Men, the studies are in…

Your testosterone levels are decreasing.

Like I mention in my book, The Man Diet (grab your free copy here), not only is your T-count decreasing generationally, meaning that you probably have less testosterone than your father did and your father has less testosterone than his father did, etc., but your testosterone levels are also decreasing as you get older – specifically when you reach 30-years old. Which is why it’s important that you don’t contribute to the decline…

If you want to keep your testosterone levels at their highest, you need to refrain from doing the following…

Here are the 30 worst things you can do for your testosterone levels after 30.

1. Watch Your Cholesterol

You’ve probably been told your entire life that you need to make sure you don’t eat too much cholesterol. After all, that was the main draw for Honey Nut Cherrios at one point in time, wasn’t it?

But when it comes to your testosterone levels, it’s essential for you to consume plenty of dietary cholesterol in the form of whole eggs, organic bacon and grass-fed beef as studies have shown there is a direct correlation between the amount of cholesterol you consume and the health of your testosterone levels.

2. Work Late

Working late probably wasn’t as destructive to your testosterone levels when you were in your early 20’s as it is when you begin to hover around the 30-year old mark.

Working late and causing your sleep to suffer is one of the top reasons why testosterone levels are low in men these days. Studies have shown a direct link between the amount of time you sleep and the amount of testosterone your body produces because, well, most of your testosterone is produced while you sleep.

Working late is one of the worst things you can do for your testosterone. Exercise some self-control and put a nightly limit on when you’ll stop working.

3. Hang Out on Your Phone

The recent rise in technology is another reason why testosterone levels are suffering, for two reasons in particular: One, you lay in bed staring at your phone, elevating your cortisol levels, and as a result you have a hard time falling asleep. Two, you spend more time on your phone playing games than you do actually living your life.

A sedentary lifestyle will kill your testosterone levels, and so will lack of sleep. Put your phone away as often as you can and live your life like a man. Your testosterone levels will thank you for it.

4. Sweat the Small Stuff

If you stress out about everything, you’ll obliterate your T-count. See, when you stress, your cortisol levels increase, which is big problem because cortisol is your testosterone’s kryptonite. When they increase, your testosterone levels decrease.

One of the worst things you can do for your testosterone levels is to sweat the small stuff. So quit getting pissed off when you’re stuck in a traffic jam. Don’t let work get to you. And spend more time appreciating what you do have instead of worrying about what you don’t have.

5. Use Products with Estrogen

Our consumer-centric world is packed with products that contain estrogen or estrogen imitators in them. Everything from plastic bottles, to cologne, your shampoo, to pesticides most likely contains an endocrine disruptor that’ll throw your hormones out of whack.

Look for these names on ingredient labels and stay away from them if you want to protect your T-count: Bisphenol A (BPA), Parabens, Phthalates, Benzophenones, Triclosan and Triclocarban.

Side Note: Zinc blocks aromatase, which is a precursor to estrogen. If you want to create optimal testosterone levels, you need the right micronutrients in your diet. You can get them – and more – with the Barbarian Manhood-Multi (learn more here).

6. Drink Unfiltered Water

One of the best things you can do for your testosterone levels (among the other 29 that I covered here) is drink plenty of water…

However, one of the worst things you can do for your testosterone is gulp your gallon or two of water through the tap. Tap water is potentially filled with chemicals that can sabotage those testosterone levels that you’re trying to increase by staying hydrated.

7. Use Plastic

Speaking of how you should drink water, plastic water bottles are not your savior from the tap.

They contain phthalates (the “ingredient” that makes plastic flexible), which have been directly linked to low testosterone.

One study involving BPA (another ingredient in the making of plastic water bottles) shows a direct correlation between low testosterone and contact with BPA in general. Instead, get yourself a multiple-use BPA-free water bottle.

8. Become a Vegetarian

Your vegetarian buddy who the ladies love is actually ruining his testosterone levels, and you will too, if you join him. You simply won’t get the amino acids, cholesterol, and dietary fat that you need for optimal testosterone levels.

This study showed that a vegetarian diet can decrease testosterone levels by almost 40%.

9. Eat Soy

Sure, keep drinking your wife’s soy milk… If you want to lower your testosterone levels.

Men who consume a lot of soy have high amounts of equol present in their bloodstream. And according to a study published in Biology of Reproduction, eqoul is a strong anti-androgen that can nearly shut down the activity of dihydrotestosterone in your body, which is your strongest androgen.

When it comes to soy, the idea of “worst things you can do for your testosterone” seems like a bit of an understatement.

10. Eat Polyunsaturated Fats

Even though you want to get plenty of dietary fat into your daily feasting windows, polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are not the kind of fat you want.

It’s been shown to suppress testosterone levels.

You’ll find PUFAs in vegetable oils, sunflower seeds/oils, flaxseed and soy.

11. Restrict Your Calories

Real men don’t worry about calories!

In an astounding study which compared the testosterone levels of men who “ate clean” (between 1350-2415 calories) vs. men who ate a standard western diet, the results showed that the men “ate clean” had 31% lower testosterone levels than the guys who ate “dirty.”

Eat like a man, don’t restrict your calories.

12. Overeat

I had to add this little caveat right after telling you not to restrict your calories.

Just because counting calories is one of the worst things you can do for your testosterone levels, doesn’t mean that you can overeat, either.

If you’re eating good testosterone boosting foods like I have listed out for you in The Man Diet, you won’t have an urge to overeat.

Eat like a man – men don’t overeat.

13. Cut Carbs

I know that carb cutting diets are all the rage right now. But cutting carbs will kill your testosterone levels.

At least 40% of your daily caloric intake should come from carbohydrates – primarily fruits, vegetables, potatoes, beans and white rice.

14. Drink Protein Shakes

You need plenty of protein if your muscles are going to recover from your workouts and if you’re going to have optimal testosterone levels. However, you should be getting plenty of protein from whole food sources like eggs and meat.

There’s no need for you to chug 4 protein shakes a day. Double fisting protein shakes can have an adverse effect on your testosterone levels. Instead stick with beef. It’ll give you plenty of testosterone boosting fats as well.

15. Get Drunk

I’m not anti-alcohol in general. But getting drunk is one of the worst things you can do for your testosterone levels.

The most freaky of the alcohol studies was conducted on a male rat (rats have similar DNA structure to humans) and resulted in a 50% reduction in testicle size when 5% of the rat’s diet consisted of alcohol. Poor rat!

Don’t be like the rat. Getting drunk will shrink your T and possibly your balls, too.

16. Smoke Weed

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, tested 20 men ages 18-28 who smoked weed at least 4 days a week for 6 months. The testosterone levels of these men were significantly lower than those in a control group (who didn’t smoke weed).

And another study showed the same result. Four healthy males were tested before and after smoking weed, and the study concluded that after puffing the magic dragon, cortisol levels rose and testosterone levels plummeted.

Sorry Colorado!

17. Watch Porn

Watching porn is one of the worst things you can do for your testosterone.

When you become addicted to it (which you will over time) you won’t be able to get hard or have sex with your lady (which actually boosts testosterone. If you want some evidence to prove that statement, check out these 39 studies on the addictive nature of pornography and its neurological effects.

Also, masturbation does nothing for your testosterone levels. The pheromone connection you have with a woman during sex does. Don’t chance it. Stay away from porn.

18. Take a Long Hot Bath

Keeping your balls in warm water for a few minutes is a great way to lower your testosterone levels. If you’ve ever stood in a warm shower for 5 minutes, you know that your balls begin to hand lower than normal. That’s because they’re trying to escape the heat.

Your balls (where your testosterone is produced) perform their best when they’re cool. So leave the warm bubble baths to your lady.

19. Sit on the Sidelines

Men were made to compete.

According to a study published in Hormones And Behavior, men’s testosterone levels increase before competition, and as an added bonus, after winning a competition. You won’t get either of those testosterone spikes if you don’t step onto the field of play… Whatever that “field” may be.

20. Chew Gum

Those Double Mint gum commercials are deceiving. Those dudes should not be chewing that gum.

Spearmint and peppermint have been shown to reduce testosterone levels, meaning that you should chewing spearmint and peppermint gum will have the same effect. Find another way to freshen your breath. Chewing gum will cost you.

21. Have Flaxseed

It seemed like the world was raving about flaxseed a short year ago. Oh that’s right, because they were.

Flaxseed contains lignans, which tend to mimic estrogen. When estrogen levels are high in men, their testosterone suffers, and the side effects of a big belly and man boobs are just around the corner. The bottom line, your wife can have flaxseed, but you need to stay away from it.

22. Use Vegetable oil

If there’s an oil you don’t want to cook in, it’s vegetable oil.

Vegetable oils are full of PUFAs, which as we discussed are testosterone killers. One of the worst things you can do for your testosterone is cook all of your meals in it, sprinkle it onto a salad or dumping it on a baked potato, thinking that you’re boosting your testosterone but really lowering it. Keep it out of the kitchen.

23. Slouch

When your dad used to tell you to walk with your chest out, he was actually giving you some tips on how to boost your T. But if you won’t listen, you put yourself at jeopardy of losing testosterone. One of the worst things you can do for your testosterone levels is slouch.

Plus, it sends the message that you’re weak, insecure and closed off to the world – qualities that you don’t want to describe you as a man.

24. Run Marathons

Long distance running puts your muscles under stress for extended periods of time…

As a result, your cortisol levels shoot through the roof. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy a nice run every once in a while. I like to go for runs myself…

Just keep your 5k’s to a minimum.

25. Over-Train

You can also consider overtraining to be “under recovering.”

If you’re sacrificing a healthy amount of sleep in order to get to the gym, you’re doing it wrong. If your daily pattern is rubbing your eyes after 5 hours of sleep to get to the gym, you need to adjust your schedule so that you get more sleep at night and allow your muscles to recover.

26. Drink a Ton of Caffeine

Like I cover in my book, The Man Diet (grab your free copy here), drinking coffee is one of the best things you can do for your testosterone levels.

But drinking too much caffeine can stunt your T-count. Luckily, we have a lot of breathing room here. Cut your coffee to a few cups a day and you won’t have anything to worry about.

27. Get Dehydrated

According to studies, the more dehydrated you are, the higher your cortisol levels will be.

So if you aren’t constantly gulping down water, you put yourself at risk of low T. Drink water from a filter and through a BPA-free water bottle.

28. Pour on Cologne

Cologne contains phthalates, a chemical compound that is oftentimes unlisted in the ingredient label (because it isn’t required by the FDA) but is dangerous for your testosterone health.

Researchers have found this ingredient to be damaging to your sperm count and testosterone levels. In other words, every time you spritz on a little cologne (or dump in on depending on the kind of guy you are), your manliness shrivels up.

Deodorant will do just fine for you.

29. Rush to Work

Jumping out of bed and dashing off to work in a wild frenzy will cause your cortisol levels to spike and your testosterone levels to drop… Which isn’t a way to start off your morning.

Give yourself some time to wake up, journal, and have a cup of coffee before work. Anything comparable to a “morning rush” will sabotage your T for the day.

30. Don’t Do Anything

Hands down, one of the worst things you can do for your testosterone levels is to do nothing at all.

The increasing attractiveness of desk jobs and Netflix has begun to make men less active. As a result, out testosterone levels are dropping more and more from generation to generation. It’s going to take some activity, but we need to climb our way out of this mess before “manliness” looks more like drinking frappes at a local coffee shop than it does working hard, providing for our families, working with our hands, chasing adventure, and loving hard.

Next Step

Alright fellas, the ball’s in your court.

You know the 30 worst things you can do for your testosterone. So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to keep doing those things that are making you less of a man? Or are you going to turn the tide for the sake of your T?

Don’t forget to pick up your copy of my book, The Man Diet.

It’s got everything you need to make every day one that’s optimal for your testosterone.

I already bought your copy for you.

Grab your free copy of The Man Diet here.