6 Weight Loss Tips For Men With Low Testosterone
Being overweight or obese puts men at risk for low testosterone — a condition that can sap energy and sex drive, trigger depression, and increase body fat. Losing weight, however, may help some men boost testosterone and make them feel better.
“A man’s testosterone level tends to reflect his overall health, so if you’re overweight, you’re not healthy, and testosterone levels tend to decline,” saysBradley Anawalt, MD, an endocrinologist at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
When you’re not well, your body turns off what’s called the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis — parts of the brain and pituitary gland that regulate the testicles, where testosterone and sperm are made, Dr. Anawalt says. Your body does this for a practical reason, he says: “If you’re ill, you shouldn’t be wasting your energy on sex and reproduction — that’s counter to survival at the moment.”
There’s another possible explanation for the connection between being overweight and having low testosterone, Anawalt says. Fat makes a hormone called leptin that regulates appetite. When normal-weight people gain 5 pounds from their baseline weight, the added fat makes more leptin, which turns off the brain’s appetite center and weight goes back down, he says.
“People who become obese often become leptin-resistant,” Anawalt says. “Their bodies make a lot of leptin, but don’t respond to it.” The brain behaves as if the person is starving because it’s not “seeing” the leptin. When an obese person tries to lose that same 5 pounds, the brain increases hunger — causing the person to eat more. At the same time, the brain tells the pituitary gland to stop triggering testosterone production because it “thinks” the man is malnourished.
For men with low testosterone that isn’t due to a problem directly affecting the testicles or another part of the HPG axis, Anawalt says, losing weight may help to reverse leptin-resistance and increase testosterone levels. Read more
Source: (everydayhealth)
