Ten questions across the six areas with the strongest evidence for influencing testosterone: sleep, body composition, resistance training, alcohol, stress and diet.
None of them is a supplement, and that is the point. The factors that genuinely move testosterone are unglamorous, and they are the ones most often skipped in favour of something purchasable.
Sleep. Most of your daily testosterone is produced during sleep. Restricting healthy young men to five hours a night for one week lowered daytime testosterone by 10 to 15 per cent. Nothing else in this list produces an effect that size that quickly.
Visceral fat. Fat tissue contains aromatase, which converts testosterone into oestradiol. More abdominal fat means more conversion and lower testosterone, and the loop reinforces itself.
Resistance training. The acute hormonal spike after lifting is small and short-lived, and largely irrelevant. What matters is the effect on body composition and insulin sensitivity over months.
Alcohol. Heavy intake suppresses testosterone directly and disrupts the sleep where it is produced. Moderate intake matters less than people fear, and more than they hope.
Chronic stress. Sustained cortisol elevation suppresses the signal from brain to testes.
Diet. Adequate calories, sufficient fat and enough zinc and magnesium. Severe restriction lowers testosterone; eating more than you need does not raise it.
It cannot tell you your testosterone level. Only a blood test does that.
A poor score means your habits are working against you. It does not mean your testosterone is low, and a good score does not mean it is fine. Plenty of men with excellent habits have genuinely low levels for medical reasons, and that is exactly the situation where testing matters.
Look at which two answers cost you the most, and change one of them.
Improving one factor properly beats improving six slightly, and the most common single driver is sleep. It is also the one men most often treat as fixed.
Retest after twelve weeks. Hormonal changes from lifestyle take months, not weeks, and judging at three weeks is why most attempts get abandoned.
If your habits are genuinely good and symptoms persist, that is the point to get bloods rather than to try harder.
Related reading: The 30-day reset · What causes low testosterone · Does lifting increase testosterone · Alcohol and testosterone
Educational only, not medical advice.