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Thread: The relationship between cortisol, carbs, testosterone and resistance training ?

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    Default The relationship between cortisol, carbs, testosterone and resistance training ?

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    Robert, can you comment on the relationship in the title ? I take increased carbs before, during and after acheavy lifting session which seems to help me sleep. I looked up a few articles and became more bamboozled after reading them. It suggested carbs could help reduce cortisol levels but not oxidative stress ? Testosterone level were mentioned in ratio, but I don't understand the significance.

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    Carbohydrates release insulin, insulin enhances nutrient partitioning, specifically protein. Insulin is also the most anabolic hormone in the human body. Carbohydrates taken post workout have been reported to reduce markers of protein degradation and thus can enhance recovery via that mechanism. This may be related to the reduction in cortisol levels since you are attenuating the muscle damage, and thus recovering from the stress more efficiently. What do you mean when you say testosterone levels were mentioned in ratio?

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    Carbs tend to raise testosterone because they activate pro-growth metabolic pathways. Tesotsterone levels are always highest in mammals toward the end of summer after fueling excessively on carbs. This is the time when mammals will reproduce and pregnancy occurs throughout winter months.

    Low carb diets tend to lower testosterone, because growth is blunted as the metabolism rises with fat burning. The body is tapping its own energy reserves, and as a result, mass is decreasing. This causes changes in the androgen receptors that allow testosterone to bind more efficiently to the receptor, and receptor sensitivity is increased. This means the effect of testosterone is still exhibited, only there is less hormone in the blood.

    Carbs always raise oxidative stress because their electrons are more leaky in the electron transport chain in mitochondria, so more free radical production occurs burning carbs vs fats. When there is strong sunlight in your environment, it tightens up the transport chain making electrons less leaky, and that offsets excessive free radicals from carbs. This is why carbs only grow seasonally, and are only good for us in summer months.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    Carbohydrates release insulin, insulin enhances nutrient partitioning, specifically protein. Insulin is also the most anabolic hormone in the human body. Carbohydrates taken post workout have been reported to reduce markers of protein degradation and thus can enhance recovery via that mechanism. This may be related to the reduction in cortisol levels since you are attenuating the muscle damage, and thus recovering from the stress more efficiently. What do you mean when you say testosterone levels were mentioned in ratio?
    "The Wrap Up
    Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress, such as the physical stress of exercise. Among its effects, high cortisol levels stimulate your liver to convert amino acids into glucose to create a ready supply of energy for your cells to deal with increased stress. A low-carbohydrate diet decreased the ratio of testosterone to cortisol in male athletes in a study conducted by the department of exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The testosterone-to-cortisol ratio is used as a gauge for overtraining and stress. The study was published in the December 2010 issue of the journal "Physiology and Behavior.""

    ratio of test to cortisol ??

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    Quote Originally Posted by kris90 View Post
    Carbs tend to raise testosterone because they activate pro-growth metabolic pathways. Tesotsterone levels are always highest in mammals toward the end of summer after fueling excessively on carbs. This is the time when mammals will reproduce and pregnancy occurs throughout winter months.
    .
    This likely has to do with excess intake of all available macros, and thus calories, as well as baseline adiposity. A fat mammal overeating will have a very different response than a lean mammal.

    Quote Originally Posted by kris90 View Post
    Low carb diets tend to lower testosterone, because growth is blunted as the metabolism rises with fat burning. The body is tapping its own energy reserves, and as a result, mass is decreasing. This causes changes in the androgen receptors that allow testosterone to bind more efficiently to the receptor, and receptor sensitivity is increased. This means the effect of testosterone is still exhibited, only there is less hormone in the blood.
    Only if the diet is hypocaloric.

    Quote Originally Posted by kris90 View Post
    Carbs always raise oxidative stress because their electrons are more leaky in the electron transport chain in mitochondria, so more free radical production occurs burning carbs vs fats. When there is strong sunlight in your environment, it tightens up the transport chain making electrons less leaky, and that offsets excessive free radicals from carbs. This is why carbs only grow seasonally, and are only good for us in summer months.
    Not true. The ETC receives the same NADH and FADH2 regardless of which macronutrient they originate from.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nockian View Post
    "The Wrap Up
    Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress, such as the physical stress of exercise. Among its effects, high cortisol levels stimulate your liver to convert amino acids into glucose to create a ready supply of energy for your cells to deal with increased stress. A low-carbohydrate diet decreased the ratio of testosterone to cortisol in male athletes in a study conducted by the department of exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The testosterone-to-cortisol ratio is used as a gauge for overtraining and stress. The study was published in the December 2010 issue of the journal "Physiology and Behavior.""

    ratio of test to cortisol ??
    Did they mention whether the diet was hyper- or hypocaloric? My response to this is if you are overtrained that means that your stress level is high, which means cortisol is high. High levels of stress can also lower testosterone. There aren't any normative ranges for this from what I can see. My guess it that if an athlete is legitimately overtrained Cortisol is likely to increase to a greater extent than the magnitude of testosterone reduction. Thus, you will have a higher ratio. Makes sense to me. My guess is these guys were overtrained and hypocaloric. Whether it was the training, the macronutrient distribution, or the total calorie intake remains a mystery.
    Last edited by Robert Santana; 02-21-2020 at 10:53 AM.

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    They said the ration was a marker for overtraining and stress. No mention of hypo caloric, but I suppose overtraining might be a result of it, as would be stress ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    Not true. The ETC receives the same NADH and FADH2 regardless of which macronutrient they originate from.
    Yes true. Fats provide a higher FADH2:NADH ratio as per below:

    Choosing the right substrate. - PubMed - NCBI

    Also for OP
    Influence of carbohydrate ingestion on oxidative stress and plasma antioxidant potential following a 3 h run. - PubMed - NCBI
    Despite an attenuation in the cortisol response, carbohydrate compared to placebo ingestion does not counter the increase in oxidative stress or modulate plasma antioxidant potential in athletes running 3 h at 70% VO2(max).
    Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Responses to High-Carbohydrate and High-Fat Meals in Healthy Humans
    Plasma total antioxidative status and muscle Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase were decreased after high-carbohydrate meal only ( �� < 0 . 0 5 ). We conclude that a high-carbohydrate meal may evoke a greater postprandial oxidative stress response

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    Quote Originally Posted by kris90 View Post
    Yes true. Fats provide a higher FADH2:NADH ratio as per below:

    Choosing the right substrate. - PubMed - NCBI
    I did not claim otherwise. Read what I said.

    Running for 3 hours creates oxidative stress. We also adapt to it and we want to adapt to it. We don't want too blunt that response unless we want to lose out on the benefits of endurance training.


    Yes in skinny fat females (the study participants were mostly female, which raises another issue), mean age of >40, with a mean body fat of 36% at an almost normal BMI (mean of 26 kg/m2). This sample was skinny fat. Middle aged skinny fat people likely have a greater risk of insulin resistance. Sedentary skinny fat people have an even greater risk. People with a family history of diabetes, which was half the sample, are also more likely to have insulin resistance. Combine all of this and you can figure out the rest. This demographic is likely to process carbohydrates differently and is likely to see a negative response especially if they don't train. Less muscle mass, less sites for glucose disposal. This does not apply to the OP.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nockian View Post
    They said the ration was a marker for overtraining and stress. No mention of hypo caloric, but I suppose overtraining might be a result of it, as would be stress ?
    Indirectly yes
    Last edited by Robert Santana; 02-22-2020 at 12:47 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    I did not claim otherwise. Read what I said.
    Complex I and III leak electrons while Complex II does not. Complex I is known to generate higher levels of ROS, and the input is NADH at this site. Carbs provide higher NADH:FADH2 ratio, so there is more electron leak at Complex I. That's what I meant. Fat burning provides more electrons to donate to oxygen at cytochrome c oxidase. It's why 1g of fat produces 1.1g of metabolic water, and 1g of carbs only produce 0.55g. 1 mole of palmitate produces 129 ATP vs 1 mole of glucose only producing 38 ATP.


    Energy loss is tied to growth which is why the higher ROS production from carbs to produce superoxide activates/inactivates insulin, a pro-growth hormone.

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    Wrong. You must have a high ratio of NADH:NAD+ not NADH:FADH2 ratio to have extensive H2O2 efflux (I.e. this occurs when you consume excessive amounts of alcohol). The other condition would be a high proton conductance in conjunction with reduced CoQ and no ATP synthesis. Otherwise under normal conditions H2O2 efflux is very low.

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