Weight increase with HRT

[Ella2Marques]

Can anybody share with me if they experience a weight increase with MTF HRT? What are you doing against it?

I have been experiencing a gradual weight increase although I am keeping a low calorie Diet. It is getting me crazy.

[Dee Marshall]

A low calorie diet by itself is not enough. You need to measure the calorie use of your exercise, even if it's incidental exercise. Your intake has to be less than your outflow to lose weight, just like a checking account.

[Sarah.VanDistel]

Can anybody share with me if they experience a weight increase with MTF HRT? What are you doing against it?

I have been experiencing a gradual weight increase although I am keeping a low calorie Diet. It is getting me crazy.

Hi Ella!

After starting MTF HRT (spiro + estradiol + progesterone) I still managed to loose a little over 10 kg in about 2 months with an "almost" VLCD (I strive to ingest 1000kcal/day, plus or minus 100kcal) but I notice that it's getting increasingly more difficult. True: breasts are growing (definitely not my imagination) and hips too (hummm... perhaps it's just a bit of whishful thinking... lol), so maybe that's where the fat is starting to relocate, but still... It's a little worrying and I share your fears. BTW, I use the free version of the MyFitnessPal app to keep track of kcal.

Last two weeks I stalled a bit, but I am aware that's because I am not respecting the diet (Easter vacations... belgian chocolate... belgian waffles... plentiful dinners with "comfort food"... a disgrace!). I intend to restart the diet tomorrow. Really. 😇

I now weight 72kg. About 3 years ago I weighted 110kg. I lost the most weight (25kg) with a ketogenic diet (I ate about 1400kal/day, only fats and protein, just trace amounts of carbs) but I got tired of it and I love fruit, which is mostly a no-no with keto. I did for some time an intermittent fast (IF) diet, with some success (for professional reasons, I still fast 24h, sometimes, but that happens no more than a couple of days per month). Now, I'm eating literally anything (yes, even belgian chocolate!) as long as it's between 900 and 1100kcal/day. Still, I tend to not go too wild on protein, because I also wish to lose some muscle mass.

My goal is to reach about 60-62kg, which would be a "nice" weight for a slim woman of my age, with my height (I figured this with the calculator at http://www.smartbmicalculator.com but there's a lot of other free tools online for that purpose). And it's easy to figure (for example on http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html) that in order to loose about 1kg/week I should eat about 1000kcal/day, considering my level of activity. So in very broad, oversimplified and approximate terms (almost "bro science", but there's still solid science to back it up), if I respect my diet 80-90% of the time (I occasionally indulge, but not often... and I never binge eat) I should attain my goal in about 3 months... ish. [emoji322] Caveat emptor: I am not advising you or anyone to embark on such a low cal diet on your own! Should you desire to be so restrictive, be so under medical supervision (I'm a M.D., so I monitor my diet myself and know what I am doing, but I do not provide medical advice online).

Edit: Note that physical activity contributes very little to weight loss, but is still very important for esthetic and health reasons. It will keep your muscles toned (and no, there's no masculinization as long as your T is correctly suppressed), more resistant to fatigue, lower you risks for a myriad of health issues (cardiovascular, joint, pulmonary...). So by all means, do exercise. But if you exercise, take that into account when calculating your daily cals. If you burn 500kcal cycling and need a positive balance of 1000kcal/day, on that day you'll have to eat 1500kcal to compensate.

The "sad" part is that I think that I will almost certainly need a tummy tuck because of my history of obesity. Bah... [emoji53] For the time being, I'll just enjoy the ride!

Hugs,

Sarah

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[Daniellekai]

If you lose weight gradually enough a tummy tuck may not be necessary, I've also heard that if your skin is a bit saggy, continuing to lose weight can help as there can still be a layer of fat on the skin keeping it in the old shape.
I've been limiting my weight loss to 1% body weight per week, and yeah that means you lose fewer pounds each week, I've only lost 30 of 100 or so that I need to lose though.

To the OP, MTF HRT causes a reduction in your body muscle mass, which means some people lose weight. But that same muscle mass reduction severely lowers metabolism, to use the vernacular of the male world, this means you need to eat like a chick now.

[RobynD]

After the addition of progesterone my appetite increased 3x. So i really worked hard to watch everything that i eat and keep track on a phone app or i would have gained for sure.

As it is, i keep losing the same 5 pounds and gaining it back. Although, i have a theory that this seesaw practice helps my fat redistribute in female area. Recently i have lost about 10 pounds and i have not had appreciable measurement changes, at the least the ones i care about.

[Sarah.VanDistel]

After the addition of progesterone my appetite increased 3x. So i really worked hard to watch everything that i eat and keep track on a phone app or i would have gained for sure.

As it is, i keep losing the same 5 pounds and gaining it back. Although, i have a theory that this seesaw practice helps my fat redistribute in female area. Recently i have lost about 10 pounds and i have not had appreciable measurement changes, at the least the ones i care about.

I share that theory, concerning fat redistribution. [emoji4]

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[AlyssaJ]

Well I'm only 2 weeks on HRT as of Friday but I'm down 5 pounds so far.  Honestly I don't know if its the meds or other things going on in my life but I've just not been as hungry.  Usually depression makes me a heavy eater so I'm thinking it might be the hormones. 

That said, my calorie intake is down but I'm still quite active.  I run at least 3 times a week and after I've given the Spiro time to drop my T levels, I'll be getting back to strength training as well.

Calories in versus calories burned, that's the whole deal.  Exercise burns calories above and beyond your base metabolic rate.  Your base rate is reduced when on HRT so exercise becomes more important.  Also muscle tone and mass helps increase your base rate (hence the reason for strength training). So consider all that into the equation and find what works best for you.

[Deborah]

I started HRT at 205 lbs and now I'm 162 lbs, so weight gain is not inevitable.  All I did was adjust my diet for weight loss and started running again.

I'm not sure if my metabolism has really gotten any smaller either.  If it has it's not really a significant change.  Right now I'm eating 2500+ cal a day and still losing weight. 

I don't think anymore it's really a matter of calories in vs. calories out.  It's more a function of what you eat and it's immediate effect on your body's hormonal regulation system.  Meals high in carbs and particularly high in sugar (I.e. The standard American diet) trigger high levels of insulin whose main function is to clear those carbs out of your bloodstream quickly and store them as fat.  Meals high in fat with some protein do not have that effect at all.


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

[laurenb]

My weight since starting HRT (4months) has been down about 5% (196->186). I've always tended to gain weight easily and was very overweight a couple times in my life. So eating seconds for me was sort of standard behavior. I find now that even when I ravenous, I really can't eat as much as I used to. I guess this is because of HRT or maybe just age or being less maniacal about exercise. Where I used to run and cycle many hours every week, I now walk, do yoga and garden. I still cycle but not like a 50-80 miles/week - more like 20-25 and only when the weather is nice. Seems to be just as good - who knew.

I also intermittent fast now, which is a fancy way of saying I don't eat breakfast and I don't eat after 8pm (16hrs fasting/day). If you google it, you'll find that there's been all sorts of recent research on it. I'd like to continue losing until I get to ~160's. If I cut out the daily wine I'd drop 5 lbs quick, but hey, a girls gotta have something to look forward to...

[RobynD]

I also intermittent fast now, which is a fancy way of saying I don't eat breakfast and I don't eat after 8pm (16hrs fasting/day). If you google it, you'll find that there's been all sorts of recent research on it. I'd like to continue losing until I get to ~160's. If I cut out the daily wine I'd drop 5 lbs quick, but hey, a girls gotta have something to look forward to...

This is one that i have been interested in as well. I usually awake pretty famished though and waiting until noon would be hard and i think i might eat too much at lunch. I have done the grazing thing where you eat every two hours small amounts, where your last snack is about 9PM and that has seemed to work. But i do know when i fast (sometimes i just do liquids for 2 days or other types of fasts) i feel great.

[Deborah]

I've been doing intermittent fasting now for a couple of weeks for 10 hours each day by eating a fairly robust breakfast, nothing all day, and a very robust supper.  Even with two fairly large meals I end up eating less overall and feeling less hungry at the same time.


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

[Brooke]

The "sad" part is that I think that I will almost certainly need a tummy tuck because of my history of obesity. Bah... [emoji53] For the time being, I'll just enjoy the ride!

I am in that same situation for tummy tucking. I basically have your goal stats and previous weight stats as well.

High of 245 lbs, 2.5 years ago, currently right at 135 lbs.

I am also on a strict ketogenic diet that's has helped me lose about 75 lbs over the past 18 months.

Currently using IF daily in hopes of triggering the autophagy process in the body, forcing it to recycle all the extra skin.

It was suggested that I even try to get to a slightly underweight bmi as the visceral fat in my tell me is the last to go. It is theorized that once fat is gone in that abdomen area skin will not have anything to hold onto and is much more likely to be recycled.

We shall see!
Good luck!



~Brooke~

[Megan.]

I posted on a thread about my own TT experience,  PM me if you ever have any questions. X

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