Reduced calories and sex drive/PI?

Hey guys,

I read a blurb a while back about low-calorie diets affecting sex drive, testosterone production, etc. Right now I’m working out, and eating low calories to trim some fat under 10% body fat. Has anyone with experience in body building, or anyone for that matter, know anything about this? I am making gains with my PE, but sex drive is down and I think that’s what’s affecting my PIs and EQ.

Thanks.

Yes, reducing your calories by a certain percentage can reduce your total testosterone. I forget the percentage and I can not recall if free testosterone is effected?

The old timers used to dump the carbs and go high fat medium protein to rip up. Most kept their calorie up do to fat. It’s ketogenic and it sucks. I tried it for a short while and decided I would rather not be so cut than suffer headaches and feeling weak. I have read if one feels weak to up your fat intake even higher. That’s all I can offer. I have no idea if this keeps testosterone up. Maybe short tern it does but I also know if your go low to no carbs for to long you will reduce your testosterone levels as well. Go to high on protein and the same can happen.Again length of time probably is a huge factor and it’s not as immediate as reducing calories severely would be.

I’ve tried tot he keto thing, and I’m not doing it again. It’s similar to Atkins but there’s a lot of new, better (and tastier) ways to cut. Carb cycling will be the next method I use. Right now I’m doing simple calorie reduction, which absolutely works. Carb-cycling just allows you to have days of hi calories more than once per week, so it doesn’t drive you as crazy and weeks of perfect eating.

I’ve been doing this for a few months now, so I think that puts me into the long-ish term category and side effects.

Don’t go all out low or zero carb non diabetics should not do keto diets. Because you need carbs for energy. With me however I keep it aroun 125 grams of carbs per day preferably igh fiber multi grain. I do low calorie to it not because I want to. I just don’t have the appetite. But what I do do I make sure the protein ratio outweighs the carb ratio 3 to on. Perhaps a 3 to 2 will get your sexual stamina back and still stay within your range of calories.

High protein low calorie choices to choose from
Chicken breast
Tuna
Can tuna
Cottage cheese
Lean beef
Lean pork

Stay away from the fattier portions

A helpful hint for carb lovers and those who want to lose weigh but feel satisfied.
Help yourself to the number one no no food potatoes,Yep a six ounce baked potatoe is under 200 calories. Add some sour cream which is not high in calories about 120 calories per tablespoon. You get at least 4-6 grams of fiber. If your carb food are high in fiber they won’t make you fat.

Also use whole wheat whole grain bread. Three good brands to choose from Orowheat, Sara Lee and Earthgrains are the best brand a bit more pricy but you get better nutrition.

Old fashion Quaker oats cooked up is good high in fiber. Don’t forget your pectinite food that includes most of your fruits they helpbun fat. And eat your vegetables.

You’re preaching to the choir KP. I only buy lean meats, and my diet rarely goes outside chicken and turkey. Non fat cottage cheese is always found in my fridge, along with a variety of veggies and leafy greens. Whole grains are the only bread I buy (and taste awesome to boot). 3 to 1 protein to carbs would be a little crazy for my current goals, that would be anywhere from 300 to 400g of Protein a day. I aim for 160g of protein per day, and fill in the remaining calories with good fats and good healthy carbs. I’ll never go zero carb, I like them too much, and the keto diets are just unnecessary.

You could fast on some days instead of reducing calories every day. Many studies have shown health benefits from fasting.

You can try increasing calories and doing more cardio to remain in caloric deficit. More food and more cardio is always better for metabolism than less food and less cardio.
For example, say your basal metabolic rate is 1700 calories and you are moderately active throughout the day. That’s around 2700 calories a day needed for maintenance.
1 kilogram of fat equals 7000 calories, so you should be 7000 calories in deficit a week to loose 1 kilogram of fat a week.
If you eat 3000 calories and do 2 hours of fast walking (which burns ~500 calories) a day, that means you’re 200 calories in deficit a day.
If you eat 3500 calories and do 4 hours of fast walking (which burns ~1000 calories) a day, that means you’re still 200 calories in deficit a day, but you ate more and did more cardio, which keeps the metabolism higher and that’s good.
So as you can see, you’d have to do 2 hours of fast walking and eat 2500 calories a day to be 700 calories in deficit a day, that pace would take 10 days to burn 1 kilogram of fat.

Of course, those are just rough examples and it’s not quite so simple and linear in real life, but use that as a guidance.

Edit:
Now I see you’re talking about carb cycling. I’ve tried it and it works great for cutting, I highly recommend it. Here’s a great article about it: Carb Cycling Codex
However, you should know that carb cycling works good for ectomorphs (me being one). If you’re an endomorph, it might not work as well. Keto is good for endomorphs, but I, as an ectomorph, would never do it.

That’s absurd and way too catabolic.

I’m definitely not fasting.

Thanks for the advice. I’m trying to balance moderately strict dieting and cardio. Sure I could eat 3000 calories day (my maintenance intake is 2500) and try to burn 1000 with cardio, but that’s over an hour of jogging, and I don’t have the time or discipline for that. I’ll be ending this cut soon anyhow, so my testosterone should go right back up.

Restricting calories doesn’t work. You might loose weight in the short term but in the long term you’re going to gain weight.

Here’s a good video on portion control:

That guy’s videos are fantastic.

It works, but it’s better in combination with cardio workout. Also, there should never be any drastic changes, either cutting or increasing calories. Everything should be done gradually.

Well, in theory (AFAIK), the sex drive shall go down. However it is not directly related. The thing is that testosterone is made from cholesterol. As you go down in fat, cholesterol goes down as well usually. However it is not always the case, because there are genetical differences. You can also compensate the lack of cholesterol by limited intake of high cholesterol meals. With careful research you ought to find something that gives you the cholesterol with lower calories, though, as the cholesterol comes with fat, high calorage is inevitable.

Why not simply eat eggs? Eggs contain GOOD cholesterol and it’s great bodybuilding food (and I’m talking about whole eggs, not just egg whites).

1. I’m switching to bulking soon so hopefully that turns things around, I’ll keep the thread updated.

2. Portion control is the same as limiting calories, just done differently. It’s a simple way to cut down your calories per meal. For example if you normally eat a 10oz steak, eat a 4oz steak portion, you lose weight. Portion control works because you’re eating less calories, simple as that. And it’s a great starting plan for over-weight people looking to lose some weight without a bunch of thought an planning. The theory is the same. Also, lowering calories will not make you gain weight, because that’s physiologically impossible.

3. I do cardio at least 3 days a week. On those days I eat more than my “restricted” intake to compensate.

4. I do eat whole eggs, usually 1 or 2 per morning with egg whites. I’ll be eating a lot more of them as I bulk up though.

5. nooboob- I agree on the gradual changes. I plan to switch to a bulk by merely raising my diet a few hundred calories up to my “maintenance level”, and seeing how it goes. If the weight doesn’t go up, I’ll add 100 calories and then see. Slowly I plan to work up to 3,000 per day.

I have become interested in a calorie restriction diet because of the claims that it can ad years to a person’s life. I don’t know if I will attempt the CF diet or not. It conflicts with my desire to put on about 15 lbs of muscle. Also, until this thread, I had not considered the effects on testosterone. I need to have a high sex drive in order to get aroused for vanilla sex. If I’m not that horny, it is harder for me to get it up for something that is not somewhat kinky.

In years past, I read much about eating to gain muscle. I do remember that fat intake did have an effect on testosterone production. My thoughts on trying to find a happy medium are the same as what Karl wrote in his post (post #11 on this thread).

Try doing it like this: increase calories by 200 and eat like that for 2 weeks, then measure your weight. If your weight has gone up, keep eating like that for another 2 weeks. Repeat until you see your weight did not go up. Then increase calories by another 200 and repeat the process. Simply put, increase calories by 200 every 2 weeks is the weight is not going up. I got up to 3400 from 1900 and gained 11 kilograms in 4 months with abs still visible.