Understanding Testosterone: Numbers, Myths, And Habits

We unpack testosterone in plain terms, from what the hormone does to how to read free vs bound levels, and why lifestyle habits drive how you feel. We sort myths from facts on boosters, foods, and the real steps that help dads regain energy and strength.

• what testosterone regulates and why it matters
• how to test: total vs free vs SHBG
• why aging and SHBG change how you feel
• lab ranges for healthy men in their thirties
• myths about boosters and what they really do
• foods that help only when correcting gaps
• habits that support T: fat loss, lifting, sleep
• stress, alcohol, and hormonal balance
• practical next steps with your doctor

We’re a father-son coaching team behind Time Under Tension PT, and this podcast is built for men 30+ who used to be in great shape but now struggle with low energy, weight gain, and inconsistent habits due to work and life demands.

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Transcript

Setting The Stage: Why Testosterone

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Tut Radio, the podcast where health, discipline, and legacy meet. We are the father-son coaching team helping dads lose weight, restore their health, and show up stronger at work and at home. Let's get into it. All right, on today's episode, we're gonna talk. It's kind of like a beginner's guide to testosterone. I think there's some confusion around, you know, whether or not your testosterone is low or it's not enough, whether you should have testosterone therapy replacement therapy. That's also something that comes up. What about, you know, these these supplements or these miracle magic pills, whatever they are? So, you know, Vin's going to walk us through a lot of the stuff that I think are common questions uh surrounding this particular issue. So, Vin, why don't you just start us off? Let's let's give us an overview of testosterone and what it actually is.

What Testosterone Does In Your Body

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Sure. So most people understand very basically that testosterone is a hormone. And hormones are chemical messengers that tell your body essentially what to do and how to feel, right? So think of it like if your body was a big computer, your hormones would act kind of as the software running in the background, telling the computer what programs to run. And testosterone in particular is kind of like a performance optimization software. Again, if that makes any sense to anybody listening. So it's found in men and women, and it helps control some of the following, right? So you have muscle mass, fat distribution, sex drive, red blood cell production, bone strength, those kinds of things. So it's very important when it comes to homeostasis in human beings. When there isn't enough testosterone present in your body over time, as a man, you can kind of start to feel and notice a few things, right? So what that can look like is, you know, poor energy levels, mood swings, libido issues, a gradual loss in muscle mass, things like that. So that's a that's like a general overview of what it is, you know, why it's important.

Getting Tested And Reading Labs

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Okay. So say I was concerned about my testosterone levels. How would I go about finding out what those levels actually are and what maybe they should be?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Sure. So obviously you go to your doctor. If you go to your doctor and you say, hey, listen, I'm worried about you know my testosterone levels, I think that maybe I'm a little low. Obviously, you request a blood panel there. If you don't feel like going to your doctor, there are other third-party kind of companies that do blood panels, quest diagnostics, lab corp, or to name a few. And from there, they'll talk about you know what sort of labs you'll have to order what those things mean and like what the next best steps are at that point.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Okay. Well, when it comes to reading testosterone levels, what should people understand?

Free vs Bound Testosterone Explained

SPEAKER_00 2:44

So basically, when you get your blood panel back, if you ever were to go test your testosterone levels, your your testosterone is constantly circulating in like three different what they call binding states. So there's the testosterone that's bound to sex hormone binding globulin, which is short, it's it's abbreviated as SHBG, which is what I'll probably refer to it as. So there's that, there's the testosterone that's bound to albumin, and then there's free testosterone. And so kind of an analogy is right, you can think of your total testosterone level as all of the money that you own, right? All the money you have. So free testosterone would be the cash that you have in your pocket, right? Your immediate spending money. It's the most available testosterone that you have, right? So it represents about one to three percent of your total testosterone. It enters your cells easily. And once it enters a cell, it's gonna actually bind to something called an androgen receptor, which is kind of like like a docking station for your cell. And once it's done that, it's gonna tell certain genes within that cell to turn on and start producing certain proteins, which are actually responsible for creating the effects that you feel. For example, like you know, in muscle tissues, testosterone increases production of proteins that help muscle fibers grow uh and help repair them as well. So that's SHBG test kind of out of the way, right? So the testosterone that's bound loosely to albumin, you can think of this as the money that's kind of in your checking account, right? It represents about 30 to 50% of your total test. And albumin, right, for those that don't know, is a protein that's made by your liver, and it's just its main job is to just carry things around through your blood. So it's still easy to access. You might just have to use your card or take a quick trip to the bank or an ATM to use it, right? Essentially is what we're trying to get at. And the testosterone that's bound tightly to SHPG is your offshore account, your Swiss bank, right? So it's still your money, right? You still own it. It's just not as conveniently, you know, available to you as the other two are. And so that's the that's the difference between the binding states of testosterone, and that will be represented in the readings that you get when you get a blood panel.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Okay, that makes sense. So you you mentioned protein. Is that why? Because there's so much, you know, everyone talks protein about this, this, and that. It's you know, protein, protein. So my my question is, is that why it's important to eat enough protein?

SPEAKER_00 5:09

So i it's related, but not no, not really. The proteins that you eat are actually broken down into amino acids, which are then used as materials, right? And testosterone is responsible for increasing the rate at which cells use those amino acids that you've ingested from whatever protein source that you've just eaten. So they're they're related, but not but it's not one is the other. That they're two separate things.

What Counts As Healthy Levels

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Okay, so let's switch gears for a second and say, so what are some good testosterone readings for a healthy man in his 30s?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Okay, so so right. So if you're a healthy guy in your 30s, this all kind of depends, right, on the individual. But the markers for somebody who's a healthy man in his 30s is anywhere between 500 to 900 nanograms per deciliter of total testosterone and 15 to 25 nanograms per deciliter of free testosterone. Now, what what does that even mean? Though those readings. So for reference, testosterone is measured in nanograms, which actually represent a billionth of a gram, right? So very, very small amount per deciliter of your blood, which is just a tenth of a liter. So that's where that's what the readings indicate. It's like, you know, anything else if if you know you were reading a cookbook or something like

Aging, SHBG, And Lifestyle Impact

SPEAKER_00 6:30

that.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

So to me, this is where this really gets interesting for me anyway. So why is it important then to understand the difference between the different binding states?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So yeah, this is this is another is another good one because it's like when when you get your blood panel back, it can kind of be a little bit confusing. What does this all mean, right? So when you get older, it's common to see that your total test will decline and that your total SHBG levels, right? That's that sex hormone binding globulin, those will actually go up, right? And this is just this just happens when men get older. This is the natural male biology, right? And it's especially true if you're living a sedentary lifestyle. Obviously, bad sleep doesn't help, and neither does carrying a bunch of extra fat. So because your SHBG levels will go up, more testosterone is actually going to bind to it, right? And so as a result of that, there's gonna be a decrease in available free test, which can translate to some of the bad feelings that people think when they claim that their test levels are low, right? So free test you can think of as like this is what's going to immediately impact the way that I feel, it's what I can use, right? But here's the thing, right? So if you're feeling like you're doing everything right, right, when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, and you just can't get your energy levels right, right, and you don't feel good, we would recommend that you were to go to your doctor, get your labs done, get some closure one way or the other. Either I have high test, I'm good, or I have low tests. With that being said, if you know that you're not moving your body, eating the right things, really prioritizing sleep, and you're and you're cutting corners, right? You're, you know, you'll have a sedentary job, whatever that looks like for you. That's probably your bigger concern of the two, just as a general rule. And when you don't change those sorts of things for a while, right? Those sedentary habits, not eating right, things like that. That's how you can kind of expedite this natural process of testosterone decline and end up with levels that fall outside of normal ranges and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Okay. So this this is I was wondering about this, and this is that

Do Test Boosting Pills Work

SPEAKER_01 8:39

in today's, you know, everybody take a pill society and it cures everything, you know, all our ales. I'm wondering, what about these testosterone boosting pills? Can you talk a little bit about their efficacy and whether they make sense for just generally everybody?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Sure. So so you walk into any sort of supplement store, GNC, whatever, right, and you're gonna see these things on the shelf. So what do they actually do? Basically, right, what these test boosting pills can actually help with is that they can be a supplement if you're deficient in a couple of different things, right? So what they find is that you're a healthy, if you're a healthy man, right, with natural testosterone levels, this is not going to have as great of an impact as they advertise that they probably would. But for example, like a lot of these test boosters, they'll have something like a like a compound, like zinc in them, right? If you're deficient in zinc, right, that's not good for it can actually impair testosterone production. So at that point, if you're supplementing zinc, and now you have better zinc levels in your body, there's gonna actually be a greater chance for appropriate levels of testosterone production actually happening, right? Because it's not being, you know, impeded on, right? Same thing, like another compound you find in these sort of test boosting pills is ashwagonda. It's another like kind of hot thing that people are like, you know, claiming that this is gonna do this and that. All that essentially does is it can help you reduce your stress, right? Which if you reduce your stress overall, it's gonna reduce your cortisol, and and excess amounts of cortisol can have a negative impact on natural test production. So it can have some marginal impact if you're incredibly stressed and deficient in certain things,

Can Foods Raise Testosterone

SPEAKER_00 10:23

but it's not going to automatically just fix low testosterone if that applies to you.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Okay, so now that you get the pills out of the way, let's talk about the claim that specific, you know, foods can boost your testosterone levels. This is important to me. I just wanted to bring this up because we've isolated the pills, and and so I think anytime you are testing something, it's really important to understand that the human body works and needs all of the things that we give it from, all the micro, macronutrients and the energy that it needs to function. So there's never really, you know, there's never gonna be one thing, one small thing like zinc as an example that's gonna cure the problem. So, you know, it's really important that you you go to the doctor, talk through it, make sense of all what's going on with your body, and then try as many different approaches that are much broader and more generalized as opposed to saying, okay, I'm gonna fix my problem with zinc. Right? Does that make sense, Finn? So now, so so again, so let's talk about the same subject matter, but now instead of pills, we're gonna talk about food.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

So, yeah, I mean, you you you you kind of hit the nail on the head. It's gonna be it's more about your general behaviors and habits that's gonna dictate where large jumps in improvement or la or not improvement, right? So it's a it's a lot like the supplement thing in the sense that, you know, you'll see headlines every now and again. Oh, these are the top 10 foods for testosterone production, testosterone levels, whatever. And so what do you see on these lists, right? You see things like salmon, like eggs, leafy greens, olive oil,

Habits That Support T: Fat Loss, Lifting, Sleep

SPEAKER_00 12:01

avocados, the list goes on and on, right? And so why what innately about these foods are quote unquote good for your testosterone levels? It's just because they contain the things that are crucial for testosterone production, right? So zinc, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, you know, vitamin D. Those are all plentiful within those types of foods, right? And if you're deficient in these things, then they can make an impact on your overall diet, which can in turn also help with your total testosterone production. But again, it's not like it's going to magically, oh, I ate I ate an avocado every day for a month and now my testosterone levels are okay. That's it's not a one-to-one, you know, solution for it. It's just, it's something that can help marginally if you are deficient in certain things. So if if your goal is to just try and do everything that you can to mitigate how much testosterone is lost as you age, which again we've already covered, is kind of just a natural way of way of doing things, right? Here are some things you can kind of do, right? So first being lean out, right? If you're if you're carrying some extra extra fat, obviously you want to drop that, right? Less visceral fat, especially around your midsection is going to improve insulin sensitivity, which has been correlated to better total testosterone in the long term. However, it's worth noting when you lose weight, make sure you're losing it as healthily as you can, right? So what happens when you diet super aggressively is that it's actually going to raise those SHBG levels, which as we discussed earlier, is going to kind of naturally decrease your free testosterone, which is going to kind of translate to the way that you might be feeling, right? So healthy weight loss, again, looks like a conservative calorie deficit and moving your body and really just focusing on recovery and sleep, right? So that's that's the way that you should remove some of that extra visceral fat. You can lift weights consistently. That's another big thing, right? So it's going to help preserve muscle mass, right? Which will also improve your insulin sensitivity. And just a quick side note, like, like I think that there's another misconception that having lots of muscle mass is going to innately boost your testosterone levels as well. That's another kind of thing that I think people think. And that's not necessarily true. All all that having more muscle is going to do to help benefit testosterone is that it's going to create like a friendlier environment in your body to produce testosterone. So most of that has to do with what we were kind of subliminally touching on this this better insulin sensitivity, which again, we're not going to get like super in depth into on this show, but it that's that's why it's it's good to have more muscle mass for testosterone. Another big thing is sleep, right? So chronic poor sleep can definitely raise your cortisol levels, which again, as we mentioned earlier, is not good for testosterone production. It can ruin your circadian rhythm. Another thing that's kind of counterintuitive when you're talking about managing testosterone. Chronic stress for all the same reasons that I just mentioned, right? It's the same sort of thing. The c the two kind of go hand in hand. Avoid excess alcohol, right?

Alcohol, Stress, And Hormonal Balance

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Drinking all the time can kind of it can actually raise your estrogen and estradiol levels, which once you start to raise those, it's going to kind of get in the way of your natural testosterone production. It's going to mess up your your kind of hormonal balance that everybody has. And it's going to actually impact the those AC SHPG levels as well, because that's where the liver is where that is actually produced. And obviously, alcohol hits your liver pretty hard. And so all of those things, again, and just try and live a healthy and as stress-free a life as you can. And that's those are the best steps that you can take as an individual to help with your testosterone levels.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Okay, so hopefully this was helpful to people listening. And but let's kind of wrap it up this way. So if you think that maybe you have an issue with your testosterone levels, you know, don't get caught up in all the media hype. Go to your doctor, get the test done. Now you have a little bit more education about what some of these tests can mean, and then work with your doctor on on a solution. And, you know, there is there's always there's testosterone therapy for for men, you know, that probably would be a last resort, of course. But even uh without that, then you go back and say, okay, what can I do differently from how do I eat better, how I exercise, all these, how do I sleep better, in order to prove this. Because a lot of times, if you know, you might think

Practical Next Steps And Closing

SPEAKER_01 16:35

it it might be testosterone levels, and in reality, it's not. It's just those things. It's just the fact you're not getting enough sleep and you're not moving around enough and you're eating foods that really don't feed your body. So, hopefully, today's episode uh gave you a better understanding of testosterone and what the levels are, and uh, maybe if you're having some difficulty, what to actually do about it. And speaking for both Vin and I, we hope that you enjoyed today's episode, and we will speak to you soon.