As you most likely know, I’ve been in the Bodybuilding and Fitness Industry for more than 35 years as a coach, educator and scientist and I’m currently doing a little physique experiment at a young 51-years old to get as shredded as possible without hardly trying while staying strong and healthy — and busting as many stupid myths about fat loss and being extremely lean as possible. And speaking of myths and retarded beliefs, the imbeciles at T-Nation just served us such an article on a platter. Let’s see what they have to say and what they try to sell us this time.
“Ripped abs, veiny arms, defined muscles… and low testosterone? It’s very common and hard to avoid. Here’s why and what to do about it.”
Nope. Correlation does not imply causation. Just because some dimwits follow a stupid nutrient deficient diet and plummeting their hormones does not mean that a low level of body fat is to blame. That should be common sense.
“Single-digit body fat – it’s the holy grail for many lifters. Dip below 10% and you’ll look razor-sharp. But unless you’ve hit the genetic jackpot, staying that lean is a battle. With enough discipline, planning, and a high tolerance for discomfort, you can get there. But for most of us, it’s not a sustainable “walking-around” body fat level.”
Discomfort? Not Sustainable? Why? Because you do not understand human nutrition, as in our species-appropriate diet? And it’s not a battle. It’s extremely easy.
And personally, I dieted down to below 4% (The Parrillo Caliper 9-point skin fold formula) in 2008 and stayed within 4 to 6% until 2011 when I traveled and worked around the clock for a few years. But I never ventured past 10% since 2008 and I’ve had visible abs and defined muscles for the last 17 years. And as I dropped from my usual 76 kg to 56 kg in late 2017 due to cancer at the age of 43, I bounced back by adopting our natural species-appropriate diet, healed myself, and I’m now almost in the same condition at 51-years of age at around 78 kg than I was at 34-years of age back in early 2008 when I only weighted 72 kg.
And guess what? No discomfort. And absolutely no “genetic jackpot” as I realized at an early age that I was too narrow and sickly to compete and I did not want to use tons of anabolic androgenic steroids, growth hormone, and insulin only to get a few hundred bucks and a silly trophy to collect some dust. Instead, I chose to use my knowledge and intellect to help others who wanted to excel in sports or simply change their physique or get healthier.
“Now, several studies tell us that single-digit body fat probably shouldn’t even be a goal, at least not long-term. Yes, stay lean, but save ripped for special occasions. The problem? Evidence suggests that sub-10% body wrecks natural testosterone production. In fact, a man with a healthy T level can easily become hypogonadal (below 300 ng/dL) once he drops below 10%.”
No, you frikkin’ dimwits. Again, correlation does not imply causation. Otherwise, every single man with low body fat would have somewhat low testosterone levels. However, it’s usually the opposite. I’ve been sub-10% body fat for 17 years and counting and at 51-years old, my testosterone levels are still above 800 ng/dL because I eat according to our species — I get all the nutrients my body needs to function optimally. It’s that simple.
All these studies are performed on people trying to lose body weight/fat and all of them follow sub-optimal and even dangerous diets that make them malnourished, hence the drop in hormone production.
If you actually feed your body, as in consuming enough bioavailable nutrients from animal-based foods, you will cover all bodily functions, including testosterone production that is mostly dependent on cholesterol, saturated fats, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, zinc, and magnesium — something that most “diets” lack — but nutrients that are all found plentiful in animal-based foods, especially red meat, eggs, and organ meats.
And no, you cannot get these nutrients from plant-based foods or from supplements as they contain the wrong chemical form, making them extremely toxic with an abysmal conversion rate. I’ve covered this in depth in many articles.
“Studies on this topic looked at competition bodybuilders, athletes, military personnel, and regular people.”
Yes, bodybuilders that are on a strict and deficient diet, cutting out real species-appropriate foods and thus developing a myriad of nutrient deficiencies. Only those taking drugs will keep their hormones up. And military personnel are served slave slop, totally void of nutrients while being physically and mentally abused, also developing severe malnutrition. And “regular people” in this sense are anyone trying to lose weight and getting into a low body fat range, as in people following even worse diets than the bodybuilders. Or they are simply malnourished people consuming mostly a plant-based diet which wrecks their hormones.
In other words, totally irrelevant and useless studies where the self-proclaimed “researchers” draw backwards conclusions by not understanding simple physiology and biochemistry. Laughable!
“One review (Schoenfeld 2023) of several physique athlete case studies found that competitors who hit 6-8% body fat at the end of a prep period dropped to hypogonadal levels of testosterone.”
Schoenfeld is a well-known indoctrinated shill in the “resistance training bubble,” a complete moron. And read that again, “competitors who hit 6-8% body fat at the end of a prep period,” as in the end of a strict and deficient diet, as in being severely malnourished. Case closed.
“In one case study, Rossow et al. followed a drug-tested male bodybuilder from 14% to 4-5% body fat over 26 weeks. His testosterone dropped from 922 ng/dL to 227 ng/dL.”
Exactly the same scenario as with the ridiculous and backwards observation by Shill Schoenfeld. A bodybuilder starved himself from 14% body fat to 4% over 26 long weeks, developing severe nutrient deficiencies. Case closed.
“Men consistently show sharp declines in the final 6-8 weeks of prep when body fat is in the low single digits, regardless of high protein intake and resistance training.”
For f**ks sake. What do you imbeciles at T-Nation not understand? Protein? Protein has nothing to do with testosterone. And resistance training only stimulates a very short release/burst of testosterone the hours after exercise. Actually, too much exercise will have the opposite effect if the body can’t recover, which often is the case on a restricted competition diet where the subject is suffering from multiple nutrient deficiencies and doing excessive amounts of exercise. Case closed.
“NHANES data and cross-sectional studies show that men with very low body fat (8-9%) often fall at the lower end of the testosterone reference range, while men with 12-18% have higher levels.”
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a program of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS,) part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC,) designed to assess the “health and nutritional status” of adults and children in the United States. NHANES collects data through in-home personal interviews and standardized health examinations conducted in mobile examination centers, using a complex, multistage probability design to ensure a nationally representative sample of about 5,000 persons each year. Thus, it can not really be trusted as a source. However, as people mostly eat plant-based and processed crap nowadays, it’s not surprising that people with lower body fat levels, as in people likely consuming more plant-based garbage and starving themselves, have lower testosterone levels as these foods do not contain the nutrients needed by the body. Case closed.
“Below 8-10%, especially with concurrent calorie restriction, testosterone suppression in men is very common and well-documented.”
Yes, with “concurrent calorie restriction,” as in eating way too little food, as in starving, as in developing several nutrient deficiencies, as in not having enough nutrients to manufacture testosterone. Again, frikkin’ common sense. Case closed.
“Studies in military training like Ranger School (which induces high activity plus low caloric intake) show testosterone can drop by 50% when body fat approaches 8% (Friedl, 2000).”
“Low caloric intake” equals “low food intake” and again, the food served is abysmal. In other words, these people are severely malnourished while being physically drained and overworked. That simply proves my point. Case closed.
“Men at the same body fat but eating enough often maintain normal testosterone, suggesting that energy balance and body fat together determine hormonal outcomes.”
“Eating enough” means that they maintain their body fat and body weight, thus they are more likely to get enough nutrients to sustain their hormone production. Again, that is common sense and it proves my point. You need adequate nutrients for your bodily functions, especially for hormone production as that is solely dependent on animal-based nutrients, especially fats. Case closed.
“What causes the drop? Mainly it’s hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis suppression due to energy deficiency and low leptin. Low cholesterol availability for steroid synthesis when dietary fat is restricted, alongside low body fat, can play a role too. Cortisol also rises during extreme leanness, antagonizing testosterone production.”
At least you got cholesterol right, as in restricting dietary fat, as in restricting animal fats.
And yes, severe energy restriction will put your body into starvation mode, and this is why you should never follow a restrictive diet! Never starve yourself!
As for cortisol, that is our energy metabolizing hormone and it will increase if you are starving yourself as it is a key regulator of energy balance and metabolism, orchestrating processes that mobilize energy stores in response to stress. It stimulates gluconeogenesis in the liver, the production of new glucose molecules from non-carbohydrate sources like amino acids and glycerol, thereby making sure blood glucose levels are at appropriate levels to provide immediate energy. Cortisol also promotes lipolysis in adipose tissue, breaking down fats into free fatty acids and glycerol, which can be used as energy sources by other cells.
However, cortisol does not increase with leanness, that is a retarded backwards conclusion void of any scientific support. Cortisol increases because you are starving your body; you are working against your body instead of working with it.
But, But, I Wanna Get Shredded!
“We get it. For a physique contest, it’s a necessity. And sometimes it’s just fun to peel off a layer and see what’s under there. It’s temporary (or at least it should be), but the photos live forever, right?”
Yes, getting competition lean, as in bodybuilding stage-ready, should only be achieved for a show or perhaps some professional photo gig. But staying really lean, only a couple of pounds from that condition is not really that difficult to do, neither is it unhealthy as long as you are fully nourished by consuming plenty of animal-based foods. Again, all that “having a low body fat is unhealthy” is backward thinking. Humans are obligate hyper carnivores with the stomach acid of scavengers. Do other hyper carnivores in nature vary in body fat percentage? Do they ever get a bit soft? Nope, they’re all lean and muscular, all the frikkin’ time.
“So, how do you keep your testosterone churning during a deep cut? One easy way to do it is to take Longjack, also known as Eurycoma longifolia or Tongkat Ali.”
That’s the most retarded thing thus far, and of course you had to try and sell your gullible readers something, uh? Sure, take some toxic supplement that stresses the body to produce a tiny amount of extra testosterone as a defense reaction for a few hours while the body and organs take extreme damage. Frikkin’ idiots!
No, the simple way to do this, as I’ve written many times, is to follow our natural species-appropriate diet and eat about three meals a day to satiation, making sure you get all the nutrients you need and that you are fully nourished. Then, to instigate some fat loss, you either do a 24 to 36 hour fast twice a week, or if you’re already somewhat lean, you simply pick two or three days a week where you only have one meal, and make that meal extra nutritious, as in organ meats and some egg yolks.
This is what I’ve been doing since July and according to the 9-site skin fold Parrillo Caliper Method, using the Harpenden caliper, I’ve gone from a body fat percentage of 8.42% on July 16 to 5.82% on September 14. That accumulates to a fat loss of 2.17 kg, or 4.8 lbs and a muscle gain of 0.32 kg or 0.7 lb. That’s a fat loss of 4.8 lbs of pure fat in only 60 days while already lean and not even trying. I simply eat until full and perform at my best and then have two days a week or so with less food, but maximum nutritional value.
Of course, if you have more fat to lose, you can be much more aggressive, as in two or even three days of fasting a week. I only did two (!) 36-hour fasts during these 60 days and implemented a total of 9 “low” days. That’s only 11 total days of “dieting” during these 60 days and still I’m losing fat and improving my physique at 51-years old where other athletes would suffer and complain due to retarded diets — and possibly experience hormonal issues due to nutrient deficiencies. Sure, I did have a few days in August where the weather was really nice and I spent 5 to 6 hours outdoors with my dogs and friends, likely expending a bit more energy than usual, but I never felt tired or hungry. I was satiated every single day, even through the 36-hour fasts as I was fully nourished. Likely, I even had a bit more food on those more active days. But again, it’s almost impossible to gain body fat from meat, eggs and organ meats as you get satiated quickly from the extreme nutrient density, making it impossible to overeat on a continuous basis.
So, to conclude, the secret to effortless fat loss and also to superior health and healing is to be fully nourished, which can only be accomplished by following our species-appropriate diet and getting plenty of animal-based food. As we store nutrients in our organs and cells, we can easily go days without food once our nutrition stores are full, which makes fat loss extremely simple. Just do it in short bursts and re-nourish yourself in between. It’s that simple.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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