Summary:

For July, August, and September, I experimented with lecithin to see if it would have any effect on load size, semen color, or libido. For the past several months, I conditioned so that outside variables would be controlled. The conditioning included weightlifting and cardio 6 days a week and drinking 16 cups of water daily. These lecithin trials spanned about 9 weeks as I tested the effects of both 1200mg sunflower lecithin and 1200mg soy lecithin. Based on studies done by u/Multi_Orgasmic_Man lecithin seems to take time to build up in the system before any increase in load size is seen. Conversely, there is a cool-down period where load size gradually returns to baseline. These factors were taken into account when performing the study. Samples were consistently taken every 48 hours starting on July 3rd. The samples were taken by edging for approximately 45 minutes, recording results, and repeating every 48 hours. The first 7 trials were baseline trials where I used no supplementation. For trials 8-14, I supplemented with 1200mg of soy lecithin. For trials 15-21, I supplemented with sunflower lecithin. Between these three trial blocks, I accounted for the time needed to let the supplement build up or unwind in order to get the most accurate results. No other supplements, vitamins, or minerals were used for this experiment.

The results showed an average of 6.29mL with no supplementation, 6.86mL for the soy lecithin trials, and 7.04mL for the sunflower lecithin trials, which represents a 9% increase in volume when supplementing with 1200mg of soy lecithin and a 12% increase when supplementing with sunflower lecithin. This means that sunflower lecithin is slightly more effective than sunflower lecithin, but when running a t-sample t-test, it showed that the difference between sunflower and soy lecithin was not “statistically significant.” When it came to the color and consistency, I didn’t see any change before or after using celery. In terms of other sexual parameters, I did not notice any change in libido or erection quality when taking sunflower lecithin, but I did feel a slight drop in libido when taking soy lecithin. I think this drop in libido was a placebo effect, as the phytoestrogen content in 1200mg of soy lecithin is basically nonexistent. Also, the drop in libido only occurred for a couple of days.

About Lecithin:

Lecithin was first discovered in the 19th century by French chemist Maurice Gobley. Gobley was studying egg yolks, and during his studies he was able to isolate a fatty substance from the egg yolk, which he dubbed lecithin, a word that comes from the Greek word for egg yolk. Lecithin is often used as an emulsifier, meaning it can mix liquids that typically don't mix well, such as oil and water.

Lecithin comes in many different forms, such as egg, sunflower, and soy. For soy lecithin, the lecithin is usually extracted by using chemical solvents such as hexane. Sunflower lecithin is extracted using a cold-press machine instead of using chemical solvents. The difference in the extraction process makes sunflower lecithin more natural compared to soy lecithin. One thing I sometimes hear is that people are hesitant to take any product that contains soy. The relationship between estrogen and soy is very complex, but basically the chemical extraction of the soy lecithin removes almost all of the phytoestrogens contained in the soybeans. This means that soy lecithin contains little to none of the phytoestrogen components of soy, which some people have raised concerns about. Egg yolks typically contain about 1,000mg of lecithin.

Lecithin is found in many key areas of the body and plays many important roles. It is found in the cell membranes and helps with cells' structural integrity and fluidity. It is found in the liver, where lecithin's amphiphilic properties help prevent fat accumulation in the liver. It is also found in blood, which helps with lipid transportation and metabolism. And lastly, lecithin is found in seminal plasma, which is the liquid that is used to transport spermatozoa. Semen is made up of about 99% seminal plasma and about 1% spermatozoa.

One of the uses of lecithin is to help mothers with the breast-feeding process. If the milk is backed up inside the duct, then the consistency of the milk can become too thick, which prevents the milk from being fully drained. The emulsifying properties of lecithin are speculated to improve the consistency of breast milk and allow the milk ducts to be fully drained. In this way, lecithin acts as a "flow" agent by allowing the milk to attain an ideal consistency. I believe that the emulsifying properties of lecithin also improve the "flow" of seminal plasma, which could be part of the reason why lecithin is the #1 most recommended ingredient for increasing load size. I have a section down below as to why I think lecithin works for increasing load size.

Theories:

I have a few theories on why lecithin is effective at increasing load size. The first theory is that lecithin can increase the absorption of other supplements, minerals, and vitamins consumed. “In pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements, emulsification can improve the absorption and bioavailability of certain nutrients and drugs by increasing their dispersion in the body.” And “Lecithin is used in pharmaceuticals to enhance the delivery of certain drugs, improving their solubility and bioavailability.” Lecithin’s emulsifying properties help transport fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K and other nutrients throughout the body. Perhaps this absorption boost from also taking lecithin translates to increased ejaculatory volume and improved fertility metrics across the board.

Another theory is that lecithin increases or optimizes many bodily liquid functions. This is seen in women who breastfeed, where the emulsifying property of lecithin improves the consistency of the breast milk, which is helpful for women who experience clogged ducts due to the breast milk being too thick. Lecithin helps with mixing fats with water in the stomach and intestines, which is important for digestion. Lecithin improves cell membrane fluidity, which is important for protein functionality and cell signaling. Lecithin is also found in the blood, which helps to keep fats dispersed in the blood and helps smooth circulation. It is also reported that lecithin can increase saliva in the mouth. What this all means is that lecithin improves the fluidity of many functions in the body. This means it can be used as a “flow” agent to improve load consistency and that it likely increases ejaculatory volume and fertility.

Studies:

I could not find any studies on humans, but there were a few animal studies on the effect of lecithin. A study from 2012 looked at the effect of soy lecithin on semen parameters of 28 rabbits. These rabbits were split into 4 groups, and each was given a different dosage of lecithin on a daily basis.

The groups included:

• A control group (no lecithin).

• A 0.5% soy lecithin concentrate group.

• 1.0% soy lecithin concentrate group.

• A 1.5% soy lecithin concentrate group

Semen was collected from these groups over 12 weeks.

The researchers found that soy lecithin was highly effective in increasing essentially all semen parameter metrics. The results showed a significant increase in ejaculatory volume, sperm concentration, and total motile sperm. In terms of ejaculatory volume, the group given 0.5% lecithin concentrate showed 7.5% more volume than the control group. For the 1.0% group, the increase in volume was 16.25%, and for the group given 1.5%, the increase in volume was 17.5%.

Interestingly, the results showed that lecithin took some time to become effective for the rabbits. For the first week, the rabbits showed very little difference in semen parameters compared to the control group. As time went on, the results showed that lecithin was becoming more and more effective for increasing load size and other semen parameters. At around the 9-week mark, lecithin reached peak effectiveness for the rabbits and the delta over the control group stabilized. What we can take away from this study is that lecithin is effective at increasing not just load size but all semen parameters. Additionally, it could take weeks for the effects of lecithin to become fully maximized.

With the lack of any human trials, I think it’s important to point out that there is a large amount of anecdotal evidence supporting the idea that lecithin increases load size. I checked reviews of lecithin supplements on Amazon and elsewhere, and for almost every product, I found reviews stating that supplementing with lecithin led to a noticeable increase in load size.

Another Redditor, u/Multi_Orgasmic_Man, recently finished a high-quality study on lecithin. If you have not read his studies, then I highly recommend doing so. In his study, he was supplemented with 1200mg of sunflower lecithin, and the results were recorded. Multi_Orgasmic_Man’s study showed that lecithin took around 3 weeks to reach peak effectiveness. This jives with the rabbits study above in that the first week of taking lecithin may yield few benefits, and it likely takes a few weeks to see maximum results. After 3 weeks he saw an increase from 2.6mL to 4.6mL, representing a 75% increase.

When it comes to the study that u/Multi_Orgasmic_Man performed, there are a few notes of clarity to highlight the difference between our two studies. In Multi_Orgasmic_Man’s study, he also supplemented with a multivitamin that contained vitamin E, while I did not. There is some evidence that vitamin E increases the effectiveness of supplementing with lecithin, and as stated earlier, lecithin improves the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and other nutrients. This is something I will be testing in a few weeks. Another key difference is that I had 48 hours of abstinence before getting trials, whereas where Multi_Orgasmic_Man’s trials were more so on a daily basisrather than every other day like mine. His daily method of measuring results showed a 75% increase, while my 48-hour approach yielded a 12% increase. This likely means that lecithin has a high recharge rate and can refill the tank quickly, but perhaps it only increases maximum load size by around 10-20%.

Experiment:

During this experiment, I controlled for water intake and exercise as these variables can highly influence load size. Since mid-October, I have been going to the gym 6 days a week for weightlifting and cardio. In addition, I have been drinking 16 cups of water daily. There were some days that I didn’t drink exactly 16 cups of water, or I didn’t work out when scheduled, but these days were rare. The only random variables that were not controlled for were diet and sleep quality, as these would be too difficult to standardize. For my trials, I edged for 45 minutes so that this variable would also be constant. There were 48-hour intervals between trials so that variances in sleep quality and diet would be smoothed out over multiple days.

For the first two weeks, I used no supplementation and measured 7 samples to get my baseline results. For the next 3 weeks, I dosed with 1200mg of soy lecithin. For soy lecithin, the first week was to let the lecithin build up in my system, and then the second and third weeks were used to measure results. After this, I did a week of no supplementation so that I could return to baseline before repeating the process with sunflower lecithin. The details can be seen more comprehensively below.

• Week 1-2: Baseline Samples.

• Week 3: 1200mg Soy Lecithin (build-up).

• Week 4-5: 1200mg Soy Lecithin Samples.

• Week 6: No Supplementation (cool-down).

• Week 7: 1200mg Sunflower Lecithin (build-up).

• Week 8-9: 1200mg Sunflower Lecithin samples.

Results:

No supplementation vs. 1200mg soy lecithin two-sample t-test:

t-value = 3.6389

p-value = .0039

confidence interval = (0.226mL, 0.917mL)

No supplementation vs. 1200mg sunflower lecithin two-sample t-test:

t-value = 4.9045

p-value = .0005

confidence interval = (0.411mL, 1.089mL)

1200mg soy lecithin vs. 1200mg sunflower lecithin two-sample t-test:

t-value = 1.4237

p-value = .1802

confidence interval = (-0.095mL, 0.452mL)

When compared to no supplementation, both 1200mg soy lecithin and 1200mg sunflower lecithin are statistically significant. Statistical significance represents a p-value < .05, which is true for both soy and sunflower lecithin. Soy lecithin increased volume by an average of .57mL, which means a 9% increase to load size over no supplementation. Sunflower lecithin showed a larger 0.75mL increase, which represents a 12% increase compared to no supplementation. When comparing sunflower lecithin to soy lecithin, although sunflower lecithin showed a larger increase, the results were not statistically significant according to the two-sample t-test. In terms of other sexual parameters, I did not notice any change in libido or any changes in sensation or erection quality with sunflower lecithin. For soy lecithin, it did feel like my libido went down during the first few days of supplementation and that my erection quality slightly decreased. However, I think this was primarily a placebo effect as the soy content in 1200mg of lecithin is very small, and the decrease in libido was minor and only lasted a couple of days.

Conclusion:

Lecithin is the third most effective supplement that I have tried so far. The only two supplements that have beaten lecithin are pygeum and vitamin D. Based on the difference between my study and the study of u/Multi_Orgasmic_Man, I think we can conclude that lecithin does increase maximum volume and that lecithin is especially effective at providing a higher recharge rate. I believe the difference between sunflower and soy lecithin is mostly negligible, but I prefer sunflower lecithin as it gave me a slightly larger edge over soy lecithin.

What’s Next: Lecithin Studies 1. 1200mg sunflower lecithin vs 2400mg of sunflower lecithin.  2. 2400mg sunflower lecithin vs 2400mg of sunflower lecithin with vitamin E.