High-Protein Diets and Testosterone: The Truth

[T_Nation]

by Chris Shugart

Some people say that high-protein diets lower testosterone. Do they? Here's the real science.

You've heard all the myths about the supposed dangers of high-protein diets: they wreck your kidneys, leach calcium from bones, shorten your lifespan, and your body can't even absorb more than 30 grams per meal. Every single one of those has been thoroughly debunked, and only your blue-haired vegetarian cousin still believes them.

But now the anti-protein brigade has a new one: High-protein diets lower your testosterone.

Is it true? Let's look at the actual science.

The Protein Study

The "protein lowers testosterone" idea comes from a recent meta-analysis (Whittaker, 2023). This study of studies examined all research related to protein intake and testosterone levels. The researchers wanted to see if high-protein diets affected T and clarify what "high protein" actually means.

Here's the short answer: Very high protein intakes do seem to lower testosterone. It's roughly a 145 ng/dL drop (5 nmol/L).

Don't panic just yet. The devil is in the details. Only three short-term studies found this drop, and all involved super-high protein intakes that most pro-bodybuilders don't even consume: more than 1.54 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day.

For a 150-pound man, that's about 230 grams per day. It's more than 275 grams daily for a 180-pound man, and over 310 grams for a 200-pound man.

The researchers think this may be caused by a short-term adaptation to help clear nitrogen. The body may lower testosterone (and raise cortisol) to help process excess nitrogen through the urea cycle. But whether it's harmful long-term is unknown. Most studies only lasted 10 days.

The researchers found no testosterone drop with normal protein recommendations for lifters and athletes, like eating 1 gram per pound of body weight daily.

How to Use This Info

First, you can tell your blue-haired cousin that high-protein diets do not lower testosterone, but extremely high-protein diets might, at least in the short term. The classic guideline – eat about a gram of protein per pound of body weight – does not lower testosterone levels.

Most people, even lifters, have a hard time even hitting those protein goals. The average man consumes only about 100 grams per day. But as the researchers point out in the meta-analysis, a normal high-protein diet only leads to increased satiety, fat loss, and preservation of lean mass during caloric deficits.

If you're not hitting your 1 g/lb BW goal, just add a protein shake or two per day. Two scoops of Metabolic Drive (Buy at Amazon) contain 42 grams of protein, a blend of whey protein isolate and micellar casein for sustained metabolic enhancement.

Prefer to chew your protein instead of drinking it? Try these Metabolic Drive recipe ideas:

• Pancakes
• Muffins
• Ice Cream
• Brownies
• Cheesecake

Note: If you like protein powder recipes, check out this Reddit sub.

Reference

1. Whittaker, Joseph. "High-Protein Diets and Testosterone. Nutrition and Health, vol. 29, no. 2, June 2023, pp. 185–191. SAGE Publications

[Hugo_Fillion]

@T_Nation

The average man consumes only about 100 grams per day.

I don’t even know how it is possible to eat so little protein. It seems like every time I go to the grocery store, almost all food now have a high protein version except for veggies and fruits. High protein cereal, high protein yogurt (which is just 2g more than the 17g version for the same portion size…), higher protein milk, pasta, ice cream, cereal bar, granola, bread. I don’t understand how someone can eat less than 100g nowadays.

You can now have 38g of protein in a bowl of cereal. A cup of high protein milk in 1 cup of high protein cereal and that’s it. So you can have this shitty meal and still get almost 40g of protein. And you are still hungry.

[T3hPwnisher]

People have to go out of their way to want to buy those products, of which, many complain that they “don’t taste as good” as the regular stuff, or they are more expensive. And, of course, we all know that the majority of that stuff is just marketing gimmicky, using the lowest quality sources of protein possible (typically pea or wheat/grain) to bump up their numbers.

But seriously: watch what the average person eats these days and it’s pretty eye opening. They’ll either skip breakfast entirely or pick up some sort of pastry with an 800 calorie “coffee” that’s a total sugar and fat bomb, they’ll snack on a bag of chips until lunch rolls around, and then they go out to eat and get some sort of pizza, pasta, sandwich, etc that’s primarily bread/grains with trace amounts of protein, another carb bomb of a salty/sugary snack at 2:00, and then they get home and either door dash some fast food or throw some frozen monstrosity into the microwave before they crash on the couch with a bowl of ice cream.

The thing is: protein is the most EXPENSIVE macro nutrient, and the snack industry wised up to that quickly. Far better to just use cheap fats via seed oils and sugar via HFCS to trigger a bit dopamine hit and keep people in a bizarre state of overfed and undernourished so that they KEEP eating even though they’ve taken in WAY too much energy. And because these “foods” are so cheap, people gravitate toward them when it’s time to make food decisions. And since they’re not actually food, they’re infinitely shelf stable and require no prep, so even more of a bonus.

[antiquity]

@Hugo_Fillion

It seems like every time I go to the grocery store, almost all food now have a high protein version

Sometimes, though, a product will be labeled “high protein” and it will have something like 10g of protein for the 400 calorie package. Literally low protein foods (10% of the calories from protein) but labeled as “high protein”. If someone ate 5 of those to get to 2,000 calories for the day, they’d only get 50g of protein.

[Brant_Drake]

Also soy protein is everywhere in those products. And collagen is used to boost the total protein amount on the label, but dosen’t do jackshit for building muscle.

[Hugo_Fillion]

I understand it’s all shitty protein hence

@Hugo_Fillion

So you can have this shitty meal and still get almost 40g of protein

I was just wondering, with all those shitty protein flowing around, how people can get under 100g protein in a day? For sure they get under 100g of QUALITY protein. I don’t doubt that.

@T3hPwnisher

But seriously: watch what the average person eats these days and it’s pretty eye opening. They’ll either skip breakfast entirely or pick up some sort of pastry with an 800 calorie “coffee” that’s a total sugar and fat bomb, they’ll snack on a bag of chips until lunch rolls around, and then they go out to eat and get some sort of pizza, pasta, sandwich, etc that’s primarily bread/grains with trace amounts of protein, another carb bomb of a salty/sugary snack at 2:00, and then they get home and either door dash some fast food or throw some frozen monstrosity into the microwave before they crash on the couch with a bowl of ice cream.

That look tasty but man I would feel like shit haha!

But your answer made me wonder… maybe I just don’t see it with people around me and maybe we eat more protein in Canada and I did some research. WRONG! Canadian eat way less protein than American (about 80g per day for Canadian vs 97g for American). Still, 30% obesity rate in Canada and 40% in the US. Why? Canadian eat less protein but those protein are still a greater % of the total calories intake which means calories consumption in the US must be phenomenal (I looked up, it’s 500-800 calories less per day in Canada)! No wonder I am always in shock when I go to Walmart on the other side of the border!

It’s always weird what you find normal and it all depends on your environment.

[T3hPwnisher]

That look tasty

I think that’s probably the worst part of it all: it’s not like these folks are living like hedons in Ancient Rome and ENJOYING all this sugary/fatty garbage: they’re eating it just to feel “normal’, which, as you observe, is honestly feeling like crap. The dopamine hit that comes with it gets significantly reduced with the frequent exposure, which is one of the many causes of obesity: they have to eat even MORE to get that same hit as before.

You observation regarding protein percentage of total calories is something that Dr. Ted Naiman has postulated as well. His theory is that we’d solve all of obesity if we got people to eat 30% of their total calories from protein, but if we even got that number to 20% we’d make significant headway, because right now the number on average is something like 8%.

Carbs and fats are fuel. Protein is a builder. We are overfueled for how little activity we’re doing.