Topic: preparing body for hormone therapy / muscle loss

[Anita43]

Hello!

So I'm thinking within 2 or 3 months I'll have started hormone therapy. During this time, I want to "prepare" my body as best I can. I'm currently 5 pounds above a "normal" bmi, an ex-smoker who allows herself to smoke on Friday nights still. I used to work out more, I've been slacking a little lately..but for me working out is walking, yoga, and bicycling primarily.  I'm not at all muscular. I'm quite weak actually. I am concerned about how much muscle loss will occur. Or, more precisely perhaps, should I build up muscle during this time in anticipation of losing some, or would that not make any difference? Or, would you advise against it even? Actually I did start strength training about 6 months ago and am beginning to see some definition... just not sure if I should continue or not or re-focus my program to different areas. Right now its kind of a general full body dumbbell workout.

Thank you so much in advance for responding to my questions!



-Anita

[Sarah1979]

I'm about to begin HRT again, after about 5 years off of it, so perhaps I can have a bit of input.  Personally, I wasn't very muscular to begin with either, and I still lost quite a bit of mass, but interestingly enough, not a lot of actual strength, I just got a lot slimmer.  That has reversed itself quite a bit during my HRT hiatus, which hasn't been great for my dysphoria, but I did have a fair idea that it would happen.  I'm just hoping I can lose enough again to visibly slim down again without losing a lot of strength. *crossing fingers*