NoPorn is where most of the real benefits come from.

Short-ish version: When you're looking at porn and jerking it, your brain and body think that you're actually getting some from whichever HBB you're currently staring at. So lots of dopamine is released, to tell you to do more of this. Then you click the next video, and it thinks you've found yet another 10/10 HBB who wants your cawk, so more dopamine. The cycle continues and your brain is basically flooded with an excess of dopamine.

This excess of dopamine causes elevated delta-fosB which starts basically programming this activity into your brain as a habit. Over time your sex drive gradually rewires so that you enjoy sex less, and porn more. Eventually for a lot of people this means PIED (porn induced erectile dysfunction - i.e. being unable to get it up during sex, but able to get it up fine when jerking off by yourself), reduced sensitivity, and it's the reason why so many people find sex underwhelming when they try it for the first time.

You also down-regulate your D2 dopamine receptors, meaning that the dopamine you have swimming around your brain is less effective since it has fewer places to bind. Dopamine is involved in confidence, energy levels, and more importantly: your general feeling of well-being.

The main symptom of low dopamine is one thing: Boredom. Ever noticed how as you get older, the chit you found fun when you were younger seems boring now? That's dopamine receptor down-regulation right there. If you were to up-regulate those receptors again, you'd start finding all those things fun again.

Cutting out porn can do that. Though it's not an overnight thing. If you're expecting to feel benefits in the first week, the benefits you'll feel at that point are mostly placebo. Real benefits kick in after 1-2 months of no porn once your receptors have had some time to recover.

Also the lifts are more mood related. You aren't gonna put on extra muscle or suddenly be extra strong. You're just gonna be able to enjoy life more, be more confident, etc.

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As for fapping without porn, it has its downsides but they're pretty minimal so unless you're addicted to it, you're probably fine. No porn is the one I'd recommend, although I choose to do both just cuz I'd rather spend time being productive and working on my business rather than fapping.

I'm 173 days in and the good changes started around the 3-4 week mark. It also gets a lot easier past the 1 month mark. My libido is a lot higher than before I started NoFap, but I have 0 desire for porn or to fap now, so it's ezmode at this point. Would rather just have real sex.

Also, NoPorn isn't a magic pill. If you maintain chitty bad habits, are unhealthy, lazy, etc - you're still gonna be that way after NoPorn, just maybe feel a little less bad about it. I see it as a catalyst. Use it in combination with other healthy habits like regular exercise, drinking only water, meditating daily, etc, and it'll produce huge lasting benefits. Neglect to take care of the rest of your life though and you'll probably not get very far with it.

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Edit: I should also add, the thing people forget about both NoPorn and NoFap is that they don't inherently have any benefits in of themselves. What you're actually doing is depriving yourself of something negative which is having a negative effect (porn) and allowing your brain to recover from its effects. So it's not that you're getting "benefits" or "superpowers" or any of this: you're literally just returning to a normal way of feeling - which you might not have experienced for some time due to that dopamine down-regulation.

...but this means if you never indulged in porn enough to even get any negative effects, then NoPorn isn't going to do much for you. Vs if you've been watching porn every day for years, you might find the effects to be quite profound.

It's like cigarettes. Not smoking doesn't give you any magical benefits or super-powers, but smoking has a ton of negative effects - so by stopping smoking, you experience what appear to be benefits etc, but it's actually just you returning to your normal pre-smoking state, without all the negatives.