I started exercising pretty rigorously before starting HRT, I wanted to shed as much of my "male fat" as I could before starting because it gets harder after you start HRT.
1. I'm a diabetic and as a part of my care I see dieticians regularly and the have completely different charts for women/men. For the same size body/activity levels women's metabolism is about 3/4 that of a typical testosterone driven man. When you start blockers/E you will either have to eat a quarter less or exercise to compensate.
2. My logic was that I didn't want to build any upper body mass but I wanted bigger thighs, butt and slimmer waist while burning as much fat as possible, I'm also lazy so I wanted to make it as easy as possible
Luckily these are complimentary goals because the largest muscles in our body are the legs and bum, so these muscles can burn far more energy than any other muscle with less effort and pain than any other muscle, so walking, running, cycling, anything that exercises your lower body and burns lots of calories is the best option. Also remember that your body will continue to burn calories after you stop exercising, try to exercise every day because exercising for 30 minutes every day will burn way more than exercising for for 3 1/2 hours on the weekend.
3. Watch your diet, avoid sugars, rice, pasta, potatoes, breads and all of the other carb rich foods, these are by far the biggest contributors to most peoples caloric intake. I love salads but I make a big bowl and I make them yummy, add feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, tuna, chicken, nuts (especially peanuts), peppers, cucumber, sunflower seeds, parmesan, olives. Also keep in mind that the thing that keeps you feeling full is fiber, the higher the fiber the longer the meal will "last". When you do eat any of the carb rich foods go for the whole-wheat, unprocessed and generally the less cooked things are the better (Cooking breaks down complex carbohydrates that our body either can't process or processes partially into simpler carbohydrates that our body will gobble up). Protein is your friend because protein builds muscle, the more muscle you have the more energy you will burn even if you aren't exercising.
