Going Low Fat:

You know all the myths about eating fat… But heart health and a slim waistline aren’t the only reasons to add more of it to each meal. Research shows that it only takes six weeks of reducing fat intake to lower your testosterone levels. Just dropping from 40% to 25% fat a day means around 15% less T.

So if you have been one of the millions of people in the U.S. afraid to touch fat, your testosterone levels could be suffering. Try adding avocados, coconut oil, and grass-fed butter to your meals. These clean fats will help set the table for healthy, natural production.

Skipping Sleep:

It isn’t always easy to get a good night’s sleep… But if it’s happening more than a night or two a week, it could put your hormones in jeopardy. Just one full week of getting five or less hours of sleep each night can drop T levels by up to 15%.1 And that’s only one week.

If you’re making a habit of burning the midnight oil—or have sleep problems you need to address—the damage could be even worse over time. Trying natural sleep aids will help you fall asleep easier—and keep your testosterone levels from sinking.

Drinking Too Much Alcohol:

Another study reveals that high-intensity interval training causes bigger testosterone spikes after workouts that normal running.5 It may not be as easy as a jog… But high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can cut your gym time in half—and brings your T levels to where they need to be to fight aging.

WRONG EXERCISES:

If you consider strength or bodybuilding goals to be lifelong commitments, then exercise choices should be seen as a marriage. Every time I see a "new" exercise I ask myself why I'd choose it, and if I did, how would I progress it?

Unilateral exercises are a good example of something that needs consideration, especially offset movements that challenge the core such as lunging with a dumbbell in only one hand. Exercises of this ilk become obsolete once you get strong enough to exceed your ability to balance, assuming you're not training for Cirque de Soleil.