One thing that no one wants to hear about having low testosterone is that it has to do with diet. A crappy diet leads to low testosterone and low motivation. A lot of food is created to taste good. Really tasty food leads to eating for pleasure instead of sustenance. Most of us end up overeating and get a lot of fat storage right around our gut. This is one of the hardest things to fix and one of the hardest things to commit to. 

For me, when I’m fatter and my weight is over 240 lbs, my testosterone is always below 700. But when I lean out and get around 230 lbs, and a little less than 230 lbs, my testosterone levels tend to get up closer to 1000 because I’m healthier and my body is functioning to a higher degree.

Poor sleep also leads to a crazy, negative impact on overall testosterone levels. It is hard to fix. There is research on men with a newborn child in the house who will see a bit of a plummet in their overall testosterone levels because there is an interruption in their overall sleep patterns. Sleep helps stabilize hormones, recover, and manage stress; it is incredibly important to figure out how to consistently manage sleep.

Travel is another thing that can lead to a massive disruption of sleep. Changing time zones and flying all over the place leads to a disruption of sleep. Add to that not sleeping in the same bed and the problems add up. Personally, when I travel all over the place and get blood work done upon returning home, I might drop 250 points on my overall testosterone score.

The first thing to be done to improve your overall quality of sleep is to establish a sleep ritual. I recommend that about 1 hour out from your normal sleep time begin the ritual. Have a consistent schedule that establishes the last time you will look at your cell phone, look at the blue lights, and turn off the lights. Using candlelight can improve your overall sleep because it is natural light. 

I also recommend taking sleep supplements like inositol, magnesium glycinate, or ZMA. All of the mentioned supplements can improve sleep quality. Tracking on a telemetric device can help provide data to see what is improving your sleep patterns.

We all know best-laid plans don’t always come to fruition. Sometimes we get home late and have to wake up early, only getting 6 to 7 hours of sleep. One thing that can help is getting a 15 to 20-minute nap halfway through the day.

Another interesting factor that scientific research is starting to highlight is that if we get outside and get real, direct sunlight in the middle of the day can help with our circadian rhythms. Consistent and solid circadian rhythms help with sound and much-needed sleep.

Auto-immune diseases can destroy your testosterone. Such diseases can lead to the destruction of the quality of your life. Many men go around feeling fatigued or unmotivated and, unbeknownst to them, end up being diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder. Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are both diseases that wreak havoc on overall well-being.

I have a friend who struggled for over a decade before being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease. Hashimoto’s disease wreaks havoc on the thyroid, testicles, and overall testosterone production.

Without auto-immune diseases being identified, it is a struggle to be motivated. That is why it is important to have hormonal checkups every 6 to 8 months to establish a baseline to be monitored along with a doctor. With this information, you can feel and see how you progress through your life. And if anything crazy, like an auto-immune disease, pop-ups there is already a baseline to build from.

Resistance training is another major factor. The more a person trains and does strength-based training, the more lean muscle mass the person will have. The more lean muscle means a typically higher metabolism and typically healthier hormone levels. We can see a direct, acute response immediately after doing a resistance-based training session.

Lyme disease can destroy testosterone levels. I dealt with Lyme disease for over 2 and a half years. For the first 6 months, doctors couldn’t figure out what was going wrong with me. They had no baseline blood work to go off of. After about 6 months they noticed my white blood cells were off the chart. Initially, they thought I had lupus and leukemia. They eventually figured out my white blood cells were high because of infection; that infection was Lyme disease. 

After being tested for months, my lowest testosterone score was 223. I went on antibiotic treatments for over 2 years, which got me around 340 on the total testosterone score. I still struggled with figuring out my sleep, my nutrition, managing my stress, and how to recover from my day-to-day grind. Lyme disease taught me to figure out a happy balance with life, bring in a healthier diet, and continue to do resistance-based training.  

Keeping testosterone levels high as you get older is extremely difficult. Eating healthy, doing resistance-based training, and getting tons of sleep will help keep that testosterone level nice and stable. Make sure to get hormone levels checked every 6 months and meet with a doctor to establish a nice, consistent schedule to establish that baseline and notice when any anomalies may pop up.