Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

YOU PROBABLY HEAR it a lot, casually thrown around in your gym, the fact that, “Weight loss is all about revving up the metabolism”. Your body’s physical shape is very closely connected to its rate of metabolism, which simply refers to all of the body’s physical and chemical processes that use energy.

“It’s calculated as a basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the number of calories your body burns per day at rest,” says clinical nutritionist, Dr Nupur J Krishnan. Metabolism varies vastly from person to person, depending on factors like age, sex and weight.

If you starve yourself in the morning, the signal that your body gets is that food supplies are low and whatever meal comes in next has to be stored as fat. Fruits contain fibre that is essential for the metabolic process.

”The normal BMR range is 1,200-1,300 for women and 1,400-1,600 for men. People with a sluggish metabolism may find it difficult to lose weight,” adds Dr Krishnan.

If your doctor finds your metabolism slower than normal and you’re having a hard time losing weight, here are 10 tips from the pros on how to speed up the burner.

Build muscle
The body burns more calories in maintaining muscle tissue than it does with fat. Regular cardiovascular exercise that trims fat, and weight training that helps build muscle mass will definitely rev up your metabolism.

“Weight training is the best way to raise your metabolic rate and burn more calories. It adds to your overall weight loss – the more lean muscle tissue there is, the more calories the body burns at rest,” says fitness expert Leena Mogre.

“Weight training causes muscles to breakdown and then rebuild themselves better when you’re resting, which increases muscle mass, which in turn increases metabolic rate,” says Ritesh Patil, fitness consultant and operations manager, Sykz Gym.

Aerobic exercise
Any form of cardiovascular exercise raises the body’s BMR for over an hour or so after the workout. “People with very sluggish metabolism are often advised more cardiovascular workouts to increase their rate of burn,” says Mogre.

Small, frequent meals
You stimulate your metabolism every time you eat. So six small meals a day will actually help you burn more calories than three large ones. The body utilises multiple packets of nutrients in smaller meals much better than it does a single load of nutrients from one large meal.

“Keeping up this eating pattern will boost your BMR in the long run,” says Mogre.

Never skip breakfast
It’s the first meal of the day when you literally break your fast after eight to 10 hours of sleep, so a good breakfast provides a critical energy surge as you begin your day.

“A proper breakfast also keeps your energy levels high throughout the day,” says Anjum Shaikh, chief nutritionist, Sykz Gym.

Skipping breakfast could actually leave you piled with extra kilos of fat. “If you starve yourself in the morning, the signal that your body gets is that food supplies are low and whatever meal comes in next has to be stored as fat. Starving yourself for too long also leads to muscle breakdown,” says Mogre.

Don’t cut off carbohydrates
The first thing most of us do to lose weight is cut down on carbohydrate or starchy food.

Bread, pastries, pastas become off limits. “But drastically reducing carbohydrate intake can reduce the body’s metabolic rate. You have to eat enough carbohydrates to keep your metabolism high. And cutting carbohydrates totally is never a good idea,” says Shaikh.

Pack in the proteins Protein-rich foods like egg whites, chicken, fish, dal, and sprouts don’t directly cause your metabolism to shoot up. “But protein and calcium absorbed by the body through milk and milk products will help strengthen your bones, increase your lean body mass, and thus your BMR,” says Shaikh.

Managing thyroid trouble
Improper functioning of the thyroid gland, which manages your body’s metabolism, can slow down weight loss. “People with hypothyroidism don’t produce enough thyroid hormone, which leaves them with a slow metabolism. But it’s not impossible for them to increase their metabolism,” says Dr Krishnan.

Eating right is critical. “Avoid foods like cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, turnip, broccoli, soyabeans and tofu. These are rich in goitrogens, a substance that interferes with the functioning of the thyroid gland. Those suffering from hypothyroidism should especially avoid these foods,” says Shaikh.

Drink lots of water
Water is directly involved in the metabolism process and the more you have of it, the higher your BMR. But that doesn’t mean indiscriminately gulping down 10-12 glasses per day. “It’s no longer a blanket rule applied to everyone. If you sit at a desk in an air-conditioned space, you don’t need 12 glasses of water a day, simply because there’s hardly any loss of water due to sweating.

Up to eight glasses a day is good enough to keep your metabolism running,” says Dr Krishnan.

Trim the trans fat
The reason is simple. Too much fat or oil intake increases the body’s fat percentage, which slows down metabolism. “Avoid junk food and oily snacks – they only make your system sluggish and lower your metabolism,” says Shaikh.

Metabolism boosters Complex carbohydrates and high-fibre vegetables and cereals burn more calories than simple carbohydrates and are more likely to get your metabolism going than a large serving of French fries.

“Eat lots of colored vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, red and yellow capsicum. These are rich in anti-oxidants and phytochemicals that help the fat burning process,” says Dr Krishnan.

Build Muscle Exercise Health News Nutrition

Doctors advice to have your testosterone levels checked if you have reduced levels of sexual desire or libido. You can replenish your depleting testosterone with injections, gels, pills or patches but these medical treatments and synthetic driugs do not come without adverse side effects which include acne, high cholesterol, shrunken testicles and liver damage.

The best alternative is to have an natural or herbal pill that does not have side effects and acts as an HGH releaser which helps your body to increase it’s own production of growth hormone. An increase in growth hormone not only raises testosterone production but also helps your body to reverse age effects significantly.

Men with borderline testosterone scores, can raise their levels through exercise and weight loss before going on testosterone therapy. And it might pay to start young. Since your testosterone declines at a steady rate, it’s conceivable that raising your hormone levels naturally in your 20s and 30s could help you maintain higher levels later on. Either way, the reward can be a stronger physique and better bedroom sessions than you’d otherwise deserve.

Below are 13 tips designed to get your juice up — safely.

Get Rid of the Flopping Belly

Excess body fat is likely to elevate your estrogen levels which affects testosterone negatively. Though 2 or 3 extra pounds do not matter and will not cause any change in hormone levels, the hormonal shift takes place if you are 30% over your ideal body weight. Unfortunately due to improper eating habits and lack of physical activity, this is fairly common now.

But Lose Only One Pound a Week

When you want to lose weight quickly, you probably starve yourself. One of the many reasons this stops working in your 30s, when your natural testosterone levels start dropping, is pretty simple: Cutting your calorie intake by more than 15 percent makes your brain think you’re starving, so it shuts down testosterone production to wait out the famine since it is functioned in a way that there’s no need to reproduce if you’re starving. Ironically, this dive in circulating testosterone stops you from burning body fat efficiently, so you’re actually thwarting your hard efforts to melt that tire off your gut.

Skip the Atkins Fad

Research suggests that eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet can cramp your testosterone levels. High amounts of dietary protein in your blood can eventually lower the amount of testosterone produced in your testes as observed in a study of 12 healthy, athletic men.

Your protein intake should be about 16 percent of your daily calories. So, if you’re the average 170-pound man who eats 2,900 calories a day, you should eat about 140 grams of protein daily, which is about the amount in two chicken breasts and a 6-ounce can of tuna.

Have Morning Sex

German scientists found that simply having an erection causes your circulating testosterone to rise significantly — and having one in the morning can goose your natural post-dawn testosterone surge. It’s a sure bet you’ll burn a little fat, too.

Stick With Tough Exercises

To beef up your testosterone levels, the bulk of your workout should involve “compound” weight-lifting exercises that train several large muscle groups, and not just one or two smaller muscles. For example, studies have shown that doing squats, bench presses or back rows increases testosterone more than doing biceps curls or triceps pushdowns, even though the effort may seem the same. This is why doing squats could help you build bigger biceps.

Make Nuts Your Midnight Snack

Nuts are good for your nuts. Research has found that men who ate diets rich in monounsaturated fat — the kind found in peanuts — had the highest testosterone levels.It’s not known why this occurs, but some scientists believe that monounsaturated fats have a direct effect on the testes. Nuts, olive oil, canola oil and peanut butter are good sources of monounsaturated fat.

Squeeze Out Five Repetitions per Set

Throwing around 5-pound dumbbells won’t help you effect a rise in testosterone. Start off by using a heavy weight that you can lift only five times. That weight is about 85 percent of your one-repetition maximum. A Finnish study found that this workload produced the greatest boosts in testosterone.

Do Three Sets of Each Weight-Lifting Movement

Researchers at Penn State determined that this fosters greater increases in testosterone than just one or two sets. Rest a full minute between sets, so you can regain enough strength to continue lifting at least 70 percent of your one-rep maximum during the second and third sets.

Rest Harder Than You Work Out

If you overtrain — meaning you don’t allow your body to recuperate adequately between training sessions — your circulating testosterone levels can plunge by as much as 40 percent, according to a study at the University of North Carolina. The symptoms of overtraining are hard to miss: irritability, insomnia, muscle shrinkage, joining the Reform Party. To avoid overtraining, make sure you sleep a full eight hours at night, and never stress the same muscles with weight-lifting movements two days in a row.

Drive Home Sober

To maintain a healthy testosterone count — and titanium erections — cut yourself off after three drinks. Binge drinking will kill your testosterone levels. Alcohol affects the endocrine system, causing your testes to stop producing the male hormone. That’s one reason drinking often causes you to go limp at the moment of truth.

Have a Sandwich at 3 p.m.

As any sensible woman knows, the way to put hair on a man’s chest is to fill his stomach. Your body needs a ready supply of calories to make testosterone, so regularly skipping meals or going for long stretches without eating can cause your levels of the hormone to plummet. Then again, that’s probably the warden’s plan.

Buy the Fried Tortilla Chips

If you want to raise your testosterone score, eat a diet that includes about 30 percent fat, and not much less. Your body needs dietary fat to produce testosterone, so eating like a vegetarian aerobics instructor will cause your testosterone levels to sink drastically. This is bad, unless you actually are a vegetarian aerobics instructor.

Stop Surfing for Porn at 2 a.m.

Sleeping less than seven to eight hours a night can screw up your circadian rhythm. That’s why it’s no wonder your testosterone levels are higher in the morning after a good night’s sleep. So if your work or social schedule keeps you stooped in perpetual jet lag, don’t be surprised if you stop craving sex. At least that’ll make it easier to stay out of bed.

Health News Mens Fitness Motivation Testosterone

This is a scary study – a major European study has found that a thick waist almost doubles the risk of premature death, showing there’s nothing lovely about love handles.

Importantly, the risk is similar even when body mass index (BMI) fell within normal range, according to the authors of the study of 359,000 people aged 51.9 on average, including 65.4 percent women, appearing in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The research found that excess fat stored around the middle of the body was a major health risk even when people are not considered obese or even overweight by statistical BMI standards.

In fact, each five centimetre increase in waist size increased the risk of death by 17 percent in men and 13 percent in women.

“The most important result of our study is the finding that not just being overweight, but also the distribution of body fat, affects the risk of premature death of each individual,” said Tobias Pischon, the lead author of the paper from the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbr�cke.

The data should encourage physicians to routinely measure patients’ waists as well as their BMI on routine office visits, according to the study carried out by the Imperial College London (GB), German Institute for Human Nutrition and other European participants.

“The good news is that you don’t need to take an expensive test and wait ages for the result to assess this aspect of your health – it costs virtually nothing to measure your waist and hip size,” said Elio Riboli, the European coordinator of the EPIC study from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Imperial College London.

“If you have a large waist, you probably need to increase the amount of exercise you do every day, avoid excessive alcohol consumption and improve your diet. This could make a huge difference in reducing your risk of an early death.”

Abs Workout Exercise Health News

I read that the glycemic index is overrated and that what we should really be paying attention to is glycemic load. What’s the difference?

The glycemic index is overrated. You should be paying attention to glycemic load. There’s a big difference. Here’s the scoop:

Glycemic index is a way of measuring the impact a given amount of carbohydrate has on your blood sugar, something you definitely want to know. But to do a fair comparison, they have to use a fixed amount. In the case of the glycemic index, it’s a standard 50 grams of carbohydrate.

Problem is, very few carbohydrate foods in real life are 50-gram portions.

See, if you go to a store to buy spices and there’s a spice that’s $500 a pound, that sure sounds like a lot of money. But if you’re only buying a half-teaspoon of the stuff, it’s pretty irrelevant. You want to know what you’re going to pay at the register, not necessarily what you’d pay if you bought a pound.

Similarly, you really don’t care what the impact of 50 grams is on your blood sugar; you care what the impact of the amount you’re actually eating is.

Glycemic load is a more sophisticated formula that takes into account the actual grams of carbs you’re eating — the portion size. The glycemic index of carrots is high, leading a lot of people to think you should never eat carrots, which is a dumb conclusion. Fact is, the average carrot has 3 grams of carbs. You’d have to eat like a giant rabbit to have a significant impact on your blood sugar.
The glycemic load of a carrot, on the other hand, is only 3, making it an extremely low-glycemic food — unless you’re drinking pure carrot juice or eating 13 carrots at a sitting.

Pasta, on the other hand, has a moderate glycemic index, but is almost never eaten in 50-gram portions. Factor in the portion size at a typical Olive Garden and your blood sugar will be on the roof, and stay there for a week. Not surprisingly, the glycemic load of pasta is very high.

The technical formula for glycemic load is GI (glycemic index), multiplied by the number of grams of carbohydrates in the portion, then divided by 100. Low glycemic load is between 1 and 10, medium is between 10 and 20, and anything over 20 is very high.

That said, remember that both glycemic index and glycemic load only refer to the food eaten alone. Add some fat or protein and the total impact goes down. And plenty of high-glycemic foods are good for you (say, carrot juice) while plenty of low-glycemic foods (fried donut holes) are not.

So take glycemic load into account, but don’t be a slave to it. It’s just one measurement to consider when planning a diet.

Incidentally, athletes in training actually can benefit from high-glycemic foods, especially when they’re training twice a day. Mrs. Smith with Metabolic Syndrome… not so much!

Health News Nutrition

If your water bottle travels with you everywhere, sip on this thought: Drinking water isn’t the only way to stay hydrated.
You can get a lot of the liquid you need from the food and beverages you eat and drink every day.

Food can significantly affect your daily fluid needs. In fact, you can obtain much of the liquid you need from the food and beverages (other than water) you eat and drink every day.

What you really need

Water is an important nutrient that composes 50 to 60 percent of your body weight, and it also helps transport other nutrients within the body. Yet because the body doesn’t store water, you have to replenish the supply. How much do you need? For years, we’ve been told to drink eight glasses of water a day for optimal health. But that one-size-fits-all prescription has given way to a more flexible approach. Health experts have found that fluid requirements vary from person to person, and for many of us, the best way to stay adequately hydrated is to use thirst as a guide.

Several factors influence your need for water, including climate, muscle mass, physical activity, and diet. (People who have more muscle need more water — that’s why men generally have higher fluid requirements than women.)

Food, often overlooked as a water source, can be a rich supply of fluid. On average, it provides 20 percent of the fluid we need — and far more if you choose water-rich fare. That translates to about two cups for the typical female and three cups for most men each day; most people require a total of roughly 11 to 15 cups of water daily, according to the Institute of Medicine.

Food aids hydration in other ways, too. Since sipping a beverage helps moisten and wash down food, eating encourages us to drink more liquid. That’s why we consume most of our beverages with meals. Food also provides minerals, like sodium and potassium, that help our bodies hold on to water, so the liquids we consume with — or in the form of — food are better retained than those we drink between meals.

Obviously, cooking affects a food’s moisture content.

“People don’t think about water as such, but it really is a major ingredient,” says food scientist Shirley Corriher, author of “CookWise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed.” “Water can be a vital part of a dish simply because it provides a medium for food to cook in without searing or burning.”

Just think about water’s critical role in preparing grains and starches such as pasta, couscous, rice, and hot cereals. When we cook these foods in boiling water, their starch granules soak up water, causing them to swell and soften (and become edible). This increases their fluid content as much as sixfold, transforming them from one of the driest foods to one of the wettest.

Cooking can make other foods lose small amounts of fluid.

“Meat is packed with water, and that water is retained in a network of proteins,” says Harold McGee, Ph.D., author of “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.” “But when you heat those proteins, they coagulate. That’s the equivalent of squeezing a sponge, so you force moisture out of the food.” Cooking meat causes it to release about 20 to 30 percent of its original water content.

But because foods like meat, poultry, and fish are inherently rich in water, they still contribute to our overall fluid needs, even when cooked. Consider a juicy sirloin steak. Raw, a four-ounce serving contains 2.5 ounces of water. After broiling, that steak supplies 2.2 ounces of water. Other foods are nearly immune to the effects of heat. For example, while vegetables often soften when cooked, they rarely loose a meaningful amount of water.

Caffeine considerations

You may have heard about the dehydrating effects of caffeine. But leading health authorities including the Institute of Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine say that’s a myth. While caffeine does signal our kidneys to rid our bodies of excess water, it does so for only a short time, so we still retain more fluid than we lose after sipping a caffeinated beverage.

The Institute of Medicine reports caffeinated beverages contribute to our daily water needs as much as noncaffeinated drinks. In a study published in 2007 in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, when researchers asked cyclists to bike for two-plus hours under hot, humid conditions, they found a caffeine-infused sports drink was as hydrating as a traditional sports drink.

Thirst or dehydration?

You’re thirsty. Does that mean you’re dehydrated? Not necessarily.

“Thirst kicks in when a person is approximately 1 percent dehydrated,” says Ann Grandjean, Ed.D., FACN, executive director of the Center for Human Nutrition in Omaha, Nebraska. “At two percent dehydration, thirst becomes more intense, and dry mouth occurs at three percent.” CookingLight.com: The benefits of water and how much you really need

Certainly, dehydration can make you thirsty. But true dehydration doesn’t occur until you’ve lost more than two percent of body weight. That’s about three pounds for a 150-pound woman. Dehydration makes blood more concentrated, causing sensors in the brain to signal the body to drink more. As we drink, our blood becomes more diluted and these signals subside. The bottom line: Thirst doesn’t always equal dehydration, but it does mean it’s time to drink up.

Health News Motivation

If you bulk co enzyme 10 trying to build up muscle or burn off the fat and your eating habits are not optimal… this letter is for you. It’s the 4 (four) Rules of Nutrition.

Normally I don’t like to use the word ‘rule’ as it sounds like I’m being an absolutist and it’s my way or the highway. That isn’t how I mean it at all. But generally speaking, if you aren’t doing these 4 things when it comes to nutrition, you will not succeed at your performance goals.

What exactly is a rule?

“A generalized statement that describes what is true in most or all cases” – Dictionary.com

For starters, I’ve been receiving a whole lot of emails recently from people who are desperate to build muscle quickly or to burn off some fat for an event (wedding comes to mind). These people don’t track what they eat and have no idea about what to eat, when to eat or why eating frequently would be something they would even want to do.

More often then not, when you mention frequent eating, the first response goes like, “There’s no way I can eat 5-6 big meals a day!”

Frankly, if you are not following these simple rules, it’s not really shocking you aren’t getting to where you want.

[Print this letter out NOW before you forget and for 2 days, monitor your own eating habits. If you are not following these rules, you have found a problem that you can easily solve without spending a dime.]

:: Nutrition Rule #1 ::

Always eat at least 5 times a day. Two or three meals simply isn’t enough. Two of the meals can be considered snacks as long as the nutrition ratios are correct as I’m about to describe in Rule 2.

Why is eating so frequently a must they ask?

* blood sugar levels will be controlled (you won’t be as famished as your friends who binge on anything in sight as they are starving*

* you will be feeding yourself protein throughout the entire day. This means you will be anabolic and supporting muscle growth (more muscle = leaner you). Your recovery will be better.

* body fat will not be stored but used as energy. By providing yourself with a steady flow of required calories thru the day, your body’s need to store it as fat will be reduced. Compared this to when you eat infrequently and your body detects this as a famine situation. At this point, too much of the food you consume is stored as fat.

:: Nutrition Rule #2 ::

In planning each of your daily meals (or snacks), a caloric ratio of approximately 1 part fat, 2 parts protein, and 3 parts carbohydrate is a good place to begin. What you will see in Rule 3 below, is this is just an estimate for average people. You can adjust this to fit your needs. Keep in mind, you do not want to eliminate the healthy fats from your diet.

This rule preaches consuming enough protein to support muscle growth and enough carbohydrates to ensure you have fuel for your workouts and you are able to recovery.

Low glycemic carbs are optimal for the choices in this stage. Remember that carbohydrates are your body’s preferred fuel source!

:: Nutrition Rule #3 ::

Ask yourself, “What am I going to be doing in the next hour?” If you won’t be active, then lower the amount of carbs you consume; if you will be training, then bump up the carbs you will consume so you’ll have the energy to train. Alter your carbohydrate intake depending on your anticipated activities.

Remember that low glycemic carbs are optimal for pre- workout consumption.

:: Nutrition Rule #4 ::

If you want to build muscle and lose fat at the same time? Pick a new goal.

Simply put:

Building muscle requires a calorie surplus.

Burning fat requires a calorie deficit.

As you can see, clearly the goals are in conflict. And while it’s true that beginners can do both (their bodies are easily changed) the rest of you will natural deanol bitartrate this an inefficient task.

It’s best to alternate periods of negative calorie balance with periods of positive calorie balance You’ll ultimately build more muscle and burn more fat if you simply pick a single goal.

:: Secret Nutrition Rule 5 ::

I’m not entirely sure I agree with this one but it does make realistic sense to the common person who has a job, maybe married with kids and can’t be a full time cook or simply doesn’t have the time to prepare foods.

This rule says that it’s almost impossible to get all of the nutrients your body needs to remain healthy and active from food alone; especially if you are on some sort of diet. Therefore, it is important to supplement your diet with vitamins, minerals and carefully selected supplements.

Let’s get real here (I fully expect fall-out from this statement)… I’m not preaching you HAVE to take supplements. In fact, many programs out there including my own do not require it any way shape or form. And if you can carefully select your foods, you will be just fine.

Personally I know of one bodybuilder who doesn’t take any supplements and is ripped to sheds and his workouts make me cry. He’s dedicated and proves every time he steps into the gym, natural, supplement-free bodybuilding is the way to go.

But it’s crazy not to at least mention the arguments for this secret nutrition rule because as a bodybuilder myself with a life and who’s occasionally time constrained, these next points happen to most of us.

There’s not a person who’s reading this letter now that hasn’t felt like, no matter how hard you try, no matter how good a cook you are, or where you buy your food:

* You cannot always eat 5-6 times a day

* There are instances when your body might need a certain substance in greater amounts then you and provide with food alone

* Soil depletion has left some foods less nutritious then you would expect. If you shop organic and are extremely careful in your selection, you might avoid this but for us big stores discount shoppers, an apple isn’t always an apple.

* Periods of high stress sometimes lead to higher nutrient needs without an increase in caloric needs.

:: Additional Tips ::

* Eliminate the junk food. Refined sugars and processed foods are usually higher in fats. Neither of these things will be beneficial to you. All these foods really do is promote a rise in your blood sugar level and then a swift decline. You’ll end up hungrier than before.

* Drink plenty of water a day. A really quick formula is to drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces. Drink water during the day in 15 minute increments; not all at once. It replaces water loss from exercise and keeps you hydrated. Your body is 55-75% water you know!

* Determine your daily protein needs. As you know, protein is required for muscle growth. By ensuring that you are getting enough protein all throughout the day, you will keep your nitrogen levels high and your body in a anabolic (growth and repair) state.

* Consume foods higher in fiber. Not only does fiber help lower your cholesterol but it helps lower the glycemic response of some meals and aids in efficient digestion.

* Increase your lean body weight thru resistance training. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. The more calories you burn, the leaner you can be. If you want to burn more fat then build more muscle. By having more muscle, you also strengthen joints, tendons, ligaments and bones for greater overall health. Building muscle is a primary goal of any program! Even people who want to burn fat should build muscle as it aids in doing exactly that.

Copyright 2008 Marc David

Health News Motivation Sexual Fitness

Testosterone is the principle male hormone and a decline in testosterone directly affects male libido. Testosterone levels can decline due to certain psychological and physical factors. However, it is possible to raise testosterone naturally through adopting a healthy lifestyle, good diet, regular exercise, less stress and natural supplements.

Studies indicate that you lose about 1% testosterone every year. Though the decline is harmless in the short term, but it is a cause of

* Obesity
* Brittle Bones
* Muscle Loss and
* Impotence

by the time you reach 60. The changes are slow but evident. Moreover, this decline begins after 30 and you on an average lose around 10% a decade. So by the time you are 40, the effects become more profound.

What is a cause of concern is that usually it goes undiagnosed until you visit your doctor with a telltale complaint: “I can’t get an erection.”

Doctors advice to have your testosterone levels checked if you have reduced levels of sexual desire or libido. You can replenish your depleting testosterone with injections, gels, pills or patches but these medical treatments and synthetic driugs do not come without adverse side effects which include acne, high cholesterol, shrunken testicles and liver damage.

The best alternative is to have an natural or herbal pill that does not have side effects and acts as an HGH releaser which helps your body to increase it’s own production of grwoth hormone. An increase in growth hormone not only raises testosterone production but also helps your body to reverse age effects significantly.

Men with borderline testosterone scores, can raise their levels through exercise and weight loss before going on testosterone therapy. And it might pay to start young. Since your testosterone declines at a steady rate, it’s conceivable that raising your hormone levels naturally in your 20s and 30s could help you maintain higher levels later on. Either way, the reward can be a stronger physique and better bedroom sessions than you’d otherwise deserve.

Below are 13 tips designed to get your juice up — safely.

Get Rid of the Flopping Belly

Excess body fat is likely to elevate your estrogen levels which affects testosterone negatively. Though 2 or 3 extra pounds do not matter and will not cause any change in hormone levels, the hormonal shift takes place if you are 30% over your ideal body weight. Unfortunately due to improper eating habits and lack of physical activity, this is fairly common now.

But Lose Only One Pound a Week

When you want to lose weight quickly, you probably starve yourself. One of the many reasons this stops working in your 30s, when your natural testosterone levels start dropping, is pretty simple: Cutting your calorie intake by more than 15 percent makes your brain think you’re starving, so it shuts down testosterone production to wait out the famine since it is functioned in a way that there’s no need to reproduce if you’re starving. Ironically, this dive in circulating testosterone stops you from burning body fat efficiently, so you’re actually thwarting your hard efforts to melt that tire off your gut.

Skip the Atkins Fad

Research suggests that eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet can cramp your testosterone levels. High amounts of dietary protein in your blood can eventually lower the amount of testosterone produced in your testes as observed in a study of 12 healthy, athletic men.

Your protein intake should be about 16 percent of your daily calories. So, if you’re the average 170-pound man who eats 2,900 calories a day, you should eat about 140 grams of protein daily, which is about the amount in two chicken breasts and a 6-ounce can of tuna.

Have Morning Sex

German scientists found that simply having an erection causes your circulating testosterone to rise significantly — and having one in the morning can goose your natural post-dawn testosterone surge. It’s a sure bet you’ll burn a little fat, too.

Stick With Tough Exercises

To beef up your testosterone levels, the bulk of your workout should involve “compound” weight-lifting exercises that train several large muscle groups, and not just one or two smaller muscles. For example, studies have shown that doing squats, bench presses or back rows increases testosterone more than doing biceps curls or triceps pushdowns, even though the effort may seem the same. This is why doing squats could help you build bigger biceps.

Make Nuts Your Midnight Snack

Nuts are good for your nuts. Research has found that men who ate diets rich in monounsaturated fat — the kind found in peanuts — had the highest testosterone levels.It’s not known why this occurs, but some scientists believe that monounsaturated fats have a direct effect on the testes. Nuts, olive oil, canola oil and peanut butter are good sources of monounsaturated fat.

Squeeze Out Five Repetitions per Set

Throwing around 5-pound dumbbells won’t help you effect a rise in testosterone. Start off by using a heavy weight that you can lift only five times. That weight is about 85 percent of your one-repetition maximum. A Finnish study found that this workload produced the greatest boosts in testosterone.

Do Three Sets of Each Weight-Lifting Movement

Researchers at Penn State determined that this fosters greater increases in testosterone than just one or two sets. Rest a full minute between sets, so you can regain enough strength to continue lifting at least 70 percent of your one-rep maximum during the second and third sets.

Rest Harder Than You Work Out

If you overtrain — meaning you don’t allow your body to recuperate adequately between training sessions — your circulating testosterone levels can plunge by as much as 40 percent, according to a study at the University of North Carolina. The symptoms of overtraining are hard to miss: irritability, insomnia, muscle shrinkage, joining the Reform Party. To avoid overtraining, make sure you sleep a full eight hours at night, and never stress the same muscles with weight-lifting movements two days in a row.

Drive Home Sober

To maintain a healthy testosterone count — and titanium erections — cut yourself off after three drinks. Binge drinking will kill your testosterone levels. Alcohol affects the endocrine system, causing your testes to stop producing the male hormone. That’s one reason drinking often causes you to go limp at the moment of truth.

Have a Sandwich at 3 p.m.

As any sensible woman knows, the way to put hair on a man’s chest is to fill his stomach. Your body needs a ready supply of calories to make testosterone, so regularly skipping meals or going for long stretches without eating can cause your levels of the hormone to plummet. Then again, that’s probably the warden’s plan.

Buy the Fried Tortilla Chips

If you want to raise your testosterone score, eat a diet that includes about 30 percent fat, and not much less. Your body needs dietary fat to produce testosterone, so eating like a vegetarian aerobics instructor will cause your testosterone levels to sink drastically. This is bad, unless you actually are a vegetarian aerobics instructor.

Stop Surfing for Porn at 2 a.m.

Sleeping less than seven to eight hours a night can screw up your circadian rhythm. That’s why it’s no wonder your testosterone levels are higher in the morning after a good night’s sleep. So if your work or social schedule keeps you stooped in perpetual jet lag, don’t be surprised if you stop craving sex. At least that’ll make it easier to stay out of bed.

Moreover, what can really help you boost your testosterone naturally is a herbal pill called PROVACYL. It is a unique blend of natural and herbal extracts like Muira Puama Bark extract, Ginkgo Biloba Leaf, Panax Ginseng, Acai Fruit, Chaste Berry etc., some of which have been used as aphrodisiacs for centuries. It not only elevates your testosterone level but also stimulate your growth hormone.

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