Free vs. Total Testosterone: What Is the Difference?

If you’re a fitness enthusiast — and especially if you’re a man — testosterone is a wonderful and potent force to have coursing through your veins. As the hormone that practically defines manliness, testosterone is inextricably linked with the development of large, strong muscles, not to mention the vitality of your blood and reproductive system, the maintenance of a healthy body composition, and even the stability of your mood and energy levels.

So with this in mind, if the report of your bloodwork authored by your healthcare provider shows that you have a total testosterone level within the normal range of all men, which is usually expressed as a number between 240-950 ng/dL, this means all is well within your anatomy, right? Not so fast. 

There are critical differences between total testosterone and free testosterone that you should pay close attention to. That’s because these differences can determine whether your body is actually putting its testosterone to productive use, or if your testosterone is essentially being wasted and possibly even harming you.

What is the difference between total testosterone and free testosterone?

Simply stated, total testosterone accounts for all of the testosterone present in your body. In most cases, having a fairly high total testosterone level is a good thing, since total testosterone is associated with greater total muscle mass and strength, more energy, and a heightened libido. 

However, your total testosterone isn’t a particularly useful statistic to know without simultaneous knowledge of your free testosterone. In many respects, free testosterone is an infinitely more valuable measurement of the testosterone in your body, because nearly all of the testosterone in your body is bound to protein, and is unavailable for use. 

Free testosterone is the only testosterone in your body that is able to roam through your body and assist with the physiological processes that testosterone is popularly linked with. This means that having a free testosterone level in a healthy range is of infinitely greater importance than having a higher level of total testosterone that may be woefully underutilized. 

What happens if I have high total testosterone and low free testosterone?

Hypothetically, a high level of total testosterone accompanied by low free testosterone most likely means that your sex-hormone binding blogulin (SHBG) is locking down more of your testosterone than is ideal… and this is a relatively common problem. In practice, this usually results in your body functioning in a way that is virtually indistinguishable from a body that has a low level of total testosterone.

Common symptoms of the high-total, low-free testosterone combo include low sexual desire or fewer erections in men, consistent fatigue, declining muscle mass, increased body fat, and frequent bouts of irritability.

While there can be a number of causes for this, which include hyperthyroidism, an elevated estrogen level, or an austere diet that is short on vital nutrients, the most common cause of a low free testosterone level is aging. This makes it a problem that a high percentage of men will be forced to contend with as they reach the age of 50 and then surpass it.

What happens if I have low total testosterone and high free testosterone?

In the relatively rare scenario in which you have low total testosterone but a high (or at least normal) free testosterone level, it means that an extraordinary percentage of the testosterone in your body is bioavailable.

Ordinarily, people whose testosterone levels are atypically skewed in this way will have none of the symptoms associated with low testosterone. The exception occurs when total testosterone is so low that the relatively high percentage of free testosterone available for utilization is unable to compensate for the overall testosterone shortage. 

In these cases, you might still experience some of the symptoms linked with low total testosterone, like a stagnant libido and muscle tissue that seems unresponsive to training. Even so, these symptoms will usually be less severe than they are with the high-total, low-free combination.

How can I address testosterone shortfalls?

If medical tests show that you fall into the category of people with low testosterone, and particularly low free testosterone, tests show that PrimaVice Shilajit was able to increase both the total testosterone and free testosterone levels of male test subjects between the ages of 45 and 55 years old by approximately 20 percent.

In lieu of turning to supplements, the standard advice for countering extreme dips in testosterone are to get more sleep, engage in regularly scheduled resistance training, and to make sure that your diet has adequate levels of dietary fat, because low fat intake can cause testosterone levels to fall drastically.

Track your T

There may be many reasons why you’re feeling fatigued and moody, and your fitness progress has stagnated. However, if you’ve analyzed your daily activities and found that your training, diet, and sleep are all conducive to testosterone production, you may want to visit your physician and have your total and free testosterone levels checked. Otherwise, you may waste years of training chasing results that are impossible to attain because your testosterone level isn’t on par with your dedication.

Summary

1. There are important differences between total testosterone and free testosterone.

2. Total testosterone represents all of the testosterone present in your body.

3. Free testosterone reveals the testosterone in your body that is actually available for use.

4. Low free testosterone is more damaging than low total testosterone, and can result in all of the problems associated with low total testosterone, including low sex drive, minimal muscle mass development, a reduction of energy, and an accumulation of more body fat.

5. The most common cause of low free testosterone is aging, which means men need to remain cognizant of their testosterone levels as they grow older.

6. One of the most reliable supplements for countering declines in total and free testosterone is PrimaVice Shilajit.

7. Resistance training, dietary fat consumption, and acquiring more sleep are the most common methods for naturally boosting both total and free testosterone.