As men age, their testosterone levels naturally diminish, resulting in several unwanted bodily changes. Low levels of testosterone, the most critical hormone in the male body, can manifest itself in unwanted weight gain, loss in muscle tone and bone density, reduced libido, erectile dysfunction, and much more.
Maintaining a healthy sex drive and being able to control your weight, muscles, and bones is essential, so it is vital to optimize your hormonal balance. While this becomes more difficult with age, it remains possible, and there are plenty of natural ways to keep your hormones balanced and healthy. Read on to learn more!
1. Get More Sleep
Testosterone levels grow as part of your naturally occurring circadian rhythm, and insufficient sleep amounts can play a pivotal role in lowering your testosterone levels. Along with rest and recovery, your body is busy burning calories, enhancing cognitive function, and producing testosterone while you are sleeping. Additionally, with robust testosterone levels, you are more likely to sleep soundly throughout the night, whereas low levels can lead to insomnia and other sleep problems.
2. Choose Your Carbs Wisely
When managing your weight and looking to restore vitality, you can easily buy into the false narrative of believing that all carbs are bad. However, while it’s true that simple carbs can cause weight gain and spikes in your blood sugar, not all carbohydrates are guilty of this. Studies have found that carbohydrates can actually boost testosterone levels. Consider choosing complex carbohydrates, such as those found in sweet potatoes, vegetables, fruit, and whole grains.
3. Lose Weight and Belly Fat
While testosterone is one of the most important hormones in the male body, growth hormone is just as vital. As with testosterone, growth hormones naturally decrease with age. A deficiency in growth hormones is typically associated with an increased accumulation of body fat, particularly around the abdomen. Excessive fat around the belly can also lead to a secondary reduction in growth hormone excretion that can be countered by weight loss.
4. Keep Your Cortisol Under Control
Cortisol is often referred to as the ‘stress hormone’ due to its surging levels providing a natural jolt of energy in the body in response to high-stress scenarios. Cortisol is also highly influential to your metabolism by regulating how your body converts carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into usable energy.
While cortisol is your body’s natural way of controlling stress, it can present a negative impact on growth hormones and can cause serious health problems when too much is released. The most effective way to successfully control your cortisol levels is to keep your stress under control, which means finding natural ways to destress, such as meditation, yoga, and journaling, rather than an overreliance on cortisol to calm you down.
Consistently managing your stress levels allows your natural growth hormones to flourish, resulting in hormonal balance.
5. Get Consistent Exercise
While any form of exercise can help benefit your hormonal balance, resistance training and weight lifting are workouts that can offer targeted results for increasing testosterone and growth hormone. Cardio and high-intensity interval training can help aid in weight management, which is also important for hormonal balance, but resistance training and weight lifting have the most direct impact on the hormones themselves.
6. Limit Your Alcohol Consumption
While exercise and sleep have a positive impact on male hormonal balance, alcohol, unfortunately, does not. Within the testicles, alcohol damages the Leydig cells, which are responsible for producing and distributing testosterone. Heavy consumption of alcohol can reduce testosterone levels and even prove harmful to sperm production and maturation.
7. Consider Intermittent Fasting
If you are finding difficulty isolating the correct foods to boost your routine and optimize hormonal balance, intermittent fasting may be a helpful approach. Intermittent fasting is a program where you fast for 16 to 20 hours per day and give yourself a four to eight-hour eating window.
While you are technically free to eat anything you want during these windows, focusing on healthy options, such as fruits, veggies, protein, and complex carbs, is most advantageous in your continued quest for vitality.
8. Minimize Your Sugar Intake
Sugar has a direct impact on your insulin levels and insulin resistance. The more sugar you consume, the higher your insulin is and the lower your resistance. Excessive insulin can reduce testosterone and growth hormone, highlighting the crucial importance of controlling your sugar intake and getting most of your sugar from complex carbs and fruit.
9. In-Home Testosterone Replacement Therapy
If you are still faced with low testosterone levels despite making lifestyle adjustments, in-home testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) may be a worthwhile consideration. TRT is designed to address issues resulting from insufficient testosterone by regulating hormone levels with self-injectable treatments delivered to your front door.
In-home TRT includes:
- Comprehensive lab testing to help determine your customized treatment plan.
- Telemedicine consultation with our medical professional.
- Hormone replacement kits are then delivered to you at home.
In-home TRT is the fastest, easiest, and most direct way to return your testosterone to healthy levels with testosterone delivered to your door. As with any medical treatment, it’s essential to consult with your doctor before starting TRT.