“Energy is the key to creativity. Energy is the key to life.” – William Shatner
Contents:
1.) Introduction
2.) Energy & Social Skills
3.) Identifying The Cause
4.) Methods for Improving Energy Levels
5.) In Closing / Relevant Reading
1.) Introduction:
In this piece I will depart from my usual lofty prose to bring you something less abstract and more practical. Even though I lean toward the more literary, strategic and theoretical side of things most of the time, I think it’s important to write about practical things in a simple manner on occasion.
After all, I’m not just here to embellish my own love of wordsmithing, but likewise to help people by sharing what I’ve learned from my experiences and observations.
Now on that note, energy optimisation is of great importance to me. I’m not naturally high energy, but I’m naturally pretty smart. And I’ll tell you this. High energy guys with shit for brains will kill it more in life than low energy smart guys ever will.
Energy is king. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. A high energy dumbass will outperform a low energy genius every time without fail. Not only will his peak in any one scenario be higher, but his ability to endure will be greater.
Without energy, you just can’t get shit done.
When genius boy wants to lay back in his chair and do fuck all, dumbo the elephant wants to zoom around town completing errands.
It is energy and energy alone that underpins every single human’s ability to do anything. And so there should be nothing, absolutely nothing, that is more important for you to get under control than this.
If you’re not a high energy person, and you’re reading this, your objective should be to change this. Firstly, identify why and how you’re low energy, then engage in lifestyle changes and/or therapeutic treatments to fix the problem.
This is your true route to a better life, not binge reading self-improvement material. Self-improvement material can’t give you energy, it can only tell you what to do assuming you actually have the energy to follow its advice!
Being low energy is not an acceptable state of living. It’s normal to average people, because average people are accustomed to being in poor health, but if you read IM, you are obviously someone with zero interest in being average, and will do whatever it takes to win at life.
It doesn’t matter how capable you think you are, how smart, how talented, how whatever. As a smart man who’s had to deal with far too much fatigue throughout his life, I can tell you this:
Smart men are smarter when they’re not fatigued.
Having sharp effortless focus and not having to battle brain fog not only improves your performance, but rids you of the emotional frustration that comes with brain fog.
So however smart you think you are in your constant state of tiredness? Yeah, you’d be smarter if you weren’t tired all the time. If you’re not a high energy person, you will never reach your potential, you will find it hard to be motivated, social and productive.
Nobody who is ambitious wants this for themselves.
It’s not because you suck. It’s not because you’re lazy, or some other garbage where people with better physiology due to genetics or drug consumption look down on you for being less productive than them.
It’s because your hormonal profile sucks. It’s easy to kill it at life when your hormones rock, which is why a lot of winners are into blood panel monitoring and hormonal optimisation. If you are tired all the time, your hormones suck, and it’s holding you back. Period.
A lot of people who don’t achieve much and are deemed lazy, may actually be very mentally ambitious and driven. But if they don’t have the energy to act on their ambitions?
Then for all and intent and purpose the world thinks you’re a loser. It doesn’t care you’re tired. It just wants results. Wanting to produce results isn’t enough. You need to be actually able to produce them!
It doesn’t matter if you’re a god damn rocket ship. If you have no rocket fuel, how are you getting to Mars? You’re not.
It’s easy for a high energy person with good hormones to tell a low energy person with bad hormones to work harder, that they need to get out of their head, that it’s their fault and theirs alone they suck and blah blah. I see egotistical chest beating fucks talking like this all the time.
Nonetheless, my objective is not to bitch for the entirety of this article – it’s to help. I believe this opening rant is necessary, because if you believe you suck innately, and don’t realise it’s a fixable biological problem that is to blame, there’s no hope for you.
Once you recognise the world is unfair, and that the reason you’re sucking at life stems from subpar health, you can find a way to do something about it.
And that my friends is the scope of this article.
2.) Energy & Social Skills:
Many lethargic people who think they have bad social skills actually do not. It’s simply their tiredness which prevents them from being as present and socially powerful as they would be if they were hormonally optimised and had high energy levels.
Children tend to be very social because they’re very energetic. The elderly less so, because they’re not.
One thing you’ll notice about popular people is they all tend to have very high energy. Low energy people can’t bring the hype because they’re always tired, and if your energy is really low, you may not even have it in you to socialise.
Fatigue induces involuntary introversion.
And even should you make the effort to socialise whilst fatigued, your ability to connect with others and have a rich interaction will be subpar.
If you are suffering or have suffered from fatigue for a long time, don’t identify with it, that’s not who you are. Who you really are, your true self, is being suppressed by sub-optimal health and it’s time to do something about it.
3.) Identifying The Cause:
Those of you who don’t like needles (that’s going to be most of you) aren’t going to like hearing this, but if you’re tired all the time, you’re going to need to get blood tests done to determine what’s wrong with you.
I believe the most common reasons for low energy are as follows:
– Untreated low testosterone
– Untreated hypothyroidism
– Untreated diabetes
– Lack of Vitamin D3
– Lack of B Vitamins
Now there are plenty of other conditions and mineral deficiencies that can cause fatigue and I more than suspect people to discuss these in the comments, however I can’t cover everything in one article.
So I’ve picked the five health issues I believe are the most common causes of fatigue in men.
You can start off by simply buying vitamin D3 and a decent vitamin B complex and seeing if that solves your fatigue problems. If it does, great, you can avoid getting blood tests done to check your hormones because you’re not tired anymore. Honestly though, I don’t recommend this.
It’s smart to keep your own health records and archive them over time to spot trends. The younger you are when you start doing this, the better.
So say you want to get checked for these things, what blood tests should you order? Should you trust your doctor to know what to order on your behalf because you told him you suspect you may have a certain ailment?
No. You’re a man and your doctor doesn’t give a damn about you. You find out exactly what to test for yourself. You don’t waste time convincing a doctor you need certain tests done, you pay a lab directly out-of-pocket to get it done hassle free.
For example if you go to your doc and say “hey doc, I think I have low testosterone” guess what the idiot is most likely to do, assuming he even tests you at all?
He will just order a testosterone test. Nothing else. He will quite literally just have your total testosterone checked, which by itself, is an utterly useless metric because it tells you nothing about the other hormones and proteins that interact with and affect your testosterone.
Your doctor not only makes you wait longer to see your result than if you’d ordered the test yourself, but when you get your result back he’ll tell you you’re fine without ever letting you see the numbers.
This is sub-optimal care, in fact it is damn right negligent and unprofessional, but such is the state of modern medical practice. I am not being dramatic. This experience reflects that of many men who have gone to see their GPs concerned with their health, only to be turned away without proper testing or adequate treatment.
As a man, you have to look out for your own health and do your own research. Nobody really cares about you, least of all the medical profession.
“Okay IM, you’ve gone off topic in your disdain for the medical profession, if I suspect I have low testosterone, what blood tests should I order?”
– Total testosterone – self-explanatory – this is the total amount of testosterone circulating in your blood – higher is better
– SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin) – this is a protein that binds heavily to your testosterone, making it unavailable to your tissues for general use – lower is better
– Albumin – this is essentially a weaker form of SHBG, it’s a protein that binds loosely to your testosterone – lower is better
– Estrogen/Estradiol – lower is better
This is spelt as Oestrogen/Oestradiol in the UK. Alternate spellings can be confusing. This is worth noting to avoid potential confusion. E1 is Estrone, E2 is Estradiol. You’re interested in E2.
– Prolactin – this is the hormone responsible for lactation, in high amounts it reduces natural testosterone production – lower is better
SHBG and Albumin are used to determine your free testosterone, your free testosterone is distinct from your total testosterone in so much as your total testosterone is the sum of what exists in your body at any one point, but your free testosterone is what’s available to your body for your use (and thus well-being!)
Bound testosterone is inactive and unable to give you any benefit. You can have the highest testosterone in the world, but if it’s all bound up you will get no benefit from it and still suffer from the lethargy typical of low testosterone. I knew of one gentleman who had a natural total testosterone level of 900ng/dL, (31 nmol/L) – which is high T, but his SHBG was at around 70 nmol/L – so he never had any energy because despite being high T, he had low free T. Yes, if you’re high T but have low free T, you are for all intent and purpose low T.
The range for free testosterone deemed “normal” is 1.5% to 3% of your total testosterone. Naturally, higher is better. If your free testosterone is 1.5% of your total testosterone (or lower) – this is undoubtedly *THE* if not *A* cause of your fatigue. You don’t necessarily need to have low testosterone to suffer from low free testosterone. Whether you have low T, or low free T, the presence of either will cause fatigue.
Total testosterone should, in my opinion, be no lower than 700ng/dL, which is around 24nmol/L. Lower than that is only bad. You won’t be superman at this level, but you won’t feel like crap either. Your physician will disagree with my opinion and say you are fine if you are in the 300-600 range, but this is bullshit.
Elderly men in the 1980’s had 600+ as an average, but if a 20 year old in 2017 is at 600+, or even around 400, they’ll tell him he’s fine. What? How does that work? They keep revising the range for testosterone and sperm count down to lower and lower acceptable levels. This is extremely shady.
Why should we accept being less fertile and biologically masculine than our forefathers? We shouldn’t!
Aim for free testosterone that is at least 1.8%+ of your total testosterone. Ancedotally, this is as low as my free T has been where I haven’t been fatigued, but as we’re all physiologically distinct, you may require more or less than I do.
Once you have your blood test results back, you can use this free testosterone calculator to deduce your free testosterone % if the lab you used didn’t calculate it for you.
Need testosterone replacement therapy? Try http://chekd.com or http://primebody.com if you’re in the US.
In Europe? Then you’re shit out of luck for an internet based service. Western and Northern Europe are really crappy places to live if you want to get your hands on pharma grade testosterone. Try googling your area name followed by “testosterone replacement” or “men’s health clinic”. They’re expensive as hell. Alternatively, take a trip to Eastern Europe, buy a ton of testosterone over the counter, and bring it back (this is legal to do in the UK, but you should check the laws where you live!)
Live in a poor country? Poor countries don’t baby you. You can probably walk straight into your nearest pharmacy and buy pharma grade testosterone right over the counter, hassle free and without prescription. This is what a reader of mine from Pakistan did, going from 200ng/dL to 1000ng/dL in no time.
“Okay IM, what blood tests should I order if I suspect hypothyroidism or diabetes?”
For the assessment of potential thyroid issues, you want the following checked:
– TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) – a range of 1-2 mu/L is best – higher is worse, too low is bad
– FT4 (Free T4)
– FT3 (Free T3)
– RT3 (Reverse T3)
– TPOAb (Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies) – lower is better
– TgAb (Thyroglobulin Antibodies)
The higher your TSH, the harder you will find it to cut body fat because your thyroid’s working slower. Some people supplement with thyroid hormone for this reason. I haven’t done it, so I can’t comment on it as much as I just did testosterone, but it’s worth mentioning.
For the assessment of diabetes, you want the following checked:
– HbA1c – It should be beneath 42mmol/mol – lower is better
42-47 is prediabetes and 48+ means you’re diabetic. If you want something “good” to compare it to, mine was sitting at 32 the last time it was checked.
If I’ve used measurements your country doesn’t use, you’ll have to find a converter online somewhere. The internet may be global, but the metrics used to measure things have not been globally standardised.
Vitamin D3 and the B vitamins don’t really require a blood test because you can just buy some cheap supplements from Amazon and take them for 2 weeks. If you don’t start feeling more energetic, you know those weren’t the source of your tiredness.
If you want to be rigorous and have the cash, you can get these things checked as well, but they’re not as high priority as having your hormones checked.
If you get blood tests done by a doctor rather than getting them done independently, ask for a copy of your blood work so you can see the numbers and interpret the results yourself.
Many doctors will “interpret the results on your behalf” and then say they’re “fine” without even letting you see the numbers. You don’t want this, because this puts you at the mercy of their judgement, level of ignorance on the current literature, and whatever clinical vested interests they may have.
You use unspecialised doctors mainly for their ability to prescribe, not their opinion, as most have no clue about effective testosterone therapy. You have to be your own doctor. You can’t trust them to get everything right, or even have your best interest at heart. Any doctor reading this will hate me for saying it, but it’s true, there are far too many crappy doctors out there to be taking chances on your health.
It’s your health, and you’re a man, so you have to take control.
Personally I would recommend getting your tests done by an independent lab, as then you get to see all the numbers and don’t need to argue with your doctor to see your own blood work (many don’t like the idea you don’t just blindly trust them to interpret the results for you!)
In the UK http://medichecks.com/ is a popular internet-based lab to get blood work done. In the US, you have http://www.privatemdlabs.com/.
4.) Methods For Improving Your Energy Levels:
I will start with the most conventional things you’re most likely to know, and get less and less conventional as I go down the list.
Food – some people have far more energy on a low carb, high fat and high protein diet, whereas others feel terrible on a low carb diet. If you’ve been on low carb for awhile and never feel like you have any energy, your body is screaming out for carbs.
We do not all respond with equal success to the same macronutrient distributions, thus experimenting with your body and learning what does and doesn’t agree with you is essential. There is no generalised one size fits all diet – experiment with yourself!
Sleep – ideally you never wake up to an alarm clock and simply wake whenever your body decides it’s time to get up. Most people don’t have the freedom nor luxury to do this and have to be up at a set time everyday because they’re trapped in the rat race.
The average REM cycle lasts about 1.5 hours, so if you have to be up at 7am, go to bed at 11.30pm, 1am, 2.30am or 4am. Obviously going to bed at 4am and waking up at 7am is not a sustainable sleep habit, but by timing your sleep like this you will find it easy to get out of bed, as opposed to clambering out of bed full of grogginess.
Fasting – I really actually can’t recommend this enough. I will probably have to write an article on it at some point as whenever I mention it on Twitter, I get about a million questions, but I will address it here.
Fasting is great for getting rid of fatigue and boosting productivity. If you are a typically low energy person, it’s possible you have poor digestion stemming from a gut condition, or just have generally poor gut flora (which you fix by eating fermented foods like unpasteurised sauerkraut!) When fasted, your body is not digesting anything and thus you get more blood flow to your brain.
Not only that, but physiologically your body starts burning ketones for fuel, starts healing your body via autophagy, and jacks up cortisol, adrenaline and growth hormone secretion to give you energy in the absence of caloric consumption. If you want to learn more about the biological processes behind fasting, I highly recommend reading this book by Dr Jason Fung.
When fasted, I sleep less. On a training day I will sleep for around 7-9 hours. On a non-training day, I will sleep for 6-8 hours. On a fasted day, I will sleep for 4-6 hours. Fasting dramatically reduces sleep requirements. And yes, you wake up feeling completely refreshed and won’t feel the need to go to bed early during the day because you slept less.
How do I fast? I drink black coffee, green tea and water. I eat no food. I can regularly go for 22 hour periods without eating anything like this and be incredibly focused and energetic the entire time.
Now we’re going to move out of the realm of lifestyle change, and more into the realm of substance consumption to give yourself a quick boost.
Stimulants/Nootropics – None of these things will fix the underlying cause of your fatigue, but they can act as short-term fixes until you get to the bottom of the cause.
– Modafinil, this is a wakefulness drug developed to treat narcolepsy and sleep apnea, but is used off-label as a study drug. It’s main mechanism is unknown, but it’s a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, which means it can make you motivated and energetic by keeping your dopamine high. I wrote an article explaining it in more depth before, which you can read here. Where can you buy it? https://www.afinilexpress.com/
– Whiskey, I bet you’re surprised to see this here. Your mileage may vary depending on your physiology. I wrote whiskey and not alcohol because not all alcohol has the same effect. Wine and beer tend to send you to sleep, whereas whiskey acts as a stimulant. Now it is not my wish to encourage alcoholism, however, what works, works. If you feel lifeless, a glass of whiskey or two could turn your day around and have you kicking. If you drink alcohol with any degree of regularity, be smart and take a liver protector with it. You can take NAC, or the far more powerful, but more expensive TUDCA.
– Black coffee with grass fed butter and MCT oil in it. Grass fed butter is recommended for the omega 3 (most people don’t get enough). This concoction gives a massive energy boost, and is known informally as “bulletproof coffee.” Get the darkest coffee you can get your hands on for extra strength.
5.) In Closing / Relevant Reading:
I am not a doctor or nutritionist and do not claim to be, thus none of this constitutes medical advice and you should take everything I’ve said with a pinch of salt.
I have not identified absolutely everything that could cause fatigue, merely a handful of things. The information here is comprehensive, but not exhaustive. If anyone has additional suggestions, I’d be more than happy to hear them in the comments. I hope the advice given proves itself useful. Until next time!
PS: before I forget to mention it, check out the latest podcast I did with Donovan over at The Sharpe Reality. We had a blast!
Yours,
IM
Blog:
Champion’s Mentality
How To Be Happy
Monk Mode
Products:
B vitamin complex – can help with fatigue
Vitamin D3 – can help with fatigue
NAC – liver protectant/detoxifier
TUDCA – potent liver protectant/detoxifier
MCT oil – ingredient in “bulletproof” coffee
Modafinil – wakefulness drug
Book(s):
The Obesity Code – despite the name, it’s essentially a book on fasting.
Starting with a Shatner quote is the way to go. Been going through the archives, 50 shades of red was a goldmine. Very comprehensive posts on here, I like it a lot.
Thanks Damien, enjoy the blog!
What do you think of penauts? Heard they were good for T-Levels.
Never tried them. Tim Ferris claims 4 Brazil Nuts a day will increase T.
Great read, fasting in particular. Interesting to see that more blood flows to brain with less digestive activity. I’ve read you get more energy after long periods of not eating due to hunter gatherer instincts/necessities to hunt more food. Evolutionary basis?
Yes, your body jacks up energy to help you hunt down an animal to eat and kill. If this mechanism was not present, our ancestors would’ve died as soon as they hadn’t eaten for a few days. Humans can go without food for an impressively long period of time. One man, under medical supervision, ate nothing for over 40 days (this is mentioned in the book on fasting I recommended!)
I felt tired and Im’s post came up at the right time – good timing.
Glad to have been of service!
I actually think tiredness, lack of energy, depression, anxiety, etc. are the cause and effect of being a “loser” and having low self esteem. A vicious circle. It’s good to hear solutions rather than being called lazy and self indulgent, or being told to just accept it.
Yeah anyone can be a winner with optimised health. It’s the first and final step. Depression and anxiety are practically non-existent in high testosterone men, these feelings/ways of being are classic psychological symptoms of low testosterone. Men are more affected by their hormones mentally than they realise, but when you know what’s up, you can fix it and start killing it!
Yeah I think my hormones are a right mess and have been for a long time. I’ve started to change my diet and lifestyle. Maybe something as cutting down/cutting out sugar might make a big difference. I have heard that.
It’s always worth reducing sugar consumption, but if you don’t see a change you’ll need to take more drastic steps to improve your energy levels.
IM i may have some important developments over the next few days, about a legit physician for those of us in the UK who is dishing out T in the correct doses and using the correct methods.
I found him by reading Jay Campbells book on T then contacting Jay directly who put me in contact with someone in UK who can help.
Cant say for sure yet without visiting him myself for which i have an appointment booked, but early signs are looking good.
Interesting. Where is he based? Assuming it’s London. If you’re not local to him, you’ll end up doing your own injections as a 1-2x per week commute will be too much hassle, and once every 2 weeks is too infrequent.
Actually clinic is based outside London up in Doncaster, so your avoiding the London Prices, only £160 for a full appointmemt and blood Test which is relatively mild compared to down here in big smoke. Yea downside is your self medicating as my understanding is its sent through the post each month or so.
Im reserving judgement until ive being their myself, but the source who gave me details swears by him that hes legit, but well see, ill keep you updated.
Yes, keep me posted! Does he only treat hypogonadism or does he practice preventative/optimising medicine? If you can get pharma grade T on a decent protocol medically sanctioned with prescription and all, that’s excellent.
IM, got some fantastic news regarding TRT in the UK that you will find very interesting and just might be the answer that youve being looking for. Is their a way to PM you? as its a fair ammount of info to digest and you may have questions once a tell you the info.
Cheers
Excellent. Sounds exciting! You can email me the details illimitableman [at] gmail or you can email me your twitter name and I’ll DM you on there.
on that Chekd website it says they perform blood test, would you count that as an independent lab or do you think there’s a potential conflict of interest trusting them wholly?
great article btw, shit like when I get the urge, and eventually give into the urge to take midday naps on my ‘get shit done days’ really bother me.
The only conflict of interest possible is you having very high testosterone and them trying to sell it to you anyway. If you know how to read your own blood work however, this isn’t a problem. If I was in America I’d give them a shot.
Great article…insightful and actionable. Well done!
I think adding a few sentences on compulsive masturbation and pornography might have been a good idea.
Try jerking off 5 times a day every day for months (with maybe a day of rest here and there) and tell me what you think. Of course those 5 masturbations must be done while watching porn. You must edge for about one hour per masturbation. That’s how I concluded that wasting too much semen can be harmful and deplete oneself of his energy.
You also have things like mental disorders like depression.
Your article was great but like you said yourself there is enough to say for a part. 2!!!! 😀
Thank you for this. I often get daytime drowsiness rather than physical tiredness. I usually take a nap when it’s bad, which usually helps but I’ve always been envious of those who don’t feel the need to take a nap and can go all day long.
This is a great post, IM.
Health is hugely connected to mental wellness and thus success. The problem is our medical system is focused on dealing with symptoms and not the root cause. Also, if you suggest something like RT3 or TPOAb to our doctors, they just shoot you down as if you are a weirdo and ignore your pleas. I have lost complete faith in western medicine and realized that we are better off with Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Chinese Medicine.
Just in case you didn’t know and if you can spend the money (~$400), the Urine Organic Acids test is one of the best tests you can do (I can also suggest a lab but don’t want anyone to think that I am doing promotion here). It gives you information regarding almost every important process in your body right from digestion to neurotransmitters and detox. Though its a bit difficult to understand the results if you don’t have a skilled doctor, I am pretty sure you will find all the information needed to interpret the results since you read a lot.
Big Fan of your blog!
Yes, doctors don’t trust us to research our own healthcare “don’t believe everything you read on the internet!”, yet they don’t give us the best tests and treatments possible. Shit, sometimes they flat out refuse to test. I’m assuming this lab doesn’t just test one thing and will analyse blood samples for whatever they’re instructed to analyse. Feel free to share the lab!
“I’m assuming this lab doesn’t just test one thing and will analyse blood samples for whatever they’re instructed to analyse.”
Most likely. Most test can be done independently by the patient, some not. It depends on the lab and the rules set by the FDA of your country whether a person can do an independent test or if he needs a doctor’s letter for it.
There are a few “Specialty Labs” that will do these sort of testing. Each lab can have its own panel (Analytes) regarding a certain test.
Here is a list of a few of these Specialty labs you can go to:
https://www.directlabs.com/drmaxwell/OrderTests/SpecialtyLabs/tabid/12980/language/en-US/Default.aspx.
Out of these Genova, Doctor’s Data and Biohealth offer the most accurate results.
Great Plains Laboratory is another reputed lab but its not mentioned in the list.
There are 2 test that everyone should do if they have health problems, the first one is the Urine Organic acids test (the one I talked about in the above comment) and the second one is the Comprehensive Stool analysis (Hippocrates said that all diseases begin in the gut). Many labs offer these two tests. Genova (test name – Organix Comprehensive Profile) gives the most accurate results of Urine Organic Acids test and Doctor’s Data (test name – Comprehensive Stool Analysis with parasitology x3) gives the most accurate results of Stool analysis test.
If you think you have Gluten problems then Cyrex labs (test name – Cyrex Array 3) offers the best Gluten sensitivity test. I my opinion its much better to eliminate gluten (wheat, rye, barley, spelt and kamut) even if you don’t have any symptoms rather than depend on tests.
If these test panels aren’t available in your country, then some of the above labs offer the facility for you to ship your samples to the lab (to U.S.A) for testing and will email back the results.
Another important test that chronically sick people should do is the Methylation test. Methylation is a very important process of the body which regulates the neurotransmitters, ATP production, detox, formation of new cells and the immune system. Methylation is a very complicated process and so its better that you work with a Methylation expert and do the testing according to his suggestions or else you might end up wasting thousands of dollars if you are on your own. If you can’t find an expert than your only option is to read a lot and figure it out yourself.
I hope this helps.
There’s a lot to think about here. Thanks for the great comment!
I just want to thank you for your work. This article gave me the motivation to not hide away in my house today. I needed to read this.
Thanks dude. I guess in a way, you are helping people in a very practical sense. Isn’t that a measure of virtue?
Going for walks is great for the soul, highly recommend it. Preferably by nature, in a forest, by the sea, up a hill, that kind of thing.
I went through the steps of getting clinical grade T for injection, my only concern is that if I take the exogenous T, that would inhibit my natural growth if I made better lifestyle choices.
My T level total is at 200. A lot of that low T may stem from excess weight and poor diet. I’ve taken HCG which tells your own testes to make T and that worked even more powerfully then exogenous T. Which told me I have the abilities if I had the energy to make my own. The only catch is you can’t take hcg more then 10 days without becoming fully dependent.
I would like to do HGH because that wouldn’t ruin my natural levels of T but I can’t find it anywhere. What would you recommend I do?
-Take exogenous T in cycles and inhibit my own natural production.
-Take hcg and then become dependent for life
-Go natural and create my own (it’s hard with low energy I’ve tried for 3 years)
Fly to Mexico every week and find dirty hgh to inject.
Or something you have in mind.
Thanks and I feel stuck.
If HCG monotherapy boosts your T more than exogenous T, then it makes sense for you to be injecting that. If you take it in conjunction with exo-T, it’ll preserve fertility and boost levels a bit higher. Anything that can boost T externally is going to shut you down. You can take clomid if you ever get off to jump start your natural production (don’t see a reason why you’d want to with a natty level as low as 200 tho – absolutely no reason to ever come off!)
If your natural levels suck and you’re injecting, you’re injecting for life whether you like it or not. If you need to come off and are afraid you can’t produce your own testosterone anymore, that’s not the case, the hypothalamic pituiary gonadal axis (HPTA) will restart, but it takes time. Clomid will help speed the process up. I don’t think lifestyle changes will make you high T. If you’re as low as 200, maybe, just maybe, you could hit 600 naturally from lifting, eating right, losing weight, and whatever. So all that work – and you’re 600. That’s nothing special.
If I was you, I’d do both the exo-T and the HCG in conjunction and never look back. FYI: exo-T will increase your muscle mass and shed your body fat even if you don’t work out. Takes months to start seeing the effect, but it does this. Within a year, you’ll see massive changes to your body. Effects obviously stack if you workout (you’ll gain even more muscle and lose even more fat).
“So all that work – and you’re 600. That’s nothing special.”
Perhaps it’s narcissism but I believe my natty levels can jump from the 200 range to 1000 with that work. Maybe I don’t understand hormones that well. But you’ve helped me get unstuck and make a conclusion:
2 weeks of Monk Mode -full health T-boosting commitment and lifestyle changes then I will test my blood work at 8am. If my low T of 200 can surpass 500 naturally then I will stay course, otherwise I will actually follow your opinion and supplement permanently, I’m just curious as to whether I should cycle or take it continuous IF it comes to that point. My healthy fit cousin’s natty T is 400 and he lifts every day almost. Same age, young. 20s
Oh, and Thank you, no homo.
400 for a 20 year old is way too low. He has the T of a 55 year old man. 200 is the T of a 90 year old man. Young men such as yourselves should be 700+ easily. It’s good your cousin doesn’t get tired, but 400 for a 20 year old is just not acceptable. As he gets older, that will drop. What will it be at 30? 300? And at 40? 200? Terrible. Most men will never get to 1000 naturally. Good luck whatever you do.
everything lower than 700 is shit, I had 602 at 26 and it was even not enough, my father at 53 had 430 and it was not enough, we both are on trt to be optimal. The point is not in range, the point is to be as optimal as possible
Update: I got my bloodwork done again after 3 month cycles, so quarterly. Testosterone went up to 323 my/dl after 1st 3 months of natty and after the second 3 months natty phase I was at 270my/dl. So all those months and work for such insignificant gains.
I’m starting a small trt and ketogenic cycle now. I will compare the results but I already feel a difference with the fasting. I was wrong and overestimated my natural abilities, which I feel is inhibited by pesticides, plastics and other things put in and on us daily.
For many, the most effective method of self-improvement would involve something helping us up whilst we are kicked down, even if it is temporary until we can stand firmly on our own. It is a path to the Übermensch and I will admit that I was wrong for ever thinking that these methods are cheating. That is a foolish and weak way of looking at improvement.
‘The man is something to be overcome. What have you done to overcome it?’
Thank You for having the wisdom I needed IM. Dark and light.
I can confirm that, as a man, finding a doctor to take your hormone levels seriously is an extremely difficult task. I ended getting my own labs (hint: Spectracell) and just like in the article all the drs I have seen so for (GP, urologist, endocrinologist) just look at total T and are like “you’re fine”.
I. am. not. fine. They ignore my symptoms. They ignore other markers (profoundly out of range SHBG, profoundly low DHEA, low Androstenedione, low Free T, and elevated Prolactin). They should no intellectual curiosity about what all that means.
From my research I am thinking now that it is actually pointing to my Andrenal system, and will have to run those tests myself. I wish I could find a competent physician that would listen to me.
What’s your take on saturated fat and dietary cholesterol intake in relation to testosterone?
Considering cholesterol is the building block of all sex hormones, wouldn’t an increased consumption elevate one’s levels?
Yes, it would. Eat 4 eggs (WITH THE YOLKS) before you go to bed.
To any smart man scouring the comments for more knowledge because you’re zapped-out-of-your mind tired all the time: please, for the love of god, go get a sleep study and get checked for sleep apnea.
You might not even feel “tired”-tired if you’ve been living with it for as long as I have been. Apnea is actually way more common than is reported because so many people live with it and have no idea they’re even suffering from it.
IM’s article describes the mindstate perfectly: intelligent as fuck, but unable to act on that intelligence (…because all your body wants to do is GET SOME REAL SLEEP). You sense that something is wrong… but you can’t put your finger on it. Nothing you do seems to work. Everything takes you way longer than it should. You can’t seem to keep up with other people no matter how hard you try. You always seem to backslide. If not immediately, then eventually.
Common tells: dry mouth when you wake up; grinding your teeth during the night; waking up with a pounding headache; sleeping more than 9 hours and still feeling like you need more sleep. There’s more, but I’ll keep it brief.
There’s also many causes, meaning there’s various solutions ranging from cheap mouthguards (look up “Tongue Retaining Devices” (TRDs) and “Mandibular Adjustment Devices” (MADs) which keep your tongue out of your airway), to CPAP machines, all the way through to surgery. (You may have issues with your airways, nasal passages, or jaw placement).
Often it’s as simple as a $50 TRD or MAD (do your research/try a few different ones to find what suits you), surgery or expensive CPAP machine not required. But you’ll want to get the underlying cause looked at and/or fixed eventually.
Finally: chuck the stereotype of “old fat white guy has sleep apnea” in the trash.
Yes, having a “fat neck” and being overweight often contributes to sleep apnea. And it doesn’t help that most doctors put this top of the list, when it’s often a tongue/airway problem better solved by CPAP/TRDs/MADs.
But anybody can suffer from it – it doesn’t matter if you’re stick thin, never lift weights and can’t gain weight to save your life. (I know people this is true for and they have suffered apnea way worse than I have).
Please: Get a sleep study. Get checked for sleep apnea. It will literally save your life.
RD
Also, thank you for this post, IM.
Once I finally conquer the last remnants of my own apnea, I will be all over the T-boosting strats here. Much appreciated. RD
Best of luck bro!
Awesome article, IM. Thanks very much.
I took my first blood test a couple of months ago because I thought it was necessary to see if anything was up. Can you tell us what are the acceptable ranges for different nutrients that doctors are not telling us? My doctor told me I have high triglycerides and urea, although I was trying to decrease my carb and increase my fat, so I was quite confused.
That would be beyond the scope of my knowledge and I would not want to mislead you. I know the sex hormone related stuff best, and a bit about thyroid hormones (which as a set of overlapping hormones, probably have the most complex relationship vs other hormonal relationships.) Thyroid can even affect testosterone. Diabetes is easy to evaluate because it’s one metric, but I’m not a doctor, just a man that reads a lot, so unfortunately I can’t help you there!
Amazing article. This is the sort of thing I expect (and too often fail to see) from professional journalism, and here you are putting it out like this. Also, the other comments have even more good advice, all of it clearly not fluff. The fact that you checked sources for tests and resources around the world, not assuming where your audience was from and doing the legwork to help them, is just… Well done.
how often do you go fasting and would you recommend an ectomorph to practice it?
More dangerous for an ectomorph to practice it as you have little fat stores to use for energy and you’re probably trying to gain. I do it 2-3x a week. If I was you, I’d do it 1x a week and then eat like a mad man at the end of the fast.
Hello IM. Long time reader.
I had my T levels and Vit D tested about 2-3 months ago.
T levels: 700.
Vit D: 9. Took Vit D pills and 3 injections for it. Also lots of sunlight.
Now that really hasn’t changed anything for me yet. I’ll go get the other 4 Testosterone related test’s done now.
Thinking about energy after reading this article i started to notice some patterns. My energy levels dropped insanely since i hit puberty. I remember during 11-13 i use to be a baller, very charming, chick magnet (cause of high energy) and social. As soon as i hit puberty all of my energy went away. At the time i tried to reason it with being low confident and not being rich etc. With low energy came anxiety, social awkwardness and lots of movies on my bed throughout my teen-age.
And I’ve noticed this pattern in all of my siblings. Extremely energetic from 8-13. After puberty no energy. I’m 22. Siblings are 13 (m) 17 (f). Living the shitty life since then.
Would you have any idea what might be the cause of this? It surely looks genetic. Where do you think i can find the cause and the treatment for it. Mainstream search has not been of help as of yet.
Thank you for your content.
Not enough information to say what’s causing it. If the girl is also tired as well though, that’s interesting, as it suggests it may not be testosterone related. You might want to check for ME (Myalgic encephalomyelitis) and sleep apnea. The latter is more likely if you guys are obese or overweight, although I have known for a man of a healthy body weight who has it.
Get a 23andme.com genetic analysis done to see if they can pick out any heritable fatigue causing diseases from your genome. Other than that, google the shit out of “diseases that cause fatigue” – good luck!
I was lifting since 15 and boxing since 10, helthy lifestyle, didnt drink alcohol since 20, got checked my test (europe) at 26 and got 602 ng/dl, felt all low t symptoms since 20 tho, no energy etc., jumped on self administered trt and all symptoms are gone, impossible to have depression or strong anxiety. Recently added vitamine d3 and my mood is even better. Take care of yourself gentelmen
Is there a female edition of this? There is a low energy, but smart & rp woman that I know that has a lot of the energy problems you describe. It would be a bloody life miracle if she could solve it.
hi IM
i’m from a “poor country” too!!
please tell more about “pharma grade testosterone”
Go to your local pharmacy and ask if they have testosterone ethanate, chances are they’ll have it and sell you it. If not, try another pharmacy. As far as I know, it’s very easy to get hold of in India and Pakistan.
Use to be on your forum, and first one to mention WSP’s blog here, my other favorite blog. Have not read your blog in months, just due to the fact I try to limit consumption of being on the computer. Wanted to share what I have been up to. This self-improvement thing we go down is a rabbit hole, and I wanted to share the things I have been trying which are counter to both the mainstream, and the things you mentioned which is mostly the redpill/manosphere/self improvement community speak. I use to be on the whole low carb high fat keto this that band wagon, but if you look deeper there is a lot of profit to be made from the meat and dairy industry, which is loaded with more estrogen and omega 6s than ever. There is a big push on fish oil, since it is a by product of fish kill. Fish is high in mercury, PCBs, dioxin etc. I’m sure some will argue wild vs farming, grassfed vs non-grassfed etc. You can get plenty omega 3s from chia seeds and flaxseed. I use to buy into the whole soybean raises estrogen level bullshit, but it is simply not true at all. Any research studies we see surrounding any topic are almost always funded by some undisclosed party. With that said I have gone vegan, with vegetarian once a week. I always thought these people were crazy feminist libtards, but there is a reason the stigma is strong, so you will never give it a try and associate it with crazy people. Big corporate interests will also go out to pay independent bloggers to push certain agendas for certain products or lifestyle e.g. eat 12 eggs a day, eat more coconut oil, etc.. Ancedotal evidence is enough for me, research into blue zones to see where they live long live often passed 100, mostly plant based diet. I would suggest people try this, and contrary to popular belief, vegetarians and vegans have higher testosterone levels. If you can drop the ego and stereotypes situated with this diet, it will serve well. You can still be masculine and conservative in nature and be on a plant based diet and not be a Clinton loving hippy. Another aspect is accountability for fitness. I find if I have something to help me log progress I follow it better. I have since started using Strong Lifts 5×5 and Couch 2 5k because they have apps on the app store. I also use a Withings scale which monitors bodyweight over time to display on your phone. It may seem mentally impossible to comprehend how you can do strength training and running on a vegan diet, but in fact I am stronger on this diet more than ever. Your body will need less sleep overall since it spends less time digesting, and your mind will be more free as well. Also people do not realize cheese acts like an opiate, even though people are so quick to bring up sugar and dopamin. The cheese opioid, casomorphin was designed to force the calf to drink milk so it will survive hence cheese addictiveness. Sugar = dopamine Cheese = opioids. Fruit sugar is ok because it has fiber which slows down absorption unlike high fructose corn syrup. The carb myth that all carbs are bad is a myth. The olive oil and coconut oil is healthy is another scam too. Oilve oil was associated with the Meditteranean diet, but completely overlooked the fact that it played a small role. It was the plant based aspect of the diet, not the oil itself. I wish people would see past a lot of this. I do agree with fasting, I do 16 hour IF everyday. I have tried NoFap on and off for the past 4 years, it works, but just need to stick to it. I have been using a Pavlok watch which shocks you if you feel the urge to fap. You can also have it shock you to wake up, and shock you if you visit certain websites. Aversive conditioning therapy works quite well. There are reasons why both fasting and celibacy have been noted in many religions. I try not drink alcohol, since Trump and Putin do not either. Sometimes socially, only if it is needed business wise, but even then being sober is still better. I’ve been looking into biodynamic wines that have lower alcohol content, but its hard to find here in USA, much more popular in UK. Try Grenache wine which is what the Sardinians drink, highest in polyphenols. Maybe one glass a day with dinner max. Modern day wine is loaded with shit and higher alcohol content, do not drink it. I no longer take modafini, my baseline high from having no sugar, no cheese, no coffee, doing fasting, weight lifting, running, matcha green tea, tulsi tea, and NoFap is almost comparable to being on modafinil all the time. Im no longer constantly firing my dopamine (sugar and fapping), opiate (cheese), adrenalin/cortisol (coffee) all the time. There is a recovery withdrawl/depression stage with Modafinil, and sometimes the intensity is too strong it can get you agitated and off track. I use it for extreme emergencies at ultra low doses. Not disagreeing with what you have listed here, Modfinil, whiskey, as well as coffee all work, all three of them use to be my staple in college, just saying I have moved on and wanted to offer some newer perspectives instead of ones that are always parroted online. Meditation of course is great no need to repeat that. Spirituality is really great, there have been studies where the brain exhibits drug like effects in religious people. However, I have found this is like NoFap, the benefits are amazing at first, but wear off eventually. Also like meditation, NoFap, religion/spirituality require some time dedicated to it. Nonetheless the effects of each tiny lifestyle modification adds up. Oh the most important thing I forgot to mention. Living with a dark triad person or narcissist or sociopath will sap your energy levels. Typical suspects include a roomate, or even worse if you live with a NPD/BPD mom, girlfriend, or wife. Like a prisoner of war, they will break you. I swear out of all the things I mentioned, this is actually THE BIGGEST ONE. Your T-levels diet can be spot on, but if you are stuck in the clutches of these toxic type of people, you will fall into a learned helplessness, and you won’t even be aware of it or see it coming. Its like someone put you under hypnosis or slipped a pill in your drink. Just getting away from their toxic abuse is 80% of the cure of not feeling tired anymore, the other stuff make up the 20%. This will be the hardest one for people to do because you are locked in cycle of ups and downs so much you may actually think you are bipolar but you are not. You muster the energy to tell the abuser to fuck off, get a shitload of energy, but they work their way back in to break you down, and you start feeling tired again because you are fulfilling their needs, not yours. Meanwhile you think its because your not getting enough vitamins or diet is off etc. In my case my abuser tries to curb me from working out cause they know the power if gives, and they dont have the willpower to consistently workout. Working on breaking free, wish me luck. Sorry to ramble, hope this helps someone reading.On an ending note, I think IM you should write about defense against dark triads as opposed to just learning it.
Cant agree with you on keto. Carbs destroyed my health and the only thing that helped me was to go keto, it significantly reduced my autoimmune issues and heald my gut completely, feel awesome and healthier than ever. Just my experience. Everyone should find his own way to these things.
Some people get hypothyroidism from low carb diets, others feel absolutely amazing on them. It’s definitely a matter of “try everything and see what works for you” because there’s no one set path that’s going to work for everyone.
James, you didn’t mention anything about T levels…. I agree with some of the others, I have found powerful energy and restful sleep on organic meats. I’m sure I would be similar on certain vegetarian plans, but carbs like breads and starches really mess me up. Internally and externally. I suppose it correlates with your metabolic and genetic panels.
The only remaining concern I have over anything would be:
RECEPTOR DOWN REGULATION.
Is down regulation permanent? Desensitizing, is that something that will recover once off the nootropic or hormone? If so, I’m all in.
And this is a serious and final question I have over any suggestions of enhancements by IM!
Hello,
I just got my T-levels checked: 259 total, 2.74% free. I’m an 18 years old male.
The other values were within range.
Thank you so much, I can finally get the help I need to succeed!
Cheers
Holy crap dude. That’s terrible. It’s fucking wonderful you’ve caught this as young as you have, it will save you many years of depression and existential pain and instead turn that otherwise time of hell into winning, succeeding and getting shit done. Here’s to a great future!
Great article. I went ahead and had a full hormone panel done after reading this. I’m 38 and very active (lift, bjj, box, and cardio 6 days per week) but have been feeling rundown and not myself mentally and physically in the last year. I’ve been doing everything right in terms of fitness, nutrition, sleep, low stress, etc.
My results: TT 514 ng /dL
Free T: 12.4 pg/mL or 1.6%
Estradiol (sensitive): 23.1 ng/dL
SHGB: 49.1 nmol/L
Albumin: 4.3 g/dL
Prolactin: 14.0 ng/mL
So it seems that while my total T isn’t terribly low most of it is bound up. I’m in Canada so I’m thinking it’s going to be a real struggle to pitch this to a doctor.
My question is that since you were in a similar situation as far as TT # but also lower free T would you say that there is a drastic difference in how you feel now? Let’s say TT at 1000 ng/dL with more free T. Is it a night and day difference?
Night and day difference without a shadow of doubt.
Appreciate the response IM. I am about to embark on a testosterone journey. Will report back.
All the best.
Hi I did a general Blood Test [free] and I could only test my Overall Testosterone which is 20.93 NMOL/L.
Should I also do a test for SHBG, Albumin, Estrogen/Estradiol, and Prolactin or that is enough for me?
Need the other stuff done. The least important is albumin and prolactin, if you want to save money. But estrogen and SHBG are vital.
Hi IM
This article motivated me to check my blood on the hormones you recommended after recently falling into a deep sadness and feeling rather lethargic. Your notes on not having energy to socialize also felt relevant to my situation.
Got my results back and displayed that my total testosterone was 654 ng/L, which is certainly below average/optimum. Even worse, my free testosterone was 0.35%!
This may explain not only why I don’t feel motivated to socialize all the time (aside from my introvertness), but also why I feel sad and indecisive sometimes.
Nonetheless, knowing the results I can now work on improving it. I’m starting to do my research to fully understand testosterone and the role it plays in a man’s life.
You certainly have, with this article, influenced the rest of my life.
Thank you.
IM, I want to thank you for this post. Amazingly helpful article.
I’m pushing 40 and always felt a lack of energy, fatigue or anxiety in last few years or so. I just didn’t make a connection of these traits to harmone profiling. Well just got my blood stuff done, and it seems I’m on the borderline. On to the results:
Total T: 715 ng/dL
SHBG: 51.06 nmol/L
Albumin: 3.8 g/dL
E2/Oestradiol: 57.42 pg/mL
Prolactin: 9.00 ng/mL
Free T: 1.79 % (12.8 ng/dL)
Bioavailable T: 37.3 % (267 ng/dL)
What’s your take on these numbers – anything you’d recommend.
Given the ageing process, the numbers will go down. I’m visiting a poor country soon and so it’s a chance to grab some testosterone enanthate/decancate OTC along the way.
Your Total T is pretty decent (above average for your age), but you have high SHBG and high estrogen. The higher your estrogen, the higher your SHBG. SHBG binds to both testosterone and estrogen, and the presence of estrogen causes the body to make more SHBG, so an elevated estrogen level leads to the increase of SHBG. But SHBG has a greater affinity for testosterone than estrogen, so effectively, your free testosterone decreases as your estrogen level increases. Your free T would be higher (and you’d feel better) if your estrogen was lower. Your estrogen is 57. You want it to be around 15-25.
Having higher estrogen and lower free testosterone promotes fat gain, which then promotes greater aromatisation of testosterone into estrogen, leading to lower testosterone and free testosterone and higher estrogen in an endless negative feedback loop. You’re not quite there yet, as your T is decent and your free T is only slightly beneath average, but the presence of high estrogen alone is enough cause to fatigue as well as erectile issues (no morning wood, weaker erections when stimulated etc.) I would not recommend TRT to you out of the gate, as your T level is decent, but I would look at decreasing your estrogen, which would in turn lower your SHBG and subsequently increase your free testosterone. More free testosterone and less estrogen will do wonders for your vitality.
To put it more simply: your estrogen level is too high, lower it, and you should feel better. An aromatase inhibitor protocol would be the best course of action for this purpose, but it will take you some time to find the right milligram dose and frequency to ensure you keep your estrogen levels in a place where you feel good most of the time (you don’t want to completely crash your estrogen levels, as this can also cause fatigue).
Best of luck.
IM. Wow, thank you very much for taking the time to explain the testosterone-SHBG-oestrogen cycle!
I found pharma-grade* aromatase inhibitors (aka oestrogen blockers) that prevent increased oestrogen cycling with free testosterone; Arimidex, Femara, etc.
Should I meet my GP to have them prescribed? I don’t think it would work.
Also, it turns out these drugs are prescribed mostly to women for breast cancer treatments. Oddly enough, I can’t seem to find any information about prescribing them to men for lowering oestrogen levels!
Any reasons for that?
Maybe it’s the common medical practice not giving a damn about men’s health as you’d described in your post! I’ll get hold of these drugs and try to find my optimal dosage.
Thanks again, IM
*I believe it’s better to get pharma-grade products. As usual, I noticed a bunch of expensive supplement bullshit crap pills claiming to perform miracles in lowering oestrogen levels; stay away from them!
Aromatase inhibitors were intended to treat breast cancer in women, so that the cancerous tumours are deprived the estrogen they need to grow any further. They are used off-label (as in, the medical establishment does not approve of them for this use) to reduce estrogen in men, and they are effective for this purpose. The fact they are not recommended by the medical establishment for estrogen reduction in hypogonadal/high estrogen men is a matter of politics, not medical efficacy. Most cutting edge men’s health clinics in the US prescribe aromtase inhibitors for the management of estrogen within their patients.
Any updates on what you’ve done to decrease SBGH I have almost identical blood test results. Thanks dude.
HI I.M, how you keeping? Please would you pass judgement on my test results, I had a testosterone test done after reading your article and keep coming back to it. One of my favourite of your posts and one I keep coming back to.
I am 35 going on 36 years old, I have been masturbating way too much for over 20years and a chronic weed smoker….therefore I feel that over the past 20 years not only have I been operating at sub-optimal levels I have been prone to depresssion and low energy:
My results as at 12 July 2017:
Serum 25-HO vit D3 level (JVMM) normal 81 30-250 nmol/L
Serum Testosterone (JVMM) (Free T- I think) : 25.8 nmol/L the recommended ranges are from 11.40- 27.90 nmol/L
SHGB: I could’t find this anywhere on my test- would it come under another name
Serum Albumin: 49 g/L the recommended ranges are from 35-50 g/L
Serum Prolactin: 270 miu/L the recommended ranges are from 86-24 miu/L
I notice that my Prolactin and Albumin levels are both high….any thoughts?
Since I had my test done I have been going nofap, I have done 16 days so far and finds that its helping me to start to kill it so good so far…..on the other hand I would really like to understand my test results as my GP explained them however somewhat briefly….and said those no concern for high prolactin levels, however after reading your blog I would suspect the high levels of albumin and prolactin have been affecting my energy levels.
Much Appreciated I.M
What about exercise? Surely weight training and regular running enhance energy and T levels?
While this is a very good and accurate read, nutrition wise it cane be improved a lot;
Vitamin D3 should never be taken without K2, it will clog up your blood vessels instead of pushing that extra calcium into the bones without it and cause you to feel dull
Zinc (15-50 mg daily) is the most important mineral for optimal testosterone. Increased copper intake (if you drink tap water) will deplete your Zinc levels and also make you less of a man – estrogen is bound to copper. Shooting a nut will decrease your zinc levels, drinking as well.
Magnesium (200-500 mg daily), increases testosterone indirectly because it improves sleep
None of these vitamins and minerals matters if your gut isn’t in check which it probably isn’t if you’re reading this.
Your gut is messed up if;
you ever did antibiotics, especially for a long time – probiotics don’t make up for it as quickly as doctors would think
you drink tap water, chlorine kills your gut bacteria – get a water filter
you were ever fat or have diabetes / insulin issues
you ever had a fungal outbreak of any sort (acne / candida / etc)
you are gluten intolerant
you are lactose intolerant
you eat your food warm
Probiotics should be supplemented constantly, not only during / after a course of antibiotics. Drink your kefir and eat your sauerkraut religiously, it will change your life.
If you are taking all the supplements above and not feeling a huge change in your body, you need to try this out for a few weeks (with supplements above);
– drink a liter of kefir throughout the day for 2 weeks, one glass after each meal, don’t heat your kefir or drink it with hot food
– eat some sauerkraut
– get a good probiotic with at least 1B bacteria and drink it with kefir
If you shit your pants, throw up or anything else happens to signal your body isn’t liking this when you start, it means your gut is a mess. Keep doing it for 2 weeks.
What would you recommend to someone who’s just been tested with a fasting blood glucose level of 100 mg/dL (close to pre-diabetes). In terms of lifestyle change, nutrition, to prevent development of future diabetis and to raise energy levels:
– Intermittent Fasting (already doing it for 4 months)?
– Low-carb (lowered my carbs intake under 200g per day and will try to have minimal added sugar intake)?
Thanks.
I’m struggling with low energy at times, also cold hands and cold feet. I also have this irresistible craving for carbs, it’s like the craving never stops, even when I’m full I just want to keep on eating carbs.
I’ve been doing a lot of work on the mental side of things and I’m noticing that a lot of these issues came from suppressed emotions. However the side effects still come and go, for example, today I feel fine, but yesterday I felt emotionally drained – fatigued.
Thanks for your advice, I will continue working on myself. 🙂
I’ve been on TRT for 6 months now. Right now: TT=944, FT=37, E2=28, SHBG=26.8. Prlactin=18.3. I still feel like shit. Doctor prescribed me DHEA and Armour thyroid.
Hey IM,
Thanks a ton for this resource. I used to be fucking tired all the time. I’ve realized it’s up to me now to take control of my life. I have ordered the supplements, started fasting, low carb diet and regular exercising.
Will update on how it goes.
Best of luck! Hope it goes well!
Been exactly 1 month since I stopped all proccessed food, carbohydrates, starting taking supplements, fasting, working out. Life’s never been better. It’s like I’m on MDMA all the fucking time. Too good to be true. I can work from morning 10 to night 2 like a G. Thank you for unfucking my life.
I am surprised that I didn’t find sports as one of the solution to have more energy. I found it works really well for me.
Every time I find myself depressed and tired I have a hard time to fight it, probably because of bad hormonal balance.
But there is no feeling as good and powerful as after the session of training wether it is regular gym, judo, running or dancing. Anything physical.
I believe physical activity is the easiest way to step towards your hormonal balance. Even though I don’t have any data to back it up, It undoubtedly works for me every time.
The link to the podcast you posted is broken.
Hello. I find your article very interesting. Here I share the results of my hormonal test. I would really appreciate your feedback about it.
Albumin: 3.73 g/L
Prolactin: 14.49 ng/ml
Estradiol: 22.21 pg/ml
Total Testosterone: 9.68 ng/ml
Free Testosterone: 17.20 pg/ml
SHBG: 75 nmol/L
HbA1c: 5.30% (lab reference range: 4.20 – 5.60)
I’ve gotten to your article because I’ve been feeling tired and unmotivated for a long time in my life. I am full introvert and also have difficulty to deal with social situations and the opposite sex. I am 33 years old if you think it is useful to know. Thanks in advance.
Hi. Thanks for your article. I will share my test results with you, so I would really appreciate your feedback about it.
Albumin: 3.73 g/L
Prolactin: 14.49 ng/ml
Estradiol: 22.21 pg/ml
Total Testosterone: 9.68 ng/ml
Free Testosterone: 17.20 pg/ml
SHBG: 75 nmol/L
HbA1c: 5.30% (Lab reference range: 4.20 – 5.60)
Thanks for your attention. I really liked your article because I’ve been feeling tired and unmotivated for a long time. In addition, I’ve always found it difficult to deal with social situations and the opposite sex. I am 33 years old if you think it is useful to know.
Been battling fatigue for 20+ years – switched over to mushroom coffee and feel amazing