Small Steps to Health

Men’s Fat Cells and Testosterone

June 1st, 2008 by asithi · 6 Comments

Tagged Gender Differences, fat storage, Weight Issues, women vs men

Did you know that being overweight or obese decrease the amount of testosterone in a man body?  Testosterone is as important to a man as estrogen is to a woman.  This hormone that the male bodies produce gives them the physical upper hand over women by giving the males more muscle mass and less fat storage capacity.  But by being overweight or obese, men weaken their physical advantage.

Fat cells lowers testosterone production
Fat cells produce inflammatory hormones that slow down the signals for testosterone production from the hypothalamus and pituitary glands.

The hypothalamus, which is near our brains, is like the thermostat in a HVAC unit.  It monitors the testosterone level in a male’s body and tells the pituitary glands whether it is time to make more or less of the hormone.

The pituitary glands, which are located in the groin, are the heater that turns on or off depending on the instructions from the thermostat.  The pituitary glands manufactured a number of hormones including testosterone.

The more fat cells you have, the higher the disruption to the signal to produce testosterone. And when overweight or obese men have less testosterone, they also have less muscle mass and more fat storage capacity than healthy men.

Overweight males have more estrogens
Testosterone is only one of a few androgenic hormones that give male their physical characteristics.  Overweight males have more aromatase enzyme which converts some of these other androgenic hormones into estrogen.

I am not talking about man boobs here.  Just a higher level of estrogen floating in a man’s body that will influence their fat cells to hold on to the weight like women’s fat cells as I mentioned in a previous post.

And how do you overcome all this bad news when your body is working against you?  You probably guessed it.  Exercise!  Physical activity of any kind boosts testosterone levels.

To significantly improve your body composition, you need to start lifting weights.  You can get some ideas from the great routine that Tom Parker uses at Free Fitness Tips.  Weight training twice a week will have a significant effect on improving your body composition.  Weight training is the best way to increase muscle mass, therefore shrinking the chaos caused by your fat cells.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

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