Understanding "Normal" Testosterone Levels

"My Total T is 250/300/400ng/dL. My doctor says this is normal, but I have low motivation/sex drive/etc. Is 250-400ng/dL normal?" I see this question every day on Reddit.

I want to touch on 2 points:

• What does "Normal" mean?
• What naturally raises testosterone levels?

What Does "Normal" Mean?

"Normal" does not mean what you think it means. "Normal" means that the value is in the range of "the middle 95% of...healthy individuals." There are many issues with that, three of the main ones are:

• healthy is subjective
• being at the bottom range of the 95% range might be "normal", but that does not mean it is optimal
• normal ranges can be skewed as you are seeing only the range, not the distribution

I would recommend reading this PubMed article to fully understand: The normal range: it is not normal and it is not a range.

Here's an example of where the distribution of values is skewed -- a doctor will look at the person with 0.4 and 0.6 and say they are both great because they are right within 10% of the middle of the range, but clearly 0.4 is better than 0.6.

What Naturally Raises Testosterone Levels?

Natural Testosterone levels are a product of 2 things: Lifestyle and Behavior. You must be providing the proper healthy body and nutrients to generate testosterone, and you must behave in a way that your body rewards you with testosterone (testosterone is a reward for certain behaviors that improve your likelihood of excelling in life).

Therefore,

• You must have the lifestyle to support healthy testosterone levels (Diet, Sleep, Fitness)
• You must behave in ways that are rewarded by testosterone (Doing Hard Things, Competition/Aggression, Risk Taking, Sex)

Which of the following are you doing/not doing?

Diet (Health):

• Avoid sugar and processed foods
• Macros (calorie breakdown): 50% carbs, 25-30% Fat, 20-25% protein
• Calorie surplus (slight weight gain)
• Focus on nutrient dense foods (high potassium foods like potatoes reduce cortisol and increase testosterone)
• Avoid alcohol, especially drinking to excess & beer (stick to vodka sodas if you do drink and no more than 3 in a sitting; prefer day drinking if you can instead of night time)

Sleep (Health):

• Regular bedtime
• 9 hours of eyes shut sleep
• No electronic devices or bright lights for 1+ hours before bed

Fitness (Health + Hard Things + Aggression):

• 3-4 lifting sessions per week
• Focus on compound lifts (squats, deadlift, bench press, pull ups, military press), close to failure but do not push yourself to the point that you cannot recover appropriately or get injured
• Cardio 2-4 times per week, especially in the morning, ideally in the morning sunlight

Nutrient Goals (Health):

• Sunlight and/or Vitamin D
• Zinc (15mg+/day)
• Magnesium (300 mg+/day)

Sex (Doing Hard Things, Competition/Aggression, Risk Taking, Sex):

• Actively Dating someone or Actively and regularly pursuing dates/sex
• Not watching porn, ever

Sports/Physical Competition (Doing Hard Things, Competition/Aggression, Risk Taking, Sex):

• Competing regularly (1+ times per week) in some kind of physical activity/sport (pickup basketball/football/pickleball/etc or martial arts etc.)