Research
Hormonal
Obesity and high insulin levels are inversely correlated with Total Testosterone and SHBG levels, but weight loss increases SHBG even if insulin remains elevated.
Losing weight helps increase SHBG and Free Testosterone in obese men. However, even if insulin remains high after weight loss, SHBG can still improve, likely due to other hormonal changes.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
In both the nonobese and the obese population, BMI as well as insulin levels were negatively correlated with T and SHBG levels... Immediately after weight loss, the SHBG binding capacity normalized, notwithstanding persisting obesity and still elevated insulin levels.
Why this rating
Clear correlation data and intervention results, though the weight loss intervention was short (6 weeks).
Source
Influence of some biological indexes on sex hormone-binding globulin and androgen levels in aging or obese males.
A. Vermeulen et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 1996
DOI 10.1210/jcem.81.5.8626841
cross_sectional · n=308Cited 442×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Total testosterone levels remain relatively stable until approximately age 55 in healthy nonobese men, after which they decline rapidly, while free testosterone declines linearly from a younger age.Strong
- In aging and obese men, elevated sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels are primarily driven by low growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels, rather than by hyperinsulinism.Good
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