I believe it, among my circle of friends and acquaintances the pudgy guys seem happier and healthier than the thin guys like myself. When my wife talks to her friends it also seems that the thin husbands have more health problems than the pudgy husbands.
I do think there is a genetic/evolutionary component to this.
I was just thinking about this - if there was an optimal body-fat/weight for better long-term health. It seems to be common knowledge that higher testosterone levels leads to a more suppressed immune system. So as the article implied, the "Dad Bods" guys may actually have a more robust immune system due to lower testosterone levels. Makes sense to me. Hell, I'd be happy to have more of a "Dad-Bod" then the lean machine I'm at now. I also never thought that TRT was any sort of anti-aging treatment, that higher levels over the long-term could be damaging. I'm still angry that my idiot PCP put me on Androgel without first understanding why my T dropped so low.
The article is based on the new book - "How Men Age" by Richard G. Bribiescas. There's an initial review out on it - and it says this:
- The symptoms of aging seem to be similar in all mammals (which is not much comfort as there is no species to model or aspire to).
-Higher metabolic rates and constant oxidative stress in men leads to shorter lifespans than women who show surges of oxidative stress (pregnancy/childbirth/lactation) but lower overall metabolisms.
-Death is U-shaped. There is huge risk of death after birth. It lessens and flattens in the prime of life, then rockets again as we age.
-Hormone therapy for men might help them bulk up, but it also might be an outsized strain on aging organs to maintain that bulk. In Bribiescas’ analogy, at some point Ferraris can become too expensive to maintain.
-Testosterone suppresses immune functions in men, leading to more infections and autoimmune diseases. Higher levels of it are a potential predictor of prostate cancer when considered with greater energy intake, western diet, sedentary lifestyle and higher testosterone levels (so taking it as a supplement might not be the best choice).
-Fat is far less demanding to maintain than muscle, so muscle gives way to fat when it is no longer needed to find a mate.
-Gray hair is a result of oxidative stress and lifelong doses of testosterone and DHT “a sort of super testosterone.”Hmmm. Put this all together suggests a program (maybe) for those of us suffering TRT, don't you think? I'm not suggesting this book is some authoritative source but in context of all I've read, I think it's not something to discard or ignore.
Absolutely diet is #1, exercise, low to moderate weight training (bulking up isn't good for the long-term), don't be afraid to let the body-fat drift a little higher, and maybe, maintain as low a dosage of T to where you can function well enough. I'm at 80 mg/week of cypionate now and happy with that, I'd go lower maybe, when I get older.
