Do Test Boosters Work: Everything You Need to Know

Testosterone boosters have gained quite the popularity in recent years. Some sites even post articles with titles like “Best Testosterone Boosters of 2017”.

Supposedly, a testosterone booster gives you benefits such as:

All good, right? I mean… who, in their right mind, wouldn’t want these benefits for $50-70 per month?

Thus, testosterone boosters seem like a no-brainer. Pop a pill or two a day and voila – you’re going to make all kinds of gains in the gym and in life.

But do test boosters work? Are they worth the money?

Let’s dig deep and find out.

What is Testosterone’s Role in The Body and Why It Is Important

Testosterone is a male sex hormone that influences important things like:

To say that having optimal levels of testosterone would be an understatement. Having lower than normal levels often comes with negative consequences such as:

Very nasty stuff.

Before we talk about that, let’s quickly clarify the difference between testosterone and free testosterone.

Most of the testosterone your body produces binds to two proteins - sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and albumin. Most of the testosterone that is bound to SHBG is not bioavailable and not available for use.

The smaller portion of testosterone that binds to albumin is bioavailable because it dissociates freely and can become available for tissue intake.

And then we have our free testosterone. This is the small portion that circulates freely and is not bound to either of the two proteins. Both total and free testosterone can be measured with a simple blood test and are commonly expressed in nanograms per deciliter (of blood).

A nanogram (ng) is a billionth of a gram. A deciliter (dL) is 10 liters.

The normal ranges of total testosterone are:

As you can see, the normal range for testosterone is quite big. The upper limit is 12 times higher than the lower limit in 15-16-year-old boys, and 4 times higher for guys over the age of 17.

Some guys have higher and other guys have lower levels of testosterone. And you might be asking yourself, “Does it matter?”

We’ll discuss this below, but there’s one important thing we need to clear up:

We are all different and what could be considered as low for some guys (leading to the hypogonadal symptoms from above) could be normal for others.

For example, a man in his forties could feel great at 400 ng/dL, where a guy in his twenties could show symptoms of low T.

In one study, the researchers investigated symptoms of low testosterone in relation to serum total testosterone in men below the age of forty. They found that men with testosterone levels below 400 ng/dL showed hypogonadal symptoms such as depression, low energy, lower athletic performance, and deterioration in productivity.

The bottom line is this:

Even though your testosterone levels might be in the ‘normal’ range, you could still be experiencing symptoms of low testosterone. You need to keep this in mind if you decide to do a blood test.

Testosterone is a key player for muscle growth. In fact, this study showed that it is such a powerful anabolic hormone that men who were injected with 600 mg weekly for 10 weeks managed to gain muscle size without even training. They also concluded:

Supraphysiologic doses of testosterone, especially when combined with strength training, increase fat-free mass and muscle size and strength in normal men.

But what about us natural lifters? How does testosterone correlate with muscle growth? We already know that injecting testosterone and raising the levels above the normal range results in rapid muscle growth.

What would its effects be if we raise it within the normal range?

Although more research needs to be done, we can speculate that raising our testosterone levels within the normal range can help us build more muscle, improve our athletic performance, and decrease our body fat.

Of course, doing it in natural ways, not by sticking a needle in your ass.

In one study, the researchers wanted to determine what effect testosterone had on basal metabolic rate (BMR) in men. After three months of testosterone treatment, all three groups of men saw an increase in BMR by 10%, on average.

That doesn’t sound like much by on 1800 calories, that’s an extra 180 calories. Over the course of a week, that adds up to an extra 1260 calories or roughly ⅓ of a pound of fat. Testosterone also had a positive effect on lean body mass:

LBM also was significantly higher after 3 months of treatment (mean, 10%; P less than 0.01) and remained elevated at 12 months. The percent increase in LBM was similar in men with muscular dystrophy (+10%) and normal men (+11%).

Another study found that higher levels of circulating testosterone had an inhibiting effect on the formation of fat cells.

Also, higher levels of testosterone have been shown to increase lipolysis (fat-burning) and spare lean body mass.

And of course, we need more research to fully understand the relationship between testosterone and body fat. But, from what we can gauge right now, it appears that men who have higher levels of the big T tend to be leaner (this, of course, can be attributed to a ton of other factors, one of which is genetics).

But are the traditional testosterone boosters useful? Can they actually improve your testosterone levels?

Short answer: no.

Let’s find out why.

Why the Traditional Testosterone Boosters Suck

Most of the ingredients found in a traditional test booster aren’t effective. They are either disproved for testosterone boosting or are dosed poorly, resulting in the same – no positive effect on testosterone.

Here are some of the most common:

In one study, the researchers wanted to determine what effects Tribulus Terrestris had on fat-free mass and physical strength in athletes over a 5-week period.

They split the participants into two groups: the first group took TT capsules daily and the other one took a placebo. After the 5-week period, both groups had gained a significant amount of muscle mass and strength, but there were no differences between the two groups.

Last on our list is Fenugreek. This supplement has been shown to work, but its effects aren’t that clear-cut. Check out the video below for an in-depth explanation:

The Bottom Line on Testosterone Boosters

The supplement industry is notoriously famous for its sleazy marketing. They mostly target the uneducated and those looking for the ‘quick fix.’ So just because a given supplement has a shiny label and some muscular dude claims that his success is solely thanks to the product, don’t be fooled.

Most products make promises they can’t deliver and you end up wasting a lot of money for nothing.