Fat Guys With Low Testosterone May Stay Fertile Longer

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Guys who want to have kids later in life might consider hitting the hamdog stand after work instead of the gym.

Richard Gutierrez Bribiescas, a biological anthropologist at Yale University, recently revealed a shocking bit of men’s health news: Fat dudes, particularly those with low testosterone levels, stay fertile longer than their muscular counterparts.

“Skeletal muscle is expensive,” Bribiescas told NPR during an in-depth interview on evolutionary science and his new book. “A calorie that is burned by skeletal muscle is one calorie that can’t be used to repair a damaged kidney cell. So, having big muscles may be great for your social life, but it’s not very useful if you have an infection.”

As men age their muscles are often replaced by flab, but Bribiescas said that isn’t a bad thing: “I call it turning evolutionary lemons into lemonade … it turns out that those traits — say, a little extra fat and lower testosterone — may actually help [men] reproduce later in life.”

One study he cited even shows elderly men in non-Western countries making babies well into their 80s.

Click here more information on the science behind his claim.