julcreutz

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I haven't found a good thread on this, but read a few posts of people saying their T skyrockets on a low-fat diet, which goes against what you hear in a lot of communities, being that fat is a very important precursor for hormones.

I myself am experiencing with a lower-fat diet at the moment to fix my circulation and skin sebum issues. I've been experiencing better circulation and more morning woods, but I've also been eating way more liver so maybe it's that.

How much fat do you actually need for proper hormone function? May men need less than women? There are indigenous tribes of people that eat very low-fat diets, and they don't seem to have problems. Moreover, carbs can be converted to fat, so that could be used for hormones, or do I misunderstand this?

I'm trying to find the minimal amount of fat I need to consume, as I'm pretty convinced that excess lipid is the worst thing you could do for your health. Back in my carnivore days, when doing PKD (2:1 fat to protein ratio in grams), I had the WORST circulation ever, and literally felt my heart beating so fast in the morning after my high fat breakfast (probably 100g+ of fat), and that paper hypothesising that sebum is just excess lipid was very intriguing to say the least.
 

Frankdee20

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Thyroid and vitamin A are needed to convert cholesterol to Pregnenalone.... but I have also seen that low fat diets can boost T... Nobody knows lol
 

YourUniverse

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Saturated fats can displace unsaturates for better thyroid output, the degree of unsaturation of a person's tissues probably dictates their level of dietary fat needed for this effect.
 

baccheion

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Not as much if consuming mostly/all sugar, as fructose is converted to fats/cholesterol by the liver. 25-35g/day is one number thrown around here.

I wonder about a liver (+ oysters to get a good zinc:copper ratio) and orange juice diet.
 
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You don't technically need any fat for hormone production (in theory). When people say "you need fat/lipids for hormone/testosterone production, what they mean is cholesterol, which is a lipid, and which is generally found in fatty animal foods. But humans can synthesize cholesterol from glucose, or any other source of acetyl-coa (like fat), just fine. So technically you can eat a zero fat diet and produce all the cholesterol you need, in theory.

In practice I'm not so sure. It might be like glucose. Technically even on a zero carbohydrate diet you're liver can synthesize enough glucose for essential functions, but in practice it's much better just to eat some.
 

gaze

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enough to keep stress low. Saturated fats are anti-stress by displacing pufas, and stress impedes against hormone production. Also the anti bacterial action of saturated fats helps to lower bacterial overgrowth which also impedes hormone production by harming the liver.
 
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I haven't found a good thread on this, but read a few posts of people saying their T skyrockets on a low-fat diet, which goes against what you hear in a lot of communities, being that fat is a very important precursor for hormones.

I myself am experiencing with a lower-fat diet at the moment to fix my circulation and skin sebum issues. I've been experiencing better circulation and more morning woods, but I've also been eating way more liver so maybe it's that.

How much fat do you actually need for proper hormone function? May men need less than women? There are indigenous tribes of people that eat very low-fat diets, and they don't seem to have problems. Moreover, carbs can be converted to fat, so that could be used for hormones, or do I misunderstand this?

I'm trying to find the minimal amount of fat I need to consume, as I'm pretty convinced that excess lipid is the worst thing you could do for your health. Back in my carnivore days, when doing PKD (2:1 fat to protein ratio in grams), I had the WORST circulation ever, and literally felt my heart beating so fast in the morning after my high fat breakfast (probably 100g+ of fat), and that paper hypothesising that sebum is just excess lipid was very intriguing to say the least.

For me, sebum excess stopped after beginning low carb ketogenic diet. IGF controls part of the sebum amount and viscosity.
 
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julcreutz

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For me, sebum excess stopped after beginning low carb ketogenic diet. IGF controls part of the sebum amount and viscosity.

Opposite for me. I had a thick layer of white sebum on my face that I had to wipe off every evening. My skin got really smooth on OMAD tho, but that was likely due to being hypothyroid and slowing down the system all day.
 

GreekDemiGod

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Well, some of the most foods that are known to be Testosterone-boosting contain animal / saturated fats. But i've been wondering this myself
  • eggs
  • fatty steak
  • butter
  • cocoa
If the low carbers rationale that ÿou don't need carbs when gluconeogenesis exists, we should not fall for a similar kind of rationale: you don't need fats, you can't make it.

A 40:30:30 macro split is supposedly the best for Testosterone production in bobybuilding circles.
 

Zigzag

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For me, sebum excess stopped after beginning low carb ketogenic diet. IGF controls part of the sebum amount and viscosity.
Same here. I had perfectly clear skin on a keto/low carb diet. Currently I'm struggling to keep my forehead free of whiteheads. I have very oily T-zone. I feel like it's also terrible for my hair.
 
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Same here. I had perfectly clear skin on a keto/low carb diet. Currently I'm struggling to keep my forehead free of whiteheads. I have very oily T-zone. I feel like it's also terrible for my hair.

Yeah, and the seb derm/dandruff is adjacent to acne in terms of processes. I experimented and it does not have to be very low CHO, i got as high as 120g CHO and still had the proper skin development. There is also the notion of Insulin Toxicity. Now i get about 50g of (likely unavailable?) carb from veg and 20g from quark, so very low again. I had a high carb ice cream binge and felt terrible serotonergic for 3 days, very hypofrontal.
 

Zigzag

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Yeah, and the seb derm/dandruff is adjacent to acne in terms of processes. I experimented and it does not have to be very low CHO, i got as high as 120g CHO and still had the proper skin development. There is also the notion of Insulin Toxicity. Now i get about 50g of (likely unavailable?) carb from veg and 20g from quark, so very low again. I had a high carb ice cream binge and felt terrible serotonergic for 3 days, very hypofrontal.
I've read somewhere about the insulin and I think it might be the issue in my case. It sucks.
 

pauljacob

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Thyroid and vitamin A are needed to convert cholesterol to Pregnenalone.... but I have also seen that low fat diets can boost T... Nobody knows lol
When you say "T" what do you mean exactly? Being a noob member, Acronyms drive me crazy. So what do you mean by "T" -- TSH, T3, T4, ETC.? Sometimes it is referred to as a supplement. I wish there was a section on this board that lists and defines as many Acronyms as possible.
 

Lollipop2

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When you say "T" what do you mean exactly? Being a noob member, Acronyms drive me crazy. So what do you mean by "T" -- TSH, T3, T4, ETC.? Sometimes it is referred to as a supplement. I wish there was a section on this board that lists and defines as many Acronyms as possible.
Testosterone.
 

Jessie

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I think cholesterol is far more important than dietary fat is. You need cholesterol, vitamin A, and T3 to make pregnenolone and then ultimately testosterone as well.

I'm not entirely sure where you think dietary fat plays a role here. The only studies I've seen about hormones and fat are ones demonstrating better outcomes in subjects that eat more SFAs and MUFAs in comparison to PUFAs.

So, to the extent that you're avoiding PUFA, fats (or lack thereof) shouldn't really be harming your hormonal production.
 

YourUniverse

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I think "fat needed for hormones" is rooted in bodybuilding broscience where the only fats they eat on cuts when hormones are pertinent conversation are eggs. I think what theyre really saying is "dont forget to eat your eggs". So I think Jessie is right, cholesterol is probably most important.
 
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