Your Obesity May Kill Your Masculinity

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A documentary film “Super Size Me” which came out in 2004, looks at the negative effects that high-calorie foods have on our health. The main hero of the film, Morgan Spurlock, ate at a fast food restaurant three times per day during a month.

At the beginning of the experiment, Morgan was a healthy, slim man, weighing 185 pounds. But in one month he gained 24 pounds, a 13% body mass increase. In that short period, Spurlock experienced such problems as fatigue, shortness of breath, increased cholesterol to 230 mg/dL (6.0 mmol/L), increased blood pressure, and obesity.

Symptoms and Consequences

Overweight is not only a problem related to a person’s appearance. Being overweight also means decreased testosterone in the blood, which leads to negative effects on the men’s body. Symptoms of testosterone deficiency in men include:

• dry eyes;

• small wrinkles under lips;

• small wrinkles on the palms of the hands;

• abdominal obesity;

• hemorrhoids and spider veins;

• cellulite;

• gynecomastia (an endocrine system disorder which is manifested in a noncancerous increase of male breast tissue);

• small wrinkles on the corners of the eyes.

Symptoms of emotional and mental instability connected with testosterone deficiency:

• reduced sexual activity;

• excessive perspiration of the head and the upper torso;

• persistent physical frailty;

• fatigue and tiredness, decreased tolerance to physical activity, loss of muscle strength, myalgia (muscle pain, in cases of obesity it is caused by a metabolic myopathy or some nutritional deficiencies);

• reduced leadership skills, reduced commitment, bad cognition, impaired memory;

• nocturia (the medical term for excessive urination at night).

Adipose tissue produces leptin. This hormone is important for the reproductive function but an excess of leptin lowers testosterone production. It causes insulin resistance and leptin resistance. Insulin resistance slows down the process of fat breakdown. Leptin resistance decreases the feeling of fullness, as a result, causes overeating. Obesity and accompanying insulin resistance may affect cancer processes.   

Obesity and Testosterone

Internal organs functioning disorders, serious diseases of the urinary system, unattractive appearance - all these consequences of obesity provoke psychological problems. A man who’s overweight is at increased risk of depression and self-doubt. An absence of satisfaction in sexual life makes a man aggressive and reserved. But a study published in 2013 in the journal “Hormone and Metabolic Research” showed that men with obesity, who consumed fewer calories, had increased levels of testosterone.   

It should be noted that avoidance of obesity and insulin resistance are the methods of primary prevention of 2 type diabetes, erectile dysfunction in men, aging processes, and cancer processes. But if you are already faced with this problem, you should take measures for weight loss, otherwise, it may cost you your health and life.