January 2019 – Lean Over 40 For Men

How to Boost Hormones for Men Over 40 As a man over 40 you might be suffering from diminishing testosterone levels. Testosterone is responsible for many processes in the body, one of those processes is the burning of fat. When our testosterone levels decline, it makes fat burning harder. That coupled with poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle will make losing weight even harder. Unfortunately, after age 30, our testosterone levels start to decline about 1 percent every year. That means by age 40, your testosterone levels will be down a significant amount if you choose to do nothing about it. As men over 40 we can’t reverse this process, but we CAN fight back with training and nutrition, increasing testosterone and making fat loss easier. Here are 8 ways you can naturally increase testosterone levels: Lift weights This is a big one! Lifting weights, especially sticking to compound multi-joint movements is one of the best things you can do to boost hormones, especially testosterone. Compound movements are the tried and tested way of triggering lean muscle gains and boosting testosterone in men over 40. Quite frankly, there aren’t ANY better exercises for men over 40 to focus upon because they’re productive, easy on the joints and have a powerful testosterone boosting effect. In fact, it’s what my entire program, Ripped Abs Over 40 is built from. Compound movements train more than one muscle group at the same time, giving you the greatest return for your time investment. Eat Protein, Carbs and Fats The next part of the equation is ensuring you’re eating the right number of calories, carbs and fat. If you go too low in calories this has a negative effect on your testosterone production. Losing fat is not about starving yourself and going too low in calories. Even at my very leanest condition at 7% body fat, I never went lower than 2200 daily calories. Of those calories you need to make sure you’re getting adequate carbohydrates and fat. Going too low in carbohydrates and fat is a sure way to kill testosterone! Fats are especially important for men over 40. One of the best things you can do is start to include foods such as eggs, nuts, fatty fish and extra virgin olive oil in your diet to boost testosterone. Carbohydrates are not only needed to fuel your workouts and keep you feeling full but they’re essential to make you feel good. Have you ever tried cutting out carbs when trying to lose fat? Life can start to get miserable fast! This is exactly what I had in mind when I created the Lean Over 40 Cutting Plan, I wanted a fat loss nutrition system that helps you burn fat, keep testosterone at peak levels, keeps you feeling full and keeps things very simple to follow! Minimize Stress and Cortisol This one is easier said than done especially in this modern age. However, it’s important to know that stress and cortisol is manufactured in the body as a result of doing too much training, especially cardio when trying to get lean. That’s why a lot of men over 40 fail to lose fat because they’re either performing zero exercise or focusing on the wrong exercises! Too much cardio kills testosterone levels and creates a very stressful environment in the body. Granted, moderate cardio does have its benefits, but any more than 2 brief cardio sessions per week in addition to lifting weights is overkill. One of the best things you can do to assist lifting weights, expend more calories and reduce stress is simply walking. This is exactly what I do on my non-weight training days as it helps me relax, is enjoyable and doesn’t make me ravenous which is important if you’re eating a calorie deficit for losing fat. Get Some Sun or Vitamin D When your skin is exposed to natural sunlight it makes vitamin D from cholesterol and vitamin D is important for restoring natural testosterone levels. Another way of getting vitamin D is eating foods such as Salmon, Mackerel, Tuna, Beef and Liver. All these foods not only provide good sources of protein that will assist your weight lifting efforts but will help to restore natural testosterone levels. Get Plenty of Vitamins and Minerals As well as eating testosterone boosting foods you should also be getting a variety of different fruits, vegetables and salad items. All the different vitamins and minerals will boost testosterone, aid your recovery from training and if you include leafy green vegetables, they also assist in eliminating estrogen from the body. A good rule of thumb is including a variety of different fruits and vegetables so that your body can benefit from each. Get Plenty of Sleep Getting plenty of quality sleep will aid in restoring your natural testosterone levels. Testosterone levels rise during sleep and decrease during waking hours. The research has shown that the highest testosterone levels are shown during REM sleep, the deep, restorative sleep that mostly occurs late in the nightly sleep cycle. Follow a Healthy Lifestyle In order to restore testosterone levels, you should be following a healthy lifestyle, eating and exercising correctly on a consistent basis. It’s not good enough to follow a healthy lifestyle for a few days and then go back to eating junk foods and sitting on the couch. When making changes make sure you only change one thing at a time. If you try and alter your nutrition drastically and exercise too much, you’ll be twice as likely to give up after a few days. Increasing your hormones and testosterone levels permanently is all about consistency. And to be consistent it’s all about making small, incremental positive steps. Minimize Exposure to Estrogens Try and minimize your exposure to BPA containing plastics as much as possible as they increase estrogens and reduce testosterone in the body. Avoid testosterone killing foods such as Soy, too much alcohol, microwave popcorn and too much dairy. Eat a balanced nutrition plan that contains plenty of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. Why Does Testosterone Matter? As mentioned from age 30 or so, our natural testosterone levels start to decline, this is a problem because diminishing testosterone levels shows a strong link to obesity. Therefore, you should be taking the necessary steps to boost testosterone levels by incorporating the steps above.