on how they affect testosterone production so the moral of the story is simple; don’t eat out so much and stay away from processed food; it’s really that simple and there’s not much more to say.
Lifestyle Choices:

There are three major factors beyond food that can greatly affect our testosterone levels; our physical activity level, stress and alcohol consumption, the most important being physical activity. Men who are more active than other men naturally maintain higher levels of testosterone and it has been shown that physical exercise, most notably weight training greatly boost testosterone production. For the individual who needs or desires to increase testosterone production beginning a regular and scheduled workout routine should be one of the first orders of business.

Stress and alcohol; we have stress in our life and so we drink to ease the load yet alcohol has been shown to be one of the most damaging things on this earth to testosterone production when consumed on a regular basis; not only does it damage production but it promotes fat gain and destroys muscle tissue. However, responsible alcohol consumption is an easy thing to control whereas stress can be a little tricky. Stress doesn’t simply mean worry or concern; although that is a role we’re more concerned with physical stress, the lack of sleep and rest and physical stress that can be caused by just those things. When our body is in a state of stress we end up releasing larger amounts of stress hormones known as glucocorticoid steroids and if you’re trying to increase testosterone this is going in the wrong direction.
The Bottom Line:

The bottom line is simple; there’s nothing magical about increasing testosterone levels, there’s no secret you haven’t been told, there’s no special workout or hidden secret only the elite know about. If you wish to produce a higher level of testosterone or at least maintain what you already have simply following a healthy lifestyle will do more for you than anything else, in-fact, short of injecting the primary anabolic androgenic steroid testosterone this is pretty much your only worthwhile option. Yes, it is worthwhile and very much so but you need to have understanding. Understand how to maximize your nutrition with your daily life and see your testosterone levels better off than your friends.

Anabolic Steroids and Testosterone Levels

For the anabolic steroid users ones testosterone levels are of great importance. When we supplement with anabolic steroids our natural testosterone production is suppressed, even when we supplement with the anabolic steroid testosterone itself our natural production is diminished. How far our levels drop will be dependent on several factors; certain steroids suppress to a greater degree than others but regardless of the steroid(s) you're using your natural testosterone levels are not going to be at an optimal level. For this reason among several others most performance enhancers will supplement with testosterone; for most it is the foundation of any cycle and in many cases often the only steroid used if only one steroid is going to be used. It should be fairly obvious as to why testosterone supplementation is so important; you're using anabolic steroids, you're no longer producing adequate levels of testosterone and to keep your testosterone levels at a proper rate and most likely to bring them to a level beyond standard you must have exogenous amounts of the hormone in place.

In the world of anabolic steroids there are literally a multitude of choices and within each choice there are often more choices. For example, take the anabolic steroid testosterone; there are numerous forms of this hormone, each defined by the ester attached or lack thereof. In the end each one is comprised of the same active hormone but as the ester affects the total mass of the compound it also affects the total half-life; if we are to maintain stable testosterone levels this must be understood. Most who supplement with testosterone will do so normally with long ester based or short ester based testosterone; while moderate ester based testosterone is available it is rarely available in a single ester based form and generally part of a testosterone mixture comprised of several single ester based forms.

Testosterone Levels & Long Esters
While there are many long ester based forms of testosterone or large ester based depending on how you look at it, by-in-large the two most common are Testosterone Cypionate and Testosterone Enanthate. The Cypionate form carries with it a half-life of approximately 12 days; what this means is that after an injection of the hormone 12 days later half of the active dose will still be active in the body. For example, an injection of 200mg will yield 100mg of active testosterone 12 days later and 50mg the next 12 days later and so on and so on. When we look at Testosterone Enanthate there really isn't that much difference, it carries with it a half-life approximately 36 hours shorter and when we are talking about half-lives that extend well past a week this is of an inconsequential nature; so what does this mean? We cannot arbitrarily inject our long ester forms, doing so would cause our testosterone levels do be all over the place, up then down like a roller coaster. With most long ester based forms of testosterone an injection once per week will suffice but for the performance enhancer who wishes to not only maintain proper testosterone levels but to do so at its peak twice weekly injections of an equal dosing will be far more efficient. In many competitive bodybuilding circles, although it is not medically necessary individuals often administer long ester testosterones on an every other day to daily basis, splitting their dosage up into a multitude of small regular injections. For the average performance enhancer this is unnecessary but such practice will ensure testosterone levels are at their peak throughout use.

Testosterone Levels & Short Esters
While long ester based forms are quite popular there is one short ester based testosterone that is equal in popularity and it is that of Testosterone Propionate. Testosterone Propionate is one of the original testosterone forms, in-fact it's one of the original anabolic steroids, as well as one of the very first made readily available for mass human use. As a short ester based testosterone the Propionate version carries with it a half-life of approximately 4 days and by this nature one can already see frequent injections are going to be necessary if testosterone levels are to be maintained. In the grand scheme of action one could maintain proper testosterone levels with an injection every three days but to keep peak testosterone levels at their peak an administration schedule of every other day will prove to be far more optimal and efficient.

The End Game
In the end it is fairly simple; in order to maintain proper testosterone levels when supplementing with exogenous testosterone you must understand the active half-life associated with the compound. While we have only discussed three compounded forms we have discussed the most common and if your testosterone is not in this group all you really need to know is its half-life to make an accurate determination. However, simply knowing the half-life does not apply to testosterone mixtures such as Sustanon 250; testosterone mixtures have far extending total half-lives but testosterone levels cannot be maintained with infrequent injections; mixtures are best served when treated as single short ester based forms.