In natural (read: non drug using) individuals who have dieted down to extremely low bodyfat levels, say 5%, you see a common hormonal pattern. Testosterone levels are typically bottomed out (some studies even find castrate levels, which is why a lot of natural contest bodybuilders can't get their dick hard, not that they have a sex drive in the first place), thyroid levels are bottomed out, IGF-1 levels are bottomed out, sympathetic nervous system output is way down meaning decreased caloric and fat burning, appetite is through the roof, cortisol is through the roof, on and on it goes. This makes good evolutionary sense: at 5% bodyfat, you are starving to death. Your body is turning off every system (metabolic, reproductive, immune, etc.) that it can to keep you alive until you get some food.I read the above quote in Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0; however, I never thought that this applied to me. Hey, I was just some fat college professor who wanted to see how far I could take my weight loss. I could care less about bodybuilders or the problems they had. Well, that is until it affected me, or should I say my Willy!
Back to my story:
So, the second time I couldn't get an erection, I was literally scared. The thought of having caused myself to be a eunuch was not very appealing no matter how much I had transformed my body. Guys, it's amazing how well you can recall what you've read when you're faced with such a huge problem. LOL!
I don't know why, but Lyle's quote came to mind, and there I went tearing through loose pages of my fitness ebooks trying to find the quote. Once I found it, I read it in disbelief because he basically described what I was experiencing. I started to think back to the months preceding my failed horizontal mambo sessions, and I realized that my interests in sex wasn't really there. Now, for someone who has an enormous sexual appetite, this was far from normal. But, I was so focused on my training and diet, that I really didn't pay it much attention. However, my body, or should I say my hypothalamus, more specifically, definitely was.
If given the choice between the ability to have sex or survive, I would say that many of us would be dead fellas. Hell, I know I would, and I guess that's why I'm glad that the body has checks and measures to keep us alive. A discussion of the body's metabolic adaptations is way beyond the scope of this post, so I strongly suggest that you read Lyle's UD 2.0 and Ellis's Ultimate Diet Secrets, which are the only books that I've read that devote an entire chapter (or two) to how the body reacts, on a cellular level, to overfeeding and underfeeding. (Lyle's explanation is the more technical of the two.)
OK, so we all know that when you start a diet that your body recognizes this and starts to make adjustments. The more severe you cut calories or expend them through exercise, the more your body makes adjustments. Well, these adjustments are much more severe and noticeable when we attempt to push our bodyfat under 10%. Now, I'm referring to guys who are dieting down to this level, and not genetically gifted bastards who have no problem remaining lean.
Your body monitors how much bodyfat you have and could really care less about how much you weigh on the scale. And, when you think about it, this only makes sense. If you were a complex machine, you would care just as much about how much reserve energy you have in the tank, especially if you think that you are starving to death, as Lyle points out. And, similar to your car's gas gauge, the body lets you know when you are pushing it to its pre-detemined limits. However, unlike your car's gas gauge, the body's way of alerting you that it's approaching E is with a limp Willy and not an annoying light or beep.
After re-reading Lyle's chapters that deal directly with all the systems he mentions in his quote above, I was really ready to absorb the information in Dr. Wong's book, The Care and Feeding of a Penis. Well, so I thought because he had one quote that smacked me dead in the face:
We can’t help it, it happens to all. Somewhere after 27 our body processes begin to turn against us. The natural mechanism that causes aging and deterioration kicks into gear round about 27 and from then to 35 it’s the steepest drop in health and conditioning levels we’ll ever face. After that the down hill slide slows but only some. It’s round about 35 that men start to come into the beginnings of their “change of life”. This happens because our hormonal balance changes. As the years progress we make less testosterone and make more estrogen. After 40, Andropause, the male menopause kicks in and with it comes an almost total cessation in the production of testosterone! It’s a safe bet that by 45 or 50 a man has more estrogen than his wife does!Now, this was the first that I had ever heard of Andropause or that I was well into the age range (read: middle-age) where all of these hormonal changes start occurring. Alright, now I felt that I was on to something and armed with my new Male Bible, I started to try and find out exactly what I needed to do about resurrecting Willy.
One of my bodybuilding buddies suggested that I look into taking Tribex, which is a super-concentrated formula of the Bulgarian herb tribulus terrestris, to boost my T levels. He also suggested that I take avena sativa to keep my E (estrogen) levels in check and to stop the conversion of my free T to becoming E, the real enemy of our manhood fellas. After doing some research, I also started reading a lot about ZMA, which is a supplement developed by BALCO founder, and former bass player for Tower of Power, Victor Conte. Don't worry, it's not CLEAR or anything like that; ZMA is simply a combination of the zinc, magnesium, and B-6. Dr. Wong highly recommends Maca too as a natural T booster and E inhibitor.
Next week, I'll detail my experiences with some of the above supplements and if they indeed help me wake up Willy. Nevertheless, I can't leave you without mentioning an herbal product that has done wonders for me and some of my other buds.
Guys, if you are interested in having rock hard erections and the ability to control them like you did when you were 18, then there is one herbal supplement that I highly recommend. I read about what many call herbal Viagra from Dr. Wong (who has personally used this product also), so I decided to give Super X, by Dr. Chi Enterpises, a try. Without sounding like a paid endorser, which of course I'm not, let me just say that Super X is one sexual enhancement supplement that's free of side effects that any man over 35 should have in his medicine cabinet.
I'll tell you what--I'll do a review of Super X in my next post because, man, do I have a lot to say about this supplement!
BTW, just wanted to let you guys know that my loose skin is really tightening up. Adisa, sorry about the camera angle playa ... ;)
