I see this study referenced frequently, and it's always seemed dubious. Why would there be a spike at exactly 7 days of abstinence, before returning to baseline? It's possible that the measuring apparatus was improperly calibrated on that day. Has this study been reproduced?

Maybe nobody could make it past 7 days.

They are not the masters of their domain.

Perhaps it also causes a commensurate increase in androgen receptors.

Yeah there's a lot of non-religious people who are finding the advantages of abstaining from porn (/r/nofap and /r/pornfree) or trying to limit its use. They say the T boost is temporary, but the behavioral factors make it worth it. Like they're more apt to be social with women, go on dates, etc, if they don't just relieve themselves, they actually have motivation.

> Yeah there’s a lot of non-religious people who are finding the advantages of abstaining from porn (/r/nofap and /r/pornfree) or trying to limit its use. They say the T boost is temporary

The T boost from refraining from masturbation is disputed, and AFAIK no one has even asserted that there is one from refraining from porn, as such.

“Some folks online claim that refraining from masturbation makes them feel more manly, more masculine, more assertive, more dominant, and more attractive to females. They allege that this effect emerges from a supposed increase in testosterone when they stopped masturbating.

“These claims are often supported by reference to a very small, un-replicated study from China, which involved a very small sample of 10 males. Being interested in this study and how the analysis was conducted, colleagues have attempted to obtain the study data to verify, but have been unable to. But better research finds that testosterone isn’t as simple as these claims would have it.”

— https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-who-stray/2020...

“In other words, while there is indeed some research finding that sexual abstinence is linked to higher testosterone in men, the evidence is—at best—very mixed. Also, if you look to the overall trend in the data, it actually suggests that being sexually active in general increases testosterone, with the most consistent finding being that looking at porn enhances T.”

— https://www.lehmiller.com/blog/2020/1/24/can-abstaining-from...

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like the claim is dubious then.

Exactly. Abstaining from porn made me super horny and restless.

If you need to motivate yourself to hit on women, this is a positive.

If you need to do something intellectual -- work or play -- it's a sharp negative, though. Evangelists tend to gloss over this point.

Actually as Joe Rogan is quick to point out, if you're confused about your feelings for a woman, or you're feeling tempted by someone who's not your partner. Rub one out and you'll be surprised at the clarity it brings.

The funny thing is, if you hold the line longer (months) and have something else to pour yourself into the restlessness decreases and you're left with _focus_.

Mmm-hmm.

Let me guess -- if I nofap for months and eat less, it will also help with weight loss? Whenever a fad needs to be combined with a well-known active ingredient in order to be effective, it makes me suspicious that the fad isn't effective at all.

The constantly receding goalposts are another sign. With nofap, first it was "before an athletic competition," then it was "for a week," then it was "for a month," and now that a significant number of people have given that a try it's multiple months? Not a good look.

By this point I've gone from 30% to 90% sure this whole thing is just christian sex angst rebranded for the web.

:shrug: Make of it what you will, I'm just providing my personal experience. I was celibate/nofap for 25 years (now married for 10).

Good lord man, 25 years. I feel like there should be category in the Nobel prizes for that. If I make it a week I feel like a boss.

With online porn and being alone, it's much harder to do that nowadays. If you told me that as a college kid that you didn't do it for 6 years in your teens, not even a single girl would believe you.

Its not christian sex angst, it's christians upset over the feminization of men. They cant cope with the new non hetero normative reality we find ourselves in, which is that men are increasingly turning to non binary forms of self identification without the pressure of gender roles.

I think this is a good trend because without the pressure to be masculine, the patriarchy's power is dismantled and we create a more equal, fair, and just society.

can we not link to toxic websites like Reddit?

I hate to tell you, but this website is functionally just a mini-reddit. And it exhibits as much toxicity as any semi-special-interest subreddit (perhaps even more, due to the many posts that are politically topical).

What's funny is I didn't even link to them, I just named the sub-reddits. I think Reddit has gone way downhill and far surpassed Eternal September (I refer to it as the new AOL), but that's largely the defaults and popular sub-reddits, I agree that niche sub-reddits are generally better and at least as likely to produce the same quality discussions you'd find here.

Is this study credible? I mean it was based on 28 men. Are the researchers and their institution, Hangzhou Normal College, legitimate in the field of medical research?

Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense. I guess then if you want gains, stop a-spankin’. Is that true?

Athletes famously abstain before a major game. I don't know if it's true or not, but there's some indication it could be.

This has been known for awhile, but this spike doesn't persist. It quickly levels back down.

probably why the ProudBoy jerks swear to abstain from it.

This study is why the Proud Boys practice abstinence, yes.