“Excuse me, what?” I said.
I was talking to John Romaniello (“Roman”). We were randomly sitting next to each other at a dinner Tim Ferriss threw when he was launching his book, “The Four Hour Chef”. Roman had a tattoo of a semi-colon and I wanted to find out what that was all about (he was an English major) but then our conversation, as they so often do, started to drift.
“Yeah, basically, if you get used to watching all this sex on the Internet then when you are in bed with your wife you will actually get LESS stimulated and aroused so your testosterone levels will start to go lower.”
“That DOES NOT happen to me,” I said. Claudia was sitting right next to me. I wanted to make sure she heard me.
“Haha. Well [note: ignoring me], some of the effects of lower testosterone are: greater chance of getting fat, less muscle growth, increased risk of some cancers, and even less confidence and ambition.
“This is why since 1980, when they measure testosterone levels of people in the US, the average male has 22% less testosterone now than they had in 1980. This has to do with our lifestyle. There’s more technology. So we are more sedentary. We stare at screens more. Men watch pornography more. People actually get on average 45 minutes less sleep now than in 1980-”
“I have to interrupt there,” I said. “I try to get 10 hours of sleep a day.” I was feeling very proud suddenly for my sleep-filled lifestyle.
“That’s good,” he said, “sleep is when human growth hormone is created in the body. So the more sleep, the more HGH, which leads to more testosterone. HGH is often called ‘the fountain of youth hormone’ ”
“Isn’t that what athletes who cheat take?”
“Yeah, but you don’t want to do what they do. They inject it. You want to build these things up naturally. That’s what I teach people how to do.”
He also told me he was writing a book, MAN 2.0. He said he asked Tim Ferriss’s advice on writing a book and he said Tim said to “go all out. Don’t just cobble together past writing. Put your all into this book.”
I remembered that this weekend when I realized his book was coming out…tomorrow! So I called him because I have a book coming out on June 1 (“Choose Yourself!“) and I wanted to find out how things were going and see if there was anything I could learn on how he was getting the word out on his book.
But then the conversation drifted (see above) and I asked him, “so you told me you were an English major. How the hell did you get into being the MAN 2.0 guy?”
“I was a fat kid in college. I was 200 lbs. I started working out and I got ripped and lost 30 lbs. And then I wanted to get bigger so I built back 30 pounds of muscle. And then I started training other people how to do it.”
“Ok,” I said, “so you were a personal trainer. A lot of people do that.”
“Yeah,” he said, “but then I started doing all of this research and work on the relationship between certain exercises and testosterone and human growth hormone and I started putting together courses based on that.”
“You mean like steroids?”
“Not like steroids when they talk about athletes abusing it. I wanted to find natural ways to build up these very useful chemicals in the body. And I did a ton of research plus work on my own body.
“You have to understand, if you go through a physical transformation, or any kind of transformation: emotional, mental, physical, whatever – everything is going to transform in your life. When I went through my body transformation and when I kept continuing my study of the body it also transformed me as a businessman. I started selling training programs and really helping a lot more people than when I was training people one on one.”
“So you basically created your own career. You’re obviously not doing anything related to being an English major. You’re like a Choose Yourself physical trainer. That’s great.”
“Yeah, again, I really can trace it back to my body transformation and I equate that with the arc of the hero as described by Joseph Campbell in his books on mythology.”
“Wait a second, don’t go all English major on me! If you don’t mind my asking, how much money do you make? Physical trainers make a salary but you have a real business.”
“Well, when I was just doing the physical training I was making six figures a year. Then in 2009 I started to blog about this stuff. I didn’t have many readers but I put together a course based on my ideas. People loved it and it was working so I started selling more and more. Now I make over seven figures a year.”
“You totally chose yourself. You made your career and used all the available platforms to spread the word.”
“Totally, I was blogging on different sites. I was helping whoever I could. I started sending content to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s site on fitness because he started getting back into fitness after he was governor. I was his first writer. He even wrote the foreword to my book.”
“Wait. What?”
“Yeah, we were talking about fitness and he was very interested in what I was doing and agreed to write the foreword.”
“So wait, let me ask you a few questions: I’m not going to do any heavy weightlifting. I like yoga and stuff. But you’ve seen my build. What can I do to build testosterone and human growth hormone?”
“Well, you already sleep a lot so that’s great.” He then described some exercises involving squats but I couldn’t quite follow but they are listed on his site. So I said, “let’s say I want to do pushups?” He said, “start with 4 reps of 15 pushups and build up from there.”
“What should I be eating?”
“Take fish oil capsules. And don’t be afraid of saturated fats.” He started throwing out chemical stuff about cholesterol and something called LDH.
“I can’t follow that at all. Is all of this in your book?”
“Yeah”.
“Ok,” I said, “A lot of women who read my site. Should they be building testosterone also?”
“Absolutely,” he said, “it instantly helps reduce fat, it helps balance the estrogen in the body to reduce the risk of later diseases like breast cancer or osteoporosis, it increases sex drive. Women absolutely should be thinking about testosterone levels.”
“Hey,” I said, “if I put this on my blog can you check it out during the day and answer questions if anyone has any?”
“Yeah, definitely. I’d be happy to.”
We got off the phone. I got right down on the ground and did….8 pushups. Ok, I will do more later. I could’ve done 15 but it was late. You know how it goes.
And then I remembered I forgot to ask him about how he was marketing his book. Ugh, I need to boost my testosterone levels just to get my memory back.
—
[Ask Roman questions in the comments and I will make sure he stops back and answers them.]
April 15, 2013 at 8:09 am |
What about softcore pornography? XD
April 15, 2013 at 10:32 am |
I object to that solely on the grounds of it being really, really bad.
April 15, 2013 at 8:11 am |
What do you think of Art De Vany and his New Evolution Diet/Fitness/Lifestyle Program? What is your take on MSG? Harmful or not, and why?
April 15, 2013 at 8:15 am |
I’ve already preordered Roman’s book a few weeks ago, but I think it’s awesome that you sorta-vouch for him. Makes it that much more compelling to me.
April 15, 2013 at 10:32 am |
Thanks for the support, Nikhil. Means a lot!
April 15, 2013 at 8:22 am |
Question: How does his book compare to other life changing books like Carlos Xuma’s Secrets of the Alpha Man in terms of shifting existing paradigms and basically re-inventing oneself?
April 15, 2013 at 9:03 am |
?
Xuma is one of those guys teaching people how to chat up chicks. What does that have to do with exercise, fitness, health and mood?.
April 15, 2013 at 9:26 am
You either haven’t read his work or are just plain trolling me. Or both. Picking chicks is a result of self-improvement, not a goal. And yes it has everything to do with exercise, health and mood.
And things beyond that.
April 15, 2013 at 10:59 am
Dude, I used to BUY his work.
April 15, 2013 at 10:30 am |
I would say there are some similarities with regard to resetting your mind or shifting paradigm; and, ultimately, the focus of both is to become a better guy. So, the main difference is execution. For us, it’s about first achieving physical master; not to be more attractive per say, but because mastering your corporeal being teaches you that you can master any other part of your life.
We don’t teach men how to be more successful with women per se – it’s touched on only peripherally in the book. But, after reading the book, guys will be more successful at everything.
April 15, 2013 at 1:01 pm
That’s exactly the type of response I was after. Can’t wait to read your book.
And thanks for doing this. 🙂
April 15, 2013 at 8:28 am |
So, just to be clear, it’s not the staying up late or porn watching that has the negative effect; it’s actully the lack of sleep? In other words, going to sleep at 2 AM and sleeping until noon is better than eight hours of early to bed, early to rise?
April 15, 2013 at 8:31 am |
No, Roman specifically explained why the porn aspect could cause you to produce less testosterone (because it requires more to keep you stimulated)
April 15, 2013 at 8:34 am
Ok, got it! Thanks for the clarification.
April 15, 2013 at 8:28 am |
Pretty good cross-promotion. I just pre-ordered the book on Amazon http://d.pr/i/4aW0. I will do a wellnessfx blood draw before and after following the book. I’ll post my results. – twitter.com/williamherring
April 15, 2013 at 10:31 am |
Just followed you. REALLY good idea. Thanks man.
April 15, 2013 at 8:34 am |
Any thoughts on the claims of the makers of GF9 (Growth Factor 9) that it stimulates HGH production?
April 15, 2013 at 10:50 am |
Ill have to take a closer look at it, but generally the GH boost supps work, but the effect isn’t as profound as you’d like it to be, given the cost.
April 15, 2013 at 8:36 am |
What are 3 things to get started with? Sleep? Fish oil and push-ups? Great concept for the book.
April 15, 2013 at 10:51 am |
Great questions!
1) Increase intake of saturated fat. (Cholesterol is the precursor hormone to all sex hormones, including testosterone)
2) Get more sleep; at least 8 hours per night.
3) Have more sex =)
April 15, 2013 at 11:58 am
How many grams of saturated fat would we need to see those benefits?
April 15, 2013 at 8:42 am |
Hi, James. This is a very interesting TED video on the topic of porn and its effects on our brains. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU
Truthfully, I’m unsure of whether or not it’s true.
April 15, 2013 at 10:52 am |
In the 300+ interviews we conducted for the book, several men (about 8%) reported that it was an issue for them.
April 15, 2013 at 8:51 am |
Slightly weird questions for John: What do you think about *while* you’re exercising? Do you daydream or stay in the present moment or something else? Do your thoughts vary between cardio and weights?
April 15, 2013 at 10:39 am |
GREAT question! I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that!
The answer is: during weight training, I’m extremely focused on executing each rep. During cardio, I daydream or just let my mind wander. A lot of times I get ideas about stuff to write about
April 16, 2013 at 5:51 am
Hey!!! We’re getting off the subject of porn here.
April 15, 2013 at 8:55 am |
Wow, so whether I like it or not, I should have listened to my dad when he told me that watching porn was bad for my health. WHOA! So, that’s not really a question for Roman. Just realizing that after all these years, Dad still had some wisdom without the research 🙂
April 15, 2013 at 10:25 am |
Dads have a really annoying habit of being right from time to time. The best advice my dad ever game was, “you get the things you don’t do far more than the ones you do.”
Took me about 10 years to figure out he was right.
April 15, 2013 at 10:36 am
Yip. I heard this really neat thought the other day. It said that when you are 14, you think your dad doesn’t know a thing. But when you turn 21, you realize how smart he’s become over the past 7 years.
June 8, 2013 at 7:20 am
It’s Mark Twain. He said it.
February 12, 2014 at 11:38 pm |
I recently wrote book on the research on how porn can harm you and also tips on how to quit. http://amzn.to/1g9qSpI
April 15, 2013 at 8:57 am |
Increases in sexual activity have actually been found to raise serum testosterone levels in males… Perhaps the over-stimulation argument with porn holds water, but increased ejaculation rates only serve to improve our levels of testosterone.
http://www.bodybuildingweb.net/blog/effect-of-ejaculation-sex-on-bodybuilding-gains/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20497305
April 15, 2013 at 9:08 am |
You don’t think there’s difference between watching porn and actually having sex with a woman?
April 15, 2013 at 9:17 am
The studies use ejaculation and its physiological effects on plasma test levels. Your body doesn’t do one thing for masturbation and another for intercourse (maybe a few more calories burned). Your brain might, but your testosterone levels will still rise regardless of the method used.
April 15, 2013 at 10:24 am
See my above comment!
April 15, 2013 at 10:57 am
Sam, you’re linking to a spammy affiliate marketing blog, which isn’t very trust-inducing. And then you link to a rat study, which has nothing to do with porn, or with humans.
April 17, 2013 at 8:38 pm
Sam- I’m Pretty sure this is incorrect and your body does indeed know the difference between sex and masturbation and accordingly releases far more sperm during a sex orgasm than masturbation orgasm. It seems very feasible that this difference would affect other chemicals as well. Check out the book “sperm wars”.
John-Thanks for coming to comment. Count me among those who just ordered the book because of this post!
April 22, 2013 at 3:46 am
Yes the body does one thing for masturbation and another for intercourse. There are beneficial hormones that are produced with a live partner that aren’t if you are just masturbating in a dark room in front of a computer.
April 15, 2013 at 10:24 am |
Hey Sam! That’s a great point. Actually, in the book, i point out that the easiest (and most fun) way to increase Testosterone is by having sex.
Porn doesn’t lead to an immediate or even direct decrease in T – it’s indirect. Watching porn increases your arousal threshold, making it difficult to actually have physical sex with a live person.
Over time, the inability to perform, coupled with the decrease in sex, will result in Low T.
I’m aware it’s a roundabout argument, so I’ll just say this: even if you don’t feel that porn decreases T, it’s been indisputably that it messes with your sex life. Which is just as bad.
April 15, 2013 at 9:08 am |
I’m curious about the book, but just from reading the title I honestly thought: “that sounds a lot like what Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Body” was supposed to be about.
But, I guess on some level Tim wrote 4HB to include exercises and things for women too, while this book seems to be more for men.
Looks interesting anyway. I’ll probably check it out.
April 15, 2013 at 10:35 am |
Hey William – the differences between Man 2.0 and 4HB are many, but the primary one comes from structure:
Our book has a single cohesive narrative, and is meant to be read cover to cover. It provides a full program with phases that you need to complete in order to achieve maximal results.
Tim’s is more a series of writing that you can read and in any order–as he says, “choose your own adventure.”
Does that make sense?
April 15, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Hi John,
Thanks for the response. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
By the way I wasn’t trying to undermine your work or troll your book or anything by comparing it to Tim’s. It was just an initial gut reaction.. from reading the title, well more the subtitle I guess.
April 15, 2013 at 9:08 am |
What about watching vids you make with your sig other? Do homemade vids of the two of you have the same effect of lowering testosterone?
Also, how long does it take once someone adopts those ways before they start seeing results, and how long before you can meet your end goal? (I know you’re going to say it depends on where you start but I’m hoping for a small frame of reference just to get an idea.)
April 15, 2013 at 10:37 am |
That is a great question! I haven’t seen any research on that specifically, but I suspect that it would not have the same affect, as it wouldn’t really alter your arousal threshold.
Generally speaking, 8-12 weeks is enough to see a dramatic turn around.
April 15, 2013 at 10:13 am |
What about Intermittent Fasting and if believe in IF, which style is most effective for burning fat, losing weight….thanks
———
james: I think you meant sets not reps
“start with 4 REPS of 15 pushups and build up from there.”
April 15, 2013 at 10:33 am |
IF is the primary dietary methodology in the book. As to which style – we feature Berkhan’s LeanGains method, as well as some stuff from Brad Pilon.
Really, we’ve created our own synthesis of fasting after learning from lots of other people, and researching things for a few years.
April 15, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Thanks John…..any thought about the many, many guys (google it) that get more off when having sex with their long term partners because when they think about something/someone else, and they inevitably do, they get a snapshot in their head of something they saw on a porn site that fires them up even more!?
April 15, 2013 at 10:28 am |
http://bit.ly/ZW4jIZ, Gary Wilson gave an awesome TED talk presentation on the effects of porn on the male brain.
April 15, 2013 at 12:04 pm |
Here is the actual TED video on youtube…kinda scary stuff, if he’s right…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU&playnext=1&list=PLE7069372B8ACFF3A&feature=results_main
April 15, 2013 at 11:07 am |
Hey, Roman. I think this book sounds awesome, I’m definitely going to tell my personal trainer and nutritionist (he’s the same Unicorn of a Doctor) about your book. He’d love all of this. I’m doing a weight loss journey blog called Project:180 (#Project180). I’m at Day 144, have lost 19 pounds overall, have gone from 29% BF to 25.5% which is probably even lower now. Thanks for curating all the good stuff!
http://www.project180.me/
April 15, 2013 at 11:11 am |
James/John: Great blog post and I look forward to purchasing this book.
Working on another project right now along the Gary Wilson Ted talk lines. Which made me curious – do you have a couple links to studies that show pornography to be a problem? Would it be possible to contact you with a couple questions via email?
Thank you for your time!
April 15, 2013 at 12:28 pm |
Great question – here’s a good article that references a few studies.
http://greatist.com/happiness/internet-porn-killing-your-sex-drive
April 15, 2013 at 11:11 am |
Looking forward to your book! As far as fish oil intake, do you recommend a certain EPA/DHA dosage/day and how would it be different for men/women?
April 15, 2013 at 12:28 pm |
Hey Eugene – that’s a great question.
Answer: it depends on the goal. For general health, men and women should both do 5g per day.
For general fat loss, I like 1g per % of body fat, up to 16g. (So if you have 16% body fat or more, 16g.)
For an extreme, short-term burst to get insulin management in check, up to 25g per day for men, 20g for women – do this for about 4 weeks.
April 15, 2013 at 11:14 am |
James, for some reason when I try to access your site on my other computer it says that my IP has been blocked. I’ve been a reader of your site for almost a year. I am guessing it wasn’t intentional since I have never posted a comment, but I wanted to let you know in case it was caused by something that recently changed with the site.
Belated thanks for all the great content you post!
April 15, 2013 at 11:20 am |
I’ll check that out J. I wonder what happened. Thanks.
April 15, 2013 at 11:39 am |
Roman:
Is there a difference in testosterone generated in heavy resistance excercise vs. light resistance higher reps?
Advice on mitigating unintended “ego pump” that can accompany gym pump?
I wonder what the frequency or length of porn viewing is in these studies? – men are very visual and think there could be some benefits with limited viewing.
Thx
April 15, 2013 at 12:58 pm |
Roman is THE MAN. I randomly met him at a rooftop party for a book release. Very very nice and humble dude. I’ve followed him for years. Book is pre ordered 🙂
April 15, 2013 at 1:13 pm |
Roman – What are the top three things guys should/could be doing to get them to the Man 2.0 point?
James – Love the blog. Been reading for a little over two months. Your unique perspective & writing style are fantastic…
April 15, 2013 at 1:38 pm |
Great blog today. I will check out John’s info. I had serious physical issues last year and made some changes regarding western meds versus eastern herbs. I’m sticking with the herbs going forward. Now it’s time for the maintenance part of my recovery. This seems to fit. Like James, I popped a few push ups a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, I went to the ‘Vagina Monologues’ last night (actually very fantastic show) now my wife wants to discuss Vaginas. Ok, whatever. I was just getting into testosterone. Oh well, there does after all need to be balance.
April 15, 2013 at 2:16 pm |
In order to convince me that watching porn decreases testosterone, you need a randomized controlled trial where you have groups of people who increase the amount of porn they watch, decrease the amount of porn they watch, and a control group at a minimum. Do you reference such a study in your book?
February 12, 2014 at 11:37 pm |
I’ve not come across any such study in my research, I think it would be hard to do such a study! In my book (http://amzn.to/1g9qSpI) I reference a study which shows that consuming porn leads to higher dissatisfaction with your partner.
April 15, 2013 at 2:17 pm |
hi john,
what are your thoughts on vitamin d3, magnesium and zinc?
for an advanced athlete, what are 2 exercises that can spark my T-creation up a notch?
But more than anything: what’s the most powerfu way to get that CRAP out of your routine and out of your mind (besides telling yourself how beastly you’ll be if you can quit it)?
April 15, 2013 at 2:31 pm |
Question for Roman. Reading a brochure on prostate cancer recently, it stated that treatment includes lowering testosterone levels chemically. Apart from stopping or slowing the growth of the tumour,(sometimes only temporarily) it causes several side effects.
Is there an increased risk of prostate cancer if testosterone levels are maintained at a higher level by adopting the dietary and lifestyle changes you advocate?
April 16, 2013 at 1:22 am |
That’s an interesting question. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t speak intelligently about that. But, I can say that oftentimes steroid users experience prostate enlargements. It stands to reason that highly elevated test levels could cause that effect.
Having said that, however, I suspect that the degree to which you can increase endogenous testosterone production–while significant in terms of changes to physique–is not going to be enough to elicit those effects.
But, you’ve piqued my curiosity, and I will investigate.
April 15, 2013 at 2:54 pm |
Question for Roman:
I weighed 165 lbs and then decided to train for a 50 mile ultramarathon. I completed the 50 miler, but was weighing 148 lbs due to the training. I’ve been trying to regain the weight, but with little to show for it. Any advice for a 150 lbs, 5′ 10″ runner on how to gain muscle while keeping up his cardio fitness? Thanks in advance.
April 15, 2013 at 4:00 pm |
Looking forward both of the my new books to come in!
April 15, 2013 at 4:02 pm |
Looking forward to both of the new books to come in is what I meant to say!
April 15, 2013 at 5:59 pm |
“Take fish oil capsules. And don’t be afraid of saturated fats.”
Are you familiar with the paleo diet? I’m curious for your thoughts on it
April 16, 2013 at 2:21 pm |
I love paleo. It’s a great starting point for optimal health, and from there I like the idea of customizing it based on individual tolerance
April 16, 2013 at 2:51 am |
Hey John, really want to buy the book. Do you recommend buying the print version or the Kindle version? I’m overseas now so would have to wait to get the print book after June. Thanks and enjoyed your post over at Tim’s blog.
April 16, 2013 at 2:21 pm |
Hey Benny,
Ideally, you’d order the hardcover — Kindle edition doesn’t count towards the NYT best seller list, and that’s the goal.
April 16, 2013 at 5:55 am |
Hi, a question for John Romaniello. Although you have said that a lot of women read your blog, the title of your book left me wondering if the book can be read by women. The book is a good acquisition for women too?
April 16, 2013 at 2:22 pm |
Hi Giseli,
Great question. The information in the book is very applicable to women, but the presentation–the language, the references, the general “tone” of the book–are geared towards men.
You’d still get a lot out of it.
Also, I think women should read it, as it’s a fascinating look into the male psyche.
April 16, 2013 at 6:11 am |
Hi Roman!
I already ordered your book from Amazon and can’t wait to get it arrived.
Quick question: What do you think about tabata training? What kind of workout that is suitable for busy (lazy) people?
Cheers
April 16, 2013 at 7:05 am |
Great stuff as always.
One question: I need to transform my life. I’m struggle deep within myself to change even the smallest things. Where can I start, what can I do to make this happen?
At the risk of sounding desperate… Thanks for any help you can give.
April 16, 2013 at 8:07 am |
Interesting post James.You must write more post about health.
I don’t remember since when i take the fish oil capsules and i feel good.
April 16, 2013 at 12:16 pm |
So going one step farther – our wives are killing us and making us fatter by not putting out.
October 23, 2013 at 8:21 pm |
No, the effects of an orgasm through masturbation to porn are different than the orgasm with an actual women.
April 16, 2013 at 3:34 pm |
Sorry to disagree with the majority of what is said here but science disagrees with much of what you have claimed.
1) Porn increases testosterone, it does not decrease it.
What Fixes Low Testosterone Best: Meds or Porn?
“In humans, German researchers have found that just having an erection is enough to spur testosterone levels. it makes no difference whether a man is watching sex on a screen or having it in real life, his testosterone levels will go up. ”
“Rutgers University sex researcher Helen Fisher to advise this month that males in the “captivity situation”-her term for married with kids-“go on the Internet and look at porn” as a kind of hormone-replacement therapy. “[Porn] drives up dopamine levels, which drives up your testosterone,” she tells NEWSWEEK, while kissing your wife or hugging your kids drives it down.”
2) Human Growth Hormone increases the rate of aging, despite often being falsely marketed as a cure to aging:
Suppression of human growth hormone may ward off cancer, diabetes
“Anyone seeking the fountain of youth should think twice before turning to growth hormone, a fast-growing trend in anti-aging fringe medicine. If conclusions from a study of an obscure population living in Ecuador prove true, less growth hormone — not more — may help prevent cancer and diabetes in old age.
The discovery, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, backs up earlier research showing that yeast, flies and rodents live longer — in some species, as much as 10 times longer — when they grow slowly.
“There are a lot of people giving human growth hormone to fight aging,” said Dr. Nir Barzilai, a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the research. “The question is, will you live longer and healthier? I think these studies suggest maybe not.””
If you really want to raise testosterone:
1) Muscle Building Exercise
2) Supplement Zinc (many men do not get enough and this is necessary to make testosterone)
3) Sleep (that one is correct).
In my experience there are too many people writing books and pushing for stuff like Human Growth Hormone based on very flimsy science. Likewise the crusade against porn is not really based on science: Page on Psychologytoday
October 23, 2013 at 8:22 pm |
Watching porn is addictive and triggers a release of dopamine in your body each time you orgasm to watching porn. This greatly reduces testoterone. If you don’t agree that watching porn is addictive, try quitting. There are entire forums on reddit dedicated to helping men quit porn. Search NoFap. Having sex with women increases your testoterone, masturbating to porn reduces it. I can speak from personal experience.
What I’d like to ask the author is if masturbation in general reduces testoterone, or just to porn? And do pictures count?
December 13, 2013 at 9:32 am
It’ll take time for the ignorant and the self-deluded to come to an understanding over this topic. A couple hundred years ago, a lot of people thought slavery was morally justified. Even if we give them concrete evidence that indulging in porn is always self-destructive and that the releases of the so-called “good” chemicals are just temporary they still won’t be convinced. It’s not hard to wonder why so many people prefer sex over real social interactions. Society has become so lenient towards the idea that watching porn is healthy that it makes a lot of people sexualize everything.
February 12, 2014 at 11:34 pm
It’s likely porn is the main culprit. Some people like to just go porn free and some actually totally abstain from what’s called PMO: porn masturbation and orgasm. I’ve written a book on Porn and You here: http://amzn.to/1g9qSpI
April 16, 2013 at 4:07 pm |
Hi John, what do you think about liver and gallbladder cleanses like the type recommended by Andreas Moritz?
April 17, 2013 at 2:20 pm |
James, I kept wondering why you suddenly started blasting out articles at a much higher frequency than normal. It’s because of your book release in June, isn’t it?
January 15, 2014 at 2:37 pm |
Of course it was, you idiot.
April 17, 2013 at 2:41 pm |
I just bought his book on iTunes, was happy to see it on there and I am looking forward to reading it
April 17, 2013 at 3:20 pm |
While I don’t trust in supplements (you can’t really prove the ingredients listed are actually in the product), I do so only for personal reasons. I think people are reading into this post just a little too much.
Porn may raise your testosterone for the moment (no pun intended), but I think he was talking about the long term effects. You know, the ones only suffered by those who still live with mom in her basement.
I’m not an expert on any of this stuff, I want to let that be known before I get drawn into an idiotic debate about any of this.
I think I’m going to write a book. I’m going to call it “How To Mind Your Business for Dummies: Find out if you’re a douche and what you can do to fix it.” haha
April 18, 2013 at 5:33 am |
I’ll postpone my decision, until I see the results of the scientific papers produced.
April 18, 2013 at 9:10 am |
I’ve basically been raised on porn. My first experiences have all been with porn. I have very few female friends, and I find it very difficult to snap out of my ‘solo-play’ mode. I’ve stopped watching porn for a few months now and find it extremely depressing. I do all the health things, but I still do not get strong morning wood, suppose I may have porn induced ED. Do you have any advice for a guy who is totally messed up, trying to get with girls? I’ve been soft for most girls I’ve been with, and I’m too anxious to hook up with the girls that actually get my libido going. That, and I’m worried my thing won’t function. Where to start when psychologically we’re messed up?
April 22, 2013 at 3:49 am |
don’t bother with morning wood, that’s meaningless, you have nocturnal erections all the time and morning woods happen when you wake up during one of these, it has nothing to do with arousal but it’s circulatory system related. So don’t pay attention about waking up without one
April 23, 2013 at 12:49 pm |
So for those of us who don’t have the luxury of a sex partner, what is best for maxing testosterone? Porn, abstinence, or something else?
April 24, 2013 at 4:14 am |
Question for Roman: What about women watching porn? Is it bad for us too? I’ve been a pretty much regular porn consumer since I was… yikes… 13. I find it hard to orgasm when I’m with a guy. Could this have anything to do with my porn consumption?
*gulp*
April 29, 2013 at 9:02 am |
To the book author – you are clearly a brilliant trainer, but your book is horribly lacking in any useful information. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is. One Amazon review refers to it as “Broscience” which is basically all it is.
This is a shame, because you clearly really DO know this stuff in depth. However, you distilled your vast knowledge down into what basically amounts to garbage, and use the internet hype machine to turn it into something huge. If you had taken that exact copy, and put it on a blog – I’d be a fan, but $12 for a Kindle version filled with really thin content is tough to swallow.
Jim – I’ll be honest – your pimping of this book has lessened my opinion of you. Did you bother to read it? You typically have more meaningful insight in one post than exists in this entire text.
May 2, 2013 at 6:26 pm |
someone once told me that men who look at boobs for at least 10 minutes a day, live longer!… Just look, admire, remember, be in awe, appreciate, respect, be amazed, be astonished, love with your eyes, … all good feelings. It’s some of the best therapy for men. No idea what women are supposed to look at. Any ideas?
June 4, 2013 at 10:25 pm |
I just knew it, I had a feeling right after I read your article: 10 Reasons Why You Need To Quit Your Job. Well, seven month later… I QUIT MY JOB, after 25 years public service in northern Canada. I have a new plan. Thank you James!
June 8, 2013 at 10:09 pm |
Can we reverse any damage done? What about just looking at still photos? Is that harmful?
June 9, 2013 at 8:43 pm |
Perhaps being a gay man has something to do with it, but porn has done nothing but enhance my sex life. Inspired me to push my limits and experience it with different kinds of people, in an array of different flavors. I’ve even watched it with partners, so it became part of the experience. Porn doesn’t take up a lot of my time, and I don’t just sit around and watch it – it always facilitates an obvious goal. But I’d say it’s a small part of at least half of my days.
I think the jump between watching porn and a shorter lifespan is utterly ridiculous. Even a link between watching porn and lower testosterone is tenuous at best, with lots of qualifiers. There’s a much more supportable link between the quality of your sex life and testosterone.
July 14, 2013 at 8:08 pm |
FIsh oil omega -3 is currently being linked to cancer..
October 8, 2013 at 4:02 pm |
I always thought that everyone has some kind of sexual problems and if not at the moment will eventually find themselves with sexual problems , and think to myself is porn really bad if someone who is not in a relationship had some kind of way to release stress, someone might also use porn as a way to avoid doing the real thing and potentially avoid disease or unwanted pregnancy that way
October 22, 2013 at 10:00 pm |
So I took your challenge James. You posted that is Porn Bad for You? is one of the top 10 Google searches that people use to get to your blog. I started researching porn use and came across the NoFap folks. What energy! What courage! But they talk about fighting and addiction and the “power” of porn and other disempowering approaches.
So at http://IsPornBadForMe.com (IsPornBadForYou was already taken) I am starting to build a site to help these folks choose themselves rather than give their power away to porn or maybe even worse – people who want to fix them. Thanks for the idea James!
December 9, 2013 at 10:27 pm |
Is playboy in the same category? LOL