Regarding NoFap and motivation

[Cacc]

you go through roughly an 8-day cycle where you will continually get more horny up until about Day 6, and then you will get really horny through Day 6 and Day 7. However, regardless of whether or not you ejaculate by the end of Day 7, your testerone levels will drop dramatically

Except that's not all that happens... Your t receptors also become more sensitive until i about 14~ days or so. And frequent masturbation decreases the receptors sensitivity and raises estrogen receptors' sensitivity. Meaning you behave less masculine.

https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/men-doe ... e-hangover

 

[Phallosopher]

I actually have a perspective to share on this that came from an unusually well spoken and thoughtful stripper I met on a train ride across a few states (yes I took her home!).

Anyway, whoever posted the bell curve like thing inspired me to remember this... basically there are three cases:

1. If you're masturbating way too much, like you never let anything build up in there without giving yourself release, you are lowering your testosterone, killing your sex drive, and thus probably won't have that source of motivation (which as we know in here, is probably the strongest of motivational sources).

2. If you're not masturbating at all, testosterone will indeed build up and so will your masculinity and motivation, but then you won't use it. Unused but built up testosterone will eventually cause your brain to signal to your body "hey, there's enough to go around in here, stop making more!" So you'll stop producing testosterone and it's all downhill from there and you'll alternate between tense and hyped up in an uncomfortable way, to drained and depressed until you get back in the game of masturbation or sex.

3. "Just right" - hormones naturally ebb and flow without your help... so you have to find harmony with that ebb and flow, which is a personal thing. Maybe you need to masturbate with a certain frequency, or maybe you get laid enough to account for that frequency of needing release. Maybe not masturbating at all gives you the right situation if you have the techniques from this site to be able to reliably find a girl when you need one to help with the release.

I think the key is really to be observant of the relationship between your mind and body and scientific about figuring out what keeps you motivated (and more importantly, effective) to the right extent as often as possible.

Epilogue:

I did NoFap for quite awhile after sinking into some pretty bad depression years ago, and it was really helpful (sort of situation 1). Later though I found myself in situation 2 as a result, and though various circumstances in my life had improved greatly and had women more interested in me again like the old days, I was more tense in their presence than I had ever been before. Now, I may have found the balance.

 

[journeyman]

Franco ; quality response, thanks. I haven't read the original research so I assume there is going to be some serious variability between individuals, but I will test it at the current model.

I have experimented with only once per week but somewhat haphazardly and never timed it to peak during the weekend. The next month I will experiment with once per week on Sunday so that it will peak next Sat-Sunday and test the results.

 

[Virgin101]

journeyman,

The conversation got slightly derailed, but there's been some research done on this. Basically, after ejaculating, you go through roughly an 8-day cycle where you will continually get more horny up until about Day 6, and then you will get really horny through Day 6 and Day 7. However, regardless of whether or not you ejaculate by the end of Day 7, your testerone levels will drop dramatically and then level out until you finally decide to ejaculate later. But that testosterone spike will not come again until you ejaculate.

Here's the image displaying this:

This is exactly what I've noticed myself (and it seems you've somewhat noticed yourself). So what I would do when I was picking up women often was try to have sex within a 7 day period, with Day 6 and Day 7 falling on the weekend when I was most likely to go out to meet women. This would make me incredibly bold because I was incredibly horny . But if I didn't bring home a woman by Sunday evening, I would usually masturbate on Sunday evening so that I could reset the cycle for the following weekend. If I didn't masturbate, I could feel my sex drive drop dramatically within the next few days, and I never noticed it recovering after that.

TL;DR: I masturbated once a week on Sunday evening if I didn't get sex with a woman to optimize my testosterone cycle.

- Franco

Hi Franco,

Curious if anyone has any thoughts as to whether doing this (waiting 7 days) may be beneficial to one's health in the long run. After all it means that your body, on average, will be exposed to higher levels of testosterone.

I can only presume that it must be! Just in the same way that keeping other thing in balance in one's life also has its rewards.