Testosterone Treatment May Help Dieting Men Lose Fat, Fight Diabetes

Middle-aged men often lose both fat and muscle when dieting, but a new study claims that testosterone treatments may help them lose just fat while also retaining muscle mass.

According to the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, 40 percent of men struggling with obesity have low testosterone. Researchers now believe that adding testosterone treatments to a dieting plan could increase fat reduction.

"There is an epidemic of obesity and related functional hypogonadism, yet testosterone treatment remains controversial," said Mathis Grossmann, MD, principal investigator of the study. "This study shows for the first time that, among obese men with lowered testosterone, testosterone treatment augmented the diet-induced loss of total and visceral fat mass and prevented the diet-induced loss of lean mass."
Reducing diabetes

Researchers looked at participants who were fairly healthy but overweight - all of whom had low testosterone levels. Twenty percent of the participants had diabetes while 10 percent had heart disease.

All participants were placed on a low-calorie diet and encouraged to perform moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes per day. Half of the men in the study received testosterone injections every 10 weeks during the year-long study while the other half received a placebo.

At the conclusion of the study, each group had lost an average of 24 pounds, but participants in the testosterone injection group lost mainly fat while the placebo group lost both fat and muscle. The findings could positively impact middle-aged men fighting type 2 diabetes.