Natural Bodybuilding, Fitness, and Peak Performance

"Natural Testosterone Booster" Foods

A lot of guys wonder how they can boost testosterone levels naturally. I'm occasionally asked a question at the gym that goes something like this:

"Do you know of any 'natural testosterone boosting foods'; ya know - something you'd eat for that purpose above anything else?"

My reply comes in the form of a rhetorical question:

"Have you ever noticed when you eat a lot of beef and broccoli, you get a bit more aggressive… or focused… or frisky… or whatever higher testosterone levels do to YOU?"

Yeah… beef and broccoli - that'd be my best choice for 'natural testosterone booster' foods.

When it comes to 'natural testosterone booster' foods, these are my two favorite picks.

Beef is high in saturated fat and zinc, both of which are needed for testosterone production. Yet those two ingredients can't seem to fully explain what beef intake tends to do. Anecdotal evidence from other guys I've spoken with reinforces what I've noticed myself; higher strength and libido levels tend to follow beef consumption.

If beef is a 'natural testosterone booster', broccoli would be a natural defender of that hormone spike. It's a cruciferous vegetable containing a phytochemical called indole-3-carbinol (I3C). This stuff helps flush the body of excess estrogen - a hormone that many men don't realize their bodies produce. Since estrogen competes with testosterone for bodily receptor sites, reducing it is a major key to raising and maintaining testosterone levels.

Yes, there are other 'natural testosterone booster' foods besides beef that contain fat and zinc. You could go with chicken or oysters. I just personally notice a "kick" that beef seems to exclusively provide.

You can also go with other cruciferous vegetables, like cauliflower or cabbage. Yet broccoli provides other benefits that can work synergistically with its anti-estrogen effect. This vegetable is high in calcium. Healthy calcium levels are essential for suppressing calcitriol - a hormone that causes the body to produce fat and inhibit fat breakdown. Keep in mind: it is body fat (especially in the mid-section) on men that suppresses testosterone by elevating estrogen.

Here are some other natural testosterone booster foods:

• Olive Oil (monounsaturated fat)
• Mushrooms (good source of zinc)
• Lowfat Yogurt (this stuff sounds wimpy - but it kicks butt)
• Wheat Bran (more zinc)

And just for good information, here are three foods that definitely DO NOT fall into the 'natural testosterone booster' category. These three have been shown to actually reduce testosterone:

• Licorice (has been shown to cut levels by up to 40%)
• Stevia (sweetener additive)
• Grapefruit (prohibits breakdown of estrogen in the liver)

Also, alcohol is a big estrogen producer/testosterone killer. So when you insist on having those weekend beers, you might want to double up on your weekday beef and broccoli. Well, boost up the cruciferous veggie intake at least.

"Add an inch to your arms in 24 hours"… Don't waste your time

When I was in my twenties, I was willing to try anything (short of steroids) to make my muscles grow bigger. I was hungry for progress to the point that incessant enthusiasm tested my threshold between vigilant skepticism and gullibility. Too often, gullibility one out.

Now at age 44 and more muscular than ever, I don't want to see others waste the time and money that I did in pursuit of a better body. I don't want to see them flush hard-earned money down the toilet on worthless supplements or waste priceless time on bodybuilding techniques that are worthless at best and detrimental at worst.

Trying to get 'bigger arms' in 24 hours can lead to problems in subsequent weeks. I make this claim as an experienced natural bodybuilder.

One bodybuilding technique that fell under the "detrimental" category for me was the 'add an inch to your arms in 24 hours' technique. Yes… as a twenty-something I actually had the credulity to try this. A variation of it was printed up in MuscleMag magazine and I thought it sounded like a fun way to spend a Saturday morning… and uh… afternoon… and uh… I think it was the evening too.

And that's exactly what you'd need to do the workout; a whole friggin' day. To add the purported "inch to your arms in 24 hours", you had to pump a bunch of extra blood and glycogen into the biceps and triceps with supersets done on those muscles every half hour.

Oh yeah… and I think the writer was trying to promote his bodybuilding supplements of the time. So if I remember correctly, I was loading up my muscles with recommended servings of a particular product between these "workouts".

So what did this day devoted to "an inch to your arms in 24 hours" produce for me?

It set my arm training progress back by a month and a half. You heard that right - I was over-trained to the point that my upper arms lost about a half inch in size and I had to reduce my workout weights for weeks. So not only did I NOT add an inch to my arms in 24 hours - I lost size in my arms for… oh… about a thousand hours.

I'm sharing this as a word of caution to the bodybuilding newbie. If you're thinking about trying any "add an inch to your arms in 24 hours" routine, I would advise against it. Even if you could add an inch through a 24 hour 'pump' (doubtful), it obviously wouldn't be an inch of real growth. It would only be a temporary infusion of glycogen into the cells.

And the subsequent setback in real growth wouldn't be worth it. I can say, without reservation, that it sure wasn't for me.