Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha

at Christmas 2011, just six months after starting with John. I feel so much better now than I ever have. I never realized how much carrying the extra weight was affecting my life and health. I jump right out of bed in the morning and nothing cracks or hurts anymore. My numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, O 2 ) are all those of a man twenty years younger. It has been over a year since I reached my goal, and I have been slowly adding more muscle to my frame while maintaining a very lean appearance. I have incorporated everything John taught me and have been able to change the way I eat and train.
    Why Men Should Care About Hormones
    T he signs of losing fat and gaining muscle manifest themselves on the outside, but how well or how quickly you do either of those is very much determined on the inside.
    By understanding how your hormones affect you and learning how to address them through application of our methods, you will create change from the inside out.

    Alphas consider the problem from all angles to find solutions.

    We’ve already mentioned several hormones through this book, but now we’re going to show you specifically why fixing your hormones will help you attain the life you want. But before we can do that, it’s important that you understand the most important hormones in your body, what they do, and how they’re already holding back your mental, physical, social, and emotional health.

    TESTOSTERONE
    We’re not going to beat around the bush with this one: testosterone is what makes you a man. It’s what allows you to build muscle and melt fat. It’s what makes you attractive to women, what powers your sex drive, and what helps you recover from workouts. It’s part of your genetics, and it’s a driving force in your health, your wealth, your energy, and your life span. If it weren’t for the existence of testosterone, we wouldn’t be writing this book.
    But we are writing this book because there’s a serious problem. In the past twenty years, the average level of testosterone has dropped anywhere from 20 to 30 percent. And for that very reason, men have become fatter, less sexual, and less satisfied—with how they look, how they feel, and how they fuck. That’s not an opinion; it’s scientific fact.
    And therein lies the problem with most approaches to health—they don’t focus on testosterone. You can do all the reps and sets in the world, but if you’re not producing enough testosterone, you won’t add muscle to your body. It’s the reason why women’s bodies don’t naturally bulk up. They don’t produce testosterone like men do, and therefore their bodies look different. And as you’ll see, your abilities to maintain and build muscle are essential to helping your body function better and creating the type of life you want.
    Do not misunderstand us. Testosterone is not about becoming big and bulky like a bodybuilder. (Although it will help if that’s your goal.) This is more about taking control of the characteristics that enable you to become the Alpha. Did you know that low testosterone levels can kill your sperm? Or that decreases in testosterone have been linked to decreases in brain activity and memory function? And men with higher testosterone have lower incidence of heart disease, spend less money on health care, and live significantly longer—we’re talking potentially more than a decade longer.
    Your testosterone levels peak in your twenties, but then they instantly begin dropping once you hit your thirties. The good news is you don’t need to spend money to boost your T levels. Most doctors are overly quick to prescribe hormone replacement therapy and fill your body with exogenous hormones. But it’s been shown that small changes—such as sleeping more—can be all it takes to increase testosterone as much as 50 percent. And that’s just one simple change.
    The primary goal will be eliminating your beer belly. The more fat you carry, the more aromatase you produce, which is an enzyme that converts your testosterone (the good stuff) into the female hormone estrogen. This is what will make you look softer, have softer erections, and even make you softer emotionally. And we know you don’t want that. By cutting down on your fat, you’ll have the greatest impact on ensuring that you continue to produce more testosterone and stay young as long as possible. After all, Australian researchers found that testosterone levels don’t have to drop as you get older. In fact,