What did @drewalexopoulos actually say?
In a 30-second TikTok, Drew Alexopoulos rattled off five tips to "raise your testosterone naturally": lose body fat through walking or zone 2 cardio, train heavy legs twice a week, eat a nutrient-dense diet heavy on red meat and eggs, sleep 7 to 8 hours nightly, and supplement with "300-500 mg of magnesium, vitamin D, tongkat ali, and boron every single day." He framed high testosterone as "life-changing" for looks, muscle, performance, and longevity. The tone is motivational-bro, not clinical. But the underlying claims are surprisingly grounded in real physiology, with a few gaps worth examining.
The core message, that lifestyle changes can influence testosterone levels, is not wrong. What matters is the degree of effect and whether his specific prescriptions hold up.
Does the science back this up?
Mostly, yes, with important caveats. The fat loss point is the strongest. Adipose tissue expresses aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to estradiol. Reducing body fat, particularly visceral fat, is consistently associated with improved testosterone levels in men with obesity-related hypogonadism. A 2012 meta-analysis by Corona et al. in the European Journal of Endocrinology found weight loss interventions raised total testosterone by roughly 2-3 nmol/L on average.
Resistance training, especially compound lower-body lifts, does produce acute hormonal responses. However, the long-term effect on baseline testosterone from training alone in eugonadal men is modest. A 2021 review by Vingren et al. in Sports Medicine noted acute spikes post-exercise do not reliably translate to chronically elevated resting testosterone in men with normal levels.
Sleep is one of the cleaner arguments here. Testosterone secretion is tightly coupled to sleep architecture, particularly slow-wave and REM sleep. A landmark 2011 study by Leproult and Van Cauter in JAMA showed that restricting healthy young men to 5 hours of sleep per night for one week reduced daytime testosterone by 10-15%. "So much testosterone is produced when we sleep" is a blunt but defensible statement.
What did they get wrong (or right)?
He got the directional arrows right on most points. But the supplement stack deserves scrutiny. Magnesium supplementation may help in men who are deficient, and a 2011 study by Cinar et al. in Biological Trace Element Research found correlations between magnesium levels and testosterone in athletes, but effect sizes are small and not clinically meaningful in replete individuals. Vitamin D has similar evidence, with supplementation helping in deficient men but showing no benefit in those with adequate levels.
Tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia) is where the evidence gets thin. Some small trials, including a 2012 pilot study by Tambi et al. in the Asian Journal of Andrology, showed modest testosterone improvements in men with late-onset hypogonadism, but sample sizes were under 80 participants and industry funding was involved. Boron has even less robust data behind it.
Rattling off "300-500 mg of magnesium, vitamin D, tongkat ali, and boron every single day" as a unified recommendation conflates supplements with very different evidence profiles. That is the video's biggest credibility problem.
What should you actually know?
If your testosterone is clinically low, which means a confirmed blood test showing levels below the reference range along with symptoms, no amount of steak and zone 2 cardio is a substitute for talking to a physician. Lifestyle changes can meaningfully support testosterone in men with obesity, sleep deprivation, or nutritional deficiencies. They are not a reliable fix for true hypogonadism.
The vertical diet Drew references, popularized by strength coach Stan Efferding, is high in protein and micronutrient-dense foods. There is nothing inherently dangerous about it, but it is not a clinically validated testosterone protocol. It is a dietary preference that overlaps with reasonable nutrition principles.
The framing of testosterone as "life-changing" for looks and longevity is where marketing bleeds into medicine. Testosterone is one hormone in a complex system. Men with clinically normal testosterone who try to "optimize" it through supplements are largely chasing marginal gains with limited evidence and real money spent. Get your levels tested before you buy anything.
The bottom line on this video
This is better than average for TikTok testosterone content. The fat loss and sleep advice is solid. The heavy legs claim is partially supported but overstated. The supplement stack is presented with more confidence than the evidence warrants. If you are a healthy man with normal testosterone, these tips may support general health, but they are unlikely to dramatically transform your hormone profile. If you actually have low testosterone confirmed by lab work, see a clinician rather than building a supplement stack from a 30-second video.