Day 39 – Real Men Are Thin

“People think I’m gay… because I’m single, I’m thin and I’m neat.”

~ Jerry Seinfeld

209.0 lbs.

In men, the fatter you are the more likely you’ll be low in testosterone. In fact obese men are 40% more likely to have low testosterone levels. How low? You just may need one of those pills they hint at in ads involving forgotten sprinklers and burned dinners.

Seriously; being chubby can make it harder more difficult to get a chubby.

“In view of the fact that almost one-third of the U.S. is obese, these observations have profound pathophysiological, clinical, epidemiological, and public health implications,” claims Sandeep Dhindsa, an endocrinology specialist at the University at Buffalo. “Our new study shows that obese men also have a very high prevalence of low testosterone levels.”

Also? Oh yeah. Sandeep did a study among diabetic men and noticed a very similar result. “We published a report in 2004 on the high prevalence of low testosterone levels in men with type 2 diabetes, and multiple studies all over the world have confirmed the association of low testosterone with diabetes”.

Paresh Dandona, head of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism who was the senior author on the study, also chimed in. “With the rising prevalence of obesity in the U.S. and the rest of the world, it is imperative that the prevalence of low testosterone levels in obese men be defined.”

“In addition, the magnitude of the contribution of obesity to subnormal testosterone needs to be quantified. We hypothesized that obese men are more likely to have low testosterone than non-obese men, and that we would find more low testosterone levels in men with diabetes than in men without diabetes, both obese and non-obese.”

Sure enough, the results confirmed their hypothesis, and that’s where the 40% figure comes from. When almost half of obese men have low testosterone, and many diabetic men do as well, I can’t help but wonder what happens to the poor guy whose obesity has lead to diabetes – which is one of the health risks of being obese.

So if the long term benefits of changing your diet seem too far off in the future to bother thinking about, and you’d rather have the instant gratification of chicken wings, beer, and twinkies whenever you want, here’s hoping you enjoy those treats better than good sex. Because it may just be an either-or choice you’re making.