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Using Testosterone To Reduce Abdominal Fat |
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Written by By Dan Gwartney, MD
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Friday, 30 January 2009 |
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Page 4 of 8
Though both groups were similar at the beginning of the study, by the end of the first 24 weeks, significant differences were revealed. Without inducing adverse changes in lipid profile (cholesterol and triglycerides), prostate (as measured by PSA) or insulin sensitivity, testosterone treatment resulted in significantly greater decreases in overall body fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat and total fat mass while increasing lean body mass and reducing abdominal girth.12 Subjects lost nearly one inch off the waistline, gained almost 3 pounds of lean mass and lost 7.9 percent of total fat mass, while the placebo group increased total fat mass 4.5 percent. What did not change significantly between the two groups was visceral fat mass. Visceral fat is the fat that surrounds the internal organs of the abdomen; visceral fat is associated with problems with insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular disease and the Metabolic Syndrome. In the testosterone group, visceral fat was essentially unchanged over the 24-week period (0.3 percent increase), whereas the control group experienced a 3.1 percent increase. Had testosterone been able to reduce visceral fat mass significantly, that finding could have allowed for wider acceptance of testosterone use in men suffering from the fat-gain side effects of certain HIV drug treatments and possibly others with abdominal obesity demonstrating early signs of diabetes (glucose intolerance), cardiovascular disease or the Metabolic Syndrome. It should be noted that the statistical significance was not reached, despite the trend being for increased visceral fat in the placebo group. This may reflect a failure of the study to detect a difference due to the relatively low number of subjects relative to the degree of effect. When the difference is relatively small, it takes a greater number of subjects to determine a clear and statistical significance due to the variability that occurs between individual people within the groups.
Though the investigators were quick to point out the shortcomings of the study (failure to significantly affect visceral fat, inability to assess long-term safety, effect on cardiovascular health or prostate growth), this study certainly suggests that testosterone is effective at reducing fat mass and subcutaneous fat, without changing diet or exercise. Notably, the subjects were adult men with low to low/normal testosterone concentrations. Subjects were approved for testosterone treatment with concentrations at or below 400ng/dl— nearly twice the recommendations of the Endocrine Society. The testosterone gel treatment placed the subjects in the high/normal range, and was noted to be well-tolerated.
The results noted in this study agree with several others in which subjects treated with replacement doses of testosterone experienced a decrease in total fat mass.13-16 As testosterone is known to increase muscle size and strength in a dose-dependent manner (greater increases with higher doses), one is led to wonder what effect is experienced by bodybuilders and athletes who utilize supraphysiologic (higher than normal) doses of testosterone.17
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Research and Review 
