A fat-loss diet can wreck your testosterone and cortisol levels. Here's how to prevent that.
Here's some bad news: Dieting lowers your testosterone levels and elevates cortisol.
Here's some good news: Longjack (Buy at Amazon), the medicinal plant also known as Eurycoma longifolia and Tongkat Ali, prevents that from happening by helping you maintain muscle mass and metabolic rate during dieting. This helps prevent weight-loss plateaus and regain (fat overshooting).
What happens when you diet
You need to drop calories to lose fat, but that same energy deficit signals your body to prioritize essential functions and reduce others it deems as currently unnecessary for survival, like testosterone production. Caloric restriction disrupts the HPG axis, lowers the production of GnRH, and finally lowers levels of LH and FSH, hormones crucial for stimulating testosterone production.
Dieting also causes a stress response that activates the HPA axis. This axis regulates cortisol release from the adrenal glands. Cortisol is, of course, a catabolic hormone that breaks down tissues to release energy. The problem? Cortisol doesn't care much about what kind of tissue it harvests. We want it to be stored body fat, but it can also be muscle, especially if cortisol remains chronically elevated.
If we could keep our hormone levels under control during a diet, we could lose excess fat while avoiding these pitfalls. And now we have a way to do that.
Longjack diet science
Longjack is primarily known as a natural testosterone booster and libido igniter, but it's also been studied in dieters.
A small dose (50 to 100 mg daily) was shown to protect and preserve testosterone levels during a fat-loss diet. The researchers were mainly trying to solve the fat-loss plateau problem. Many dieters stop losing fat after six to eight weeks despite having more fat to lose and being in a calorie deficit.
One researcher noted: "By maintaining normal testosterone levels, a dieter could expect to also maintain their muscle mass and metabolic rate (versus a drop in both subsequent to lower testosterone levels) – and thus continue to lose weight without plateauing."
On the stress/cortisol side of the equation, 200 mg of Longjack was shown to decrease the negative effects of chronic stress. With Longjack, those subjects experienced a 16% drop in cortisol and an increased testosterone status of 37%. Remember, even if you're enjoying the results of your diet, your body registers the calorie deficit as a stressful emergency.
In endurance cyclists (chronically stressed and cortisol-soaked from training), Longjack reduced cortisol levels by 32% while boosting testosterone by 16%. This kind of training stress is similar to the stress your body goes through during a strict diet, especially if you increase training/cardio/metcon as part of the plan.
How to use Longjack during a diet
Take one capsule of Omega-Man High Absorption Longjack (Buy at Amazon) during a diet phase. Omega-Man contains the patented, most bioavailable form of Longjack: LJ100.
Now, most of the studies used just 50 to 200 milligrams, and Omega-Man contains 300 milligrams. Is that too much? No. As a lifter, you have more muscle mass to protect, so think of the hefty 300 mg dose as "muscle insurance."
Other ways to avoid hormone disruption
Dieting means dropping calories and often limiting food selection. If you're not careful, this can cause deficiencies in nutrients important for T production, thus impairing testosterone synthesis and overall hormonal balance. Here's a short list of things to consider:
- Testosterone synthesis requires cholesterol and certain fats. Diets too low in fat can reduce the availability of the precursors needed for T production. So, make whole eggs part of your diet.
- Make sure you're topped off with magnesium and zinc. Supplement with the chelated form to ensure absorption, as found in Elitepro Vital Minerals (Buy at Amazon).
- If your blood levels of vitamin D are low, testosterone production is impaired. Keep your levels high and healthy using microencapsulated D3 (Buy at Amazon), the kind you absorb.
References
- Talbott, et al. "Effect of Tongkat Ali on stress hormones and psychological mood state in moderately stressed subjects." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 26 May 2013.
- Talbott S, Talbott J, Negrete J, Jones M, Nichols M, Roza J: "Effect of eurycoma longifolia extract on anabolic balance during endurance exercise [abstract]." J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2006, 3 (1): S32.