Originally Posted by
Igifuno
A member recently reached out with a question asking if low testosterone levels could make it more difficult to shed fat. After doing some research on the subject, I thought it would be a good topic to share.
To answer the question, yes, it seems that low testosterone very well could constrain the body’s ability to shed stored fat, and here is why along with some background.
There are billions of fat cells throughout your body. In order to store fat, these cells expand to many times their original size, and then shrink when they discharge the stored fat. Fat cells respond to hormones such as testosterone in only one of two ways, conditional on the signal being either lipogenic or lipolytic.
‘Lipo’ means fat, and ‘lysis’ means to separate, or breakdown, in this case referring to the fat cell. So, a lipolytic hormone will increase the quantity of fat calories that are burned for energy. Oppositely, hormones that promote fat storage are identified as lipogenic, meaning lipogenic hormones stimulate fat storage.
With regard to fat loss, your testosterone levels can affect how easily you can lose fat. Imagine your fat cells like car, which has an accelerator and a brake. The ‘accelerator’ is the part of the fat cell that releases fat, and these are called beta-receptors. The parts of a fat cell that prohibit, or put the ‘brakes’ on fat loss is known as alpha-receptors.
The varying dispersal of the alpha and beta receptors on each of the billions of fat cells within you is why some parts of your body can shed fat faster and easier than others. Fat cells in women, particularly in certain areas of their body, have a higher ratio of alpha to beta-receptors, which is why they can have difficulty losing fat in that region.
So, if a fat cell has more beta-receptors, it will release stored fat faster than one with less beta-receptors.
This is where testosterone comes into play and appears to be advantageous. Testosterone has shown to increase the number of beta-receptors in the body, and when the number of beta-receptors is increased, it is naturally easier to shed stored fat.
Also, studies show that testosterone can also limit the storage of fat. When fat cells have been exposed to testosterone in a test tube, the activity of lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that promotes fat storage, is dramatically reduced.
Here is a quick study I found supporting the notion that testosterone increases beta-receptors:
Endocrinology. 1991 Jan;128(1):379-82.
Testosterone increases lipolysis and the number of beta-adrenoceptors in male rat adipocytes.
Xu XF, De Pergola G, Björntorp P.
Source
Wallenberg Laboratory, Sahlgren's Hospital, University of Göteborg, Sweden.
Abstract
The influence of androgen status on the regulation of lipolysis and number of beta-adrenoceptors in isolated adipocytes was studied in male rats. Castration resulted in decreased catecholamine-induced as well as forskolin-induced lipolysis. beta-adrenoceptor number, examined by a whole cell cyanopindolol binding assay, was also diminished to a similar extent.
Testosterone treatment of castrated rats normalized lipolysis as well as beta-adrenoceptor number. These results demonstrate that testosterone stimulates catecholamine-induced lipolysis in vivo by increasing the number of beta-adrenoceptors as well as the activity of adenylate cyclase, confirming previous in vitro studies performed in adipose precursor cells.
Hopefully this sheds some light on this topic of how low T can, in fact, inhibit your ability to lose fat in a rapid manner.
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