Testosterone-boosting breakfast: top 5 recipes

The best time to boost your testosterone starts in the morning.

Eating a testosterone-boosting breakfast can help to improve your energy, mood, motivation and drive for the day. It also helps to keep your appetite in check and improve sleep quality.

Read on to learn the best foods to have for breakfast to maximize your testosterone.

Do you have low testosterone

Low testosterone causes you to feel:

• Tired
• Irritated
• Intolerant to stress
• Low drive and motivation to do things
• Like it’s impossible to be creative
• Pessimistic
• etc.

Having a good testosterone-boosting breakfast can help you feel energetic, alert, stress-tolerant, driven, happy, and much more.

Why breakfast helps increase testosterone

#1 Lowers cortisol

Cortisol is highest in the morning, which is necessary to give us energy (by mobilizing fat from fat stores) and wake us up.

But if cortisol stays high for too long, it becomes detrimental.

High cortisol opposes the effects of testosterone.

The best state to be in is a high testosterone-to-cortisol ratio. In the morning, you have a high cortisol-to-testosterone ratio.

Eating food will help to lower cortisol because it replaces the need for cortisol.

Some people might argue that it’s important not to eat because we need that cortisol spike. The main functions of cortisol in the morning are to increase your core temperate and mobilize fat and glucose from the fat stores and liver respectively.

Eating food does the same and lowers cortisol. This is normal and healthy.

Others might argue that if you suppress cortisol with food, you’re missing out on the benefits of cortisol. However, most people feel best later in the day, when cortisol is at its lowest.

Lowering the cortisol-to-testosterone ratio with food is a great way to kickstart your day.

#2 Provides nutrients for testosterone production

Food provides macronutrients (protein, fats, and carbs), micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), and other compounds (cholesterol, peptides, flavonoids, etc.) that help to increase testosterone production. It also enhances testosterone uptake into cells, which is what we want.

Breakfast is a huge opportunity to eat nutrient-dense foods to kickstart your day. Most people, by skipping breakfast, never make up for those missing nutrients in other meals. Thus they remain in a nutrient imbalance year after year.

This eventually leads to low testosterone.

#3 Provides calories for testosterone production

Fasting lowers testosterone. Even going into an aggressive deficit can lower testosterone.

For obese individuals (BMI over 30), a caloric deficit can increase testosterone. You can expect a 100ng/dl increase in testosterone for each 10% of body fat you lose.

But for individuals with a BMI under 25, or a body fat percentage under 8-12%, going into a deficit can lower testosterone.

Skipping breakfast is akin to fasting and it lowers testosterone. If you don’t make up the missing calories later in the day, the deficit can start to lower testosterone.

Also, fasting increases SHBG thus lowering your free testosterone.

#4 Helps control your appetite and blood sugar

Studies have shown that eating breakfast helps control appetite and blood sugar more than skipping breakfast (R).

Breakfast, especially when it’s high in protein, helps to reduce hunger later in the day (R, R, R, R). This helps to reduce overall food intake and minimize fat gain over time.

Excess body fat dramatically lower testosterone because it promotes aromatase (estrogen formation), inflammation, testicular temperature, sleep apnea, etc.

Also, blood sugar rollercoasters promote the release of cortisol, which is ultimately responsible for fat gain and low testosterone. High cortisol also enhances cravings for low-quality junk foods, which will also lead to more weight gain (R).

#5 Improves circadian rhythm and sleep

Sleep is one of the most important things we can do to optimize our testosterone. For good sleep, we need a healthy circadian rhythm.

The 3 most important things to entrain the circadian rhythm include:

• Food
• Light
• Activity

Breakfast eaters report better-perceived sleep quality and sleep onset compared to breakfast skippers (R).

Breakfast eaters also tend to have higher waking alertness and mood and reduced daily energy intake (R).

Skipping breakfast can lead to excessive eating later in the day, especially in the evening. Eating lots of food too close to bed can disrupt sleep quality, especially if it’s high in carbs and low in protein and fat.

Best testosterone-boosting breakfast foods

The best foods for increasing testosterone include:

• Eggs
• Oysters and other shellfish
• Muscle and organ meat of beef, lamb, and bison
• Dairy, including milk, yogurt and cheese
• Honey
• Fruits
• Tubers

These foods are rich in:

• Vitamins and minerals necessary for testosterone production in its most bioavailable form
• Testosterone boosting peptides
• Cholesterol
• Anti-oxidants (carnosine, polyphenols (if grass-fed), iodine, taurine, etc.)

These foods are low in:

• Anti-nutrients that reduce the absorption of vitamins and minerals.
• Food toxins, such as lectins, oxalates, etc, that might give you an allergic/autoimmune reaction.

You’ll be well on your way to high testosterone if your diet consists mostly of these foods.

Check these articles to learn about more testosterone-boosting foods:

• 20 best testosterone-boosting diet plan foods
• Top 12 must-eat foods to increase testosterone

Top 5 testosterone-boosting breakfast ideas

#1 Milkpowder pancakes

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 1 cup milk powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp honey / maple syrup

Instructions

Mix everything together thoroughly. Then fry it in a pan until ready. Add the honey on top after done.

#2 Testo-milkshake

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 1 cup Milk (for fat loss: use low fat milk)
• 3 eggs (can use yolks only if you are sensitive to the white)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 banana (for fat loss: use berries)
• 1 tbsp collagen

Flavoring:

For additional flavor, you can add whatever you like – cocoa, coffee, vanilla essence, etc.

Instructions:

Add into a jug, blend well, and drink.

This is personally my favorite, based on how quick, time effective and delicious it is. The shake gives me loads of energy and keeps me satiated and stable for hours.

Everyone that I’ve recommended it to loves it.

#3 Bacon and eggs

Ingredients you’ll need:

• Butter (for fat loss: use coconut oil cooking spray)
• 3-5 slices of pork, beef, or turkey bacon (for fat loss: use turkey)
• 3-5 eggs (prepare how you like)
• 1-2 fruit (apple, pear, guava, orange, mango, passionfruit, etc.) or 1-2 slices of sourdough bread

#4 Eggs, sausage, and fruit

Ingredients you’ll need:

• Butter (for fat loss: use coconut oil spray cook)
• 1-3 links of sausage (for fat loss: use lean meat)
• 3-5 eggs
• 1-2 cups fruit juice (pomegranate juice, orange juice, grape juice, apple juice, etc.)

#5 Yolk and honey ice cream (Russian custard)

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 1 flat tablespoon honey
• 2 large egg yolks
• Optional: Add a bit of coconut cream

Instructions:

Blend together and put in the freezer for a couple of hours. It becomes a delicious ice cream-like consistency and it tastes really yummy. For the best result, make and put it in the freezer at night to eat the following day. Its consistency never gets too hard, so it will be good and ready the next morning.

This is ideal for those who have no appetite in the morning and just feel like snacking on something light and sweet. This blend will provide you with fats, nootropics (choline), and glucose which are perfect for balancing blood sugar and fueling your brain for energy-intensive tasks.

What to avoid in a testosterone-boosting breakfast

Low protein meals

Protein-rich foods include dairy, eggs and meat. Make sure your breakfast contains 1 or more of these foods.

A low protein breakfast can worsen blood sugar control, which will result in fatigue, mood swings and cravings throughout the day.

Most Americans eat a carb-heavy, low-protein diet by consuming sandwiches, cereals, oats, etc. This is non-ideal.

Hard-to-digest foods

Digestion requires energy and can make you tired. Eating foods that make you feel light will help you feel better. Hard-to-digest foods or foods that take a lot of time to digest can worsen energy and cognition during the day.

Keto foods/meals

It’s important to have carbohydrates in the morning to lower excess cortisol. It doesn’t have to be a lot of carbs, since just 20g is enough to lower cortisol adequately.

Foods with between 20-30g carbs include:

• 1 small to medium potato
• 500ml milk
• 1 medium to large apple
• 1 medium to large banana
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 heaped tbsp honey
• 1 large slice of sourdough bread
• 1/2 cup pomegranate juice

I personally consume roughly 80g of carbs each morning before my morning walks.

Foods you might be sensitive to

Consuming foods that you might be sensitive to can cause fatigue, brain fog, mood swings, aches and pains, inflammation, etc.

Foods that you are sensitive to create inflammation in the body, which then lowers testosterone.

If you are sensitive to some of the testosterone-boosting foods I mentioned above, it’s best not to have them.

Luckily, there are workarounds to many of your food sensitivities. For example, skinning potatoes can dramatically enhance your tolerance. Switching from cow to goat milk can cure your dairy intolerance. And much more.

FAQ

Testosterone-boosting breakfast summary

Key points:

Breakfast can help to kickstart your day and give you more energy, enhance your mood and testosterone and improve your sleep.

Make sure that your breakfast contains testosterone-boosting foods that aren’t difficult to digest and that you don’t respond negatively to.

Try to experiment with different combinations until you have found what works best for you.