Low Libido Advice

[Darren]

Hello there, hopefully, you guys can help a little here. I'm sorry this will be a long one, I'm trying to give you every piece of information I can think of to help, I just need to be 'normal' again.

I have been suffering from what I assumed were low testosterone/andropause symptoms over the last 3 years. I finally got to see an endocrinologist who said it wasn't, so I booked a private endo who also agreed it wasn't low T. So now I'm stuck in limbo with no direction.

My libido (sexual interest and drive) is virtually absent, I can get an erection with stimulation but these go fairly fast, within about 20 seconds with no physical stimulus. I often need to use Cialis just to be able to have sex on the odd occasion I get 'frisky'

I'm male 44 not overweight and in reasonable condition. My bloods are as follows:

Serum testosterone 16.2 nmol/l
Free test (calculated) 0.214 nmol/l
SHBG 62nmol/l
LH 8.1
FSH 8.8
Prolactin 247
Testes are 15ml bilaterally
Pulse averages 78
Blood pressure is around 120/78
Thyroid just says normal
Cortisol is 455 nmol/l
IGF-1 37 nmol/l


I am on carbamazepine 600mg morning and 400mg evening. I am also on fexofenadine 120mg evening. These are my only prescription medications. I have been on B12 injections for over 1 year but I have decided to take myself off them as I don't have pernicious anemia and the last few I have felt better in the weeks before the injection, but not so good after it.

I have been on a very long term of oxytetracycline (18 months!!!) for head acne, but I decided to come off those in January 2018.

Since that blood test was taken I have been taking the following supplements daily

Zinc 30mg elemental morning
DHEA 25mg morning
Magnesium oxide 200mg morning
Vitamin D 10,000 IU weekly
St John's wort 3x daily (only last 2 weeks)

I used to take a multi vitamin (Centrum MEN) and add a B complex to it but have stopped those over a month ago. I have taken tryptophan for about a week over 6 months ago then stopped it. Also previous to that I have taken theanine, rhodiola and taurine. After reading a little more do you guys recommend an essential amino acid supplement? I was looking at this one:

Leucine 5g
Valine 2.2g
Lysine 2.2g
Phenylalanine 1.8g
Threonine 1.5g
Isoleucine 0.9g
Histidine 0.7g
Methionine 0.5g
Tryptophan 0.2g

I am looking at some glycine for night time. Any thoughts?

I drink coffee regularly, but not daily. I walk around 5-10 miles daily. I probably don't eat enough, I think it's between 2,000 and 2,500 calories daily. I have lost a lot of muscle tone so think I probably need more protein??

My symptoms:

Brain fog
Language skills are terrible
Memory issues
Poor concentration
Always tired
No motivation
White coating on the tongue
General fatigue
Low-grade anxiety - I sometimes have difficulty waiting on things I feel are important.
Don't dream any more
Sweat lots, more than I ever have
Don't fantasise sexually
Skin itching at night (hence the fexofenadine)
I have found I am quite pessimistic these days unless it's something that interests me.
I do sometimes have mood swings that are uncontrollable

Sleep; I can't remember the last time I had a refreshing sleep. I can usually get to sleep no problem, but staying asleep is much harder. I usually wake around 3 times at 2:30, 5 and 7:30 am. I don't feel refreshed when I wake.

Muscle loss; I have had quite a lot of muscle loss since January (since I started walking). I can put it back on, but struggle to keep it. I think I might not be getting enough protein and/or food in general?

Low/zero libido; I can't even fantasise about sex, it's like a switch has been turned off inside my brain

Erection; much softer erections. If I were a 10 before they are more like a 6 now. There's no 'pump' and it doesn't 'stand' on its own, even with Cialis. I no longer get spontaneous erections either. Doesn't seem to have as much sensation and is always flaccid and unresponsive unless masturbated. I have been thinking about eating more nitric oxide rich foods to try and 'pump' it more when erect.

Orgasms; sometimes I can reach orgasm easily, but probably 75% of the time I struggle to reach orgasm and often can't. It's as though I don't enjoy it as much, I assume because my erections aren't as hard as they used to be, the pressure is different.

Loss of joy; things just aren't enjoyable for me right now. I still have a laugh and a joke with friends etc.. but the little things aren't enjoyable

Joint pain; recently my joints are hurting, my thumbs and shoulders especially. this came on 3 days after my last b12 injection.


As you can see, all of the symptoms point to low testosterone, but both endocrinologists say no and after finding out that it's a lifetime thing since it shuts your own production down, I don't fancy trying it privately. That and the prostate cancer issue as my father has literally just been diagnosed.

The private endo did suggest that the symptoms were sympathetic with depression but he also stated that based on my interactions and that we were having a giggle that he didn't think I was depressed and I agree, I don't feel depressed, just frustrated that I'm broken and my Dr can't or won't help.

Could it even me a catecholamine issue?

I am seeing my GP on 21st August to try and get a vitamin/mineral breakdown so I can see if I have any deficiencies. Is there anything, in particular, I should/could ask for? Not that I expect my GP to give me a full vitamin and mineral panel of course

Any help or insights greatly appreciated, I really need this fixed soon.

Thank you for your input in advance.

 

[raypeatclips]

Thing that stands out was the carbamazepine, which raises serotonin, the effects of which Peat has spoken about at length.

 

[theLaw]

First: Do no harm, and keep it simple

1. Nearly all medications/supplements have side effects which could be causing some/many of your problems

2. Unless your doc is a fan of Peat's work, then Test. + Viagra (or some variation increasing NO) is probably going to be their solution, and don't expect a compromise from them.

3. You left out the most important part of your post: your actual diet (huge red flag which means you need to do more research here before moving forward).

Your post indicates that you don't yet fully understand how misinformed/misguided docs can be about even basic nutrition, but you will quickly learn if you continue down this path.

In the meantime, just trying to eat as many healthy foods discussed here as possible frequently in small meals while insuring enough macros/micros is the safest route imo.

Having dealt with similar issues, I can tell you that food is the most important part of the solution. Cheers!

 

[Darren]

Wow thank you so much for reading all of that guys, really appreciate it!

@raypeatclips : Thank you. I have read about serotonin and my meds before, but as you can imagine, the GP's first response is to change them and my life is screwed up enough right now lol. Although getting my levels checked can do no harm, at least I'll have an idea of what I'm working with. Very helpful, thank you

Do you have a link to where I can read/watch about the anti-psychotics?


@theLaw : Thank you for your informed reply. Yeah I'm a total newbie to Peat's work, literally only finding it by accident while searching for some help for my GF's hot flushes lol, what a pair! I have a few side effects from my meds, slight double vision being one of them, but as mentioned above, coming off them or changing them is a lot scarier than sticking with them. I'd lose my job and so many other things if I had a seizure.

Diet, hard to say as it varies. Generally, I am a meat eater, mostly white meat though which I see isn't great in the forum. I have been introducing fish and the like as I'm not a fan but realised a few months ago that it is important for overall health. I don't eat much in the way of 'green' food, trying to teach my body to be able to swallow it as it sets off my gag reflex. However, that said, I do eat a moderate amount of veg, green and others. Don't eat many carbs, well based on the guys in here anyway, but I typically eat about 40% carbs, 20% fat and 40% protein. This varies based on where I am as I have to travel with work and it's not always easy to balance my meals while out and about.

Mealtimes differ too. Often I will have a late or absent breakfast then lunch around 2pm, dinner about 7pm and that will really be it aside from snacks between, which are usually apples, bananas or yogurt. Recently I have been craving sugar rich foods, usually later at night so I guess the walking is obliterating my glycogen stores?!? I'm trying to lose the small amount of belly fat I have so tend not to eat after 10pm if I can hep it.

Hope that helps a bit more??

Do you have any specific threads that would be beneficial to read?

 

[raypeatclips]

Wow thank you so much for reading all of that guys, really appreciate it!

@raypeatclips : Thank you. I have read about serotonin and my meds before, but as you can imagine, the GP's first response is to change them and my life is screwed up enough right now lol. Although getting my levels checked can do no harm, at least I'll have an idea of what I'm working with. Very helpful, thank you

Do you have a link to where I can read/watch about the anti-psychotics?


@theLaw : Thank you for your informed reply. Yeah I'm a total newbie to Peat's work, literally only finding it by accident while searching for some help for my GF's hot flushes lol, what a pair! I have a few side effects from my meds, slight double vision being one of them, but as mentioned above, coming off them or changing them is a lot scarier than sticking with them. I'd lose my job and so many other things if I had a seizure.

Diet, hard to say as it varies. Generally, I am a meat eater, mostly white meat though which I see isn't great in the forum. I have been introducing fish and the like as I'm not a fan but realised a few months ago that it is important for overall health. I don't eat much in the way of 'green' food, trying to teach my body to be able to swallow it as it sets off my gag reflex. However, that said, I do eat a moderate amount of veg, green and others. Don't eat many carbs, well based on the guys in here anyway, but I typically eat about 40% carbs, 20% fat and 40% protein. This varies based on where I am as I have to travel with work and it's not always easy to balance my meals while out and about.

Mealtimes differ too. Often I will have a late or absent breakfast then lunch around 2pm, dinner about 7pm and that will really be it aside from snacks between, which are usually apples, bananas or yogurt. Recently I have been craving sugar rich foods, usually later at night so I guess the walking is obliterating my glycogen stores?!? I'm trying to lose the small amount of belly fat I have so tend not to eat after 10pm if I can hep it.

Hope that helps a bit more??

Do you have any specific threads that would be beneficial to read?

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the SSRI was the cause of the majority of your problems, and I could see you running into a lot of dead ends trying different things people suggest in the hope that it isn't true, but these are very powerful drugs that have whole hosts of issues with them. I don't know much about getting off the drugs though, you'd have to search around ways of weaning yourself off, if that is what you want to do, and speak to your doctor before you do anything. I have never found doctors helpful with anything beyond basic issues. They will tell you the anti depressant has nothing to do with it.

Peats website is the best place to start, but it is very dense and can be overwhelming for newcomers if they don't have a scientific background. I quite like using the search box for things I'm interested in. Perhaps you could search "serotonin" on his website and go from there?

Otherwise he has a couple of articles based on them:
Serotonin: Effects in disease, aging and inflammation

Serotonin, depression, and aggression - The problem of brain energy.

 

[Darren]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the SSRI was the cause of the majority of your problems, and I could see you running into a lot of dead ends trying different things people suggest in the hope that it isn't true, but these are very powerful drugs that have whole hosts of issues with them. I don't know much about getting off the drugs though, you'd have to search around ways of weaning yourself off, if that is what you want to do, and speak to your doctor before you do anything. I have never found doctors helpful with anything beyond basic issues. They will tell you the anti depressant has nothing to do with it.

Peats website is the best place to start, but it is very dense and can be overwhelming for newcomers if they don't have a scientific background. I quite like using the search box for things I'm interested in. Perhaps you could search "serotonin" on his website and go from there?

Otherwise he has a couple of articles based on them:
Serotonin: Effects in disease, aging and inflammation

Serotonin, depression, and aggression - The problem of brain energy.

Thank you once again for a speedy reply. I think the first part of this will be getting serotonin levels checked with my GP, see if they are even slightly high so I can see what I'm fighting. Interestingly, I was put on the meds when I was 12 (sudden onset puberty epilepsy) so I'm not even sure if I still need them if I'm honest. However, what I can say is that I never had spontaneous erections like my friends and am wondering now if that's why!!

I see what you're saying about the articles being a hard read unless you have a scientific background (or an attention span!). I'll see if I can struggle my way through them, or failing that see if I can get them printed off and have a friend look over them to see if they can 'cliff note' them lol

 

[raypeatclips]

Thank you once again for a speedy reply. I think the first part of this will be getting serotonin levels checked with my GP, see if they are even slightly high so I can see what I'm fighting. Interestingly, I was put on the meds when I was 12 (sudden onset puberty epilepsy) so I'm not even sure if I still need them if I'm honest. However, what I can say is that I never had spontaneous erections like my friends and am wondering now if that's why!!

I see what you're saying about the articles being a hard read unless you have a scientific background (or an attention span!). I'll see if I can struggle my way through them, or failing that see if I can get them printed off and have a friend look over them to see if they can 'cliff note' them lol

Im not sure what your GP is like, but there is no way I would ever be able to get a serotonin blood test from my GP by convincing them. I couldn't even get a vitamin D blood test from them and had to pay for a home test which came back severely deficient. If you are lucky enough to have extra funds then consider paying for your own blood tests online. Serotonin is pretty specialised so they will be more expensive than the regular ones for things such as vitamin D for example.

What are your reasons for wanting the serotonin blood test? To prove to your GP, to prove to yourself?

A quick Google search of your drug brings up a study showing it raises serotonin in rats.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9218697/

It can also be nice to read through Peats email responses for less dense ways to see his ideas. Of course these don't always have references and people could make things up, but nothing stands out as fake. You could search the page for "serotonin" "SSRI" "epilepsy" and see what comes back.

https://raypeatforum.com/wiki/index.php/Ray_Peat_Email_Exchanges

 

[Darren]

Thank you once again, very helpful. I have just been reading various articles over the internet about serotonin excess and does seem a relatively good fit I must say. Also read that the tests are largely useless lol since serum or urine serotonin isn't a reference of brain serotonin. Perhaps why the GP's are a bit shy to issue a blood test for it.

So it seems I might need to try a down regulator such as Bacopa for a couple of weeks and see if that helps? Anybody have a view on this course of action?

BTW I haven't had a seizure in well over 10 years.

 

[raypeatclips]

Thank you once again, very helpful. I have just been reading various articles over the internet about serotonin excess and does seem a relatively good fit I must say. Also read that the tests are largely useless lol since serum or urine serotonin isn't a reference of brain serotonin. Perhaps why the GP's are a bit shy to issue a blood test for it.

So it seems I might need to try a down regulator such as Bacopa for a couple of weeks and see if that helps? Anybody have a view on this course of action?

BTW I haven't had a seizure in well over 10 years.

Why take a serotonin lowerer, to combat a serotonin riser? To me personally taking something to normalise the level of another thing seems counterproductive. Do you need to take the drugs for work reasons or something? Do you know if there are any epilepsy medications that don't interfere with serotonin?

 

[Darren]

Well, I kind of have to take the meds for work, if I came off them and had a seizure I would lose my driving license and then my job (as it involves me being able to easily travel), and potentially my home. I understand where you're coming from though, if I downregulate it, then do I actually need the up regulator!? I'm not 100% certain (let's face it I'm not even 10% certain) how my meds work to stop my epilepsy, so the serotonin could be a small part of that which can be slightly manipulated. But until I know more I'm not doing anything with it. Too much at risk if I have a seizure.

I'm also thinking that if serotonin is raised, then dopamine will be lowered? Hence the low mood and slight apathy/lack of joy? So that could have a knock-on effect on my testosterone, which in my opinion is low for my age?

I should probably mention that I was thinking of down regulating simply just to see if that was the issue since it's near on impossible to actually know for certain without testing that serotonin is high.

 

[danielbb]

First: Do no harm, and keep it simple

1. Nearly all medications/supplements have side effects which could be causing some/many of your problems

2. Unless your doc is a fan of Peat's work, then Test. + Viagra (or some variation increasing NO) is probably going to be their solution, and don't expect a compromise from them.

3. You left out the most important part of your post: your actual diet (huge red flag which means you need to do more research here before moving forward).

Your post indicates that you don't yet fully understand how misinformed/misguided docs can be about even basic nutrition, but you will quickly learn if you continue down this path.

In the meantime, just trying to eat as many healthy foods discussed here as possible frequently in small meals while insuring enough macros/micros is the safest route imo.

Having dealt with similar issues, I can tell you that food is the most important part of the solution. Cheers!

I agree with theLaw. Darren - I am new here but I shared many of your symptoms including anxiety, depression, and poor sleep. I discovered the benefits of sugar by complete accident. I was eating a hard core vegan diet, following many of the tips from a Doctor named Dr. Essylstyn because of his claims of reversing heart disease. I have heart disease and thought veganism was the way to go. I now know veganism is dopey - at least for me. I wasn't feeling all that great. Grumpy all the time. Very hard to lose weight as I suspect my thyroid was all screwed up. One night, my wife and I got into a quarrel and as I was going home, I said by golly, I need some comfort food. I stopped at Wendy's and got a cheeseburger, fries, and by accident ordered a regular coke instead of a diet coke like I would normally order. Unbelievably, I had the best night sleep I had had in 20 years. Sorry ladies for this detail but I had a rock hard erection (an 11 on the 10 scale) all night long and the next day I felt better than I had in decades. Without thinking the next day, I went back to vegetables (mostly raw) and began thinking about why that night was so good. It took me about two weeks to realize it was what I ate before I went to bed. I first assumed it must have been the fries so I started experimenting with potatoes and white rice. I got a mild response at best. Then, I figured it must have been the cheeseburger and again no significant response. At that point, the LIGHT BULB went off. I knew immediately what had happened. It had to be INSULIN. What is so exciting about this, is that insulin is under our DIRECT control which is unlike all the other hormones. I went and bought a coke that night and voila - I reproduced the result from the night I stopped at Wendy's. I began to research things because my whole life people said sugar was bad and that is how I discovered Ray Peat. He's the first guy who started making sense to me. He actually is not that high on vegetables, and from my experience, they (raw ones) are terrible for the endocrine system - for the most part. He loves sugar and explained how most of your active thyroid hormone is made in the liver by converting glucose. I also did some other research, which clearly links glucose consumption and insulin to gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) which ultimately produces testosterone through the release of lutenizing hormone (LH). I've included links to those articles at the end of this post.

Everything since then has started to make sense to me. I am a patent attorney but spent most of my life as a controls engineer. The brain is the controller and it uses hormones as the control signals in the body to control things. Ray Peat explains perfectly how they work. I never knew about Estrogen or PUFA. Never knew that aspirin and orange juice undoes the effects of estrogen. I have completely cured myself of runny nose, brain fog, depression, achy joints, facial inflammation, inflammation in general, man-boobs, beer belly, skin issues, etc. etc. etc. I am almost 58 years old and in the best shape of my life. I am in better shape than most 20 year olds. I produce massive amounts of testosterone every night basically using this formula - boiled white mashed potatoes (or white rice/sweet potato sometimes), a hamburger (for dinner), and Mexican Coke just before bed. I never skip those ingredients before bedtime. I've experimented with everything and by pure LUCK, it seems what I luckily had at Wendy's that one lucky night was the formula (for me at least). I've tried every kind of meat and found burgers to work the very best for producing the best hormonal results. I've experimented just using sugar and get about 75% of the response but found Mexican Coke works the best. I think the caffeine and carbon dioxide in the beverage are what gives it its magic along with sugar. Ray Peat talks about the healing effects of carbon dioxide and I've added controlled breathing to my daily mix and it seems to help. I no longer take any supplements of any form and have come to the conclusion they are all scams (at least for me). I've also found a tablespoon of honey about 1/2 hour before the anticipation of relations with your wife works great for libido.

The number 1 thing that cured depression and digestion issues for me was the removal of starch from the diet as in flour and legumes. After about two weeks without starch, depression left me along with negative thoughts, runny nose, and anxiety. I couldn't believe it. Mexican Coke (made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup and bottled in Mexico) can be purchased at Sam's Club and I am told Costco as well. If I could only eat/drink one thing in a day, it would absolutely be Mexican Coke. I know that sounds gimmicky and goofy, but it has changed my life. Notice I am not talking about over-dosing sugar but using it strategically to get a hormonal result. Here are the links regarding GnRH production.

https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/144/10/4484/2502309

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3205187/

 

[theLaw]

@theLaw

Do you have any specific threads that would be beneficial to read?

https://raypeatforum.com/wiki/index.php/Ray_Peat_Email_Exchanges

https://raypeatforum.com/community/threads/ray-peat-email-advice-depository.1035/

 

[Darren]

I agree with theLaw. Darren - I am new here but I shared many of your symptoms including anxiety, depression, and poor sleep. I discovered the benefits of sugar by complete accident. I was eating a hard core vegan diet, following many of the tips from a Doctor named Dr. Essylstyn because of his claims of reversing heart disease. I have heart disease and thought veganism was the way to go. I now know veganism is dopey - at least for me. I wasn't feeling all that great. Grumpy all the time. Very hard to lose weight as I suspect my thyroid was all screwed up. One night, my wife and I got into a quarrel and as I was going home, I said by golly, I need some comfort food. I stopped at Wendy's and got a cheeseburger, fries, and by accident ordered a regular coke instead of a diet coke like I would normally order. Unbelievably, I had the best night sleep I had had in 20 years. Sorry ladies for this detail but I had a rock hard erection (an 11 on the 10 scale) all night long and the next day I felt better than I had in decades. Without thinking the next day, I went back to vegetables (mostly raw) and began thinking about why that night was so good. It took me about two weeks to realize it was what I ate before I went to bed. I first assumed it must have been the fries so I started experimenting with potatoes and white rice. I got a mild response at best. Then, I figured it must have been the cheeseburger and again no significant response. At that point, the LIGHT BULB went off. I knew immediately what had happened. It had to be INSULIN. What is so exciting about this, is that insulin is under our DIRECT control which is unlike all the other hormones. I went and bought a coke that night and voila - I reproduced the result from the night I stopped at Wendy's. I began to research things because my whole life people said sugar was bad and that is how I discovered Ray Peat. He's the first guy who started making sense to me. He actually is not that high on vegetables, and from my experience, they (raw ones) are terrible for the endocrine system - for the most part. He loves sugar and explained how most of your active thyroid hormone is made in the liver by converting glucose. I also did some other research, which clearly links glucose consumption and insulin to gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) which ultimately produces testosterone through the release of lutenizing hormone (LH). I've included links to those articles at the end of this post.

Everything since then has started to make sense to me. I am a patent attorney but spent most of my life as a controls engineer. The brain is the controller and it uses hormones as the control signals in the body to control things. Ray Peat explains perfectly how they work. I never knew about Estrogen or PUFA. Never knew that aspirin and orange juice undoes the effects of estrogen. I have completely cured myself of runny nose, brain fog, depression, achy joints, facial inflammation, inflammation in general, man-boobs, beer belly, skin issues, etc. etc. etc. I am almost 58 years old and in the best shape of my life. I am in better shape than most 20 year olds. I produce massive amounts of testosterone every night basically using this formula - boiled white mashed potatoes (or white rice/sweet potato sometimes), a hamburger (for dinner), and Mexican Coke just before bed. I never skip those ingredients before bedtime. I've experimented with everything and by pure LUCK, it seems what I luckily had at Wendy's that one lucky night was the formula (for me at least). I've tried every kind of meat and found burgers to work the very best for producing the best hormonal results. I've experimented just using sugar and get about 75% of the response but found Mexican Coke works the best. I think the caffeine and carbon dioxide in the beverage are what gives it its magic along with sugar. Ray Peat talks about the healing effects of carbon dioxide and I've added controlled breathing to my daily mix and it seems to help. I no longer take any supplements of any form and have come to the conclusion they are all scams (at least for me). I've also found a tablespoon of honey about 1/2 hour before the anticipation of relations with your wife works great for libido.

The number 1 thing that cured depression and digestion issues for me was the removal of starch from the diet as in flour and legumes. After about two weeks without starch, depression left me along with negative thoughts, runny nose, and anxiety. I couldn't believe it. Mexican Coke (made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup and bottled in Mexico) can be purchased at Sam's Club and I am told Costco as well. If I could only eat/drink one thing in a day, it would absolutely be Mexican Coke. I know that sounds gimmicky and goofy, but it has changed my life. Notice I am not talking about over-dosing sugar but using it strategically to get a hormonal result. Here are the links regarding GnRH production.

https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/144/10/4484/2502309

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3205187/

Thank you for the reply, do you know where 'Mexican coke' can be found in the UK? Or if it has an alternative?

 

[Darren]

https://raypeatforum.com/wiki/index.php/Ray_Peat_Email_Exchanges

https://raypeatforum.com/community/threads/ray-peat-email-advice-depository.1035/

Oh that is perfect, thank you so much

 

[raypeatclips]

Thank you for the reply, do you know where 'Mexican coke' can be found in the UK? Or if it has an alternative?

Mexican coke is just our regular coke over here. Just means its made it real sugar.

 

[Spartan300]

The number 1 thing that cured depression and digestion issues for me was the removal of starch from the diet as in flour and legumes.

@danielbb You say you still have a burger every night - assume it's without a bun based on the statement above?

 

[danielbb]

@danielbb You say you still have a burger every night - assume it's without a bun based on the statement above?

Yes of course no bun @Spartan300. I don't always eat burgers just have found them (along with white mashed potatoes) to be the best for my hormonal output (i.e., testosterone production at night). I also believe resistance training (2 to 3 times per week) is very important for testosterone production.

I want to clarify that the only reason I have to use Mexican Coke here in the US is most US bottlers use high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in place of sugar. Based on @raypeatclips comments above, it appears Coke is bottled with sugar in the UK which is a good thing. There aren't too many magic bullets out there but in my humble opinion, 1 Coke every night before bed is a magic bullet for testosterone production. My brother thinks I am an outlier and it only works for me. I'd like other people here to try it and give me their feedback. For the most part, I don't eat sugar during the day (other than fruit here or there) and just spike my insulin once per day before bed with 1 Coke and it has NEVER failed me.

I have found zucchini to be a wonderful replacement for flour. I make my own homemade spaghetti sauce with meatballs and Italian sausage and use a spiralizer to spriralize the zucchini. I use a potato peeler to remove the skin and then spiralize. You can boil it a little like pasta or nuke it in the microwave. Nobody can tell the difference and it is delicious. Also, I've found a way to make zucchini flour with dried zucchini chips that can be purchased on line. I make zucchini chocolate chip cookies and zucchini carrot cake and everyone who has tried them loves them. If anyone is interested, I can post the recipes.

Speaking of magic bullets the other ones I have found are mostly from Ray Peat. OJ, milk (and milk products), aspirin, liver, oysters, strategic use of sugar, strategic use of salt, fruit (no bananas because they seem to clog my digestion), raw carrots, and boiled potatoes. Anti-magic bullets are absolutely no PUFA if at all humanly possible, no starch other than well-cooked potatoes and some rice, no legumes, no raw vegetables other than carrots and onions, no HFCS. I believe Macadamia nuts are safe. Coconut oil is the only Ray Peat suggestion I am leery of. I started using it and my runny nose returned so I stopped using it. Milk and animal fat seem to work best for me.

 

[Spartan300]

Thanks for the response @danielbb

Great tips too on the starch elimination. Your symptoms & mine are similar and the fact that you've resolved them is encouraging.

Burger for dinner & Coke before bed for me tonight!

I'll let you know how it goes

 

[Runenight201]

Lower your meat consumption, drastically raise your carb intake, get sunlight/outdoor activity at least 1 hour a day while its summer and sunny

 

[Runenight201]

Lower your meat consumption, drastically raise your carb intake, get sunlight/outdoor activity at least 1 hour a day while its summer and sunny. I had sleep issues as well until I drastically increased carbs. Find your favorite starch and eat lots of it. Peat doesn't advise starch but imo it helps drastically increase carbohydrate consumption. Eating 3k calories of just fruit is doable but not practical or sustainable.