What your testosterone numbers really mean

If you get your testosterone levels tested, you’ll probably get a slew of numbers: total, bio-available, and free. What do these numbers mean? And what can you do to increase them if they are low?

Hormones act like commuters on a train: they circulate through the bloodstream, where they are often linked to other substances, and then they get off when they reach their target tissues (like muscle and bone) where they are to perform their particular function.

Most of the time, testosterone hitches a ride on something called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). Less frequently, it binds itself to another substance called albumin, and still less often, it bodysurfs through your system solo.

As you probably can guess, “total” T represents all the testosterone in your system in any state — bound to SHBG, bound to albumin, and all by its lonesome. “Free” T is the stuff that’s on its own. “Bio-available” T is a measure of free testosterone combined with the T that’s bound to albumin. Generally speaking, about 65 percent of the testosterone in the blood binds to SHBG, 30 to 40 percent binds with albumin, and about 2 percent is free.

Testosterone gets tricky

Here’s where it gets even more tricky (and relevant to a guy trying to boost his sex drive, energy, and muscle-building potential): only the bio-available T—the free testosterone plus the albumin- bound stuff — really matters. That’s because when T is bound to SHBG, it can’t jump off and do its job on the target tissue: it’s as if it’s handcuffed to the commuter train.

The difference between “bio-available” T and “total” T is a bit like the difference between body fat percentage and total weight. You might weigh a healthy sounding 180 pounds, but if 33 percent of that is body fat, you’re definitely less than healthy.

So another way to effectively increase your testosterone is to unleash a greater percentage of it from the SHBG that keeps it corralled.

How do you do that? Well, there are a number of ways including fasting, getting regular and consistent sleep, increasing (the right) fats in your diet, and reducing alcohol. If you are a doing a lot of cardio exercise on a consistent basis you should also think about cutting that back; and focusing more on high intensity, short duration exercise. High volume endurance exercises like marathons have been shown to decrease your immune system and reduce testosterone levels in men. Just recently America’s fastest marathon runner Ryan Hall retired at only 33 citing chronic fatigue and low testosterone.

I also take a bunch of supplements daily. The full list of what I take is here. The main supplements I take for helping my testosterone and energy are EveryDay Male^® which my company formulated – initially for my personal use, but now available to the public – as well as about 5000 IU’s of extra vitamin D which you can read more about here.