A recent DM on Twitter:

“I just saw another post about testosterone and wanted to share a personal experience that might be of interest. I had a dr send me to an endocrinologist because my mental and physical health went to shit. This was early 2018. They said my testosterone was in the 200s. I was 39 at the time.

But the dr said once you take testosterone injections you have to always take them because your body quits producing. Instead of going straight to that, he put me on clomiphene to see if my body’s testosterone production could be jump started. It was. Taking clomiphene every day took me from 200-something to over 1000 in 6 months. I’m now on every other day and around 850-900. It’s been a blessing to me and something I wish I knew 10-plus years ago. You probably already knew this but a lot of men don’t.”

A big problem a lot of guys face, is that they want to optimise their health, feel better and look better, but doctors don’t help.

For Men Over 40, testosterone is measured at 200-350 (most of the time), and they’re summarised as ‘normal’, when of course normal is diabolical in a declining, overly-feminised society.

Doctors aren’t going to help you. But who will?

Doctors Won’t Help Low Testosterone And Depression

And this leads me onto endocrinologists and hormonal clinics. While nothing is guaranteed in this area, and it is a numbers game to some degree (I’ll explain shortly), you’re far more likely to have honest results by approaching these kinds of people.

Hormonal clinics specialise in this area, and aren’t going to read your total T as ~300 and declare “you’re awesome, no need to change anything.” Instead, they’re more likely to get you onto a plan that gets your total free testosterone into the 800-1200 range, which is where it needs to be for a healthy, high-performing male.

And that leads me onto another point:

Total testosterone (800-1200) is a good starting point for measuring your testosterone, but actually a more accurate measurement is going to be your FREE testosterone (the testosterone your body can actually use), and this needs to be between 14-21.5 pg/ml for optimal male health.

But my advice would be to get both measurements, and make sure you’re in the right ranges for both, long-term.

If you want to know what this looks like in a step-by-step action plan, here’s a useful, five part documentary of the TRT process.

When you’re putting together your own TRT process, there will be a ‘numbers game’ to some degree (like there is with anything). You’re probably going to need to speak to multiple hormonal clinics in order to find your ‘favourite guy’, and have him assist you, especially during the beginning.

Later on, you can do it yourself at home once you get the hang of it – much like the guy who messaged me did. You will need to look at this as a long-term health investment, and something you’ll commit to for the rest of your life.

It’s well worth it if you can get your levels into the 800-1200 range, and experience better:

• Motivation & drive
• Mood
• Sleep
• Sex drive
• Strength
• Fat loss
• Mental health

Within a matter of months.

And yes that last one – mental health, is a big problem these days. Depression has sky-rocketed in recent years, for a variety of reasons. But I’ve said for a long time now:

There is no such thing as a high energy, high testosterone person with depression.

It simply doesn’t exist.

Depression is low energy, low drive, and enthusiasm for just about nothing in life. High testosterone (800-1200) is the anti-thesis to depression.

In fact, if you combine this level of testosterone and masculinity with the ideal training system for Men Over 40 – the James Bond program – you’ll be unstoppable.

I also talk a lot about getting the ‘natural’ methods right first – diet, sleep, training and supplementation (the Bond program sorts out training and supps), the Intermittent Fasting meal plans will ensure you’re getting plenty of Essential Fatty Acids in your diet, and the right macros for your goals.

Finally if you’re 100% serious and want one-to-one coaching, check out my coaching options here. Tailored meal plans, tailored training programs and coaching calls are all available.

Enjoy!

The post Men Over 40: Low Testosterone And Depression appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.

Something I’ve been noticing more and more lately via Twitter and emails I’ve received, is the increasing number of Men Over 40 having massive success with OMAD (One Meal A Day) – a couple of these guys are currently killing it, just so you can see some examples.

OMAD works literally how you expect it to – one meal per day, and no more. This means the eating window is very narrow, and fasting period very large; making it a more ‘intense’ variation of Intermittent Fasting.

Usually this meal will be in the evening, and this is going to be the best way to maximise freedom and flexibility for those with families and/or social lives. Having said this, there’s technically nothing wrong with this one meal being at 1pm, for example.

As long as you avoid breakfast, of course; that would be the absolute worst time to have a large, 1500-3000 calorie meal. Definitely avoid that at all costs if you want high energy levels and low body fat levels.

Now, a couple of objections that may be running through your mind:

“That sounds a little extreme, is that even healthy?”

And this is where it gets interesting, because from my research, it looks like it’s an absolute life-saver for a lot of people from a health standpoint. Inflammation goes down, blood pressure is lowered, risk of diabetes plummets, heart health increases, etc.

Pretty nice.

Also the ‘cleansing’ process known as autophagy is maximised by performing IF in this manner – more so than the more frequently used methods such as 18:6 or 16:8, for example.

Another one:

“But won’t fasting for that long cause muscle loss?”

To be fair, I think this is even more of a valid question.

I used to ponder this one quite a bit, as over the years my concern was always that protein synthesis wouldn’t be adequate from only one meal per day.

But this just doesn’t seem to be backed in the real world at all, which leads me more and more to think that we really were designed to eat less frequently (think of hunters thousands of years ago – they wouldn’t have been successful every single time – in fact, nothing in life works that way. You always fail to some degree).

These guys (all Men Over 40) seem to be increasing muscle mass and strength, and at a pretty impressive rate.

Sure, you could argue that it’s their relative lack of gym experience that’s the primary driver behind this. But it doesn’t detract from the overall point – OMAD is not stopping them from completely transforming their physiques, and their lives.

So infrequent eating doesn’t appear to have any drawbacks, within a OMAD context, especially for Men Over 40.

In that case, how exactly should you go about doing OMAD if you’re interested in losing shedloads of fat (by making it almost impossible to get into a calorie surplus), while possibly increasing muscle mass and strength, even into your 40’s, 50’s and beyond?

Here’s how I would do it:

I would start off the morning with black coffee, and have 1-2 cups early in the morning. After getting the boost in energy, focus and productivity, I’d then get to work on my mission for the day, which would really help to focus my mind on productive things (and not food).

I’d have 1-2 cups of tea later in the morning/early afternoon, so that you still get to enjoy a nice hot drink, while not overdoing the caffeine and impacting sleep adversely.

This whole time, I’d be drinking plenty of water – most people do not drink enough, so I have to highlight this point.

And while there may be some hunger in the afternoon during the adaptation period, this would largely vanish after getting used to the new eating plan.

Come the evening, I would have ~2000-2200 calories available (holy crap!) and I may even struggle to hit them. Regardless, I’d need to focus heavily on protein first in order to make sure I actually get my 170+ grams, and would therefore pile up my plate with loads of meat (and veggies of course).

This would be the case the vast majority of the time – consistency is crucial, but I would also have nice meals out on the weekends occasionally (and they would easily fall within my calorie budget).

I suspect that this kind of plan would work very well for the vast majority, especially if it was combined with a full body training program that focused on recovery and optimising your time spent in the gym (without overdoing it), like the James Bond program.

It’s ideal for Men Over 40 because of its’ focus on recovery and testosterone, while still getting an intense, frequent stimulus in the gym.

If you want on-going help with both your IF meal planning, training program, and have everything completely custom-tailored to you, then check out my coaching services.

The post Men Over 40: The Power Of OMAD appeared first on Forever Alpha Blog.