The most effective things you can take to increase testosterone depend on why your levels are low in the first place. For many men, a combination of specific minerals, targeted herbal supplements, and dietary changes can meaningfully raise testosterone. For others, the answer is medical treatment. Here’s what the evidence actually supports.
Check Your Baseline First
Before taking anything, it helps to know where you stand. The American Urological Association defines low testosterone as a total level below 300 ng/dL, confirmed by two separate blood draws taken in the early morning (when testosterone peaks). If you’re below that threshold, supplements alone may not be enough, and you’d benefit from a medical evaluation. If you’re in the low-normal range and looking to optimize, supplements and lifestyle changes have more room to work.
Zinc and Magnesium
Zinc is one of the most well-supported minerals for testosterone production. Doses above 40 mg of elemental zinc per day have been shown to improve testosterone production in men with low levels. Zinc plays a direct role in both the creation and action of testosterone in your body, and a deficiency can quietly suppress your levels without causing obvious symptoms.
Magnesium works alongside zinc. Both minerals are commonly sold together in ZMA supplements (zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6), which stay within safe daily intake limits for most adults. If your diet is low in red meat, shellfish, nuts, and seeds, there’s a reasonable chance you’re not getting enough of either mineral. Correcting a deficiency here is one of the simplest and most reliable ways to support testosterone.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D functions more like a hormone than a typical vitamin, and low levels are strongly associated with low testosterone. If you spend most of your time indoors or live at a higher latitude, your vitamin D is likely suboptimal. Most studies showing testosterone benefits use doses in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 IU per day, which is enough to bring deficient individuals into a healthy range over several weeks. Getting your vitamin D level tested is worthwhile, since supplementing when you’re already sufficient won’t add much.
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is the most-studied herbal testosterone supplement on the market. In placebo-controlled trials, the standardized root extract (often sold as KSM-66) has been associated with roughly a 15% increase in serum testosterone compared to placebo. That said, some researchers have flagged inconsistencies in the data. One study’s figures appeared to contradict its own reported results, which is why the finding comes with a degree of uncertainty.
What’s more consistent across studies is ashwagandha’s effect on stress hormones. It reliably lowers cortisol, which is significant because chronically elevated cortisol directly suppresses testosterone production. If stress or poor sleep is a factor in your life, ashwagandha may help through that pathway even if its direct testosterone-boosting effect is modest. Typical study doses range from 300 to 600 mg per day of a root extract.
Tongkat Ali
Tongkat ali (sometimes labeled as eurycoma longifolia) appears to work differently from most testosterone supplements. Rather than increasing total testosterone production, it may lower levels of sex hormone-binding globulin, a protein that locks onto testosterone and prevents your body from using it. The result is higher free testosterone, which is the form that actually drives muscle growth, energy, and libido. Most supplement doses fall between 200 and 400 mg per day of a standardized extract. The evidence base is smaller than ashwagandha’s, but the mechanism is plausible and early results are promising.
Fenugreek
Fenugreek seed extract has shown mixed results. In a double-blind trial of healthy men aged 40 to 80, a fenugreek-based supplement increased free testosterone index by about 12% at the highest dose (1,800 mg per day) compared to baseline. However, when measured against a placebo group, the increases in blood testosterone didn’t reach statistical significance for most doses. Saliva testosterone did increase compared to placebo, but blood levels told a less convincing story.
Fenugreek is unlikely to hurt, and some men report improved libido while taking it. But if you’re choosing between supplements, the evidence for ashwagandha and tongkat ali is currently stronger.
Why DHEA Is Riskier Than It Sounds
DHEA is a precursor hormone your adrenal glands produce naturally, and your body converts it into both testosterone and estrogen. Supplementing with it might seem like a logical shortcut, but the conversion doesn’t always go the direction you want. Your body may turn supplemental DHEA into estrogen rather than testosterone, potentially causing side effects like breast tissue growth in men. The Mayo Clinic specifically warns against combining DHEA with testosterone, noting risks including low sperm count and gynecomastia. For most men, targeted supplements like zinc or ashwagandha are safer and more predictable choices.
Dietary Fat Matters More Than You Think
What you eat plays a surprisingly large role in testosterone production. A systematic review of intervention studies found that low-fat diets consistently decrease testosterone levels in men. The studies compared diets averaging about 20% of calories from fat against diets at roughly 40%. That’s a meaningful difference in hormone output just from food choices.
Cholesterol is the raw material your body uses to build testosterone, so aggressively cutting dietary fat can starve the process. You don’t need to eat a high-fat diet, but getting at least 25 to 35% of your daily calories from fat, with an emphasis on sources like eggs, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and fatty fish, gives your body what it needs to maintain healthy production.
Sleep Is a Testosterone Supplement
This isn’t something you “take,” but it’s arguably more powerful than any supplement on this list. A study from the University of Chicago found that healthy young men who slept only five hours per night for one week saw their testosterone drop by 10 to 15%. That decline happened after just seven days, and it’s roughly equivalent to aging 10 to 15 years in terms of testosterone levels.
If you’re sleeping six hours or less and wondering why your levels are low, no supplement will fully compensate. Consistently getting seven to nine hours is the single highest-impact change most men can make.
Medical Options for Clinically Low Levels
If your testosterone is confirmed below 300 ng/dL on two morning blood tests, medical treatment becomes a reasonable conversation. The two main approaches work in fundamentally different ways.
Testosterone replacement therapy provides your body with bioidentical testosterone directly, bypassing your natural production system entirely. It’s effective at restoring levels but comes with trade-offs: your body’s own production shuts down in response, which typically reduces sperm count and can affect fertility.
Selective estrogen receptor modulators like enclomiphene take the opposite approach. They block certain estrogen receptors in your brain, which tricks your pituitary gland into sending stronger signals to your testes to produce more testosterone on their own. This preserves your natural hormone axis and sperm production, making it a common choice for younger men or those concerned about fertility. Both options require a prescription and ongoing monitoring through blood work.
A Practical Stacking Approach
If you’re looking for a straightforward starting point, the combination with the best risk-to-reward ratio looks something like this:
- Zinc (30 to 50 mg elemental zinc per day)
- Vitamin D (3,000 to 5,000 IU per day, ideally guided by a blood test)
- Magnesium (200 to 400 mg per day)
- Ashwagandha (300 to 600 mg per day of a root extract)
Layer in seven-plus hours of sleep, adequate dietary fat, and regular resistance training, and you’re covering the most evidence-backed bases before considering anything more aggressive. For men whose levels remain stubbornly low despite these changes, that’s when medical evaluation and possible pharmaceutical options enter the picture.