Ernesto Ramirez

June 9, 2014

Max Gotzler wasn’t feeling his best during a long German winter. He decided to visit his physician to see if anything might be going on. This included various blood and micronutrient tests. When he received his results he noticed that his testosterone levels were on the low end of the acceptable range. Intrigued by this, he set out to figure out what affects his testosterone levels. Using a variety of self-tracking tools and methods he experimented with diet and lifestyle factors while tracking his testosterone values. Watch Max talk about what he found below and make sure to read his responses to our three prime questions.

Slides are also available here.

What did I do?
I explored how diet changes influenced my level of free testosterone. In addition, I observed how changes in testosterone related to my mood, sleep and energy level.

How did I do it?
Over the course of one year, I regularly checked my level of free (active) testosterone in saliva and correlated the results to other data I had collected using apps and tracking devices.

What did I learn?
I learned that eliminating carbs from my diet resulted in lower testosterone and adding carbs together with fat and protein increased testosterone. I also learned that sleep was closely tied to my level of testosterone. After good nights of sleep (usually more than 8 hours), my level was elevated the next morning.